Showtime’s ‘Episodes’ Wraps After Season Five

Showtime comedy Episodes will wrap after its upcoming fifth season. Production begins next week for the series, which stars Matt LeBlanc playing a fictionalized version of himself in a satire of show business. Season five films in London and premieres on Showtime in 2017.

David Crane and Jeffrey Klarik created the series.

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Episodes’ scathing portrait of network executives has kept me on my best behavior these last several years, for which I am grudgingly grateful to Jeffrey and David,” said Gary Levine, president of programming. “I love this show and can’t wait to see what comic heights Matt and company will scale during the fifth and final season of our inspired series.” 

Since its debut in 2011, Episodes has received 10 Primetime Emmy nominations.

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“We have had the best time making this show,” said Crane and Klarik. “Showtime has been the opposite of every network we write about. If it were up to them we could go on making Episodes forever. But we’ve told the story we set out to tell and we'd never want to outstay our welcome."

In the final season, LeBlanc is the host of The Box, a wildly successful game show. Unfortunately, the world seems to have forgotten that the former Friends star was ever an actor. Crane (Friends) and Klarik (Mad About You) executive produce the series, along with Jimmy Mulville. 

Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.