Following allegations of abusive behavior made against Chris Hardwick by his ex-girlfriend Chloe Dykstra, AMC launched an internal appraisal of their relationship with the long-standing host. As part of the network’s evaluation, actress Yvette Nicole Brown stepped in to cover Hardwick’s traditional duties at San Diego Comic-Con, hosting both this year’s The Walking Dead and Fear The Walking Dead panels. Brown tweeted at the time that she was just “filling in for a friend,’†not “jockeying for a job.†However, the distinction might have just become less clear, now that AMC has named Brown as the interim host of both their Walking Dead season nine special and Harwick’s aftershow Talking Dead.
As reported by Deadline, AMC said in a statement, “Yvette Nicole Brown will step in as an interim guest host of The Walking Dead Season 9 Preview Special on August 5 and Talking Dead when it returns following the premiere of Fear the Walking Dead on August 12, as we work to complete our assessment related to Chris Hardwick.†As previously reported, Hardwick has denied the allegations made against him.