PASADENA, CALIF. — AMC Networks will continue to develop quality content even as it adjusts financially to a marketplace that is correcting itself after a period of peak TV production, AMC Networks president of entertainment and AMC Studios Dan McDermott said.

McDermott, speaking at the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour Tuesday, said the programmer has had to “take stock and recalibrate” moving forward during an industry correction caused by rising inflation, a changing ad market, a glut of original programming and unpredictable streaming audience metrics.

As part of AMC’s cost-cutting measures, the network has pulled the plug on several shows in recent months, most recently the Michael B. Jordan-produced drama series 61st Street.

Also: ‘Large Scale Layoffs’ Planned at AMC Networks

“This has been a difficult but important process … at AMC we’ve taken critical steps so that going forward we are optimally positioned as a lean, progressive, forward-facing organization poised to take advantage of the myriad of opportunities in the marketplace,” McDermott said.

The network did announce several new shows during its Tuesday morning presentation, including the acquisition of rights to develop around John Maxim’s Bannerman spy book series. The five novels are being developed as potential series by Shane Black, Greg Nicotero and Brian Witten, AMC said.

The network also offered new details about its upcoming The Walking Dead spinoffs. The Walking Dead: Dead City, starring Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, will premiere in June, followed by The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, debuting later this year. The network will also debut in 2024 a new Walking Dead series featuring original series stars Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes) and Danai Gurira (Michonne).

AMC also released a first-look trailer for the eighth and final season of Fear the Walking Dead, which will debut the first of two six-episode parts on May 14. ■

AMC unveiled new stories of an zombie apocalypse in the latest trailer for its upcoming horror series Tales of the Walking Dead, debuting August 14. 

The six-episode anthology series -- the fourth in The Walking Dead franchise following the original The Walking Dead series, Fear The Walking Dead and The Walking Dead: World Beyond -- offers stand-alone tales focusing on both new and established characters within the walker apocalypse, according to the network. AMC added that the series will provide viewers with a chance to see the apocalypse through "different eyes, discovering more worlds, mythos and mysteries of the Walking Dead."

Tales of the Walking Dead, from executive producers Scott Gimple and Channing Powell, stars Anthony Edwards, Terry Crews, Poppy Liu and Parker Posey.■

The week leading into Easter will feature the return of the Kardashian family to the small screen, a series profile of three presidential wives and a former president's narration of a documentary series showcasing national parks.  

Hulu on April 14 will debut The Kardashians, a new documentary series starring family members Kris, Kourtney, Khloe, Kendall and Kylie as they balance running their multi-billion dollar business with their personal lives, according to the streaming service. The series debuts nearly a year after E!'s Keeping Up With The Kardashians ended its run after 20 seasons.

Showtime on Easter Sunday (April 17) will premiere its new drama series The First Lady, which takes a behind-the-scenes look at the lives of Michelle Obama, Betty Ford and Eleanor Roosevelt. Actresses Viola Davis, Michelle Pfeiffer and Gillian Anderson star in the 10-episode series.

Former President Barack Obama will narrate a new Netflix documentary that focuses on the world's top national parks. The five-part series, Our Great National Parks, debuts April 13.

Below are video trailers and premiere dates for multiple shows debuting the week of April 11 to April 17 on cable networks and streaming services (for some videos, viewer discretion is advised):

April 11 – Chad (returning series) – TBS

April 12 – Hard Cell (comedy) – Netflix

April 14 – The Garcias (comedy) – HBO Max

April 14 – Killing It (comedy) – Peacock

April 14 – Not So Pretty (documentary) – HBO Max

April 15 – Anatomy of a Scandal (drama) – Netflix

April 15 – It’s The Small Things, Charlie Brown (animation) – Apple TV Plus

April 15 – Outer Range (western drama) – Prime Video

April 15 – Roar (dramedy) – Apple TV Plus

April 15 – Swimming with Sharks (drama) – The Roku Channel

April 15 – Titanic 666 (horror movie) – Tubi

April 17 – Fear The Walking Dead (returning series) – AMC

AMC will bring back its zombie-themed drama Fear The Walking Dead for an eighth season. 

