The Walking Dead Renewed For Season 4

AMC's The Walking Dead is on its mid-season break in the middle of Season 3 but will return on Sunday February 10, 2013. The show has been gaining viewer this season and is now the #1 show among viewers 18-49, the segment most prized by advertisers. It is a must-see show for me, along with Homeland on Showtime and The Good Wife on CBS (which are basically all on at the same time on Sunday nights!)

AMC rewarded the show with an early announcement of a 4th season renewal that included a surprise that the hit show will also get a new executive producer/showrunner:

 “Today, AMC announces the season 4 pick-up of The Walking Dead. AMC also jointly announces with Glen Mazzara today that for future seasons, the two parties have mutually decided to part ways. Glen guided the series creatively for seasons 2 and 3. AMC is grateful for his hard work. We are both proud of our shared success. Both parties acknowledge that there is a difference of opinion about where the show should go moving forward, and conclude that it is best to part ways. This decision is amicable and Glen will remain on for post-production on Season 3B as showrunner and executive producer."

Ruh-roh! The show has only been on for 2 1/2 seasons so far and it has already had two dismissals of showrunners for "creative differences" with the network. After the end of the phenomenal first season (which was just 6 episodes long) co-creator Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption) was fired. Now comes word that Glen Mazzara who led the show to record ratings for the network has parted ways with The Walking Dead.

The good news is that the show is based on the graphic novel written by Robert Kirkman and the author continues to be involved creatively with the show, even though the show and the comic have diverged in significant ways (even more so than the HBO adaptation of Game of Thrones, which is more faithful to the text even though the author George R.R. Martin is actually less involved with the show)

If you missed any episodes from Season 3 there will be a marathon of the entire season on Monday December 31st.