Comedian and actor Yvette Nicole Brown has been named interim guest host of Talking Dead and a preview special of The Walking Dead season nine, AMC has announced. The announcement comes in the wake of AMC’s “assessment” of host Chris Hardwick, accused of sexual abuse by ex-girlfriend Chloe Dykstra.
Brown has been a regular guest on Talking Dead since 2012.
“Yvette Nicole Brown will step in as an interim guest host of The Walking Dead Season 9 Preview Special on August 5 and Talking Dead when it returns following the premiere of Fear the Walking Dead on August 12, as we work to complete our assessment related to Chris Hardwick,” read a statement released by AMC and published on Indiewire.com.
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Dykstra published an essay last month on Medium in which she offered details of her abusive relationship of several years with an unnamed man that many readers concluded was Hardwick.
In the essay, titled Rose-Colored Glasses: A Confession, Dykstra detailed a relationship that included emotional abuse and mistreatment, including curfews and rules such as no speaking to her partner in public places, no male friends and no drinking, according to Indiewire.com. She wrote that after major surgery for an ectopic pregnancy, Hardwick’s first question to her doctor was, “When do you think I can have sex with her again.”
Dykstra did not mention Hardwick by name, but described him as having transformed from “a mildly successful podcaster to a powerhouse CEO of his own company.” Hardwick’s company, Nerdist, began as a podcast.
Hardwick denies the sexual abuse allegations.
The announcement involving Brown is not the only blow to Hardwick’s career since the essay appeared. AMC has also taken Talking With Chris Hardwick off the air and also cancelled his planned appearance at a Comic-Con panel in San Diego.
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