Showtime Boss On ‘SMILF’, ‘Homeland’ Final Season & ‘Shameless’ End Game

David Nevins wore his multiple hats as CBS chief creative officer at TCA this week, making an appearance during the CBS and CBS All Access portion of the press tour in addition to hanging out with talent and producers from shows on Showtime where he remains CEO.

While CBS is getting his attention at the moment with pilot orders — former Fox and NBC executive Nevins said he was excited to jump back in the broadcast world — he also answered a few Showtime-related questions in a brief interview with Deadline crashed by Desus Nice and The Kid Mero, the stars of the network’s upcoming late-night program Desus & Mero.

SMILF, a breakout hit and a critical darling, has been involved in a controversy involving allegations of misconduct against creator/showrunner/star Frankie Shaw, which has prompted an investigation by producer ABC Studios.

Nevis weighed in on the controversy.

“You have got to figure out what the results are from the investigation by Disney,” he said. “The show is on the air, it’s a good show, still doing well. There is nothing to do until we hear from ABC about what’s happening.”

SMILF just started airing its second season, and Showtime is not ready to make a call on its future beyond that, though Shaw had been prepping a potential Season 3, including scouting locations in the UK.

“It has not been ordered yet, that depends on a lot of things, (including) performance,” Nevins said. “We tend not to do early pickups.”

As for his personal take on the situation, “ABC is really experienced at this, they know what they are doing,” he said.

Showtime announced earlier today that the premiere of the eighth and final season of Homeland — the first series greenlighted by Nevins at the premium network — has been pushed to fall.

“It was prompted by production, it will have a large international production. International locations have been challenging but scripts are great,” Nevins said. “I’m sad to see it go, it’s a show that morphed in really interesting ways over time and reinvented itself. Ultimately (showrunner) Alex (Gansa) made the decision that now is the time.”

Nevins would not confirm whether Afghanistan/Pakistan will be a setting in the final season, something hinted by the recent casting of Season 4’s Nimrat Kaur & Numan Acar.

“It’s going to touch on multiple locations, You can take the casting as a hint” Nevins said. “As usual it’s going to be DC, international locations.”

The Shameless Season 10 renewal was announced today after being in the works for awhile.

“We wanted to make sure we had a deal with Cameron Monaghan, wanted to secure the cast deals and make sure (executive producer) John Wells felt good about moving forward. We got a signal from him and Warner Bros (before proceeding),” Nevins said.

Will that be Shameless‘ final season?

“We have not declared that yet,” he said.