There has been no shortage of drama surrounding AMC and the treatment of its shows and the people who make those shows work.  Frank Darabont was shit-canned in a pretty shocking manner, Mad Men: Season 5 (although not entirely AMC’s fault) got pushed to 2012, and there was a threat of Breaking Bad no longer calling AMC home because, let’s face it, AMC are stingy sumbitches.

But today there are two announcements.  Firstly, the season premiere of The Walking Dead will be, much like the show’s pilot, 90 minutes.  Great!

Here’s the bad news:  the season will be split up.  Yeah, that’s right.  7 episodes this Fall, the remaining 6 coming in February.

Look, I wholeheartedly acknowledge that December and January are tough months for television, what with all the holiday mingling and gift-giving and such but give me a break.  This is the kind of thing that killed a fantastic show, Men Of A Certain Age, and while ultimately the writing was on the wall for that show and it never so much as sniffed the kind of ratings that The Walking Dead gets, it’s still bad news when you string an audience along and expect them to be back after a hiatus.  Especially after all of the internal muckety-muck that has gone on with the show which calls to question just how good season 2 will be anyway.

I don’t expect season 2 to suffer because of this, at least not ratings-wise.  But it doesn’t do a thing to maintain or cater to a loyal fanbase.  It’s television blue balls, is what it is.

(via IGN)