‘Political Animals’ Won’t Continue On USA
It was introduced as a limited series and will stay that way. Greg Berlanti’s Political Animals won’t become a regular series for USA Network as originally envisioned. The mini was a modest performer, premiering to 3.8 million total viewers and averaging 3.2 million total viewers in Live+7 over its summer run. The ratings were not bad given that Political Animals aired with little support on Sunday — a night USA had not programmed for a while — but ultimately they weren’t strong enough to justify the show’s high cost. The political/family drama from Berlanti and Laurence Mark boasted a top-notch cast led by Sigourney Weaver, Carla Gugino, James Wolk and Ellen Burstyn.
“We are proud of Political Animals, our miniseries that attracted critical acclaim and impacted the cultural conversation this summer,” USA said in a statement. “It was a pleasure to work with Greg Berlanti and Laurence Mark and a powerful cast led by Sigourney Weaver. We look forward to collaborating again with these immensely talented creatives.” Meanwhile, Berlanti is busy with breakout CW hit Arrow, midseason CBS drama Golden Boy and several projects he has in development for next season.
Related: USA’s ‘Fairly Legal’ Cancelled, ‘Burn Notice’ Nears 13-Episode Seventh-Season Renewal
Political Animals was an experiment for USA, which went aggressively after the project in a bid to expand into more serious and acclaimed programming. In the end, the show was decided by ratings. Political Animals joins regular series Common Law and Fairly Legal, which were recently cancelled.
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