‘Queen Of the South’ Renewed For Season 4 By USA With New Showrunners

On the heels of Queen of the South‘s recent Season 3 finale, the crime drama has been renewed for a fourth season to premiere in 2019. The pickup of the series, from Fox 21 TV Studios and Universal Cable Prods., comes with a change at the helm as Natalie Chaidez, who served as executive producer/showrunner for the past two seasons, is stepping down. She is succeeded by co-executive producer Dailyn Rodriguez, who is being elevated by executive producer/co-showrunner along with the series’ supervising producer Ben Lobato. The two new co-showrunners will executive produce alongside David T. Friendly.

“After two incredible years working with USA Network at the helm of Queen of the South, I’m moving on to develop my own projects full-time with my friends at Fox and Fox 21 Television Studios,” said Chaidez who has an overall deal at Fox 21. “I will miss the QOTS familia and fans, but I am proud to pass along the baton and champion the growth of co-showrunners Dailyn Rodriguez and Ben Lobato.”

Rodriguez has been on the Queen of the South since season two, serving as co-executive producer and No.2 to Chaidez for the past two seasons. Her deal to become co-showrunner includes a development component with Fox 21. Lobato has been part of the Queen of the South writing staff since season one, most recently as supervising producer.

Starring Alice Braga, Queen of the South is based on the bestselling book “La Reina Del Sur” by Arturo Pérez-Reverte. It tells the powerful story of Teresa Mendoza (Braga), a woman who is forced to run from the Mexican cartel and seek refuge in America. In Season 3, Teresa strikes out on her own, determined to build a new empire for herself. But as enemies old and new close in, she realizes that being Queen will require more work — and more sacrifice — than she ever imagined.

Queen of the South is the #1 ad-supported cable scripted series on Thursday nights at 9 PM among key demos, including adults 18-49, 25-54, and total viewers year-to-date, and has delivered an average of 2.1MM total viewers in its most recent third season which wrapped its run on September 13.

Rodriguez, who is Cuban American and fluent in English, French and Spanish, started her career in comedy, and transitioned to one-hour on the ABC dramedy Ugly Betty. Her series credits also include The Night Shift, Lie to Me, In Plain Sight, Cane, 90210, The Glades and George Lopez in addition to developing projects for broadcast and streaming. She is repped by Rothman Brecher Ehrich Livingston and attorney Darren Trattner.

Lobato was formerly Supervising Producer on DirectTV’s Ice. His series credits also include Shades Of Blue, Gang Related, The Unit and Justified, Before starting his career as a writer, Lobato served in the army and was part of the military’s Joint Counter-Narco-Terrorism Task Force. He is repped by WME, Echo Lake Entertainment and attorney Tara Kole.