AMC’s The Walking Dead averages somewhere in the neighborhood of 100000000000000000000000000 viewers per week, so I suppose its renewal for a fifth season today isn’t so much “news” as it is the absence of news. Like, of course it got renewed. Can you imagine if it didn’t? It would be anarchy. “AMC Cancels Ratings Juggernaut The Walking Dead, Television Executives Around The World Now Aimlessly Wandering The Streets Trying To Adapt To New, Scary World.” That would be one headline. Another would be “The Walking Dead: Dead Show Walking,” because even in times of potentially-unhinged-television-executive-related chaos, headline writers can’t resist an obvious play on words.
The only part of all this that’s even remotely surprising is that Scott Gimple will return as showrunner. That’s not a comment on the quality of the show this season or Gimple as a person, either. It’s just that The Walking Dead runs through showrunners like most people run through sunglasses: It gets a new showrunner every season or two, then one day it leaves the showrunner on the car seat when it gets out to use the ATM, then it gets distracted by THAT WEIRD MAN WHY IS HE STANDING SO CLOSE IS HE TRYING TO IDENTITY THEFT ME, then it hops back in the car and CRUNCH there goes another $200 showrunner. I hear that’s what happened to Frank Darabont.
