Peacock in November will debut a limited series featuring the first on-camera interview with Casey Anthony in the aftermath of her 2011 trial and acquittal in the death of her daughter.

The three-part Casey Anthony: Where the Truth Lies features Anthony as she sits down to share her side of the infamous investigation, trial and aftermath of the culture-defining trial. Anthony speaks to the speculation surrounding her actions at the time, her demeanor in the courtroom and her time spent in prison, said the streaming service.

The series is directed by Alexandra Dean and executive produced by Tamra Simmons, Ebony Porter-Ike, Laura Michalchyshyn and Sam Sniderman.

Also: Peacock, Sky Greenlight TV Adaptation of ‘The Day of the Jackal’

Dean said in a statement: "Since her acquittal in 2011, public opinion of Casey Anthony has been largely shaped by the media convinced of her guilt. Casey had never given an in-depth or on-camera interview explaining her actions until now, and as a filmmaker and journalist, my interest was in getting closer to the unbiased truth by hearing all sides of the story – from opposing voices to Casey herself. While having access to Casey was critical, it was even more important that we had complete editorial control over the outcome of the reporting we did. Casey did not see or give notes on the film. What emerges over the course of multiple interviews recorded over six months, is a startling psychological portrait of Casey Anthony and a complete narrative of what she says happened to her daughter weighed against multiple sources of potential evidence. I believe the result will surprise many, and cause the American public to look at this story in a new light." ■

Emmy-winning limited series The White Lotus shifts to Sicily for more hijinks among well-to-do guests at a posh hotel, according to a new trailer for the show's second season, debuting on HBO and HBO Max October 30. 

Jennifer Coolidge reprises her 2022 Emmy-winning role as Tanya in the second installment of the series, which follows the exploits of various guests and employees over the span of a week. 

Along with Coolidge, the new season stars F. Murray Abraham, Adam DiMarco, Beatrice Grannò, Meghann Fahy, Jon Gries, Tom Hollander, Sabrina Impacciatore, Michael Imperioli, Theo James, Aubrey Plaza, Haley Lu Richardson, Will Sharpe, Simona Tabasco and Leo Woodall. 

The Hawaii-based first season of The White Lotus won 10 Emmy Awards at last month’s ceremony, including top limited or anthology series honors. 

The White Lotus is executive produced by Mike White, David Bernad and Mark Kamine. ■ 

HBO Max Tuesday released a first-look teaser video at its new original sci fi series, Station Eleven, debuting Dec. 16.

The post-apocalyptic series, based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Emily St. John Mandel, tells the stories of survivors of a devastating flu as they attempt to rebuild and reimagine the world anew while holding on to the best of what's been lost.

Station Eleven stars Mackenzie Davis, Himesh Patel, Daniel Zovatto, David Wilmot, Matilda Lawler, Philippine Velge, Nabhaan Rizwan and Lori Petty, said the streaming service.

The series is produced by Paramount Television Studios and executive produced by Patrick Somerville, Scott Steindorff, Scott Delman, Dylan Russell, Jessica Rhoades, Hiro Murai, Jeremy Podeswa and Nate Matteson.

Read Also: HBO Max Tells Nielsen to Count It Out of its Weekly Streaming Metrics 

Showtime will examine the fascination surrounding unidentified flying objects with its new four-part documentary series, UFO, premiering Sunday (Aug. 8). 

The four-part limited docuseries, executive produced by J.J. Abrams, Glen Zipper, Mark Monroe and Sean Stuart, examines the history of UFOs through cultural and political touchpoints, including testimony from eyewitnesses across the country. Ignited by the 2017 New York Times story revealing the Pentagon had been secretly tracking UFOs for years, UFO looks to find the truth behind the phenomenon, according to Showtime.

I recently spoke to Zipper about the series, the appeal of UFO-themed content as well as his own thoughts and beliefs about the phenomenon in a wide-ranging interview, an edited version of which appears below.

Picture This: What influenced you to develop the series? 

Glen Zipper: I’ve always had an interest in UFOs but I'm a very pragmatic and practical thinker. I think I fell into that ‘I want to believe’ category, but not necessarily the ‘I believe’ category. When I surveyed all the content that was out there about UFO's and unexplained phenomena, the majority of it seemed to be sensationalistic and trended toward what you would come to expect of the National Inquirer. But then when the New York Times and the Washington Post started to cover the UFO phenomenon, I thought the time was right for us to take a closer look at the topic in film and television. But we wanted to look at it through the same lens that the New York Times and Washington Post were viewing it and to give a really credible, wholesale look at UFO phenomena, from the beginning of our fascination with it up to the present day. 

