In a bid to build buzz, a whole lot of AMC shows are coming to Max ad-free

In a bid to build buzz, a whole lot of AMC shows are coming to Max ad-free

AMC’s logos as seen in the trailer for the second season of Dark Winds. | Screenshot: Wes Davis / The Verge

A handful of AMC Plus shows, including Fear the Walking Dead and Killing Eve, will have a temporary home on Max, Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming service, starting September 1st and going through October 31st. Statements provided to multiple outlets by executives from both services’ parent companies make it clear the goal of the deal is to help AMC Plus while adding more content to Max, which is good because, with the strikes in Hollywood bringing productions to a halt and the challenges AMC is facing in the cable space, both companies probably need it.

“This promotional arrangement with Warner Bros. Discovery is a terrific opportunity to serve up some of our most popular and critically acclaimed programming to millions of Max subscribers in the U.S. for two full months,” Dan McDermott, president of entertainment and AMC Studios for AMC Networks, said in a statement.

Max will feature the AMC Plus series in a branded “AMC+ Picks on Max” rail, and crucially, they won’t have ads — whether you’re subscribed to the ad-free or ad-lite versions of Max.

It's not clear if the shows announced so far are the only ones coming to Max (we’ve reached out for clarification), as the excellent Kevin Can F*** Himself, for example, does not appear to be making the trip, but Fear of the Walking Dead and the first season of the Tony Hillerman adaptation Dark Winds are. Dark Winds is currently airing its second season on AMC Plus and AMC.

Here’s the list of shows announced so far for the promotion:

• Fear the Walking Dead (Seasons 1-7)
• Anne Rice’s Interview With the Vampire (Season 1)
• Dark Winds (Season 1)
• Gangs of London (Seasons 1-2)
• Ride with Norman Reedus (Seasons 1-5)
• A Discovery of Witches (Seasons 1-3)
• Killing Eve (Seasons 1-4)

AMC Plus has struggled to grow a subscriber base in a deeply saturated streaming environment, and the slow-motion death of AMC’s ancestral homeland of cable TV isn’t doing it any favors. Earlier this month, the company posted poor second quarter financial results and revealed that, rather than inching closer to its goal of hitting 20-25 million streaming subscriptions in 2025, its subscriber count had fallen by 300,000 to just 11 million paying streamers.

That’s despite having streaming rights for several high-profile, award-winning shows like The Walking Dead, Mad Men, and Hell on Wheels. The service also has several original shows, while parent company AMC Networks also owns multiple legacy cable channels, like BBC America and IFC, as well as the horror streaming service Shudder.

AMC also announced it would launch an ad-supported tier in October, and other partnerships have seen it featured on The Roku Channel (as a paid add-on), and it’s long been available as a subscription channel in both Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV.

The stakes are high for AMC Plus, as featuring some of its best shows on Max — and in front of its nearly 100 million subscribers — could put more eyeballs on AMC Plus content. Whether it will help the streaming service pick up subscribers remains to be seen.