Renewals and Cancellations: Showtime, Meghan Markle, The Night Manager,' and 'Heroes'

By Dustin Rowles | TV | April 12, 2024 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | April 12, 2024 |

Showtime has been canceled — basically, the entire network. At the end of the month, the stand-alone streaing service will shut down. Viewers must subscribe to Paramount+ with Showtime to stream Showtime programming. It’s only a matter of time before Paramount+ with Showtime drops the Showtime, and Showtime will cease to be, except as a memory of that cable channel that aired way too many seasons of Weeds. Forty-eight years and poof, it’s gone. RIP.

Meanwhile, we’re dealing with several more reboots and revivals this week. For one, Tim Kring is developing another comeback for Heroes called Heroes: Eclipse. That’s the power of IP. The show was beloved for one season and drifted for a few more seasons until it tanked in the fourth. Then they brought it back for a miniseries a few years later, Heroes Reborn, which was not particularly well regarded, and now they’re trying to do it again.

It could be worse. It could be another revival of Melrose Place, not with a new cast, and not with the main cast of the 2009 reboot, but with the original 90s cast of Heather Locklear, Laura Leighton, and Daphne Zuniga, among potential others. The three come together after a mutual friend dies. It’s being developed by CBS Studios and shopped to other streamers and networks, but honestly, who is going to want this?

I’m far more interested in the revival of The Night Manager, the Tom Hiddleston series that I had completely forgotten had Hugh Laurie as its showrunner. BBC and Amazon are reteaming to bring the series back for two more seasons. Hiddleston and Laurie will both return. It’s been nearly a decade since the first season, and I remember nothing about it except that Olivia Colman and Elizabeth Debicki were in it. However, I don’t recall whether they survived or are even able to return for the additional seasons.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry seem like nice people but hardly capable of producing compelling content. Their $20 Spotify deal was a bust, and they haven’t produced much under their current five-year $100 million deal with Netflix. But now they’re finally trying to justify the expense. The first project is a documentary that “will provide viewers unprecedented access to the world of professional polo,” which doesn’t sound like something viewers will be interested in. Meanwhile, Meghan is going to “curate” a series that will “celebrate the joys of cooking, gardening, entertaining, and friendship.” Everybody out here thinking they can be the next Martha Stewart.

CBS canceled S.W.A.T. last season but then decided to bring it back for a seventh and final season. Now, they’ve decided it won’t be the final season, after all, and are renewing it for yet another season. This time, they’re not even going to bother calling it the final season because hey’re drunk and don’t know anymore.

Finally, I don’t care about golf, except that one of the three best sports movies of all time is Tin Cup, but I do like Marc Maron. He and Owen Wilson will star in a new series for Apple TV+ where a washed-up golf pro (Wilson) who has lost his job and his wife decides to mentor a young but troubled golf phenom. Maron will play the best friend and former caddy of Wilson’s character.