AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead wrapped up the first half of its sixth season on November 22nd on a low note, posting not only a season-low rating for its Mid-Season finale but a series-low score (more on that at this link). The Walking Dexit has been impacting the franchise as a whole the last few years as parent series The Walking Dead has also seen its numbers sink to series lows, and new entry The Walking Dead: World Beyond has pulled mediocre at best numbers during its first season this Fall. Fear the Walking Dead still has another eight to nine episodes in its current season (though it is possible that could get cut if the show runs into production issues), and those will air at some point in 2021. But based on the show’s declining numbers, will it continue into a seventh season or will these remaining episodes be the last for the TWD spin-off series?
I had previously expected AMC to make a final season announcement for FtWD prior to its sixth-season premiere, but that did not happen. I then worked under the assumption that the creative team was told to approach the sixth year as the show’s last in case the network decided not to keep the show going. However, according to an interview ComicBook.com had with the showrunners, no endpoint has been established for the show yet. Following is a comment by Andrew Chambliss from that interview:
We have not had any specific conversations about when the show would end. We have our own ideas about how we think the show should conclude, but for right now, we’re just going to keep telling the stories and do it for as long as AMC says to keep doing it.
Now it is possible that is just a politician’s answer, which is often necessary in the entertainment industry. But if we do take it at face value, it appears that AMC is still keeping open the possibility for a seventh season and maybe more. But if the ratings continue to decline, will the network change its mind?
Fear the Walking Dead has had a rather troubled history as it never really hit its stride early on and the show kept killing off the main cast members. Then Morgan (played by Lennie James) was brought over from the main series during FtWD‘s fourth season and the show went through somewhat of a reboot. Original fans of the show were not happy with the changes, and the arrival of Morgan (and later Dwight) did not bring over enough TWD fans to the spin-off. The ratings have declined pretty much every season, and as mentioned above they hit a low-point this Fall.
Despite all of that, I’m thinking that AMC will not want the stigma of cancellation attached to its flagship franchise. This may only be a spin-off series, but the network would much prefer to give the perception that the show went out on its own terms. If the statement by Chambliss above is true that AMC has not set an endpoint for the show yet, then I believe Fear the Walking Dead has a decent chance of surviving into a seventh season despite the ratings through the rest of the show’s sixth year. One more season in the sixteen-episode range will get FtWD to the 100 episode mark which makes the show much more attractive to the syndication market (where the real profits are made). I believe that AMC will be willing to pony up the money for that extra year because they will make that back down the road through syndication and streaming sales.
Of course, it is always possible that AMC could pull the COVID card and claim that they are ending the series due to increased production costs. That shifts the stigma of failure from the network to the current pandemic environment. And storylines left open from the show could be picked up in episodes of the planned anthology series. So there is not a guarantee at this point that Fear the Walking Dead will make it past the sixth season.
But I am leaning toward renewal for now because a 100 episode run would count as a success for the franchise and give AMC a bankable series that would live on in encore runs. As for an eighth season, I’m thinking that is a longshot at best. TWD will be ending with its eleventh season and World Beyond wraps up its planned two-year run in 2021. After that, the anthology series and the Daryl and Carol spin-off will pick up the torch. I’m thinking Fear the Walking Dead will go out with the first two shows, but the door will remain open for the characters to return in the anthology and possibly one-off movies as well. So I do believe at this point that FtWD will survive past its sixth season, but likely its seventh year will be its last.
Are you still watching Fear the Walking Dead? Chime in below in the comments on how much longer you think it should run.
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