‘Evil’ Renewed for Season 3 at Paramount Plus as Robert and Michelle King Sign New Deal With CBS Studios
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“Evil” is here to stay. Accompanying the announcement Thursday that Robert and Michelle King have extended their five-year overall producing deal with CBS Studios for their King Size Productions, the company has renewed “Evil” for a third season at Paramount Plus.
In May, ViacomCBS announced that the second season of “Evil” would move from CBS to Paramount Plus, which ViacomCBS relaunched in March (it was previously CBS All Access). The show revolves around the investigations into demonic activities (or are they?) by Catholic Church assessor David (Mike Colter), forensic psychologist Kristen (Katja Herbers) and tech-guy skeptic Ben (Aasif Mandvi) — and the evildoing of their gleefully nasty foe, Leland Townsend (Michael Emerson).
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With the first three episodes of “Evil’s” second season available to stream, “This season is already one of the service’s top acquisition drivers, with viewership growing week over week compared to the first season,” stated a CBS Studios press release.
As is the streaming way, there were no numbers attached to this claim — but they’re enough for an “Evil” renewal.
In an interview with Robert and Michelle King last month, they told Variety how pleased they were by the move to Paramount Plus, since “Evil” regularly pushes the boundaries of network standards and practices. “Creatively, it’s a godsend,” Robert King said.
When the move was announced, the Kings were in the middle of editing Episode 5, so they were able to go back and re-add things they had removed — “to do with language and sexuality,” he said — that wouldn’t have made it onto the CBS air. They also have been able to make the episode lengths whatever works creatively for the show, instead of the tight 42 minutes required for network dramas.
Going forward, of course, Season 3 will be written and produced as a streaming show.
“It’s been tough to do sin with network standards,” Michelle King told Variety with a laugh.
“The Good Fight” is currently in its fifth season on Paramount Plus — fans await word on its renewal. The Kings also created “The Bite” for Spectrum, and are the showrunners and executive producers for all three shows — they executive produced the limited series “Your Honor” for Showtime as well. Liz Glotzer will continue to be the president of King Size Productions.
The Kings have been with CBS Studios since 2009, and as part of the new deal, the studio will continue to have exclusive rights to produce content they create for all platforms.
Regarding the Kings’ new five-year deal with the studio, CBS executives were effusive.
“Robert and Michelle represent an elite class of producers who consistently deliver intelligent, provocative and acclaimed series across all platforms,” said George Cheeks, president and CEO of CBS. “Their stories are brilliant, the characters are memorable and the productions always have a sharp, premium visual style. The Kings contributions to CBS are significant and this ongoing partnership is a major source of pride for our company.”
“Michelle and Robert have been integral to our success as a studio for more than a decade. We are continually bowled over by their ability to invent new forms of storytelling and their uncanny knack of being prescient and relatable while holding a mirror up to culture,” said David Stapf, president of CBS Studios. “Their series have all been landmark, genre-busting shows, widely recognized among television’s best. They are simply extraordinary, and we are so proud and honored to be continuing our partnership.”
“We’ve been part of the CBS family for over a decade and couldn’t be more thrilled to continue the relationship,” said Robert and Michelle King. “George Cheeks, David Nevins, David Stapf and his team have been the most supportive, thoughtful partners imaginable. We look forward to many more shows for many more years.”
Robert and Michelle King are represented by UTA and Jon Moonves, Jeff Finkelstein & Jean Tanaka at Del Shaw Moonves Tanaka Finkelstein & Lezcano.
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