Publications
Partners
Cape Town – Production has shut down on American TV shows The Walking Dead, The Originals and some films as tropical storm Hurricane Irma approached Georgia.
Disney films, Marvel's Avengers: Infinity War and Ant-Man and The Wasp also filming in Georgia likewise temporarily halted production, as well as the new upcoming drama series Lodge 49, about a surfer who joins a fraternity.
It's not yet clear when production will resume on the 8th season of The Walking Dead, filmed in Atlanta.
The 8th season of The Walking Dead is set to start on Sunday, 22 October in America and will roll out in South Africa and across Africa on FOX (DStv 125 / StarSat 133) on Monday, 23 October at 21:00 as an Express from the US title.
See the trailer here:
The debut episode of the 8th season of the zombie drama will be its landmark 100th episode.
The production delay and shutdown is the second this year and this season after filming was temporarily halted in July after the on-set death of stuntman John Bernecker who plunged to his death from a balcony to a concrete floor. The Walking Dead resumed production five days later. (Read more here)
Filming on the upcoming 5th and final season of the youth vampire drama The Originals seen in South Africa and Africa on VUZU AMP (DStv 103) and produced by Warner Bros Television also temporarily shuttered on Monday.
All these productions are expected to resume production again later this week once the storm has passed.
In another strange TV biz development, America is currently without TV ratings right now because Nielsen, the company that tracks and tallies TV ratings is based in Tampa, Florida where Hurricane Irma caused mass evacuations and damage to infrastructure over the weekend.
Adweek reports that Nielsen has been forced to halt reporting of TV viewership and ratings since Sunday after the company's Tampa-area based facility was evacuated over the weekend.
Nielsen said that ratings will not resume until its employees are able to safely return.
"The team that reports ratings has evacuated the Tampa Bay area due to Hurricane Irma. Therefore, our ratings will be delayed in the near term," said Nielsen in a statement.