PT: What is it about UFOs that continues to fascinate the American public?

GZ: Well, there's the entertainment factor -- we've been conditioned to enjoy science fiction and horror content, and every time you go see a scripted film or watch a scripted television show about aliens, they are usually here to kill us. I think that in some measure has stoked the flames of our interest in the UFO phenomenon. But I think on a more thoughtful level UFOs represent the unknown. If UFOs exist, that means that there's a lot more out there than we understand. If there's more out there than we understand, there's also the potential for more hope that if something bigger than ourselves arise, perhaps that could help us with the issues that we're suffering through here on earth. That could include cures for diseases, or maybe the fractures between us as a society and as a world start to heal once we see that, relative to an alien species, we’re all brothers and sisters. So when you combine those two things there’s an irresistible pull toward UFOs. 

PT: You mentioned the New York Times and Washington Post stories on UFOs. Did those stories aid in getting this series developed and picked up by Showtime?  

GZ: The inception of the project was a meeting between myself and (Showtime Networks EVP, Nonfiction Programming) Vinnie Malhotra. We were trying to find something to collaborate on and we both were interested in UFO's. Once we started to do the actual work the New York Times story became very much the spine of the entire series. We have Leslie Kean and Ralph Blumenthal who were two of the reporters involved in that [New York Times] story participating in our series. They are really credible, persuasive and thoughtful voices in the space.

PT: What, what are you hoping to accomplish with the series?

GZ: I don't think we're going to convince anyone that UFOs exist or don't exist. That was never the mission of the series. I think it was about presenting UFOs and unexplained phenomena through a different lens. What you'll see in this series is that civilians who have claimed to see these phenomena for decades are often subjected to ridicule. I think what we want to do is slide the conversation to a place where it is no longer living in that context. We want to be able to have thoughtful conversations about the UFO phenomenon and be open-minded about it, and allow people to express their views without fear of ridicule. When you watch this series there are dissenting opinions as well and they're treated with equal respect. So I think it's about leveling up the conversation to a different place that allows for a better and more thoughtful dialogue. 

PT: Do you foresee the opportunity to maybe extend this series beyond the episodes that you currently have if the government continues to release more information about UFOs? 

GZ: That’s an interesting question. I think when we started this series, myself, [J.J. Abrams’ production company] Bad Robot and Showtime viewed it as a one off limited series. Once we started to turn over some rocks and to see how many stories there are to tell -- not just as it pertains to the UFO phenomenon but what you also might consider about paranormal activity, whether or not there are multi-verses, and life after death, it really gets interesting. In researching UFOs, these other threads started to reveal themselves internally. I’m not  speaking for Showtime, but we were very curious about maybe continuing on and exploring some of these other themes and storylines, and having something that was much more akin to a documentary X-Files series.

PT: You started out by saying you weren’t necessarily a believer in UFOs. Once you completed the show did that change at all?

GZ: I think that I feel more comfortable believing. But I'm one of those people -- and I think there's probably a lot of people that are like me -- who aren't really going to believe until [extraterrestrials] show up and shake our hands, literally or figuratively. It’s just one of those things where I'd be far less surprised now if that happened then I would have been before I produced the series.

Also Read: Growing UFO Interest Spawns Cable, Streaming Shows

National Geographic Tuesday released a first look trailer for its upcoming series The Hot Zone: Anthrax, set to debut Nov. 28. 

The follow-up to Nat Geo's 2019 limited series The Hot Zone -- the network's most watched scripted series ever -- The Hot Zone: Anthrax follows the 2001 wave of deadly anthrax letters mailed to journalists and politicians.

The six-episode series stars Daniel Dae Kim as FBI Special Agent Matthew Ryker, who sets out to track down the killer while finding himself ensnared in an unstable web of psychological warfare, said network officials. Tony Goldwyn also stars in the limited series.

Nickelodeon Saturday released a first-look trailer for its three-hour limited series Are You Afraid of The Dark?, a re-imagining of the 1990s Nickelodeon series of the same name.  

The series, set to debut this October, introduces an entirely new Midnight Society group of kids who tell a terrifying tale about the Carnival of Doom, only to have the events of the story come to life, according to network officials. 

