The Walking Dead Is Trolling The Olympics In New Promos

Just a week after Super Bowl LII brought one of the biggest TV audiences of all time to NBC, the peacock network jumped into another gigantic sporting event with the 2018 Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea. You know who won't be watching these or any other Olympics, though? Rick Grimes and the rest of the The Walking Dead's survivors. But that doesn't mean AMC's hit drama can't get in on the fun somehow, and it has done just that with a series of promos lightly trolling the sporting spectacle.

It's somewhat strange that AMC and The Walking Dead are taking aim at the Olympics and the Games' fans with these new mini-promos. Surely there is some audience crossover there -- both inside the U.S. and outside -- though possibly not enough to warrant kicking up any dust, even in a humorous context like this. Still, regardless of intent or success, I'm totally on board with these ads just for being sillier than the average Walking Dead marketing push.

Over the years, it's become pretty clear that the general public's favorite Winter Olympics punchline is the sport of curling, which many people think they'd be naturals at just because they did okay when playing not-actually-shuffleboard at a bar that one time. And The Walking Dead also plays on our anti-fascination with curling by pointing out that more people probably know Lucille's name than the names of anyone on the U.S. curling team.

While there are plenty of figure skating buffs out there who would be able to let a layman know how a figure skater's score is affected by botching a triple axel, that's not exactly the most universally known fact. But you'd probably have an easier time tracking down someone who knows that The Walking Dead's Daryl is a one-man wrecking crew at times.

And I think most Walking Dead fans would agree that Alexandria and the Hilltop's differences are far easier to recognize than the differences between super-G and slalom skiing. I mean, it's not like any of those communities' residents have to worry about skiing anymore. Though, since TV audiences don't even really know what winter looks like up there, it's certainly possible that the area's snow-covered hills are utilized in such a way.

Without any ice skates in tow, The Walking Dead will return to AMC audiences for the deadly back half of Season 8 on Sunday, February 25, at 9:00 p.m. ET. Now everybody keep an eye out for any anti-TWD promos airing during the Olympics. To see what other new and returning shows will be on the way in the near future, head to our midseason premiere schedule.