Mutiny ready to invade Silicon Valley as AMC renews Halt and Catch Fire for a third season.

When NBC cancelled Bryan Fuller’s Hannibal even before the show could complete its third season, we were once again reminded of the cruel fact that, one way or another, quantity weighs more than quality. Remember Pushing Daises (Bryan Fuller and Lee Pace) and Rubicon? (Jason Horwitch). However, AMC has, after 10 years of Mad Men, found a way around this dogma and that is one reason why we will be witnessing Lee Pace, McKenzie Davis and Scoot McNairy invade Silicon Valley in the period drama Halt and Catch Fire.

Set in Silicon Prairie of Texas the drama television series explores the revolution of personal computers in America. How Halt transformed from just another Mad Men rip off, centered around Don Draper-ish Joe McMillan, to a critics’ darling in its sophomore year was an evidence enough to figure out that AMC had bigger plans for the show. Therefore, keeping in line with the bigger picture plans AMC has ordered a 10-episode season set to premier in summer 2016. Christophe Cantwell and Christopher C. Rogers, who have up till now acted as creators of the show, have been promoted to the status of showrunners. But the question remains? Again?

Why did AMC renew Halt and Catch Fire?

"We built an ownership model a few years ago expressly for this purpose,"- Joe Stillerman, President of Original Programming and Development at AMC. "While not large, 'Halt and Catch Fire's' audience is extremely passionate and upscale, and we are pleased with the critical momentum the show has. We love what the creative team and cast have been able to deliver and are particularly grateful to the critics and fans who supported the show throughout the second season and have been pulling for its renewal."

There could be many reasons for why AMC decided to renew the much loved-not much watched drama. Maybe profits from The Walking Dead and its hugely successful prequel Fear the Walking Dead are enough to cater for cable networks financial needs or is AMC really concerned about quality programs on cable? To find out AlanSepinwall called Joel Stillerman and here’s the excerpt from the interview. 

“AS: This is a wonderful show, but the ratings haven't been there. Why did you decide to stick with it?

Joel Stillerman: We decided to stick with it primarily because we love the story, and we think it's a show that has a lot of life left in it. These things are always complicated, and the ratings play a part, but they're far from the entire story. If we see something that we truly love, and we see the talent and the momentum behind it that give us the confidence to move forward, we're all in.

AS: Can you expand on that a little? I know there are some business things you can't talk about, but for the average viewer who doesn't know the ins and outs, what are the other factors besides the number of eyeballs on Sunday night?

Joel Stillerman: Generally speaking, we've gotten pretty good — if I can toot our own horn a little bit — at setting shows up through ownership of that content, and all the things we've learned in our journey to become a full-fledged studio, so shows don't require massive ratings to be able to move forward. It's the reason why, I don't mean to be glib, we started AMC Studios. It's a better mousetrap for television. We're not singularly beholden to ratings anymore, and that's exactly the reason why we did that. We didn't want to have just a single-metric system.

AS: Does the fact that you have some huge hits in the "Walking Dead" series give you a little more latitude to keep carrying a show like this, or is that not a factor in this decision?

Joel Stillerman: Look, everything would be harder if we didn't have things that weren't doing some of the heavy lifting that a show like "The Walking Dead" is. It would be crazy to think all of those things don't roll up into a decision like this. But luckily, we have it, and it certainly is part of the decision-making process.”

Halt and Catch Fire will hit Sunday nights again, same time same channel, next summer and if you haven’t already done it than it’s time you start obsessing over it.