The series, a spinoff of AMC's original The Walking Dead series, will see the return of former regular cast member Kim Dickens, who played Madison Clark during the first four seasons of the show. Dickens will make her first appearance in the second half of season seven which launches April 17, according to the network. 

“If there were a Mt. Deadmore, Kim Dickens’ face would be on it,” The Walking Dead Universe chief content officer Scott Gimple said in a statement. “Madison Clark is a foundational character to TWDU — heroic, complex, an everyperson who becomes a warrior and then a force of benevolence.” ■ 

Also: AMC Networks 'On Track'  To Meet Streaming Subscriber Goals 

AMC Thursday offered a teaser trailer for the seventh season of its zombie drama Fear The Walking Dead, which debuts Oct. 17.

According to AMC, the series, a spinoff of AMC's The Walking Dead, begins its seventh season after series character Teddy (John Glover), "brought about his vision of 'The End' when he detonated nuclear warheads across the Texas landscape, but it will be up to those who survived to decide what 'The Beginning' will look like. And they'll have to do it in a world devoid of light and hope, where the outside air is just as deadly as the walkers they face. The survivors will find out who they really are and what they're really made of. Some will rise to the occasion, some will find new purpose, and some will redefine themselves -- even if it comes at a terrible cost to those they once considered family."

Read Also: AMC Upfront: Scripted Hits Reach Fans on Linear, Digital 

Fear The Walking Dead is executive produced by Scott Gimple, Andrew Chambliss, Ian Goldberg, Robert Kirkman, Gale Anne Hurd, Greg Nicotero and David Alpert.

AMC will develop a limited series based on the infamous 1980s "Preppie Murder," part of a series of new projects from AMC, the network announced during its Television Critics Association press tour Thursday. 

The five-part The Preppy Murder: Death in Central Park -- which will be simulcast on both AMC and Sundance TV over three consecutive nights beginning Nov. 13 -- re-examines the 1986 killing of Jennifer Levin at the hands of Robert Chambers, said Sarah Barnett, president, entertainment networks for AMC Networks.

“In the mid to late 1980s, two epic crimes rocked New York and the broader country -- the Central Park Five case and the murder of Jennifer Levin,” said Barnett. “These events have a few things in common: they both took place in Central Park and the prosecutor who tried both cases was Linda Fairstein. “What’s more, together they shine a startling light on how race, gender and socioeconomics profoundly influenced the course of justice.”

Barnett also confirmed the second season renewal of horror series NOS4A2 and the season six renewal of zombie-themed series Fear the Walking Dead.

Other series premiere dates announced include season 10 of The Walking Dead (Oct. 10), Preacher (Aug. 4), Lodge 49 and The Terror: Infamy (Aug. 12), and Hip Hop: The Songs That Shook America (Oct. 13).

The annual Comic-Con International show commenced July 19 with cable networks and streaming services offering first-look trailers of upcoming series and specials.

Along with executive and talent-based panels, an estimated 100,000 Comic-Con attendees will also be treated to trailers for some of TV’s most popular and successful shows.

A sampling of those videos appear below and will be updated throughout Comic Con International’s four-day run.

Amazon's 'The Man In The High Castle'

IFC's 'Stan Against Evil' 

CBS All-Access -- Star Trek Discovery

Nickelodeon's 'Invader ZIM'

Syfy’s 'Nightflyers'

Nickelodeon’s 'Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'

AMC's 'Better Call Saul'

BBC America’s 'Doctor Who'

AMC’s 'Fear The Walking Dead'

AMC’s 'The Walking Dead'

AMC has pulled Sunday’s premiere of the Talking With Chris Hardwick show a day after emotional abuse and sexual assault allegations were leveled against Hardwick by an ex-girlfriend.