Are You Afraid of The Dark? stars Sam Ashe Arnold (Best.Worst.Weekend.Ever.), Miya Cech (Rim of the World, ), Tamara Smart (Artemis Fowl, The Worst Witch), Jeremy Taylor (It, Goosebumps 2:Haunted Halloween), Lyliana Wray (Maverick, Black-ish) and Rafael Casal (Blindspotting).

TNT Monday released the official trailer for its new limited series I Am the Night from executive producer and director Patty Jenkins (Wonder Woman, Monster).

The series – part of TNT’s “Suspense Collection” limited series franchise -- stars Chris Pine and follows a woman given away at birth who discovers that an investigation into her past leads to a an infamous Hollywood gynecologist involved in the darkest Hollywood debauchery, according to TNT.

Showtime has ordered a limited series based on the book The Loudest Voice in the Room, about Fox News Channel founder Roger Ailes. 

Russell Crowe will play Ailes in the eight-episode series.

Gabriel Sherman wrote The Loudest Voice in the Room. He co-wrote the initial episode with Tom McCarthy (Spotlight), who will executive produce with Jason Blum. The project is a co-production from Showtime and Blumhouse Television.

“In many ways, the collision between the media and politics has come to define the world we live in today,” said David Nevins, president and CEO, Showtime Networks Inc. “We’ve seen this phenomenon depicted on screen as far back as the story of Charles Foster Kane, and it finds contemporary embodiment in the rise and fall of Roger Ailes. With Russell Crowe in the lead role, this limited series promises to be a defining story for this era.”

Ailes died in 2017.

“To understand the events that led to the rise of Donald Trump, one must understand Ailes," Showtime said. "The upcoming limited series takes on that challenge, focusing primarily on the past decade in which Ailes arguably became the Republican Party’s de facto leader, while flashing back to defining events in Ailes’ life, including an initial meeting with Richard Nixon on the set of The Mike Douglas Show that gave birth to Ailes’ political career and the sexual harassment accusations and settlements that brought his Fox News reign to an end.”

Related: Fox News Channel, Ailes, Shine Named in New Sexual Harassment Lawsuit

Sherman interviewed more than 600 people for his book.

The TV project is executive produced by McCarthy, Blum and Alex Metcalf, along with Marci Wiseman and Jeremy Gold for Blumhouse Television, which originally optioned the rights to Sherman’s book and brought the project to Showtime.

Crowe’s film work includes Gladiator, The Insider, L.A. Confidential and Cinderella Man.

HBO’s Big Little Lies remained hot on the TV awards front, sweeping the acting SAG Awards in the best television movie or limited series category.

Nicole Kidman won the SAG Award for outstanding performance by a female actor in a television movies or limited series, while Alexander Skarsgard took home the trophy in the outstanding performance by a male actor in a television movie or limited series.

Kidman adds a SAG Award to her Emmy and Golden Globe award wins for her portrayal of Celeste Wright in the HBO limited drama series. Skarsgard also completes the three-peat with Emmy, Globe and SAG wins for the role of Perry Wright in the HBO series.

Read More: Complete Coverage of the 2018 Golden Globes

HBO’s Big Little Lies was a big winner at the Golden Globe Awards, virtually sweeping the limited series or Motion Picture Made For Television category.

The series beat out FX’s Fargo and Feud: Bette And Joan; USA Network’s The Sinner; and SundanceTV’s Top of the Lake: China Girl.

Related | Golden Globes 2018: HBO Leads Awards Winners

Big Little Lies stars winning Globes awards during tonight's live ceremony include Nicole Kidman (Best Actress), Laura Dern (Best actress in a supporting role), and Alexander Skarsgard (Best actor is a supporting role). 

Big Little Lies was not nominated for Globes award in the Best Performance by an Actor in a Limited-Series or Motion Picture Made For Television category, which was won by Ewan McGregor (FX’s Fargo). McGregor beat out Robert Di Niro (HBO’s Wizard of Lies); Jude Law (HBO’s The Young Pope); Kyle McLachlan (Showtime’s Twin Peaks); and Geoffrey Rush (National Geographic’s Genius).

RELATED:Special Report: Limited Series, Limitless Potential

Time-shifted data has a significant effect on the average ratings for scripted programming, and it’s no different when it comes to miniseries and anthology series. SundanceTV’s 2014 series The Honorable Woman averaged the fewest total viewers of the 10 mini/anthology series depicted at right. The eight-part Middle East political thriller averaged 127,000 total live-plus-same-day viewers, but tallied 294,000 live-plus-7-day viewers. That’s a 131% increase in average total viewers, thanks to L7 data.

