Showtime Cancels New Series Before Season 1 Despite Filming Being Finished

By Kofi Outlaw

Showtime is being integrated into the Paramount+ brand, and it means that some of the plans that Showtime had for its programming slate are quickly being changed. As a result, one series that Showtime was about to premiere is getting canceled before Season 1 even premieres. 

That show is Three Women, the drama series that starred Shailene Woodley (Big Little Lies), Betty Gilpin (The Hunt), DeWanda Wise (Jurassic World Dominion), Gabrielle Creevy (In My Skin), and Blair Underwood (Impeachment: American Crime Story), among others. The show was based on a 2019 non-fiction book by then-debut author Lisa Taddeo. You can check out the summary of it, below: 

The book [Three Women] covers the sexuality of three women [in the age groups of their 20s, 30s, and 40s]: Lina, a suburban Indiana mother whose teenage rape disrupts the course of her life; Maggie, a seventeen-year-old high school student in North Dakota who becomes entangled in an illegal affair with her married English teacher; and Sloane, a successful restaurant owner in the Northeast whose husband likes to watch her have sex with other men and women. Taddeo spent eight years writing the book, driving across the country six times to embed herself in the lives of the three women.

Gilpin would've played Lina; Creevy would've played Maggie; Wise would've played Sloane. Lisa Taddeo was set to write and executive produce the series, along with showrunner Laura Eason, Kathy Ciric and former Shameless star, Emmy Rossum. Louise Friedberg (House of Cards, Y: The Last Man) directed and executive produced the first two episodes.

At the time it was picked up by Showtime, it was said that there was something of a bidding war to get the rights to Taddeo's bestseller into production as either a film or television series, with some big-name actresses quickly showing interest. That still seems to be the case, as Deadline's report on Showtime canceling the series also notes that the "drama has been quietly shopped by its producers, and I hear there has been interest, with at least one offer on the table."

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Paramount and Showtime are following the trend of networks re-assessing and consolidating their content portfolios. As more and more studios pull content together for their respective streaming services, their partner and/or subsidiary networks are having to shave down the variety of their content. Case in point: Showtime's content will now be rebranded as Paramount+ on cable, while Showtime content will be folded into the Paramount+ streaming library. 

Showtime also announced that Jon Bernthal's American Gigolo has been canceled after one season – as has the vampire drama Let the Right One In. 

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