AMC Pulls ‘Talking Dead,’ And Comic-Con Panels A No-Go After Chris Hardwick Abuse Claims

The fallout continues over the Chris Hardwick sexual assault scandal, and TMZ reports that he has lost more jobs due to the sexual assault allegations recently made public by ex-girlfriend and actress, Chloe Dykstra. Talking with Chris Hardwick has been pulled by AMC, and his stint as a moderator next month at BBC America and AMC panels at San Diego Comic-Con has been torpedoed by Hardwick himself.

Earlier, the Inquisitr reported that the comedian and television host lost two plum gigs, his position at Nerdist and performing at KAABOO Del Mar 2018, due to the sexual abuse allegations. On Friday, Nerdist, the website that Chris Hardwick founded and sold to Legendary Entertainment, was the first to cut all ties. They removed all content he had written and distanced themselves from all affiliation with him.

The next day, the KAABOO Festival was the second to follow suit. They pulled Chris Hardwick’s upcoming comedy appearance from the KAABOO Del Mar 2018 comedy lineup. Their Facebook site carried the announcement, which was shared on their site, and they wrote in a post that a replacement act for Chris would be announced shortly.

AMC stayed silent on Friday, but they had faced increasing pressure to address Dykstra’s explosive claims about Chris, according to Deadline. Today, they officially made the decision not to air Talking while they assessed the situation.

“We have had a positive working relationship with Chris Hardwick for many years. We take the troubling allegations that surfaced yesterday very seriously.”

Chris Hardwick voluntarily stepped aside from moderating the two panels at the San Diego Comic-Con.

The domino-effect of Chris Hardwick’s jobs started shortly after Chloe Dykstra uploaded an emotional post to Medium on June 14 about claims of sexual abuse. In the post, she wrote that he made her live under very strict rules and forced her to have sex with him.

I quietly posted an article today, unlisted on Medium. It clearly made the rounds. I’m overwhelmed and I want to thank all of you for your support and kind words- they mean so much to me. I may take some time off the internet, please know your support means everything to me.

— Chloe Dykstra (@skydart) June 15, 2018

Hardwick denied the sexual assault claims, adding that they only split because Dykstra cheated on him. He addressed the allegations late Friday, releasing a statement of his own.

“I was heartbroken to read Chloe’s post. Our three year relationship was not perfect — we were ultimately not a good match and argued — even shouted at each other — but I loved her, and did my best to uplift and support her as a partner and companion in any way and at no time did I sexually assault her.”

Up until news of the sexual allegation broke, Chris Hardwick was a huge fan favorite in the world of geekdom. Deadline reports that the presence of Talking on the AMC website has been scaled back since Friday with “multi-media and other elements” gone. However, the show is is still present on the schedule, and the network lists it as being on tomorrow night.

When AMC pulled the second season of Talking With Chris Hardwick, it affected some upcoming celebrity appearances by Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom star Chris Pratt, HBO’s Barry star Bill Hader, and a list of others.