AMC Orders Norman Reedus Biker Reality Series

AMC has greenlit Ride With Norman Reedus (working title), a six-episode reality series starring actor Norman Reedus from the network’s mega-hit The Walking Dead. The new show, in which biker-enthusiast Reedus explores local motorcycle culture in cities around the country, marks the first unscripted series order at AMC since the network a year ago pulled away from the genre to focus on its core scripted series, keeping only Comic Book Men and Talking Dead from their existing unscripted series. AMC executives had said they would remain opportunistic in the unscripted arena, which is what happened here with a show appealing to AMC’s core male audience and featuring one of the stars of the network’s biggest show.

The network also recently expanded the Talking Dead franchise to spinoff series Fear The Walking Dead and has been mixing scripted and documentary genre with docu-drama series The Making Of The Mob and The American West.

AMC continues to have an alternative department, run by Eliot Goldberg, SVP Non-fiction and Alternative Programming, who will oversee Ride With Norman Reedus along with Marco Bresaz, VP Non-fiction and Alternative Programming.

Ride, which will premiere in 2016, showcases some of the best collectors, mechanics and motorcycle craftsmen around the country as well as different types of motorcycles including vintage, minis and cruisers. Each episode will begin in a different city where Reedus and his riding companion – a fellow actor, musician, friend, or local chopper fanatic who shares his passion for motorcycles – will stop at various locales such as custom bike shops, tattoo parlors, collector’s warehouses, or a roadside smokehouse. “I had a lot of fun filming and exploring, and I hope it shows,” said Reedus.

Ride With Norman Reedus is produced by Left/Right Productions and executive produced by Ken Druckerman and Banks Tarver.

“We love being the home of people’s passion projects, and there is nobody more passionate about motorcycles than Norman Reedus,” said Joel Stillerman, president of original programming and development for AMC and SundanceTV. “He is an avid rider and aficionado who is deeply immersed in motorcycle culture. There is also nobody more fun to hang out with. This show will bring those two elements together for a weekly ride into the incredible world of motorcycles and the people who live and breathe them.”