Chris Hardwick reinstated by AMC for Talking Dead

Chris Hardwick will get to keep talking on AMC. The host has been reinstated for Talking Dead by the network effective on Aug. 12 after the midseason premiere of Fear the Walking Dead.

Hardwick had his show Talking with Chris Hardwick pulled off the channel a day before season 2 was to premiere after ex-girlfriend Chloe Dykstra accused him of sexual assault and emotional abuse in a first-person online post. He also bowed out of moderating The Walking Dead, Fear the Walking Dead, and Doctor Who panels for AMC and BBC America at Comic-Con in San Diego last week, and frequent Talking Dead guest Yvette Nicole Brown was announced as an interim host for a Walking Dead season 9 preview special on Aug. 5. and the Aug. 12 edition after the FearTWD midseason premiere. Brown will still host the Aug. 5 preview special as production is already underway on that, and will now be a guest on the Aug. 12 post-Fear episode.

The network had conducted an investigation into the allegations against Hardwick and issued the following statement on the findings and decision to return the host to the air: “Following a comprehensive assessment by AMC, working with Ivy Kagan Bierman of the firm Loeb & Loeb, who has considerable experience in this area, Chris Hardwick will return to AMC as the host of Talking Dead and Talking with Chris Hardwick. We take these matters very seriously and given the information available to us after a very careful review, including interviews with numerous individuals, we believe returning Chris to work is the appropriate step.”

No word yet on when Talking with Chris Hardwick will return to the air and if the episodes — including the season premiere with Donald Glover — that were pulled will ever make it onto the channel.