Showtime Starts Removing Short-Lived Series From Its Streaming Platform

The purge of some of Showtime’s less popular series from the network’s streaming service has gotten underway. According to sources, the majority of the shows impacted lasted one season. As Deadline revealed exclusively earlier today, that includes Let The Right One In and American Gigolo, which have been canceled. Additionally, in the process of being taken off are American Rust, Wakefield, and On Becoming a God In Central Florida, which also ran for one season each, as well as the Jim Carrey starrer Kidding, which produced two seasons, sources said.

American Rust, starring Jeff Daniels, already has a new streaming home, Amazon’s AVOD platform Freevee, which acquired Season 1 and comissioned a second season, currently in production in Pittsburgh for a fall premiere.

The removals are part of Showtime’s integration into Paramount+, announced earlier today, which includes the linear network being renamed Paramount+ with Showtime later this year. As part of the changes, the company will “divert investment away from areas that are underperforming” and that accounts for “less than 10% of our views,” Chris McCarthy, who oversees Showtime, said in his memo.

This was a strategy also employed by HBO Max, which removed a slew of series from the platform last year in a cost-cutting measure.