AMC announced Tuesday that its signature series, "The Walking Dead," will end its current season one week earlier than planned, due to the coronavirus shutdown that has plagued a number of television series this year.
AMC said in a statement: "Current events have unfortunately made it impossible to complete post-production of The Walking Dead Season 10 finale, so the current season will end with its 15th episode on Sunday, April 5."
According to the network, the planned finale of the post-apocalyptic saga will appear "as a special episode later in the year."
The news comes just days after AMC announced that it was forced to delay the launch of its third series in the zombie franchise _ "The Walking Dead: World Beyond" _ until later this year, also because of the coronavirus outbreak.
"World Beyond" was scheduled to premiere Sunday, April 12 at 10 p.m. _ directly after the now-postponed Season 10 finale of "The Walking Dead." The finale was supposed to be pegged to the final battle between the survivors and the skin-wearing Whisperers.
Although "The Walking Dead" has seen its ratings decline as the series grows older, it remains a popular fixture on AMC. The ratings, in fact, experienced an uptick this past Sunday when 3.66 million viewers tuned in to see one of the show's key characters, Michonne (Danai Gurira) make her exit from the story.
