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EXCLUSIVE: I’ve learned that AMC has renewed its newest series, period Western Hell On Wheels, for a second season. That means that 5 out of the network’s 6 original scripted series to date have now gone beyond their maiden season. Hell On Wheels, developed by Endemol USA and produced by Entertainment One and Calgary-based Nomadic Pictures, got off to a strong start in November. It debuted with 4.4 million viewers, ranking as AMC’s second-highest-rated series premiere behind mega-hit The Walking Dead in total viewers as well as adults 18-49 and 25-54. Hell On Wheels has slipped since but consistently delivers more than 2 million viewers in first-run broadcasts, most recently 2.3 million last week. The series has aired 7 episodes of its freshman series to date, with Episode 8 slated for Jan. 1. Hell On Wheels is set in post-Civil War America circa 1865 and centers on a Confederate soldier (Anson Mount) who sets out to exact revenge on the Union soldiers who killed his wife. The series was created Joe and Tony Gayton who are executive producing with Endemol USA’s Jeremy Gold and showrunner John Shiban. David Von Ancken, who directed the pilot, also serves as an executive producer on the current first season. eOne’s Michael Rosenberg oversees production.
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I gave up on this show…boring and pointless. Common was another good reason to stop watching. Did he step out of a time machine?
Ditto. Hoped for the best, gave up after the fight episode. Cliched characters, weak main character, boring plot lines.
Look forward to Hell on Wheels every week!
HELL ON WHEELS…this has got to be one of the best shows on TV at the moment.
I’ll admit that this show got off to a slow start, but am I glad I kept this on my PVR. I’ve recently caught up to what’s going on and can’t wait for next weeks episode. I’ve grown to like to the two main leads and am curious as to how they can keep this going.
It isnt boardwalk empire but this is a pretty dang good show.
Give up after first episode?
It was a good show! Started a little slow but enjoyed the whole season! One of my favorites!
I read some oppinions here.We like the show a lot. One guy was worried about historical accuracy, it is a work of fiction and an enjoyable one at that! Some odd folks like Vampires and Zombies, they are a waste of good film.
I totally disagree with you….Anson Mount aka Cullen Bohannon the lead role in the series is HOT….New blood like this is good and refreshing for televison….Many men will be jealous of Cullen’s character and especially his great look. The new Clint Eastwood in the spaghetti westerns come to mind….It is great entertainment with so many surprises….I watched the series weekly and then watched it in its entirety without breaks and it was even better the second time…..Hope this continues as we need something new and refreshing….I am so sick of cop and corruption movies as they are so much like real life….and it is conditioning us to accept this tripe as normal….when in fact corruption from the top down is prevalent and no one seems to care while our country and rights are being destroyed.
Couldn’t have put it any better. I never have been a big fan of Westerns but I really enjoy this series. I am glad that AMC renewed this series.
I totally agree with you. I can’t wait for the new season.
I have a co-worker that is 20 and I am 60 we discused every week about each episode.
Today is Wednesday, June 6th 2012. Does anyone know when Hell On Wheels comes back on for another season. I hope it does and also hope AMC and dish network work out their problems so I get to watch Hell when it does come on. Thanks
I totally agree with you on everything it is so satisfying to not see a cop or corruption show. This show is so awesome it definately makes you realize everything is taken for granted to much today.What they had to deal with back then People couldnt deal with today. Even though they think they could. We think times are hard now, try living in those days. It would be a shame not to have another season of this show cause I think it is one of the best on television.
YES! Love HOW
I’m done it with. They jumped the shark by killing off Lilly. Now they want to start selling sound track music and it’s terrible!That was the worst song!
It started out good, but I guess they ran out of script.
I will not watch next season…good-bye to Hell on Wheels.
Really enjoyed watching Common. Others’ opinions are just that. This is a great show with many great actors. Hope to watch it many more seasons.
Even the critics don’t like this AMC show and the ratings stink. It has dropped off so much since it’s premiere. And of course they renew it. AMC’s standards in the ratings are so low.
Excuse me , what DO the critics like???
They are usually so off base with what real people like I would say stop being a puppet and make your own decisions.
but the realhouswives of orange county is in its 7th season. fuck the critics i think the show has potential.
