Showtime at TCA: Executive Session Live-Blog

David Nevins, President of Showtime Networks, is at TCA to talk about the state of his network. Follow along for live updates…

2:23 PM: Nevins boasts about THE AFFAIR and Ruth Wilson’s win at the Golden Globes last night.

2:25 PM: SHAMELESS has been renewed for a sixth season, and HAPPYISH has been picked up for 10-episode first season. HAPPYISH will launch on Sunday, April 26th. PENNY DREADFUL will also return on April 26th.

2:29 PM: Kyle MacLachlan has crashed the panel! “I’m very excited to return to the wonderful and strange world of TWIN PEAKS,” he says. He brought Nevins a “damn fine” cup of coffee. And he exited with a “may the forest be with you.” And yes, MacLachlan will return to TWIN PEAKS.

2:30 PM: Nevins says that it was important for him that David Lynch direct all the episodes of the new series. He admits he won’t be giving a lot of notes about the new season, since they know what this world is. He notes “they’ve been very specific in promising closure.”

2:33 PM: What is Nevins looking for in a show? He wants projects to be adult, and have depth.

2:35 PM: “They’re both competitors and our customers,” Nevins says of the rise of Amazon and Netflix. He says it’s “a competitive world, and we’re all situated to compete.” He notes he wishes they had TRANSPARENT.

2:36 PM: Nevins says Showtime will be rerunning THE AFFAIR Fridays at 10 PM.

2:37 PM: Nevins says they didn’t give a lot of thought to making THE AFFAIR an anthology. He says they are just starting to deal with the fallout of the central affair, and these stories aren’t done. Nevins says there’s a four-year plan, with a potential arc for more.

2:40 PM: “The license to be edgy doesn’t mean we have to be niche or narrow,” Nevins says. He points to THE WALKING DEAD or BREAKING BAD as other examples of shows being able to hit it out of the park.

2:41 PM: Nevins says he’ll be opportunistic when the time comes for anthology/limited series formats (and TWIN PEAKS falls into that category), but at the same time, he feels strongly TV viewers want to make long-standing connections.

2:43 PM: Nevins says there are some things in genre television that aren’t being done right now. He says “there’s appetite, and you can get adults to watch it.” He says that genre shows don’t only appeal the young men, “genre stuff plays well with women.”

2:45 PM: Nothing active is going on with any potential DEXTER spinoff right now.

2:46 PM: “It’s a bit of a scary time to be a maker of controversial, political, boundary-breaking shows,” Nevins says. He points out “it’s been a bad month for free speech around the world.” He doesn’t object to the way Pakistan handled its objection to HOMELAND.

Where does HOMELAND go next? They’re figuring out things right now.

2:48 PM: “I’ll be honest, I was a big [fan] of going back to DC for the finale,” Nevins says. He knew the “action climax” was going to be episode 11. He says there were political things that needed to be dealt with in DC, and it was essential that Carrie deal with her issues with motherhood in that finale.

2:51 PM: Nevins says RAY DONOVAN is on the trajectory to be a long-running show. He says “for the health of the show” you need to make some moves…hence the showrunning change.

“We’re going to get a little bit beyond the Donovan family,” Nevins teases of season 3.