Netflix has ordered season five of fantasy drama The Witcher, which will be the final season. Production has recently begun on season four, and the two remaining seasons will film back to back.  

Seasons four and five will come from the Andrzej Sapkowski books Baptism of Fire, The Tower of the Swallow and Lady of the Lake. 

Netflix said of season four, “After the shocking, Continent-altering events that close out season three, the new season follows Geralt, Yennefer and Ciri who are faced with traversing the war-ravaged Continent and its many demons apart from each other.  If they can embrace and lead the groups of misfits they find themselves in,  they have a chance of surviving the baptism of fire and finding one another again.”

Liam Hemsworth takes over for Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia. Anya Chalotra, Freya Allan, Joey Batey and Laurence Fishburne are also in the cast. 

Lauren Schmidt Hissrich created the show, and is showrunner and executive producer. 

“It is with huge pride that we begin shooting our penultimate season of The Witcher with a stellar cast, including some exciting new additions, led by Liam Hemsworth as Geralt of Rivia,” said Schmidt Hissrich. “We’re thrilled to be able to bring Andrzej Sapkowski’s books to an epic and satisfying conclusion. It wouldn’t be our show if we didn’t push our family of characters to their absolute limit — stay tuned to see how the story ends.” 

The Witcher premiered in late 2019.

Steve Gaub, Mike Ostrowski, Javier Grillo-Marxuach, Platige Films (Tomek Baginski and Jarek Sawko) and Hivemind Content (Jason Brown and Sean Daniel) exec produce alongside Schmidt Hissrich. 

Hemsworth portrayed Gale Hawthorne in The Hunger Games film franchise. 

Freeform’s final season of Grown-ish and the third season of Netflix’s The Witcher highlight the light list of show debuts heading into the July 4 holiday week.

Grown-ish -- a spinoff of ABC's Black-ish, will debut its sixth and final season on Freeform June 28. Grown-ish stars Yara Shahidi and Marcus Scribner will return for the show’s final season along with Trevor Jackson, Diggy Simmons and Daniella Perkins.

Netflix will return its fantasy drama series The Witcher for its third season on June 29. The show will star Henry Cavill in his last season as the show’s lead character Geralt of Rivia (Liam Hemsworth will take over the role in season four). The eight-episode, third season of The Witcher will be split in two parts, with the second half premiering in late July, according to the streamer.

Here are video trailers and premiere dates for several shows debuting during the week of June 26 to July 4. For some videos, viewer discretion is advised:

June 28: Anthem (music documentary), Hulu

June 28: Hijack (drama), Apple TV Plus

June 29: Lace (returning series), ALLBLK

June 29: Warrior (returning series), Max

June 29: Ten-Year-Old Tom (returning series), Max

June 30: Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan (drama), Prime Video

June 30: Nimona (animation movie), Netflix

June 30: Celebrity (drama), Netflix

Noah Baumbach's adaptation of Don DeLillo's 1985 dark satirical novel White Noise produced its own kind of airborne toxic event on Netflix over the weekend, debuting to a miserable 14.8 million viewing hours in its first three days of release. 

Starring Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig and Don Cheadle in a comedic-drama about a family grappling simultaneously with the existential and the mundane amid and following a deadly chemical spill, White Noise was even beaten out by a three-year-old movie, Knives Out, for the week of Dec. 26 - Jan. 1.

It was Knives Out sequel The Glass Onion, which surged to 127.3 million viewing hours in its second week of release, that was Netflix's most watched program last week, among both films and TV shows. Folks also tuned into the original Knives, which finished as the third most watched English language film with 16.8 million viewing hours. 

Addams Family spinoff Wednesday continued to rank atop Netflix TV series, capturing 104 million more viewing hours in its sixth week of release. 

Wednesday ended up being Netflix's biggest freshman series hit of 2022.

Meanwhile, limited-series The Witcher: Blood Origin -- an origin-story spinoff to Netflix's successful Witcher series -- recovered from a rather inauspicious start a week prior with 64.2 million viewing hours. 

Among foreign/local language fare, season 2 of Japanese sci-fi action-drama Alice in Borderland popped out with 74.3 million viewing hours. 

