‘Hell On Wheels’ will get expanded fourth season

AMC has renewed its western series “Hell on Wheels” for a fourth season, and as an added bonus for fans, it’s getting 13 episodes in the season instead of the usual 10.

During its third season, AMC moved the series out of its traditional Sunday night home, where viewers have been trained to look for all of AMC’s big dramas such as “Breaking Bad” and “The Walking Dead,” and put it on Saturday nights. The move worked, as the series picked up a larger audience.

In its third season “Hell on Wheels” averaged 3.3 million viewers per episode.

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In a statement, AMC President Charlie Collier said, “AMC has served passionate western fans for three decades, so it is particularly gratifying to see these viewers capping off their Saturdays with an original western on what has historically been a tough night of the week for television.”

The series, about the construction of the first transcontinental railroad in the mid 19th century, ran into some physical hardships during filming of its third season when flooding in southern Alberta, Canada, forced production to shut down for 2½ weeks midway through shooting the sixth episode of the season.

Amazingly, the series was able to get back on track and successfully conclude production on the rest of the episodes. The third season concluded in early October.

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