Yvette Nicole Brown to host AMC’s The Talking Dead

In June, AMC pulled Nerdist founder Chris Hardwick’s talk show Talking with Chris Hardwick, and removed him from hosting network’s aftershow, The Talking Dead while it conducted an investigation relating to allegations of emotional and sexual abuse of actress Chloe Dykstra. AMC has revealed that Community star Yvette Nicole Brown will take over his duties on The Talking Dead, at least for now.

AMC told Deadline that Brown would “step in as an interim guest host of The Walking Dead Season 9 Preview Special on August 5 and Talking Dead when it returns following the premiere of Fear the Walking Dead on August 12,” while it finishes its investigation into Hardwick’s behavior. Brown will also take over for Hardwick at San Diego Comic-Con this week, and will moderate the network’s Hall H panels for The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead.

In June, actress Chloe Dykstra published a Medium post alleging emotional and sexual abuse from an ex-boyfriend, widely speculated to be Hardwick. Hardwick has since denied the allegations, and has seen himself distanced from places like AMC and the website he founded, Nerdist.

[SOURCE: THE VERGE]

Star Trek: Discovery casts Sonequa Martin-Green as lead

Sonequa Martin-Green, well known to genre fans for her role on AMC’s mega-hit The Walking Dead, has been cast as the lead of Star Trek: Discovery, sources tell EW.

The casting ends meticulous search to find the ideal actress to anchor the eagerly anticipated new CBS All Access drama. Martin-Green will play a lieutenant commander on the Discovery. (CBS Television Studios had no comment.)

Martin-Green is will continue to serve as a series regular on AMC’s zombie drama, where she has played the tough pragmatic survivor Sasha Williams since season 3.

[SOURCE]

The Walking Dead's add one black man kill one black man rule.

Now let me first state that I love AMC's The Walking Dead, it's my favorite TV show. It's also one of the most diverse, well written, and acted shows on television. But I have noticed one troublesome trend, being the old black male character when a new black male character shows up is the equivalent of being a "red shirt" on Star Trek. I like to call it the add a black man kill a black man rule.

Think about it. Yeah T-Dog didn't actually do shit but he was doing okay until Tyreese showed up and then what happened? T-Dog died, although heroically while saving Carol. For a minute Oscar a former prisoner was with the group but he too kicked the bucket not too long after the character of Tyreese was introduced. Then Later Bob shows up but since there were only two black guys everything seemed cool. But as luck would have it Noah and Father Gabriel showed up. Four black guys at one time! Ah, hell naw! So not to long after Bob becomes barbecue. A little latter in one of the best Walking Dead episodes ever Tyreese dies after having one hell of a fever dream and getting bit by a kid walker. Really? I mean the TV version of the character pissed me off more often than not but he could have went out better than that. Am I the only one noticing a pattern here?

And no I did not forget Shumpert, the black guy that was one of the Governor's henchman who never spoke, but he wasn't a major character. (But don't worry he's dead too.) Also the Morgan character is more of a guest star who only shows up for more than two minutes when the writers/directors decide to produce classic episodes so I didn't include him either when it comes to this rule.

Now one could attribute the number of deaths of black male characters to the large African-American population in the Atlanta area and the writers trying to be realistic. It could also be something a little more sinister and I'm tempted to alert Al Sharpton about this situation. LOL. So do you think there's anything to my theory?

George L. Cook III, AfricanAmericanReports.com.

Diversity reigns supreme on The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead has quietly assembled one of the most ethnically diverse casts on a top-rated TV show. When it airs its midseason finale Sunday, the show will have at least seven major non-white characters, including Michonne, a sword-swinging African American heroine who is also one of the program's most popular characters.

Listen to a great piece from NPR on the diversity showcased on The Walking Dead below