Granted, AMC scored good ratings with oater miniseries Broken Trail a few years back, but an ongoing show is something else -- just ask HBO, which stuck with Deadwood for three seasons until the high production costs took their toll. Created by Joe and Tony Gayton, the screenwriters behind such features as the Dwayne Johnson vehicle Faster, Hell on Wheels takes place just after the Civil War against the backdrop of the construction of the first transcontinental railroad. Anson Mount plays former Johnny Reb Cullen Bohannon, who joins up with the Union Pacific Railroad's construction crew on a personal mission of vengeance. There, he befriends emancipated slave Elam (Common) and makes an enemy of Thomas "Doc" Durant (Colm Meaney), a local businessman who stands to turn a huge profit off the successful completion of the railroad. Will the same audience that turns out in force to watch Rick and Shane shed zombie blood on a weekly basis stick around to see guys in ten-gallon hats and dusters lay tracks for a choo-choo train? Stay tuned...

Hell on Wheels premieres tonight at 10 PM on AMC after an all-new episode of The Walking Dead.