(Fake) Zombies Protest Dish Network to Bring Back ‘Walking Dead’

I have every episode of this series on my DVR. That doesn't keep me from watching 'TS-19' (season 1, episode 5) airing right now on AMC during their two day marathon leading up to the third season premiere of 'The Walking Dead' on Sunday night.

Unfortunately, if you are a Dish Network subscriber, you can't partake in the non-stop undead action like I am. AMC and Dish have been locked in a stalemate over the money that Dish is willing to pay to carry the network, or what AMC calls "an unrelated lawsuit."

In an attempt to show how big AMC's biggest show is, dozens of "zombies" were in Washington, D.C. on Friday for World Zombie Day. Dead dissenters marched outside Nationals Park before game five of the NLDS between the Washington Nationals and St. Louis Cardinals. Perished protestors picketed down Pennsylvania Avenue carried signs in front of the White House. They did this to "protest" Dish not carrying Sunday's premiere of 'The Walking Dead.'

Don't read too much into this spontaneous exercising of first amendment rights. The entire event appears to have been an orchestrated public relations ploy by AMC. Getty Images cited that the photos were taken for AMC, and the source of the news story was actually a press release published by AMC on PRNewswire.

Since Dish Network is headquartered in Denver, CO, it probably would have been more prudent to stage the protest there instead of the Obama residence. I Googled around and could not find anything suggesting the first family are fans of 'The Walking Dead.'

AMC has been on a campaign to let the world know that Dish dropped their channels, which includes WEtv, IFC and Sundance. Virtually every promo ad they run for any of their shows ends with the tagline "not available on Dish." They launched a website encouraging people to switch providers. They even added crossed-out Dish logos intermingled with the AMC and 'Dead' logos on the backdrop at the red carpet premiere.

I don't really care if it was just a PR move. The photos are still fun. Besides, I never thought I'd see zombies in front of the White House.

There is good news if you are a Dish subscriber and want to see 'The Walking Dead.' AMC is providing a free internet stream of the premiere. The stream is only available to Dish customers. Otherwise fans of the show would have to wait until the next day or two after the show first airs to download it from iTunes and other video download providers.

As Mel and I (or mostly me) have talked about the impending premiere, I have received two emails from listeners saying that they are going to switch to another provider because they are fans of 'The Walking Dead.' If my provider dropped AMC, I would probably do the same thing. If my provider was dropping BBC America, I probably wouldn't care.