AMC’s newest drama Hell on Wheels has been renewed for a second season. The western, which follows the story of Confederate solider Cullen Bohannon (played by Anson Mount), who is out for vengeance in a post-Civil War era America, has seen a steady decline in its viewing figures since its premiere, but has still retained enough of an audience to see it past its initial run.
The show premiered to 4.36 million viewers - the second highest for an AMC drama this year behind The Walking Dead’s record breaking second season - but its seventh and most recent episode gained just 2.27 million. Whilst the drop is significant, the season low of 2.15 million is still a higher number than any episode of the most recent season of acclaimed AMC drama Breaking Bad besides its premiere.
The series, which also stars Common, Dominique McElligott, Colm Meaney, Ben Esler, Phil Burke, Eddie Spears and Tom Noonan has been compared to acclaimed HBO western Deadwood, which ran for three seasons and, according to AMC executive Owen Shiflett, came about because “audiences [were] ready for it with the release of True Grit.”