Comic Book Men Exceeded AMC’s Expectations

Earlier this year, Comic Book Men premiered on AMC. The reality show followed the happenings at [...]

Comic Book Men

Earlier this year, Comic Book Men premiered on AMC. The reality show followed the happenings at the Secret Stash comic book store, which is owned and operated by Kevin Smith. As a first of its kind show, no one really knew for sure how the show would do in the ratings. AMC gave Comic Book Men the best possible lead-in by placing it right after The Walking Dead, which is the top-rated show on cable television. Compared to other shows on cable, the ratings for Comic Book Men were solid, but the big question for the show was if it could hold enough of The Walking Dead's audience to satisfy AMC. During a recent AMC Networks Inc. earnings call (transcribed by WallStCheatSheet.com), the question was put to AMC President and CEO Joshua W. Sapan as to how non-scripted shows had performed in regards to expectations. Sapan first talked about The Talking Dead, which he said was designed as a follow-on to The Walking Dead. Sapan said, "The Talking Dead did very good numbers, well in excess of what we had done in those time periods with movie programming." In regards to Comic Book Men, Sapan said, "Then we did this second show called, the Comic Book Men, which was somewhat similarly designed to take advantage of people very interested in the genre content that The Walking Dead represents. So, it features Kevin Smith, who is a bit of a – if I can use the word, fanboy icon, who directed Clerks and it examines the world of people who are very interested in that genre of content, and it too exceeded our expectations and performed very strongly." Given that endorsement by the President and CEO of AMC, it looks like a pretty safe bet that Comic Book Men will likely be back for a second season.

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