Still, it was the spectacular flameout of Baumbach's White Noise that caught our attention. Aggregated at a lukewarm 63% on Rotten Tomatoes, the film re-teamed Driver with Baumbach, who worked together three years ago on Netflix's more warmly received A Marriage Story, which debuted a time when Netflix wasn't handing out its viewer metrics. 

Beloved by some, befuddling to others, White Noise is a tedious read that isn't for everybody. Critics -- and perhaps viewers -- didn't think Baumbach made it any more accessible. 

"The structural problems [with DeLillo's novel] remain: there’s a campus comedy, a disaster flick, and a crime caper that never cohere," wrote the Chicago Reader's Dmitry Samarov.

The second season of Netflix fantasy drama The Witcher captured more than 142.4 million hours of viewing globally in just three days, making it the most viewed movie or TV show on Netflix's global platform last week. 

Netflix debuted all eight Season 2 episodes of The Witcher on Dec. 17. The only English-language TV series that even came remotely close to its viewing performance was The Witcher Season 1, which captured nearly 49.2 million viewing hours worldwide. 

As far as locally produced Netflix TV series for Dec. 13-19, Season 5 of Spanish crime thriller Money Heist cooled a bit from its previous incendiary premiere week, but still led non-English-language Netflix shows last week with just over 55 million viewing hours. 

The Unforgivable, the bleak movie starring Sandra Bullock as an ex con, was the No. 1 English-language film for the second straight week, capturing over 74.4 million streaming hours from Dec. 13-19. 

And Mexican youth drama Anonymously Yours was Netflix's top non-English-language film last week, garnering just over 12 million viewing hours. 

Netflix has signed The Witcher showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich to a multi-year production deal to produce scripted content for the streaming service, Netflix said Thursday during its virtual TCA Summer Press Tour presentation. 

As part of the deal, Hissrich will continue to serve as executive producer on The Witcher as well as series prequel series The Witcher: Blood Origin and anime series The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf. In addition, Hissrich will write and produce scripted series content and other creative projects for the streaming service. 

“Lauren is a formidable talent with a strong creative vision and diverse skill-set that she brings to every project she touches, said Netflix Head of Global TV Bela Bajaria in a statement. “Lauren’s work on The Witcher has firmly established her as both a preeminent creator and showrunner, and we’re excited to continue working with her on future projects.”

Read Also: Netflix Renews 'Never Have I Ever' Series 

Added Hissrich:  “I am so thrilled to have found my home at Netflix, and can’t wait to continue what’s been an incredibly fulfilling creative partnership. While my heart belongs to The Witcher Franchise, I equally look forward to digging in on other exciting projects for their global audience in the years to come.”

Below are video trailers and premiere dates for several shows debuting the week of Feb. 3 to Feb. 9 on cable networks and streaming services (for some videos, viewer discretion is advised):

Feb. 18 -- We Are the Dream: The Kids of the Oakland MLK Oratorical Fest (documentary) -- HBO

Feb. 19 -- Year of the Rabbit (comedy) -- IFC

Feb. 20 -- Sacred Lies: The Singing Bones (drama) -- Facebook Watch

Feb. 21 -- Gentefied (drama) -- Netflix

Feb. 21 -- Hunters (drama) -- Prime Video

Feb. 21 -- Star Wars: The Clone Wars (returning series) -- Disney+

Feb. 23 -- Better Call Saul (drama) -- AMC

Feb. 23 -- Ballmastrz: 9009 (animation) -- Adult Swim

Feb. 23 -- The Walking Dead (drama) -- AMC

Feb. 23 -- When Calls The Heart (drama) -- Hallmark

Netflix said it added 8.8 million additional global subscribers as net income and revenue rose in the fourth quarter. But growth was slow domestically, with the top streaming service adding only 420,000 users in the U.S., the result of increased streaming competition, the company said.

Net income was $587 million, or $1.30 per share, compared to $134 million, or 30 cents a share, a year ago. The company said at average revenue per subscriber rose 12%.

Revenue rose to $5.467 billion, up 31%.

The results come amid added competition in the streaming arena, most recently from Apple’s Apple TV+ and The Walt Disney Co.’s Disney+. Heavy hitters AT&T and Comcast will be entering the market this year with new services.