In a statement released Saturday, AMC said that it is pulling the plug on the season two premiere of Talking With Chris Hardwick while it “assesses the situation" revolving around Hardwick, which began Friday when Hardwick’s ex-girlfriend Chloe Dykstra posted in an online article allegations of emotional and sexual assault by Hardwick (who was not named directly in the article) during their relationship. 

[embed]https://twitter.com/skydart/status/1007570043637501953[/embed]

The network has also pulled Hardwick -- who also hosts after-show series for AMC's hit shows The Walking Dead and Fear of The Walking Dead -- from hosting several panels at next month's Comic-Con International in San Diego.

“We have had a positive working relationship with Chris Hardwick for many years. We take the troubling allegations that surfaced yesterday very seriously,” said AMC in a statement Saturday. “While we assess the situation, Talking with Chris Hardwick will not air on AMC, and Chris has decided to step aside from moderating planned AMC and BBC America panels at Comic-Con International in San Diego next month.”

Hardwick denied the allegations in a published statement, saying that “at no time did I sexually assault her.” 

Pasadena, Calif--AMC will return its zombie-themed series Fear The Walking Dead on April 15, the network announced during its Television Critics Association winter press tour session.

Season four of the prequel to The Walking Dead will feature the first crossover character between the the shows in Morgan Jones, played by actor Lennie James. The series is executive produced by Scott Gimple, showrunners Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg, as well as Robert Kirkman, David Alpert, Gale Anne Hurd and Greg Nicotero.

The announcement comes on the heels of AMC’s renewal of The Walking Deadfor a ninth season.

Read More: MCN's Complete Coverage of #TCA18

AMC also announced the premiere date for new original series McMafia (Feb. 26). Immediately after its premiere, the entire first season of the series will be available on the network’s AMC Premiere premium service, according to AMC, SundanceTV and AMC Studios President Charlie Collier.

Also getting premiere dates are AMC’s new horror series The Terror (March 26); its original special James Cameron’s Story Of Science Fiction (April 30), as well as returning series Into The Badlands (April 22).

In other AMC Networks news, SundanceTV said it has picked up a second season of its thriller series Liar. Also announced yesterday during the TCA, IFC renewed its horror/comedy series Stan Against Evil for a third season and set an April 15 premiere date for the second season of sports comedy series Brockmire.

AMC has renewed its The Walking Dead prequel Fear The Walking Dead for a fourth season in advance of the series' June 4 season three premiere, network officials said Friday.

 The fourth season of the series will feature new co-showrunners Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg (Once Upon A Time). In addition, Scott Gimple will join the show as executive producer, said the network.

AMC previously announced that Fear the Walking Dead showrunner Dave Erickson would be transitioning off of the show after the third season season to develop new products for AMC Studios.

The series averaged 5.3 million viewers during the second half of its second season, including 3.4 million adults 25-54 and 3 million adults 18-49 in Nielsen live+3 ratings.

“We're very excited to continue the journey of Fear The Walking Dead, and truly look forward to working with the talented team of Andrew Chambliss, Ian Goldberg, and Scott Gimple,” said Joel Stillerman, president of original programming and development for AMC and SundanceTV in a statement.

Is direct-to-consumer online video all it’s cracked up to be? While access to online, live linear video is being widely adopted and accepted, its pitfalls are exposed when there is content that’s in high demand and is of high value, such as the popular TV show Fear the Walking Dead.

Notably, Sling TV dealt with a service outage during the premiere of AMC series Fear the Walking Dead, causing widespread problems for subscribers nationwide. Other virtual multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs), including PlayStation Vue, have experienced latency issues, ranging from buffering screens to blurry pixelation.

So why does this happen? After all, lightly viewed online content is a great source of viewing enjoyment. Mobility has profound value in the industry, as customers increasingly want to take their content on the go. Want to tune into the last five minutes of the game? No problem — simply pull up your smart phone and catch the game-winning slam dunk.

But streaming live TV exposes limitations, as well as the complex infrastructure needed to support these services. That infrastructure includes a content delivery network with enough capacity to deliver the content, the MSO fiber backbone capacity to support over-the-top content, the cable operator’s ability to convert Internet traffic from fiber to DOCSIS RF signals, service levels in each subscriber home and, finally, the capacity of a WiFi or MoCA home network. (To view a graphic of the infrastructure, click here.)

