Chris Hardwick gets emotional upon Talking Dead return, fails to mention staffers who quit
A few weeks ago, after surveying the nation’s nerd coffers and somehow finding them to be empty, AMC declared that Chris Hardwick would return to his post as host of The Talking Dead. Last night, he did so, his eyes welling up with tears as gave a little speech at the top of the show, thanking the “Walking Dead community” for their support, calling the gig “a vital part of my life and a sanctuary,” and thanking interim host Yvette Nicole Brown for her work. He did not mention that several of the show’s staffers, including co-executive producer Jen Patton, had quit in protest of his reinstatement.
This was in the wake of an autobiographical essay by actress and former Nerdist host Chloe Dykstra, alleging serious emotional and sexual abuse by an unnamed-but-obvious “nerd mogul” ex. In response, AMC canceled Hardwick’s scheduled San Diego Comic-Con appearances and suspended him from his talk shows pending an internal investigation conducted by attorney Ivy Kagan Bierman, whose bio says she specializes in sexual harassment training and investigations for TV networks and other entertainment companies “with ‘edgy’ programming content.” Within weeks, Hardwick was back at work.