'Hell on Wheels' Season 3 gets premiere date, new night

Credit: AMC

Looks like Smash won't be the only first-run drama series this year condemned to Saturday nights.

Season 3 of AMC's Hell on Wheels is officially set to premiere on Aug. 3 in its new time slot, Saturdays at 9/8c, AMC announced today. This is part of the network's initiative to launch a new night of Western-themed programming, including newly-acquired movies such as El Dorado, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and The Shootist, and anniversary airings of films like Hondo (1953), McLintock! (1963), Hang ‘Em High (1968) and High Plains Drifter (1973).

“A new episode of Hell on Wheels on Saturday night after a full day of western fan favorites is going to be like the saddle on top of the horse,” said AMC boss Charlie Collier in a statement. “This is a programmer’s dream – to have a genre specific, 14-hour lead-in to one of your highest rated originals.”

The third season of AMC's period drama will open in 1867, the third year of the building of the transcontinental railroad. Cullen Bohannon (Anson Mount) will set aside his mission for vengeance in order to "invest in the new American landscape, where he will contend with racism, greed and murder as he single-mindedly leads the Union Pacific in its race across the country against the Central Pacific Railroad."

Via: TVLine