Armed with a TV-MA rating, AMC's mega-popular adaptation of The Walking Dead is one of the most downright violent and gory programs to ever air on television, loaded up on an almost weekly basis with beheadings, gut-munchings and skull-crushings. Not surprisingly, the Parents Television Council has been outraged by the show's graphic depiction of gruesome violence in the past, and it was their protests that led to the show's original TV-14 rating becoming the more appropriate TV-MA.
What would The Walking Dead be like, if all the blood and guts were taken away, rather than the rating being adjusted? Well, according to Entertainment Weekly, we're about to find out.
The site reports that the Fox-owned syndication channel MyNetworkTV has just picked up exclusive broadcast rights to re-air episodes of The Walking Dead, which will mark the very first time the show has been seen on broadcast television. Naturally, given the restrictions of broadcast vs. cable, the episodes will be heavily edited down for the channel's replays, with much of the carnage being completely removed, to meet the standards of the watered down TV-14 rating.
Starting this fall, the channel will run two edited episodes of The Walking Dead per week, which is going to be quite interesting, to say the very least!