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AMC is pulling Chris Hardwick’s talk show after abuse allegations

AMC is pulling Chris Hardwick’s talk show after abuse allegations

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He also won’t moderate panels at San Diego Comic-Con

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AMC WonderCon: Fear of the Walking Dead
Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for AMC

On Thursday, actress Chloe Dykstra published a post on Medium detailing abuse allegations about an ex-boyfriend, which many have speculated was about Nerdist founder and TV and podcast host Chris Hardwick. AMC, which was set to broadcast Talking with Chris Hardwick this weekend, announced that it won’t air the series “while we assess the situation.”

Hardwick has hosted a number of programs for AMC, such as after shows Talking Bad (for Breaking Bad), Talking Saul (for Better Call Saul), Talking Preacher (for Preacher) and The Talking Dead (for The Walking Dead). Last year, he debuted Talking with Chris Hardwick, a talk show that featured interviews with Michelle Monaghan, James Corden, Charlie Hunnam, Jordan Peele, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and others.

The show’s second season was set to debut on Sunday with Donald Glover, and Deadline reports that many of the show’s scheduled guests wanted to distance themselves from the performer. AMC says that while it has “had a positive working relationship with Chris Hardwick for many years, we take the troubling allegations that surfaced yesterday very seriously,” and is pulling the show accordingly.

Additionally, AMC says that he will no longer moderate panels for AMC and BBC America at San Diego Comic-Con. Hardwick has also seen other planned appearances canceled in light of the allegations: California’s Kaaboo Festival announced that he will no longer perform at the festival in September. NBC says that it will “assess” the situation in relation to his game show on the network, The Wall, and noted that production will begin on its third season in September.

Dykstra alleges that Hardwick was abusive toward her during their three-year relationship, and that when they broke up, he blacklisted her from work. Hardwick responded late in the day yesterday to deny Dykstra’s allegations. Since the allegations surfaced yesterday, Nerdist responded by scrubbing Hardwick’s name and posts from the site, while multiple writers for the site denounced his alleged actions.

Update, June 17th, 2018, 9:08AM ET: Updated to include statement from NBC.