What many don’t realize is that a cooperative relationship with online live video providers, such as Sling TV and Vidgo, and Internet service providers, such as Comcast, would be extremely beneficial and help alleviate the multiple choke points for delivery of high-quality video. Both the online content provider and the ISP likely have the same customer, and want to satisfy that viewer.

If the quality of the content is impaired, such as an interruption in the crucial minutes of a live college-basketball game, either the virtual  MVPD has not scaled its distribution network to support high volume, or the ISP is causing the issue. Either way, there’s a problem that cannot be solved singlehandedly. And it’s a big issue, with 49% of viewers citing technological problems when using a streaming service.

There are multiple reasons why this collaborative relationship isn’t quite happening:

• Programmers want direct relationships with their customers.

• MSOs have to manage their bandwidth and want to control the customer experience.

• Virtual MVPD providers are working to supplant the operator’s video service, and replace it with theirs.

• Net-neutrality requirements further complicate the prospects of collaboration between virtual MVPDs and traditional MVPDs, as they restrict any ability to prioritize one data or video service over another.

As high-demand, high-value content is being consumed online at an increasing rate, the Internet very well could “collapse.” What the industry is seeing with Fear the Walking Dead, March Madness and all other big TV events is where online TV could ultimately wind up if streaming content consumption rates continue to rise.

The rules of the game have changed, and it’s time for renewed collaboration between all players involved in the delivery of content to the home.

Brent Smith is president and chief technology officer of Evolution Digital.

The 47th year of Comic-Con, the country’s longest-run comics and popular arts convention comes back with talents both old and new. TBS and Conan return, with new partnerships AT&T and Snickers, with much to offer. Conan and AT&T are bringing in-broadcast virtual reality with 360-degree camera angles. Fans that couldn’t make it to the convention will have virtual reality access to the shows at San Diego’s Spreckels Theatre which includes on-stage interviews, audience interaction and more.

At TBS’s Comic-Con International booth, attendees will receive a VR headset shaped like a Conan Pop! Vinyl figure to get a 360-degree peek into Conan O’Brien’s world.

O’Brien will have the casts of Suicide Squad, Supergirl,Game of Thrones, and more on his late-night show right next to the San Diego Convention Center.

Snickers is playing up on their “You’re not you when you’re hungry” campaign with fans dressing up as fictional superheroes created for the event.

READ MORE: TV Options About at Comic-Con

Syfy is debuting their first-ever live broadcast, Syfy Presents Live From Comic-Con, hosted by Will Arnett. Those unable to attend Comic-Con in person can tune-in so they don’t miss a thing. Norman Reedus (The Walking Dead), Elijah Wood (Dirk Gently), the cast of Mr. Robot, Jamie Alexander (Blindspot), Tony Hale (Veep), Will Forte (Last Man On Earth), and Zachary Levi (Heroes Reborn) are to appear in the broadcast. Each night, Arnett and his team will discuss the convention’s breaking news, insider party coverage, and exclusive content of upcoming films and TV series, like Star Trek Beyond.

Cast and creators of Syfy’s The Magicians and The Expanse and USA’s Mr. Robot and Colony will appear at panels over the weekend at SDCC. New fall shows Incorporated (Syfy) and Falling Water (USA) will feature exclusive pilot screenings. Mr. Robot made its Comic-Con debut this year, with discussion of the series’ second season, moderated by Chris Hardwick.

On Friday, July 22, WGN’s Salem will have a panel event, unveiling an extended sneak peak followed by an audience Q&A. WGN America released the season three full-length trailer for the supernatural thriller, set to premiere Halloween week this year.

Outside of the Convention Center, there is more to do, with FX and Fox’s three-story Mount Zephyria Mighty Rock Climb & Free Fall. Adult Swim’s carnival is set up right next to it.

