AMC Networks Adds 700,000 Streaming Subscribers as ‘The Walking Dead’ Passes Baton to Anne Rice

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains spoilers from Fox’s “9-1-1” Season 6 spring premiere on Monday, entitled “In a Flash.” The sixth season of Fox first-responder drama “9-1-1” returned Monday after a months-long winter hiatus, with an episode in which almost everything goes surprisingly right for the 118 — until it goes horribly wrong. Before the bad came the good, when Maddie (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and Chimney (Kenneth Choi) hosted their families at their new house with daughter Jee-Yun. Maddie was expecting her and Buck’s (Oliver Stark) parents, and imagining that they would be quite judgmental and rude, as they have been in the past. Chimney, meanwhile, had invited only his brother Albert (John Harlan Kim), but got a surprise visit from his estranged father and stepmother, as well — immediately assuming they would be even harder on him than Maddie’s parents would be on her.

EXCLUSIVE: Lucifer alumna Lesley-Ann Brandt is set for a key recurring role in upcoming The Walking Dead spinoff starring Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira as TWD characters Rick Grimes and Michonne.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer What started as a singing competition special featuring Wiz Khalifa and Bebe Rexha that aired during NBA All-Star Weekend on TNT is now being shopped as a full-format series, Variety has learned. From “The Biggest Loser” and “World of Dance” executive producer Alex Katz, co-founder of Anagram Studios, the special was titled “The Sum” and though it prominently featured Wiz Khalifa and Rexha, they weren’t the competitors. Their fans, singing along to their hit songs, were the real players. Per “The Sum’s” description, “‘The Sum’ is an original concept based on the best part of any concert — fans singing along with the artists, also known as ‘the common chorus effect.’ In ‘The Sum,’ fans share the spotlight with their favorite music stars by performing a song together.”

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor AMC Networks’ Sentai Filmworks unit reached an agreement with Japan’s Mainichi Broadcasting System (MBS) that provides exclusive rights for AMC’s anime-focused HIDIVE streaming service to distribute part of MBS’s future programming lineup in all global markets outside of Asia. The pact is Sentai’s biggest-ever deal for anime content, according to the company. The output deal encompasses MBS’s programming slate based on a collection of popular manga and light novel titles. All of the shows will be available exclusively on HIDIVE outside of Asia. Among the shows covered in the Sentai-MBS output is “The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen: From Villainess to Savior” (pictured above). The new show, scheduled to premiere in July 2023, is a 12-episode series based on hit fantasy light novel by Tenichi and published by Ichijinsha. The series is being directed by Norio Nitta and written by Deko Akao with animation by OLM.

EXCLUSIVE: Academy Award nominee Jackie Earle Haley (Little Children) and longtime The Walking Dead cast member Ross Marquand have signed on to star alongside Daniel Roebuck (Rob Zombie’s The Munsters) in the crime thriller Tuesday’s Flu, which Roebuck is directing from a script by brothers Stephen and Brian Parri.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Multi-territory Asian streaming service Viu has publicly disclosed key performance metrics for the first time and said that it was cash flow positive on an annual basis in 2022. The company, which operates in 16 Asian and Middle East markets and is seen as a rare success story in regional streaming, counts Hong Kong conglomerate PCCW as its principal shareholder, which also unveiled its own profits and loss figures for the 2022 calendar year. Viu which operates both ad-supported and paying tiers, said that it had 66.4 monthly active users in 2022, an increase of 13% year-on-year. Paying subscribers increased by 45% to 12.2 million over the same period.

Hunter Ingram SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for “What Rough Beast,” the Season 1 finale of “Mayfair Witches,” now streaming on AMC+. In the season premiere of AMC’s “Mayfair Witches,” Rowan Fielding (Alexandra Daddario) was a San Francisco-dwelling neurosurgeon too preoccupied with her own self-destructive tendencies to care about a world of magic. By Sunday’s season finale, she is a powerful witch, an ascending family matriarch and –– in the biggest turn of events –– a new mother to a baby she conceived days prior that is now possessed by her demonic lover.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains spoilers from “Poker Face” Episode 8, titled “The Orpheus Syndrome,” now streaming on Peacock. “Poker Face” took on a “Salvador Dali having a party with Alfred Hitchcock” vibe for its Episode 8 — directed and co-written by star Natasha Lyonne, who provided Variety with that delightful description for the installment, titled “The Orpheus Syndrome.” The Thursday episode of Rian Johnson’s hit Peacock howdunit followed Lyonne’s human lie-detector Charlie Cale in her latest murder mystery, guest starring Nick Nolte, Cherry Jones, Luis Guzmán, Tim Russ and Rowan Blanchard. This case, which ended up being a double homicide, hit her particularly hard after she grew very close to the second victim, a monster-movie maker named Arthur (played by Nick Nolte) whom she began working for in his creature-feature shop at the top of the episode. Arthur was murdered by Jones’ Laura, his former business partner who first killed her husband Max (Russ), after he discovered a dark secret from Arthur, Laura and Max’s early days making horror flicks together.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer HBO, HBO Max and Discovery+ added 1.1 million subscribers in Q4 to end 2022 with a total of 96.1 million worldwide. That’s up from the 95 million combined global streaming customers Warner Bros. Discovery hit from July 1-Sept. 30, the quarter during which the highly anticipated “Game of Thrones” prequel “House of the Dragon” debuted. During the Oct. 1-Dec. 31 quarter, “House of the Dragon” concluded its first season the second season of HBO’s hot Mike White drama “White Lotus” premiered. Details about the upcoming combined HBO Max-Discovery+ streamer — which does not yet have a name, launch date or pricing details — will be revealed at an April 12 press day.

