Despite losing roughly one half of its audience over the course of its first season so far, AMC has renewed their Western, “Hell on Wheels,” for a second season. Thanks to a lead-in from “The Walking Dead,” as well as AMC’s (diminishing) reputation for quality dramas, “Hell on Wheels” had the second biggest debut for an AMC original series back in October. However, since opening with 4.4 million viewers, the show’s most recent episode was down to 2.2 million. Still, that’s twice as good as “Rubicon,” and roughly the same ratings that “Mad Men” receives, so it wasn’t a tough choice for the network.

Whatever. I gave “Hell on Wheels” a shot. I watched the first few episodes, but I bailed because I couldn’t stay awake. I hear the show has improved, just as I heard that “Rubicon” improved near the end of its only season. But you know what? Unlike “Rubicon” and “Hell on Wheels,” I’m still watching two other AMC shows, “The Walking Dead” and (reluctantly) “The Killing,” because they showed their potential in the opening episodes before crapping the bed. I guess if you’re going to suck, at least suck from the beginning that way I don’t invest in 12 episodes before I find out THAT THEY DON’T EVEN SOLVE THE MURDER IN THE END. Outside of “Breaking Bad” and “Mad Men,” I’m starting to lose my faith in AMC. Seriously, their formula now is: 1) Come up with a cool concept; 2) Hook viewers on the concept; 3) ignore the concept and film people walking solemnly through the woods or standing in the rain; and 4) Profit.

(Source: EW)

‘HELL ON WHEELS’ DEBUTS STRONG. Sunday night’s series premiere drew 4.4 million viewers for AMC, the network’s second-best debut after “The Walking Dead.” I thought the pilot was okay, but I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that series star Anson Mount played Britney Spears’s love interest in Crossroads.

‘SONS OF ANARCHY’ GETS A BONUS EPISODE. Showrunner Kurt Sutter has worried publicly that Season 4 had too much story to fit into 13 episodes, so FX has given the green light for a 14th episode. The season finale will now air December 6th.

‘EBERT PRESENTS’ HAS RUN OUT OF MONEY. The intellectual successor to “Siskel & Ebert” will go off the air unless it gets more funding. Sucks to be on public television.

AUDIENCES AGREE: ‘CHUCK’ SUCKS. The hokey NBC crapfest is the lowest-rated show on primetime for any of the big four networks, drawing a .9 rating on Friday nights. The most recent episode was beaten by a repeat of “NCIS” on USA.

Rough times for January Jones. Everyone got sick of her as Betty Draper, then everyone hated her acting X-Men: First Class, and then she had a bastard baby with someone from that set. And this video from Jest (formerly Today’s Big Thing) isn’t going to help her out any, since these “Mad Men” scenes are much more enjoyable without her pouting and complaining and generally being a shrill harpy. Although, to Jones’s credit, she does a VERY good job of making Betty Draper unlikable.

Only way this could be improved: instead of merely erasing Betty, they should try replacing her with Joan.

It just makes everyone happier.

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They weren't kidding about taking the TV show in a different direction than the comic.

In a move that should come as no surprise, AMC has renewed “The Walking Dead” for a third season — and they managed to do it without engaging in a prolonged dispute or firing the showrunner. Good for them!

More than 7 million people watched the season 2 premiere, and nearly 5 million of those were in the adults 18-49 demographic, both enormous numbers for a scripted basic cable drama. The second episode averaged 6.7 million viewers for its first airing, with more than 4.5 million 18-49 viewers. [HitFix]

When I went to the “Walking Dead” panel with comic creator Robert Kirkman last Friday, he was coy about the possibility of a third season, but everyone in the audience was like, “Yeah right, like it won’t happen.” This is just the smart, obvious thing to do. Like adding dinosaurs to the show.

Last night’s episode of “The Walking Dead” (S2E2, “Bloodletting”) had a subtle but notable nod to its fellow AMC hit “Breaking Bad”: when white-power survivalist Darryl pulled out his bag of illicit drugs — both street and scrip — he mentions that meth in his collection, and the telltale crystals are blue, just as if they were made in Walter White’s laboratory.

AMC didn’t immediately respond to queries on Monday morning about whether this was a deliberate shout-out from the “Walking Dead” producers or just a manifestation of our own desire for new installments of “Breaking Bad.” And it’s not immediately clear how crystal meth that is cooked in Albuquerque would make it all the way to Atlanta (carried over by an industrious zombie, no doubt). But it wouldn’t be the first time the two shows have collaborated: KNB EFX, the special effects company of the “Walking Dead” co-executive producer Greg Nicotero, helped design a memorable scene for the “Breaking Bad” finale, featuring a character who can make return appearances only in flashbacks or as a member of the undead. [NYT ArtsBeat]

Okay, thanks for WAY too many words about that, New York Times. Here’s the only conversation we need to have about this: ”Oh hey! Blue meth on ‘The Walking Dead’!” … ”Neat.”