Fear the Walking Dead will have a panel with the cast and executive producers Friday July 22. A Fear the Walking Dead yacht will be open to attendees wanting to experience life aboard the Abigail for the duration of Comic-Con, located at Fifth Avenue Pier behind the Convention Center.

AMC’s new late-night talk show, Geeking Out premieres Sunday, July 24, specially covering all things Comic-Con. Comic Book Men’s Kevin Smith and Heroes’ Greg Grunberg host. Smith and Grunberg give viewers an all-access VIP pass through the convention. A preview of Star Trek Beyond and a look into the cosplayers who show up at Comic-Con are in the episode, among interviews and first-looks.

Comedy Central brings the raunchiness they’re known for at SDCC with Drunk History, South Park 20 Experience, and The Meltdown with Jonah and Kumail. There are panels featuring Drunk History, new animated series Legends of Chamberlain Heights and South Park 20. South Park celebrates its 20th season with screenings of episodes, artwork, and more. In addition, music artist, That Poppy, will broadcast the events on Comedy Central’s Snapchat.

The BBC America booth returns back to Comic-Con, with merchandise from Doctor Who, Sherlock, and Orphan Black, featuring item exclusive only to the convention.

Nickelodeon and The Splat brings the ultimate 90’s throwback experience for SDCC this year, with games, panels, signings and more. Legends of the Hidden Temple, Hey Arnold!, Double Dare, Aaah!!! Real Monsters, Rocko’s Modern Life, and Invader Zim are some of the featured shows that are at the convention. Nickelodeon’s booth will feature a VR 360-experience into the upcoming Legends of the Hidden Temple live-action TV movie, allowing fans to experience the Mayan temple first-hand. Signings by the cast of All That, Legends of the Hidden Temple, SpongeBob SquarePants, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are few of many opportunities at the convention.

Disney XD’s new series, DuckTales, debuted a collectible comic, DuckTales Cinestory Volume 1which will be available until September 27 of this year. Exclusive teaser art from the series appears on the back of the comic, which retells the first five episodes of the original DuckTales TV show.

FX brings exclusive video content and Q&A’s for the cast and creators of The Strain and Archer.

Cartoon Network’s Screening and Costume Ball returns to SDCC, offering an inside look at hit shows and sneak peaks. We Bare Bears and The Powerpuff Girls make their panel debuts.

AMC will ressurect the second half of zombie-themed series Fear the Walking Dead's sophomore season on Aug. 21.

The second-half, eight-episode Fear The Dead block was announced last night during AMC's Talking Dead post show, immediately after the mid-season finale. Fear The Dead's April season two premiere episode generated 8.8 million viewers, including 5.7 million adults 25-54 and 5.3 million adults 18-49 in live+3 ratings, according to AMC.

Fear the Walking Dead is executive produced by Dave Erickson, Robert Kirkman, Gale Anne Hurd, Greg Nicotero and David Alpert and stars Kim Dickens, Cliff Curtis, Frank Dillane and Alycia Debnam-Carey.

Get more news from #TCA16 here.

Pasadena, Calif – AMC will return its hit zombie series Fear The Walking Dead April 10, the network said Friday during its Television Critics Association press tour event.

The 15-episode series, a prequel to cable’s most watched series The Walking Dead, will debut April 10 with seven episodes, said network officials. The remaining eight episodes will premiere later in 2016.

Fear The Walking Dead was the most watched freshman series of 2015, setting ratings records among total viewers and all key demos in live+3 ratings among first year shows, said network officials.

The network also announced that it will launch a third night of original programming with the April 19 premiere of The Night Manager, a six-part miniseries starring Tom Hiddleston, Olivia Colman and Hugh Laurie.

AMC will also launch a third season of its Revolutionary War-themed series Turn: Washington's Spies on April 25, said network officials.

AMC, building on its formidable zombie franchise, said it has greenlit an unscripted series featuring Walking Dead star Norman Reedus.

Ride With Norman Reedus (working title) is set to debut in 2016 with six one-hour episodes.

