AMC has been in the news a lot recently — and that’s leaving aside the controversial end to The Killing‘s first season.
There’s also been the very public contract negotiations with Mad Men creator Matt Weiner, showrunner Frank Darabont‘s exit from The Walking Dead, and negotiations with Sony over the fifth (and now possibly sixth) season of Breaking Bad.
Deadline caught up with AMC president Charlie Collier to get the lowdown on some of the issues surrounding their shows.
Deadline: 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.
Deadline: So the overall budget for Season 2 is lower than the 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.
Deadline: Did AMC want to truncate season 5 of Breaking Bad?
Collier: There has been a lot reported about this negotiation, but we would never comment on an open negotiation in the press. There have been all sorts of scenarios about how to bring Breaking Bad back on our air, we proposed many scenarios not just one format. The truth is that we have productive negotiations with Sony in hopes of doing right by both companies and the fans of this great show.
Collier also claimed that the lucrative Mad Men deal has not has not affected the assessment of their other programming.
That’s what he said — what say you?
Source: Deadline
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BREAKING BAD: Bryan Cranston Confirms Season 5 Will Premiere In July
FRINGE OBSERVATIONS: 4.22 Brave New World: Part 2
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ONCE UPON A TIME OBSERVATIONS: 1.22 A Land Without Magic
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FRINGE OBSERVATIONS: 4.21 Brave New World: Part 1
ONCE UPON A TIME OBSERVATIONS: 1.20 The Stranger
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AFAIK, of the three shows mentioned, “The Walking Dead” is the only one
AMC owns. There’s no reason in theory why Lionsgate (MM) or Sony Pictures (BB)
couldn’t take their respective shows to another cable network.
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