FX’s American Horror Story: Freak Show is the top-rated and most-watched mini/anthology series since the start of 2014. Freak Show averaged 3.9 million total viewers on a live-plus-same- day basis and more than 7.6 million viewers live-plus-7-day. That’s a 95% bump in average total viewership.

Few cable series receive a more significant bump from time-shifted data than AHS. One that does might be fellow FX anthology Fargo. The original live-plus-same-day numbers for the Emmy-winning series doubled when measured on a live-plus-7-day basis. Season one averaged 1.9 million live-plus-same-day viewers. That number ballooned to around 3.8 million on a live-plus-7 basis. No wonder FX wants to do away with live-plus-same- day ratings.

HBO anthology series True Detective averaged 2.6 million live-plus-same- day viewers, but over 4 million per live-plus-7-day data.

History’s Sons of Liberty was cable’s most-watched and highest-rated miniseries over the past 12 months, averaging 3.1 million viewers on a live-plus-same-day basis, and 4.5 million live-plus-7-day viewers. Texas Rising also averaged 3.1 million live-plus-same-day viewers, but benefited less from time-shifted data, finishing its run with a 4.1 million live-plus-7-day average.

BET’s The Book of Negroes benefited the least from time-shifting, getting just an 18% bump from live-plus-7-day data. Spike TV’s Tut jumped 65% on a live-plus-7 basis, a more significant bump than Texas Rising, Sons of Liberty or Book of Negroes.

RELATED:Miniseries, Anthologies Fail to Grow Stale

One of the big Emmy Awards storylines was the Television Academy’s move to rename and reposition the 46-year-old Outstanding Miniseries or Movie category to better reflect innovation within the genre.

Considered by many to be a stepchild to the more-prestigious scripted drama series, the miniseries has recently come of age with several star-studded, four-to-six-episode projects that show little resemblance to the stuffy U.K.-produced shows and extravagant historical pieces of years past.

HBO’s drama series Olive Kitteridge, SundanceTV’s espionage thriller The Honorable Woman, FX’s graphic and spooky American Horror Story: Freak Show and ABC’s terrorism-driven American Crime — all of which were nominated for Emmys in the new Outstanding Limited Series category — have helped broaden the miniseries genre and are rivaling traditional TV series for viewers and critical acclaim.

SHORT-FORM GOES BIGGER

Network executives said a new generation of quality, shortform miniseries and limited series — six- to 10-episode series with a definitive ending, but that can return for future seasons with a new storyline and characters — are also attracting increased interest from both top producers and actors, such as Ryan Murphy and Susan Sarandon, who are looking to develop such projects for the small screen.

“The [miniseries] phenomenon is not new, but what you’re seeing is a renaissance in the way people are embracing the model,” HBO president of programming Michael Lombardo said.

Miniseries have been around for decades as major “television events” that have drawn big numbers for both broadcast and cable networks. Roots — ABC’s landmark 1977 historical miniseries based on Alex Haley’s book — reached more than 140 million viewers over eight episodes. On the cable side, History’s Hatfields & McCoys in 2012 reached a cable-record 13 million viewers over its three episodes.

By the turn of the decade, though, an influx of quality scripted drama series on broadcast, cable and over-the-top services such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime Instant Video had ushered in what many observers call the second “Golden Age of Television” — mostly overshadowing the minseries genre.

And changing viewing patters — specifically binge viewing — as well as networks’ use of the scripted drama series as a brand-building vehicle, helped to foster that genre’s rise to prominence.

Yet, it’s been the glut of scripted-series content that’s helped spur renewed interest in minseries from both viewers and producers, several network executives said.

SNACKABLE TV

As viewers sometimes struggle to catch up with every episode of Game of Thrones or Orange Is The New Black, a two- to four-episode miniseries provides a quick way to watch quality content with a storyline that has a beginning, middle and end, according to Dirk Hoogstra, executive vice president and general manager for History.

“There has been a proliferation of serial dramas and nobody can keep up with them all,” Hoogstra said. (UPDATE: After deadline for this article, A+E Networks promoted Jana Bennett to president and general manager of History, and said Hoogstra was returning to his roots in independent production.)

History has been very busy in the miniseries space, developing projects over the last two years such as the Mark Burnett-directed The Bible and the Adrien Brody-starrer Houdini.