AMC's The Walking Dead has grown into the highest rated series on TV. The network has cashed in on the series’s popularity with an aftershow — Talking Dead, which also draws millions of viewers on Sunday nights -- and more recently had the biggest series debut in cable history with Fear the Walking Dead, a spinoff that looks at the zombie apocalypse from an L.A. family’s perspective.

The new Reedus reality show will follow the actor and motorcycle enthusiast on the road as he explores biker culture and history. Each episode will begin in a different city and will feature companions, who could be actors, musicians, friends or bikers.

“We love being the home of people’s passion projects, and there is nobody more passionate about motorcycles than Norman Reedus,” said Joel Stillerman, president of original programming and development for AMC and SundanceTV. “He is an avid rider and aficionado who is deeply immersed in motorcycle culture. There is also nobody more fun to hang out with."

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.

ESPN remained undefeated in the weekly primetime cable ratings race this Fall, winning its fourth straight week since launching its Monday Night Football season last month.

The sports network drew 3.0 million viewers during the period of Sept. 28 to Oct. 4 to easily best all other cable networks, according to Nielsen. Fox News was a distant second with 1.9 million viewers, followed by USA Network’s 1.6 million watchers and Disney Channel’s 1.4 million viewers.

HGTV (1.3 million viewers); TBS and History (tied with 1.2 million); Discovery Channel and AMC (1.1 million) and Food Network (1 million) rounded out the top 10 most watched networks for the week.

Nickelodeon and Fox News shared the top spot among cable networks on a 24-hour basis, followed by Disney, ESPN and Adult Swim, according to Nielsen. ESPN was tops among adults 18-49, followed by TBS and AMC.

The Oct. 4 finale of AMC’s Fear The Walking Dead was the second most-watched show during the week, averaging 6.8 million viewers, according to Nielsen.

Most Watched Shows During Period of Sept. 28 to Aug. 4

DateShowNetworkTotal Viewers

9/28   MNF – Green Bay-Kansas City        ESPN               13.5 million

10/4   Fear The Walking Dead                    AMC                  6.8 million

10/3  Football: Ole Miss/Florida                  ESPN                3.7 million

10/1   TNF – Baltimore/Pittsburgh               NFL Network    3.6 million

9/28   Monday Night Raw (8-9 p.m.)            USA                 3.4 million

9/28   SportsCenter                                     ESPN               3.4 million

9/28   Monday Night Raw (9-10 p.m.)          USA                 3.3 million

9/29   The O’Reilly Factor                            Fox News        3.2 million

10/4   NASCAR Sprint Cup Race                 NBCN             3.2 million

10/1   The O’Reilly Factor                            Fox News        3.2 million

10/4   Alaska: The Last Frontier                 Discovery         3.2 million

Source: Nielsen

Sling TV said it has located and fixed the source of technical issue that impacted the OTT TV service last Sunday (August 23) during the AMC premiere of Fear the Walking Dead.

“Earlier this week, we traced down the source of the matter: one of our mobile apps was making high-load calls on a key database,” Sling TV announced Friday (August 28) in this blog post. “This is typically not much of a concern given the huge processing capacity built into our system; however, a caching error compounded the issue and added previously unseen processing cycles that interrupted the service for some.”

Sling TV said it’s a “technical way of saying previous updates we made did not work as expected. More importantly, we have resolved the problem,” adding that the service’s apps are now behaving correctly.

Elsewhere on the app front, Sling TV announced today that it has launched a version for current models of the Amazon Fire HD and HDX tablets.

AMC will continue to ride the western genre with a straight to series order for docudrama The West, AMC and Sundance TV president Charlie Collier said Friday during the network’s Television Critics Association tour session.

The eight-hour series, from Stephen David Entertainment and Robert Redford’s Sundance Productions, will debut in 2016. The series’ premiere will coincide with the final seven episodes of the network’s Western drama Hell on Wheels, said network officials.

Collier also said the network has picked up a second season of Stephen David Entertainment’s Making Of The Mob docudrama, said network officials.

