Showtime’s co-presidents of entertainment, Gary Levine and Jana Winograde, addressed moving the “Halo” series to Paramount Plus during a virtual TCA session on Tuesday.
“The truth is that [“Halo”] was always a bit of an outlier for us in terms of its fit in the Showtime universe,” Winograde said. “And we did an amazing job of imbuing into the series, the character drama that we’re so well known for. But at the end of the day, it is a big, broad, big tent show. So when Paramount Plus came into being, it really was a natural fit there…But these are two distinctly different services with two very different missions. And I think we will stay true to our brand and and we we have high hopes for Paramount Plus to define itself.”
The “Halo” series, based on the video game franchise of the same name, had been in the works at Showtime for nearly a decade before it was moved over to Paramount Plus earlier this year. Around that same time, Paramount Plus’ planned “The Man Who Fell to Earth” series moved from the streamer to Showtime.
Levine also addressed the resumption of Season 5 of the network’s hit drama “Billions,” which was interrupted due to the production shutdown caused by the pandemic. The first seven episodes of the season had been shot before production was forced to stop, with those episodes airing last summer. The remaining five episodes are set to begin airing in September. Levine also said that work on Season 6 of the series is already underway.
“We actually even juggled a little at times,” he said. “We shot some of season six ahead of some of the episodes of season five, depending upon schedule, logistics, actor availability and everything else. But you know, frankly, we felt guilty for the audience to have to wait as long as they did to see the rest of season five. And so we and the producers just kind of put our heads down and said just plow ahead.”