The addition of competition impacted domestic growth, Netflix said.

“Our low membership growth in [the United States and Canada] is probably due to our recent price changes and to U.S. competitive launches,” Netflix said in its letter to shareholders. “We have seen more muted impact from competitive launches outside the US (NL, CA, AU). As always, we are working hard to improve our service to combat these factors and push net adds higher over time.”

For the first quarter, Netflix is forecasting adding another 7 million subscribers worldwide, which bring its total to 174 million.

It sees first quarter earnings hitting $750 million, or $1.66 a share and revenues increasing to $5.731 billion, up 26%.

The guidance and domestic sub trends were below Wall Street expectations.

"Netflix continues to lead the way among all streamers with a deep slate of original content," said Neil Begley, senior VP and lead Netflix analyst at Moody's Investors Service. "Continued growth in Q4 was fueled by strong international subscriber additions, bringing the company to over 167 million subscribers at the end of 2019. We believe the company remains on track to reach 200 million global subscribers in Q1 2021, along with steadily improving margins and declining negative cash flows."

The company said that Witcher, launched in the fourth quarter, was tracking to be Netflix’s biggest season one TV series ever. Through its first four weeks of release, 76 million households had watched.

“We have a big headstart in streaming and will work to build on that by focusing on the same thing we have focused on for the past 22 years - pleasing members,” Netflix said in its shareholder letter. “We believe if we do that well, Netflix will continue to prosper. As an example, in Q4, despite the big debut of Disney+ and the launch of Apple TV+, our viewing per membership grew both globally and in the US on a year over year basis, consistent with recent quarters,”

Netflix noted that there were more searches for Witcher than there were for Disney+’s The Mandalorian, Apple’s Morning Show or Amazon’s Jack Ryan. 

For more stories like this, visit our sister publication Next TV.

The Christmas holiday period will feature several new and returning series, specials and movies, led by FX’s original film A Christmas Carol.

A Christmas Carol, an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ classic holiday story that stars Guy Pearce as Ebenezer Scrooge, premieres on FX Dec. 19.

Below are video trailers and premiere dates for several shows debuting this week on cable networks and streaming services (for some videos, viewer discretion is advised):

Dec. 20 -- Togo (Drama series) -- Disney+

Dec. 20 -- The Witcher (drama/fantasy) -- Netflix

Dec. 24 -- Lost In Space (returning series) -- Netflix

Dec. 26 -- You (returning series) -- Netflix

Dec. 27 -- Duran Duran: There’s Something You Should Know (documentary) -- Showtime  

Dec. 27 -- Into the Dark: Midnight Kiss (horror) -- Hulu 

Dec. 27 -- New Order: Decades (documentary) -- Showtime

Dec. 29 -- Dare Me (drama) -- USA Network

Unlike the broadcast networks that never deviate from premiering the majority of their new series the third week each September and consider January through April the midseason timeframe, there is no set period to launch original content on digital streamers. Until recently, the various streaming services debuted most new shows (in any category) on Friday, which in the broadcast world continues to erode. But now, with more streamers in the mix, other days are becoming more common for launching new products. And, in this ongoing monthly feature, we offer a sneak peak at the programming of note (scripted and non-scripted) on the various streaming platforms.

The order is alphabetical by airdate. The streaming time begins at 3:01 a.m. ET. The listed season and number of episodes (when available) are highlighted. And we feature the remainder of December in this premiere installment.

Tell Me a Story (CBS All Access) – Thursday, Dec. 5 (second season premiere, 10 episodes)

“Beauty and the Beast,” “Sleeping Beauty” and “Cinderella” are the focus in season two of this psychological thriller, which reimagines of some of the world’s most beloved fairy tales.

V Wars (Netflix) – Thursday, Dec. 5 (first season, 10 episodes)

Based on the comic book series by Jonathan Maberry, V Wars follows the story of a scientist (Ian Somerhalder) and his best friend (Adrian Holmes) as they face the evolving crisis of a deadly outbreak that fractures society into opposing factions, potentially escalating to a future war between humans and vampires.

