‘Talking Dead’ spoilers: A late start time; Gale Anne Hurd, Cliff Curtis join Chris Hardwick

The first thing that you should know about tonight’s new episode of “Talking Dead” is that if you want to check it out, you’re going to be doing so much later in the evening than usual. Why? Blame AMC’s schedulers. The midseason finale of “Fear the Walking Dead” is going to be airing at 9:00 p.m. Eastern time, and following that, the network is diving right into “Preacher.” The last “Talking Dead” presumably for some time will be airing at 11:30 p.m. Eastern time.

We do understand why AMC wants to do this. “Preacher” is a much-hyped show with great reviews, and while we’re not going to pretend that “Fear the Walking Dead” = “The Walking Dead” when it comes to awesome lead-in audiences, you do want to take advantage of these viewers if you can. It also makes some sense for the network to not want to launch the new show on the Sunday before Memorial Day, since that is basically the equivalent of Saturday to many people who have the Monday off.

For those of you wondering what the “Talking Dead” lineup is for tonight, we gave away some of it in the title! Executive producer Gale Anne Hurd and star Cliff Curtis are the announced guests, but apparently there are some “surprise” ones set to appear as well. A quick reminder: It doesn’t mean anyone major is going to die … but the show could certainly benefit from it, just from the standpoint of keeping everyone on edge.

Plus, we’re still early enough in the show that if you get rid of a major character, there won’t be any crazy protests like if you got rid of someone who has been a part of “The Walking Dead” since the beginning.

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