AMC made it official on Friday and announced that it had hired the former Fox executive David Madden to be its new head of original programming.

Mr. Madden will start this month.

In late August, Fox announced that Mr. Madden would leave as the head of its in-house TV studio, and that Michael Thorn would replace him. Mr. Madden was already in advanced talks to take the AMC job, which was vacant after Joel Stillerman left the cable channel to head up programming for Hulu.

Mr. Madden will take over a lineup that includes “The Walking Dead” (a huge hit, but with a viewership that has shown signs of wear and tear recently) and “Better Call Saul” (up for best drama at the Emmy Awards on Sunday). He will also have a big role at AMC’s in-house studio, and will oversee programming at Sundance TV.

At Fox, Mr. Madden helped develop shows like “The Shield” and “The Americans,” and his interest in grittier shows is said to be better aligned with cable programming than with a broadcast network.