Astronomy Club: The Sketch Comedy (Netflix) – Friday, Dec. 6 (first season, 6 episodes)

From Kenya Barris (black-ish, mixed-ish), members of improv and comedy sketch troupe "The Astronomy Club” perform. The ensemble includes Shawtane Bowen, Jonathan Braylock, Ray Cordova, James III, Caroline Martin, Jerah Milligan, Monique Moses, and Keisha Zollar.

The Confession Killer (Netflix) – Friday, Dec. 6 (series premiere, 5 episodes)

The infamous legacy of Henry Lee Lucas -- a serial killer who confessed to 600 murders in the early 1980s -- is the focus of this new docuseries.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon) – Friday, Dec. 6 (third season, 8 episodes)

Midge (Rachel Brosnahan) is now the opening act for singer Shy Baldwin (Leroy McClain), performing for the troops in New York City; Abe (Tony Shalhoub) looks for a new career; the family is about to lose their apartment now that Abe is unemployed; and Susie (Alex Borstein) decides to accept Sophie Lennon’s (Jane Lynch) offer. Oh, and did we mention that Midge has a one-night stand with her ex-Joel (Michael Zegen), which she is hoping will lead to more?

Truth Be Told (Apple TV+) – Friday, Dec. 6 (first season, 8 episodes)

Oscar winner Octavia Spencer plays a true-crime podcaster who tries to solve the mystery surrounding a family patriarch’s death.

Virgin River (Netflix) – Friday, Dec. 6 (first season, 8 episodes)

When a city nurse (Alexandra Breckenridge) moves to a small town to become a nurse practitioner, she discovers small-town living is not as simple as she expected.

Castle Rock (Hulu) – Wednesday, Dec. 11 (second season, 10 episodes)

The story of how budding psychopath Annie Wilkes (Lizzy Caplan) became a killer is the focus.

The Expanse (Amazon) – Friday, Dec. 13 (third season, 10 episodes)

Formerly on Syfy, this fourth season of “The Expanse,” now available on Amazon, promises to offer a “blood-soaked gold rush” as everyone fights for resources on a newly discovered planet rich in natural resources.

Marvel’s Runaways (Hulu) – Friday, Dec. 13 (third – and final -- season, 10 episodes)

The Runaways frantically search for their captured friends Chase (Greg Sulkin), Gert (Ariela Barer) and Karolina (Virginia Gardner).

Soundtrack (Netflix) – Wednesday, Dec. 18 (first season, 10 episodes)

Described as a romantic comedy musical, the focus is on the love stories connecting a diverse group of people in present day Los Angeles.

The Witcher (Netflix) – Friday, Dec. 20 (first season, 8 episodes)

Filmed in Hungary, Henry Cavill stars as Geralt, a mutated monster hunter who struggles to find his place in a world where people often prove to be more wicked than beasts.

Bonfire of Destiny (Netflix) – Thursday, December 26 (first season, 8 episodes)

Set in 1897, this French period drama follows three women whose lives are changed forever following the Charity Bizarre Fire.

Fast & Furious: Spy Racers (Netflix) – Thursday, Dec. 26 (first season, 8 episodes)

Based on the film franchise, this animated series follows Tony Toretto, Dominic Toretto’s cousin, after he is recruited by a government agency together with his friends to infiltrate an elite racing league serving as a front for a crime organization called SH1FT3R that is bent on world domination.

Kevin Hart: Don't F**k This Up (Netflix) - Friday, Dec. 27 (first season)

Comedian Kevin Hart documents his career and his marriage in this new docuseries.

The Neighbor (Netflix) - Tuesday, Dec. 31 (first season)

Based on the comic book, a young man (Quim Gutierrez) struggling to handle adulthood and his girlfriend experiences a complete shift in priorities after he receives the powers of a superhero.

Netflix Thursday said it will debut its new fantasy series The Witcher on Dec. 20.

Based on the best-selling fantasy series, The Witcher stars Henry Cavill and tells the story of Geralt of Rivia -- a solitary monster hunter -- as he struggles to find his place in a world where people often prove more wicked than beasts. But when destiny hurtles him toward a powerful sorceress, and a young princess with a dangerous secret, the three must learn to navigate the increasingly volatile Continent together, according to Netflix.