Chris Hardwick show canceled
AMC Halts Talking with Chris Hardwick, SDCC Appearances Canceled. Hardwick’s brand continues its devaluation following abuse allegations by cosplayer and actress Chloe Dykstra. While the Nerdist creator and former host of at Midnight has responded to these claims, his professional partnerships have speedily sought severance and distance to Hardwick as news of his alleged treatment of Dykstra circulates, now culminating in an interruption of the AMC television talk show Talking with Chris Hardwick and cancellation of his scheduled panels at San Diego Comic-Con.
Dykstra published her detailed and personal post “Rose-Colored Glasses: A Confession” last Thursday on Medium, a disturbing account of the alleged physical and mental abuse suffered during her relationship with Hardwick. The post quickly gained traction and soon led to several wide-reaching developments, including the complete erasure of Hardwick’s presence from the Nerdist website, an online outlet representative of the empire he helped build, which has been active since The Nerdist Podcast first launched in 2010.
Hardwick’s direct involvement with Nerdist greatly reduced in scope as he explored other professional opportunities, but those same opportunities have been compromised in the wake of Dykstra’s claims. Now per Variety, AMC has announced that Hardwick’s talk show will not air on their channel for the time being, and that he will “step aside from moderating planned AMC and BBC America Panels at Comic-Con International in San Diego next month.”
In addition to abuse claims, Dykstra’s post describes how she suffered blacklisting in the entertainment industry following her separation from Hardwick, and that he “steamrolled” her professional career. While he has since denied her sexual abuse claims in a recently-released statement, Hardwick has not responded to her accusations of industry blacklisting or, for that matter, apologized to the actress.
Talking with Chris Hardwick was entering a second season which had already been filmed when these events transpired, and it’s worth noting that AMC has not issued an outright cancellation of the show. The channel’s circulated statement describes their collaboration with Hardwick as a “positive working relationship”, specifying that the judgment to halt airing of the show’s second season was a decision made while they “assess the situation”. There is reported speculation that the interrupted schedule is related to the show’s guests, who may have pressured AMC to come to this decision to avoid any association with Hardwick.
Talking with Chris Hardwick was meant to return this Sunday on AMC, but time will tell if the show is properly canceled, or if the second season will ever see the light of day.
