AMC’s President Charlie Collier Should Be In Politics

So we all know Frank left being the creative head of AMC’s The Walking Dead. That is worrisome but what is the one that can really kill a show like this more then almost anything else? The Budget.

Recently Deadline had a little powwow with AMC President, Charlie Collier. The interview itself was about AMC in general but fortunately they got in 2 questions about The Walking Dead, and more specifically it’s budget:

Q: Did you cut the budget on “The Walking Dead” in Season 2?

Collier: If you look at pilot budgets vs. pattern budgets, usually the pilot budget is much higher than what ends up being the pattern budget. With “The Walking Dead”, instead of doing a pilot, we went straight to 6 episodes because we believed in the team and the talent in front and behind the camera. Then we came back with a 13-episode second season, and amortization over 13 episodes is very different than over 6. But we settled into one of the highest pattern budgets for a basic cable series.

See it answers everything! It.. wait… So it’s lower? How much lower? I couldn’t really tell does that mean it’s lower? Thankfully Deadline re-asks the question in a different way to get a clarified answer!

Q: So the overall budget for Season 2 is lower than Season 1 because of the amortization factor?

Collier: We went straight to series with the first season serving in many ways as a pilot, and then we have settled into a 13-episode pattern budget.

…. what the fuck. Why can’t you just come out and say that your #1 show on network television is getting it’s budget slashed. Just be outright and say it. Say you are going to find a way to run the ONLY successful zombie television series, ever, into the ground. Don’t worry. We won’t hate you here at Buy Zombie.. we’ll be too busy laughing as hordes of crazed horror fans raze your houses.