The Walking Dead Season 7! Sunday October 23rd 2016!

I cannot believe how many commercials run during an average Walking Dead.

Last year, I read that the show's average one-hour episode had 42 minutes of program time vs. 18 minutes of commercials, which would mean almost one minute of commercials for every two minutes of program content. It feels even worse this year, but from what I have read, they're still running at roughly that same ratio. Now, I only watch the show via my DVR, so I can skip past the commercials, but that's not the issue. The problem is that there's no way you can build up, and then sustain, any sort of dramatic tension with that many interruptions -- and, yes, picking up the remote to whiz past four minutes of commercials in 10 seconds still counts as an interruption.

The worst moment on this week's show was the immediate quick cut to commercials the moment the climactic shot was fired at Negan. No, I wasn't sitting there slack-jawed in suspense and shock as the creators probably imagined. Instead, I was fumbling for the remote and then watching video of burgers and Farmer's Mutual pitchmen zip past.

 

Even though I have AMC, I still download the episode after it airs. Then I can watch it straight through without commercials. To be honest, it still doesn't help the storyline a lot.

 

42 minutes per 1 hr time slot has been the norm for probably a decade now at least. It certainly isn't unique to TWD.

 

Not sure about that.

The Walking Dead is popular and very expensive to produce, so it's probably an outlier in terms of commercials, but this article indicates that as recently as May of this year, AMC -- the whole network -- was averaging just under 10 minutes of commercials per hour, which was very low by cable-TV standards. Separately, this article indicates that for cable-TV as a whole, the average commercial time per hour was just 14.5 minutes five years ago, and that increased to 15.8 minutes in 2014, according to data from Nielsen.

No matter how you slice it, this 10 or 15 minutes of average commercial-time per hour is significantly less than Walking Dead's 18 minutes per hour.

I know there are reasons for this (high ratings combined with high production costs), but the end result is a show that is fatiguing to watch and is extremely episodic in structure even within episodes.

 

has it been common this season for episodes to run 60 minutes without commercials?

 

Besides makeup and props... why would this show be any more expensive to produce than others?

 

If every other tv show produced by AMC has less than 15 minutes per hour then it is an outlier compared to every other tv network of the last decade that relies on ad revenue. 42 minutes is very much average. In fact, back in 2007 Doctor Who (BBC produced, but intended for export to America) had an episode called "42" that was supposed to be in real time and designed so that it would fit in an hour long time slot with ads. If you did a little research I think you might surprise yourself.

 

You mean like the Nielsen data, the Media Post analysis and the CBS News article I actually linked to in my post?

 

I mean, go onto Netflix or Hulu and check the runtimes of the shows that appear on the non HBO type channels for yourself. You'll find few of them to be longer than 44 minutes.

 

Norman Reedus

 

Where's @Vidiot? He'll set us straight about production costs and whatnot... Or maybe he's been avoiding this wacky thread for the wacky show that it is.

 

I can't imagine it costs a lot of money filming like they do.

Rural country in Georgia, minimal wardrobe.

January Jones was always complaining about AMC not paying much for salaries. Maybe Rick and Daryl make good money.

 

I guess the ending was a feel good ending but I didn't feel that one bit!

 

Hey, you don't get writing of this caliber on the cheap.

 

Fair enough.

 

There has been some use of digital effects. Some of the "makeup" could only be done digitally and I think that whenever Michonne uses her sword on a head that is also digital.

 

Every sharp edge in the show is CGI

 

The writing is really bad this season. I would at least expect the writing to be better than what I could come up with. Also, the acting is way below standard. I'm going to blame that on the directors. I mean look at lennie James in Line of Duty series. It's like night and day. There also way too many quick cuts.

 

As a side note Sasha from the walking dead is staring in the new star trek tv series airing next year. does this mean that she would be out of the walking dead?

Sonequa Martin-Green Makes Star Trek History
The actree is the first African-American woman to lead one of the franchise's ensembles


by Melissa Kimble, December 15, 2016

Comments



If you don’t know the name Sonequa Martin-Green by now, you soon will.

Sonequa Martin-Green, known by many fans thanks to The Walking Dead, has been tapped to star in the first Trek series in a decade. Martin-Green makes history as the first African-American woman to lead the cast of one of the franchise’s ensembles. She’ll play a lieutenant commander on the Discovery, according to EW, who first reported the news.

It’s a milestone that been over five decades in the making.

Fifty years ago, Nichelle Nichols, who played Lt. Uhura on Star Trek, kissed William Shatner’s character Capt. Kirk. This scene was one that broke racial, cultural and entertainment barriers. Coming off a year packed full of representation thanks to TV hits such as This Is Us, Greenleaf and Insecure, it’s exciting to see that we can also see ourselves in the sci-fi world.

The 13-episode first season, which will be made available weekly on CBS All Access following a two-hour launch on CBS in May, will follow an incident in the history of Starfleet that other series/movies in the franchise have touched upon, but never actually explored.



Read more at EBONY Sonequa Martin-Green Makes Star Trek History - EBONY.com »
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Spoiler

Pretty much, possibly the season finale

 

heard the show is moving north....

 

Same here. Unless Negan is dispatched soon and brutally, I'm out.

As for the article, I don't agree with the writer about Rick and Alexandria. I defend the moves he made there.

 

was there an episode yesterday 12/18/16?

 

No, last week's was the mid-season finale, new episodes won't resume 'til spring.

 

thanks so much!