Julia MacCary editor Jansen Panettiere, who appeared in “The Walking Dead” and “Ice Age: The Meltdown” and was the brother of actor Hayden Panettiere, died Sunday in New York City. He was 28. Hayden’s rep Kacey Kitchen confirmed the death to CNN. Panettiere is remembered for his work in “The Walking Dead.” “The Walking Dead” producers at Valhalla Entertainment celebrated the star on Twitter. “You might remember Jansen as ‘Casper’ in ‘The Calm Before’ in Season 9 of #TheWalkingDead. He will be deeply missed. The whole #TWDFamily is thinking about the Panettiere family right now.” Panettiere’s credits also include “The Last Day of Summer,” “Even Stevens,” “The X’s,” “The Forger,” “The Martial Arts Kid,” “Summer Forever” and “Love and Love Not.” Panettiere also starred with his sister in “Tiger Cruise” in 2004. His early credits include voice acting work in “Midori’s Nintendoland Bakery,” “Grand Central Bennetts,” and “Blue’s Clues.”

The Walking Dead star Jansen Panettiere has died at the age of 28.The actor, who is the younger brother of Scream star Hayden Panettiere, is thought to have passed away over the weekend in New York.A family source reportedly confirmed the news to US outlets TMZ and Deadline, but his relatives and loved ones have not yet spoken publicly.According to Deadline, law enforcement officials were called to a home at around 5.30pm on Sunday (February 19). A cause of death has no yet been disclosed.Panettiere earned his first credit as a voice actor before landing a role in the Disney Channel comedy Even Stevens alongside Shia LaBeouf and Nick Spano.Some of his subsequent credits include 2003 appearances on the sitcom Hope & Faith and the drama Third Watch.

Hayden Panettiere's younger brother Jansen has died aged 28. A representative for Hayden confirmed her brother's death to ABC News, as they said that a cause of death is unknown and that an investigation is underway. The publication said that Hayden asked for privacy in the wake of Jansen's death.

fourth quarter earnings call Friday. “I don’t see anybody who has the answer to this yet.

James Dolan, interim executive chairman of AMC Networks, made a rare appearance on the company’s quarterly earnings call with Wall Street analysts, addressing a major exec change and the strategy for facing a complicated operating environment.

AMC Networks posted strong fourth-quarter results, with total revenue rising 20% over the prior-year quarter to $964.5 million, while earnings per share jumped almost fivefold to $2.52.

A Scots spy in Berlin who sold secrets to Russia has been jailed for more than 13 years for betraying his country and colleagues.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Paramount surpassed 77 million streaming subscribers in Q4, adding 10 million to Paramount+ alone to reach nearly 56 million customers for that platform. In comparison, the paid streamer added 4.6 million subscribers in the third quarter, reaching nearly 67 million global direct-to-consumer customers overall for Paramount by the end of September. During the fourth quarter, Paramount Global’s SVOD launched splashy Taylor Sheridan titles “1923,” yet another a prequel to his hit Paramount Network series “Yellowstone,” and the Sylvester Stallone-led “Tulsa King,” as well as the “Criminal Minds” revival “Criminal Minds: Evolution” and the streaming debut of “Top Gun: Maverick.”

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer AMC Networks has named Kristin Dolan CEO. Dolan, a longtime AMC Networks board member and wife of the company’s owner, James Dolan, will begin her new role Feb. 27. Her appointment to the position comes months after Christina Spade, formerly CFO of the company, stepped down in November after a very brief stint as chief, following the exit of interim CEO Matt Blank. Once Spade left, James Dolan was named interim executive chairman while a search began for another AMC Networks CEO, and announced that “large-scale layoffs” would be hitting the company amid a stall in growth at streaming AMC+ and its smaller platforms Acorn TV, Shudder, Sundance Now, ALLBLK and HIDIVE.

The fate of AMC Networks has always been determined by its controlling shareholders, the Dolan family, and now Kristin Dolan will get a chance to get the ailing programmer back on track.

The Wall Street Journal that Kristin Dolan has been a steady presence inside AMC, attending meetings and keeping an office on the executive floor. She founded the marketing analytics company Firm 605 and is a member of AMC Networks’ board.The executive search, which is reportedly being conducted in partnership with recruiter Sucherman Group, follows the departure of former CEO Christina Spade in November after just three months in the role.Representatives for AMC Networks and Sucherman Group did not immediately return TheWrap’s request for comment.Following his appointment as interim executive chairman, Dolan announced a “large-scale layoff affecting about 20% of AMC Networks’ staff and “cuts to every operating area.”“As I am sure you are aware our industry has been under pressure from growing subscriber losses,” Dolan wrote in a memo to employees at the time.