Over the last few weeks, veteran TV host and comedian Chris Hardwick has been dealing with the after effects of allegations of abuse made by an ex-girlfriend. This meant that Hardwick was briefly dropped from his AMC series and was asked to step down and not run any San Diego Comic-Con panels this year. (He was replaced by Yvette Nicole Brown, instead.) However, AMC looked into the allegations using a person from an outside firm (Ivy Kagan Bierman of Loeb & Loeb) and Chris Hardwick was cleared of wrongdoing. Following the review, it looks like he will be returning to work when the TV season gets into full swing this fall, and this week NBC announced that Chris Hardwick will be returning to its network programs.
Over at NBC, Chris Hardwick participates in programs like The Wall and America's Got Talent. He's the host of The Wall so finding a replacement for that series would have been a bit of a task, should the allegations not have played out in the comedian's favor. On America's Got Talent, he has previously served and will continue to serve as a guest judge on the series. EW notes the AGT appearance was actually shot before any of the original allegations broke.
The news comes just a few days after AMC finished up its review of the allegations made against Chris Hardwick by his ex-partner, Chloe Dykstra. Chris Hardwick's take on the issue was that the couple had argued during their earlier relationship, but that no one had been abused. At the time the company finished its review, Chris Hardwick was also reinstated as the host of The Talking Dead, a TV series that has run following episodes of both The Walking Dead and Fear The Walking Dead in recent years. Both versions have been big ratings earners for the network, although more people tune in for the episodes following The Walking Dead. Hardwick will be back on the network performing his duties starting on August 12th. Yvette Nicole Brown is set to still fill in for the August 5th broadcast, which will be a special preview episode.
Chloe Dystra has stated that she did not cooperate with the investigation, but following a lengthy tweet several months ago, she has stated she wants to "move on" with her life. AMC has stated returning Chris Hardwick to work was the "appropriate step."
NBC has not announced a released date for The Wall Season 3, yet. The series was renewed by The Peacock Network back in March. The show generally runs in the gap between the fall and midseason TV runs around the holidays. We'll let you know if that continues to be the case as Chris Hardwick gets back to work and moving forward. In addition, The Talking Dead will return for Season 8 this month in order to cover Fear The Walking Dead. The Walking Dead returns on October 7th.
