If there’s one man who knows about both guts and glory, it’s Greg Nicotero. He’s cemented himself as a horror legend with “The Walking Dead,” which means his new reality show “Guts & Glory” coming to Shudder later this year should be a scary good time.
The 6-episode series greenlit on Monday promises to flip the script on the traditional competition show by “thrusting players into an immersive horror experience full of unexpected challenges” and special make-up effects.
“I couldn’t be more excited with this opportunity to explore this new landscape. To marry a non-scripted competition show with a genre narrative lands along the lines of if ‘Survivor’ and ‘The Blair Witch Project’ had a baby,” Nicotero teased. “It’s one of the most creative and organic things I’ve ever done, creating FX that have to happen live in real time and capturing the honest reactions… all the while fighting to see who the winner will be. To add to the mayhem, I also got to reunite many of the key crew members from the ‘Walking Dead’ universe to help bring this show to life.”
“If you know horror, you know the innovation and creativity that Greg Nicotero brings to the genre. His legendary special effects work has given audiences a fresh and thrilling take on
familiar genre staples from his notorious walkers of ‘The Walking Dead’ to the monsters of ‘Creepshow’ and more, never failing to shock and scare,” AMC Networks EVP of production Rob Fox added. “We’re thrilled to continue our longstanding relationship with Greg in bringing his unique concept to life with moments and scenarios that shock, surprise and showcase the depth of this genre.”
“Guts & Glory” is an AMC Studios production with Brian Witten from Monster Agency Productions, Chris Wagner from White Label and Andrew Molina serving as EPs alongside showrunner Nicotero. Jeffrey F. January also serves as co-executive producer, with Hyundai as an integrated sponsor.
The horror competition format has been attempted before — “Scaredy Camp,” “13: Fear Is Real,” “Killer Camp,” “Scream Queens,” “Whodunnit,” “Scared Famous” and “Dragula,” for instance — to varying degrees of success, but another stab at the genre is always welcome.
“Guts & Glory” premieres later in 2025 on both Shudder and AMC+.