This is BEST SERIES in a long time…..good strong characters not to mention “good looking” Cullen is drop dead georgeous ….adds some new life to television. Reminds me of Clint Eastwoods old spaghetti westerns….it catches you by surprise…Can’t wait for Season 2 to start.
One of the top five new series on television this year. Great actors and storyline. The scripts are exceedingly well written in both content and dialogue. The show is not predictable, which makes it all that more interesting. I look forward to seeing it for many seasons to come.
I disagree with your entire comment. I am a huge western fan but I found the writing to be awful and the acting of the two leads (Common and whoever the generic main actor is)to be horrendous. I gave it four episodes and then deleted it from my To Do List.
The stories are so derivative of every other western as to be laughable if not for the fact that, being a fan of the genre, I was hoping this would pave the way for a revival.
It took me one more episode to give up. It was just funny watching the show introducing one potential stereotype after the other (the former Southern gentleman on a mission, the former slave, the noble widow, the Indian, Tattoo Whore) to, time after time, teach us that they’re not only a stereotype, they’re (wait for it) people.
It’s hard to take this show seriously when everything is explained to us in overwritten lines between two histrionic tirades by Durant. The worst sample was on the 4th episode, when Elam and Tattoo Whore have finally done the nasty and talk together about their lives, realizing that they were both slaves and that they’re not that different.
It is a show where every scene would be enhanced by having “Ebony and Ivory” playing as the soundtrack.
must agree with you totally.
but more. I think of it as Mel Brooks would do it, but he forgot to leave out the laugh lines. Though there are enough.
The whore with the tattoos, had the pox, but not a pockmark on her face. She looks like she just came from the facial salon.
The philosopher, Old Black Joe. Works all day in the sun, without a hat on his light colored head. Then he doesn’t know how to use a pistol, but now knows how to handle a Golden Boy rifle, though they weren’t invented then (that is not unusual in western movies, whatever looks best).
I am rather certain Bohannon referred to the general at Antietam as John McClellan. It was George, of course. Now, he is suppose to be a big indian hunter, but his horse got stolen too.
There is nothing historically accurate in this piece.
Everyone is a total stereotype. As for the indians, why did they shoot but one arrow? The young boy killed was fair game. Save the women and children, why? It’s total war with the Cheyenne, why should women be exempt. They’re the ones that tortured the slaves the indians took.
etc.
I disagree with your entire comment and agree with the original comment.
I find this show to be very enthralling and not at all cliche.
The main character, the ‘hero’, is clearly racist and apathetic toward blacks and others. This takes a lot of courage in this day and age to make your ‘hero’ unlikeable.
this show is as boring, cliched and hackneyed as it gets…
The only reason it could be considered as one of the top 5 new series this year is because most new shows were terrible.
This should have been canceled. AMC is throwing all of their good-will away.
Hey Rip! Go back to sleep!
I love this dark cowboy series. Everyone has been excellent in their roles and I am delighted there will be a series 2. Thanks
you must not watch a lot of TV, this show sucks ass.
No he just has good taste, and you have bad taste. The show rocks.
I also love this dark cowboy series. Can’t wait for season 2.
Love the characters especially Anson Mount.
It’s not like any western I have ever seen and I grew up in the western tv and movie era. There could be some improvements made, but I have seen a lot of improvements already and deserves a second season. Anson Mount is perfect for the character of Cullen but could use a little work. The writters need to do better on some of the script.
Awful show, with ratings steadily dropping. What is AMC thinking?
Ratings for this are ok. Mad men has the same ratings and renew that every year.
their ratings are NOT okay… and it doesn’t have the same as Mad Men. get your story straight before you try to spit knowledge, industry outsider…
How about YOU do your damn research? The person you replied to is right. Hell On Wheels’s ratings and Mad Men’s ratings can be called either the same or very, very close. This past Sunday, HOW’s seventh episode of the season aired. It got a 0.6 rating in the 18-49 demographic, and 2.271 million total viewers. Now, looking at the ratings for the seventh episode for Mad Men’s last season — the famous “Suitcase” episode, which aired on Sept. 5, 2010: The rating was 0.6 in the 18-49 demographic, and 2.167 million total viewers. That same night a new episode of Rubicon got a 0.3 rating in the 18-49 and a bit over 1 million total viewers. So there: it was always obvious that HOW was getting renewed, given that it has done as well as Mad Men in the ratings and doubled the viewer support of the only show AMC has ever canceled.
