Showtime Extends ‘Our Cartoon President’ To Ensure It Covers Presidential Election Alongside ‘The Circus’

Peter White

Showtime has extended the number of episodes for animated series Our Cartoon President so that it can cover the forthcoming Presidential Election alongside doc series The Circus.

The third season of Our Cartoon President, which is exec produced by Stephen Colbert, launches on January 26. The series, which is produced by CBS Television Studios, follows the “tru-ish misadventures” of the 45th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, and his merry band of advisors and family members.

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The first season of the show introduced audiences to Trump’s attempts at “winning” the State of the Union address, comforting disaster victims and rolling back President Obama’s accomplishments, while season two has taken aim at the crowded Democratic presidential primary field.

The fifth season of The Circus (left) also airs on January 26. Heading back to town just in time for the Donald Trump impeachment inquiry, the series, which is hosted by John Heilemann, Mark McKinnon and Alex Wagner, will also be stretched out to ensure that the trio can cover the November election.

Showtime Co-President of Entertainment Gary Levine told Deadline that both shows are “all over the election”. “We actually crafted the schedule for both of those shows around the primaries, conventions and the elections. A presidential election year makes it really ripe and fertile territory for both of those shows and we will take advantage of that. We’ve mapped out this whole season and it will span through the election. These are unusual shows for us, they are not our usual scripted shows. We’ve added episodes to Our Cartoon President and The Circus always has these mini-seasons so it goes in three tranches to span the year,” he added.

Produced by Left/Right, The Circus is Showtime’s highest-rated docuseries, averaging more than 1 million viewes each week. It is exec produced by hosts Heilemann, McKinnon and Wagner, along with Banks Tarver, Ken Druckerman Ted Bourne and Tom Johnson.

Colbert exec produces Our Cartoon President alongside showrunner R.J. Fried and The Late Show executive producer Chris Licht. Tim Luecke is lead animator and co-executive producer, and Matt Lappin serves as consulting producer.

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