The network also confirmed a 15-order second season of AMC’s series Fear The Walking Dead, weeks before the show’s Aug. 23 freshman season debut.

The announcements come on the heels of an earlier AMC announcement for a second season renewal of drama series Humans.

Cable networks will be out in force this week at the annual Comic-Con International convention in San Diego, seeking exposure for new shows slated to debut over the next few months.

Most networks will look to build continued momentum for their current shows among the more than 130,000 estimated attendees at the July 9-12 convention, an audience of passionate fans and viewers.

The four-day show has become especially valuable in introducing new series, movies and specials to the boisterous and social media-active group of entertainment aficionados, cable programmers said.

“It’s a great place to be able to celebrate our existing franchises and thank the fans that supported them, but also a place to introduce that group of fans to stuff that’s new,” Walter Levitt, chief marketing officer for Comedy Central, said.

SPOTLIGHT ON ‘MOONBEAM’

The network for the second year in a row will host a panel for Moonbeam City, the new animated series featuring Rob Lowe, Elizabeth Banks, Will Forte and Kate Mara launching this fall. Levitt said the series was well-received by Comic-Con enthusiasts last year, and Comedy expects to generate even more buzz for the crime-based series in its second go-around.

“I think everyone wants to have that one-on-one connection with the fans,” Levitt said. “We wanted to get it in front of this influential group to lock them in early before the launch.”

For networks like AMC, which first featured its hit series The Walking Dead at Comic-Con five years ago, the convention’s horror and sci-fi focus serves as a perfect launching pad for the spinoff Fear the Walking Dead, which debuts in August.

The network will throw a Fear the Walking Dead party, co-sponsored with Tumblr and Entertainment Tonight, and host a panel discussion with producers that will include clips from the series.

AMC also is previewing its martial-arts themed series Into the Badlands as part of a series panel at the conference. Linda Schupack, head of marketing for AMC, said Comic-Con gives networks a chance to talk to the most passionate fans of a genre or show first, before broadening out the message to a wider group of viewers.

“To get in front of the fans of The Walking Dead franchise and to have them evangelize on behalf of the show is an extraordinary opportunity for us,” she said.

Networks with content not steeped in comic-book or horror-themed programming are also migrating to Comic-Con to expose new shows to the public. TV Land will look to introduce its dark comedy Impastor, starring Michael Rosenbaum (Smallville), as well as comedy Teachers, starring the Katydids comedy troupe.

TV LAND: TAPPING PASSION

Despite not having any shows in Comic-Con’s sweet spot, TV Land executive vice president of marketing and creative Kim Rosenblum hopes to ride the passion that convention attendees have for entertainment programming in general — and their desire to share that passion via social media.

“Comic-Con is about passionate fans, and the experience of fans coming together around entertainment that they love and buzzing about it,” Rosenblum said. “The idea of TV Land being there to connect with people who are passionate about pop culture and like to engage in the content and talk about it is valuable.”

Syfy president David Howe said the gathering’s social-media-savvy attendees offer a perfect launch platform to introduce new shows and build critical early buzz.

Syfy will showcase upcoming miniseries Childhood’s End and The Expanse, the latter of which will be elaborately re-created in a local café, where the network will exhibit the first episode of the space-themed series set to debut later this year.

“For Syfy, Comic-Con has long served as a destination for fans of our shows,” Howe said.

Coming to Comic-Con

A partial list of new cable and online-video shows to debut in San Diego:

Thursday,July 9

Hand of God — Amazon

Impastor; Teachers — TV Land

Moonbeam City — Comedy Central

Damien — A&E

Friday,July 10

Shannara Chronicles — MTV

Fear the Walking Dead — AMC

The Man in the High Castle — Amazon

Colony — USA Network

We Bare Bears — Cartoon Network

Saturday,July 11

Into the Badlands — AMC

Childhood’s End, The Expanse — Syfy

Sunday,July 12

The Bastard Executioner — FX

Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll — FX

SOURCE: Networks, Multichannel News research