4.36, 3.84, 3.52, 3.28, 2.7, 2.15, 2.27… those are the numbers of total viewers in the millions of the episodes. and to your point, AMC’s audience/viewership has increased 27 percent SINCE the premiere of “Mad Men” so the numbers don’t necessarily correlate. and it wasn’t always obvious it was getting renewed and it’s not always about the numbers which dictates why it is or isn’t. this is a show which means a LOT to Endemol. it would be bad if their first foray into scripted programming were to be canceled during the first season. numbers didn’t renew this, politics did…
I love this show. The cinematography is magnificent and it has the best music score on television. Highly intelligent and imaginative. I love the entire cast. The Union Pacific story is terrific.
the score is ass ridiculous as the story. my wife and I get a real kick out of it.
I think the show is great. If there is one weak point, it’s Colm Meaney’s over-acting as Durant. Anson Mount has done a good job as the mysterious Bohannon and I don’t mind Common as his sidekick if you want to call him that. Good to see AMC supporting the show and giving it more time to grow.
Bohannon mysterious, please. He’s an empty shell of a man fueled by revenge. which has been dragged out seeing how the writers have no ideas. This whole first season has been a waste. The character have not been serviced and 7 episodes In I have no inkling where this show is going. I know that most of everything that’s come before will have little relevance going forward.
It’s certainly no Deadwood or Justified, but the ratings are good enough for a renewal, though the fact that they’ve dropped so much has to be disappointing. If it didn’t air after The Walking Dead, it certainly wouldn’t have achieved those numbers in the first place.
No, it’s not Deadwood; not many shows are. But, it’s just as good as Justified, with the exception of the lead. The writings about the same, and the character actors are about the same. One thing Justified isn’t that HOW is, is well shot. Justified looks like it’s filmed in the Santa Monica mountains which is strange because it’s supposed to be taking place in KY. I don’t care how good the cinematography is, Southern California doesn’t look like KY, ever.
The Justified pilot was excellent because it looked like most of it was shot on location. Then, in episode two, it started to look like the Rockford Files. The on-location filming of Hell on Wheels looks absolutely breathtaking. We’ll see if the writing improves a bit in season two, but I don’t think it will take much to make it a quality show.
you shouldn’t be allowed to make another comment again. “Hell on Wheels” is as good as “Justified?” i hope you’re in L.A. maybe i’ll be able to find the good sticky-icky like you did…
This is a great show was a bit slow laying the groundwork for the characters but it has gotten better and better as its progressed. This last episode Revelations was the best by far. Viewership is high but the demo has slipped. I believe the demo will come back up if they put The Walking Dead as the lead-in again. Freshman shows always need help getting started. Cullen Bohannon is the perfect cowboy anti-hero with a conscience and the setting of the trans-continental railroad…
Oops didn’t finish my sentence. The backdrop of the railroad combined with the tensions between North and South, Indians, union calvary, the blacks, whites all make for interesting drama in the old west!
then you know nothing about the old west. this is not even the right year for the railroad. it is half a decade late. the bill was signed by lincoln in 1862. tensions with the indians? just kill them.
bob, it would probably be good if you got your facts straight before you made comments. The railroad wasn’t completed until 1869. And I read one of your earlier comments about golden boys not being invented yet. Henry repeaters were used during the Civil War. And as far as ratings and how good the actors do portraying their characters, I really couldn’t care less. I’m enjoying the series and glad that there will be a season 2. Maybe you should quit being such a downer to all the people who do enjoy Hell on Wheels.
If it needs The Walking Dead as a lead-in, then why does it deserve to be renewed? AMC should cancel it and slot in a show that has more appeal for TWD’s audience, not one that makes them reach for the remote. TWD’s audience should not be frittered away on a boring series that does nothing but regurgitate cliches.
Hey bro. You are a joke. You probably sit around your house all day watching TV. So before you go and try to act like you know everything about anything, you should get a life.
From the ads, I thought this show was about the building of the transcontinental railroad. If it’s a revenge story, they should have pushed that angle harder and more might have watched!
I was never a fan of Deadwood. I watched it , but was bored to death. I really like HOW. Its different. No, its not perfect, but most of whats on TV isn’t
This is the saddest comment in the history of the internet.
LOl. So true.
