Chris Hardwick Returning to Host Talking Dead Following AMC Investigation

Chris Hardwick will return to his hosting duties on Talking Dead after AMC completed its investigation into abuse allegations against him. A spokesperson for AMC said in a public statement that the network has finished its investigation and is reinstating Hardwick. He will return for the show’s August 12th premiere after Fear the Walking Dead’s midseason return.

“Following a comprehensive assessment by AMC, working with Ivy Kagan Bierman of the firm Loeb & Loeb, who has considerable experience in this area, Chris Hardwick will return to AMC as the host of ‘Talking Dead’ and ‘Talking with Chris Hardwick,’” the statement read. “We take these matters very seriously and given the information available to us after a very careful review, including interviews with numerous individuals, we believe returning Chris to work is the appropriate step.”

Yvette Nicole Brown, who was named as Hardwick’s temporary replacement, will remain as the guest host for the Walking Dead Season 9 preview special on August 5th. He will also be one of Hardwick’s guests on the August 12th Talking Dead.

Hardwick was accused of emotional and sexual abuse by his ex-girlfriend, actress Chloe Dykstra, in June. Dykstra did not name Hardwick specifically, but it wsas easy to determine who she meant by looking at the details. Dykstra claimed that Hardwick coerced her into sex, was emotionally abusive and controlling, and when she broke up with him, he “made calls to several companies I received regular work from to get me fired by threatening to never work with them. He succeeded. I was blacklisted.” Hardwick denied the claims.

NBC is still in the process of assessing Hardwick’s host role on their primetime game show The Wall.