“There’s something appealing about knowing that they will get the entire story in a few hours, and then it’s over,” added Hoogstra.

Spike this July used the genre to reintroduce original scripted fare to its lineup with Tut. The three-part series averaged more than 2.2 million viewers across consecutive nights from July 19-21 — more than double the network’s primetime average, according to Spike officials.

And Tut’s big-event nature brought in new viewers — more than one-third of its audience consisted of first-time Spike watchers, executive vice president of original series Sharon Levy said. Further, Tut generated repeat viewership in its core 18-49 audience, showing a 150% increase in live-plus-seven-day viewing compared to live viewing within the demo, Levy said.

“It’s as close to binge-viewing as we can get for our viewers,” said Levy, adding Spike will continue to look for miniseries opportunities as it rolls out several traditional scripted dramas in 2016.

Another draw for Tut was the casting of film star Sir Ben Kingsley in a major role. Miniseries and limited series provide opportunities to attract big-name actors and directors who are interested in television, but don’t want to commit to a longterm project, executives said.

Lifetime was able to secure the services of Academy Award winner Susan Sarandon for its two-night miniseries, The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe, because the project required a short-term commitment, senior vice president of original movies Tanya Lopez said.

“A six-hour or four-hour project better fits into their schedule than trying to get someone to commit to 10 hours or a show over several years,” she said. “It enables you to get talent you wouldn’t ordinarily expect to get.”

HBO president of programming Michael Lombardo said he’s taking calls from a number of film-industry players looking to develop limited series. For instance, True Detective writer Nic Pizzolatto had a vision for a show that made sense for a limited amount of episodes, rather than multiple seasons, he said.

“What you’re seeing is that there is a place for talent to do a kind of show that should be told in longform, but not over multiple years,” Lombardo said. “You can find an audience for that.”

Indeed, True Detective found an audience and critical acclaim right out of the box.

The limited series was nominated for 12 Emmys in 2014 for its freshman campaign, which featured Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson as detectives pursuing a serial killer.

A second season of True Detective featured a new ensemble cast, led by Colin Farrell, and a completely different storyline from the first season.

FX has taken full advantage of the format with its Ryan Murphy-penned American Horror Story franchise — Hotel, its fifth installment, is set to launch next month — as well as Fargo, last year’s Emmy miniseries winner.

“What we we’re finding was that people were coming in with really great stories, but they could not be sustained over a long period of time,” FX Networks and Productions president of original programming Eric Schrier said. “You get writers and directors that wouldn’t normally play in the television sandbox that are finding it to be a very vibrant place to tell stories that you don’t have to stretch over seven years.”

And unlike a traditional TV series, where multiple writers pen various episodes, the limited-series format gives one writer a chance to thoroughly explore a singular creative vision, Lombardo said.

“The thing that you can do in eight hours that you can’t do in eight years is hand-craft [a series],” he said. “When you’re doing eight hours, that person is writing all eight episodes and sometimes directing them. It lends itself much easier to a passion-driven piece of programming, and that’s what the audiences are responding to.”

The recent development and success of limited series, which also includes Starz’s The Missing, has forced changes in the way the industry views drama series — and in how it rewards them for success.

The Television Academy earlier this year redefined its definition of the miniseries category. The move was prompted by HBO’s 2014 submission of True Detective as a drama series — after FX had campaigned to get American Horror Story a place in that category for years — even though the show technically had a limited number of episodes and a closed-ended storyline.

The new Emmy category, Outstanding Limited Series, defines a limited series as a non-recurring story of two or more episodes totaling 150 minutes of run time, with no recurring characters.

While the limited series has worked for HBO, Lombardo says the network is still committed to traditional series like Game of Thrones.

“There’s nothing more exciting than when a series connects and you can bring back those characters the following year an grow and audience and dig into stories and characters over multiple years,” he said. “But not every story has to be that to be great television.”

MORE ON THE WAY

Several networks will test that notion with a number of miniseries and limited-series projects in development. BET, coming off of its February miniseries Book of Negroes, is developing a musical-themed miniseries based on the 1980s R&B group New Edition.

FX will spin off American Horror Story into the crime genre next year with American Crime Story: The People v. O.J Simpson, according to Schrier.

HBO is working on several shows in the genre, including The Young Pope, a Jude Law-Diane Keaton vehicle, and Crime, an eightpart miniseries starring John Turturro. Lombardo also said the network is also exploring a potential limited-series comedy.