Deadwood is the gold standard.
last week they finally had the hour of the backstory. so, it was a boring show: now everyone, tell us your story. hold off on action, tell us how you grew up and what you did last summer.
Deadwood serviced it’s characters within the first 4-5 episodes so viewers could become invested. I hardly know much anything about any of the character on H.O.W. A lot what I know seems to be repeadted every 2-3 episodes.
I will give the show more time to develop. Visuals and sound are good. Though with AMC if I didn’t have On Demand I wouldn’t watch any of their shows.
People need to stop comparing this to Deadwood, I watched that show for 30 minutes and turned it off due to the excessive language. Nobody but the public and a couple reviewers said that this Gould be compared to Deadwood, the stars, the network, and the bigger name reviewers said that this is nothing similar to Deadwood, only the genre. If anything compare it to Rawhide or Bonanza.
OT: I’m pretty excited that it got picked up for season 2, only thing I hope for is that they stop making Bohannon a drunken idiot and make him more of a fleshed out character, we know more of Lilly then why we know about Bohannon
Very glad to hear this. I checked it out for Colm Meaney of “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” fame, but enjoy most of the characters. True the first episode didn’t amaze, but it’s almost steadily gotten better and is far better than “The Walking Dead”. Anson Mount is a great actor, embodying everything that Timothy Olyphant’s character on “Deadwood” failed to. It’s not at “Breaking Bad” or “Mad Men” levels of genius, but it’s really good. I also am increasingly enjoying the depiction of treatment of natives; this kind of colonization continues to this day and is supported by our Western governments. It’s also extremely important to have a sense of the tragedy of treatment of natives, so that we show them the respect and understanding which we’ve failed to do in Canada. Very timely series, in these senses.
I really like Hell On Wheels. A great drama adventure set during the time of the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad.
Each actor is doing a great job in their role. Was hoping AMC would see potential here and so glad they did.
Shaun
if you think Common is doing a “great” job in his role, your opinion means NOTHING. he is the WORST actor EVER. seriously.
the railroad was built nearly a decade before this one. the first road started in 1862. during, not after the civil war. it was completed a year after this one started.
In my day, we only had three networks and all the shows they broadcast were crappy! We used to sit around and bang ourselves in the head with rocks before we could stand to watch the shows, and we longed for commercials to interrupt the idiocy. And that’s the way it was…AND WE LIKED IT!
Seriously, while I appreciate the critical comments (and wonder when this site became a fan-site), this is actually a pretty good story, business-wise. AMC has never had a ton of development cash, but they’ve consistently managed to stretch it pretty far. The series itself, while not exactly my cup of tea, is pretty well-written and production values are consistently good and Mr. Mount has now proven, I think, that he can “carry” a show.
I do, however, worry that Endemol is now stretching its slimy Dutch tentacles into scripted television…
The last episode picked up a bit, so much potential in this show, and for fans of this genre like myself, I’m willing it to be a hit, but it’s been a bit disappointing, especially the lead Anson Mount. Looks great, sounds great, but he poses his way through this show with no depth or true feeling. The acting in general is poor, as are the story lines, a few well written scenes here and there do not make a good episode. What is good is the way it’s shot, the music and the fantastic era of the 1860′s. Here’s hoping for season 2. Good luck…you’ll need it.
milton,
comparing it the Rockford Files. Was that a good thing or bad.
And like I used to tell my grandson, Deadwood was 100% pure phony baloney. That woman who played Wild Bill Hitchcock or Annie Oakly or whatever she was supposed to be was a horror.
I love this show. Am so glad that AMC decided to renew it. Last episode was amazing. And for those who say the acting isn’t good -I heartily disagree. I think the acting has been superb.
Thank god there’s a network like AMC that is willing to take a chance on a new show, and a western too!!! Cannot wait for the final 3 episodes of season 1.
AMC should have renewed RUBICON last year. It could have been as successful as HOMELAND if AMC played its hand better. Now, instead, we get another season of this.
Kidding? Rubicon and not this BS…..
amen,brother.
Hell on wheels is on my to do list for new years! Merry Christmas and happy new years to u Hell on wheels!!!CHoo chooo
worst show ever on AMC….
I love HOW and I’m sooooo happy it’s coming back! Yay! Hell on Wheels rulz!
This is great news. An unexpected Xmas present indeed!
HOW is awesome.