Showtime’s Comey Miniseries Likely to Move Premiere Date Ahead of Presidential Election After Director Speaks Out

Joe Otterson
·2 min read

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Showtime’s upcoming miniseries “The Comey Rule” could soon be changing premiere dates.

The show, which details former FBI Director James Comey’s tumultuous relationship with President Donald Trump, was originally scheduled to debut in late November. That would put it after the U.S. Presidential election, which is scheduled for Nov. 3.

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But series writer and director Billy Ray voiced his disappointment in that decision in an email to the show’s cast and crew.

“We all were hoping to get this story in front of the American people months before the coming election,” he wrote, per the New York Times. “And that was a reasonable expectation considering that we’d been given a mandate by the network to do whatever was necessary to deliver by May 15. But at some point in March or April, that mandate changed. Word started drifting back to me that a decision about our airdate had been made at the very highest levels of Viacom: all talk of our airing before the election was suddenly a ‘non-starter.’”

According to an individual with knowledge of the situation, Showtime’s schedule is in flux due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The network is expected to announce several changes to its schedule in the coming weeks, with “The Comey Rule” likely moving up to before the election.

“The Comey Rule” is a two-part, four hour series based on Comey’s book “A Higher Loyalty.” It stars Jeff Daniels as Comey with Brendan Gleeson playing Trump.

Part one of the series examines the earliest days of the Russia investigation, the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails and their impact on Election Night 2016, when Trump stunned the world and was elected president. Part two is a virtual day-by-day account of the tempestuous relationship between Comey and Trump and the intense and chaotic first months of the Trump presidency.

The series was adapted for the screen and directed Ray, with Shane Salerno, Alex Kurtzman and Heather Kadin on board as executive producers. It was produced by Secret Hideout, The Story Factory and Home Run Productions in association with CBS TV Studios.

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