In 2016, Lifetime will tackle Leo Tolstoy’s classic novel War and Peace as well as a miniseries based on Agatha Christie’s murder mystery And Then There Were None. It’s imperative for women- targeted Lifetime to offer a diverse lineup of both traditional scripted series and short-form miniseries to compete in an ultra- crowded television environment, Lopez said.

History’s Hoogstra said the network would also remain aggressive in the genre, having already green-lighted a remake of Roots.

The network recently said it has signed Academy Award winners Forrest Whitaker and Anna Paquin to star in the reboot produced by LeVar Burton, star of the 1970s original.

The miniseries genre will continue to blossom as both consumers and networks demand quality programming fare in all forms and lengths, History’s Hoogstra said.

“The are so many amazing stories out there to be told but they couldn’t work as an ongoing series,” he said. “They need to be told, and we have the ability to tell them.”

Click here for more Emmys coverage.

HBO’s Olive Kitteridge took home several Emmy awards in the limited series category, including the statuette for Outstanding Limited Series.

Olive Kitteridge defeated ABC’s American Crime, FX Networks’ American Horror Story: Freak Show, Sundance TV’s Honorable Woman, and PBS’ Wolf Hall for top honors in the category.

Olive Kitteridge lead actor Richard Jenkins beat out Timothy Hutton (ABC’s American Crime), Adrien Brody (History’s Houdini);  Mark Rylance (PBS’ Wolf Hall); David Oyelowo (HBO’s Nightingale), and Ricky Gervais (Netflix’ Derek) for best actor in a limited series, while veteran actor Bill Murray took home the  Supporting Actor in a Limited Series Or Movie award for his role as Jack Kenninson.

Earlier, Olive Kitteridge writer Jane Anderson won the Emmy for writing in the Limited Series/movie, dramatic special category.

Beverly Hills, Calif. — Nearly one week after his predecessor, NBC Entertainment chairman and former Showtime chief Bob Greenblatt complained during the TCA summer press tour of the advantages held by cable networks, Showtime Networks president David Nevins acknowledged enjoying an edge in certain areas over his broadcast competitors when it comes to programming.

“It’s one of the luxuries of where I sit,” Greenblatt said Friday, responding to a question during his press tour executive session about planning the end of long-running series well in advance. “You’re less buffeted by market forces [than in broadcast]. It’s less about we’re losing revenue in that time period that we could be making through higher ratings.”

On Sunday, Greenblatt said that cable networks can “go into subject matter that just feels cooler” than what broadcast can do. Nevins talked Friday about being able to experiment with portrayals of sex on shows like Masters of Sex and the upcoming The Affair.

“I think it’s really interesting that we can get into that certain side of humanity and human relationships with a depth that’s hard to do in broadcast media, because there’s such squeamishness about sex,” Nevins said. He also noted that he anticipates Showtime doing more documentary series along the lines of the recent Years of Living Dangerously. “That kind of programming, that sort of deep-dive, long series to look at something, I definitely think it’s a good form of programming for us,” Nevins said, adding, “I think it’s one of the things that we can do in pay cable, go with depth into a difficult subject that’s probably not cut out for broadcast television.”

Nevins addressed the issue of Emmy categories, and the network’s decision to submit Shameless, formerly entered in drama categories, as a comedy.

“I don’t envy the TV category trying to categorize,” Nevins said. “I think there’s always a degree of arbitrariness.” He defended the decision to move Shameless, saying producer John Wells “always wanted it to be a comedy.”

Nevins added later, when discussing miniseries and anthology series, “I think we all cry foul when True Detective takes up two best actor slots.”

Other highlights from the panel included:

*Nevins said that the status of Happyish, the comedy series that had been slated to star Philip Seymour Hoffman before the actor’s death in February, is undecided but that the project could still continue. “I’m now sitting on five scripts from [creator Shalom Auslander] that I think are brilliant,” he said. “If I can cast it the right way, it’s something I’ll probably make it. But there’s no guarantees.”

*Asked whether Microsoft’s decision to close Xbox Studios would affect plans for the Halo series, based on the videogame, that Showtime and Microsoft are partnering on, Nevins said, “I don’t think so.” He added that conversations with Microsoft around Halo “are ongoing.”

*Regarding the possibility that Showtime would invest in scripted miniseries or anthology series, as FX has done with Fargo and American Horror Story and HBO has done with True Detective, Nevins said, “I’m fundamentally focused on renewable assets where we can bring it back.” But, he added, “ I wouldn’t rule it out.”