‘Twin Peaks’ Return: Showtime Boss Says Another Season Is Unlikely, But He’s Waiting For David Lynch’s Call
Showtime president and CEO David Nevins promised David Lynch that they wouldn’t discuss another season of “Twin Peaks” until after the show aired.
And so far, they haven’t had that conversation. Part of that is because of logistics: “David Lynch has been in France pretty much since the premiere event we had [in May],” Nevins told reporters Monday at the Television Critics Association press tour.
For now, at least, Nevins isn’t expecting another season of “Twin Peaks,” which was a tremendous, four-year undertaking for Lynch, who directed all 18 hours. Nevins hasn’t shut the door on the idea of another round of episodes, but admits he’s not racing to approach the auteur.
Asked if he’ll wait until Lynch calls him, Nevins admitted, “yeah, probably.”
“Twin Peaks” hasn’t attracted much of a live, linear audience, but Nevins said the show has a higher proportion of streaming viewers than any other Showtime series.
“It has had a very palpable effect on our subscriber (levels) for multiple months now,” he said. “You saw it in [CBS Corp.’s earnings report]. Q2 has always been our weakest quarter. But in the cable segment, CBS is up 11 percent, and you can assume Showtime is up a higher percentage to drive that. And new subscriptions were were driven largely by ‘Twin Peaks.’ It kind of did its job, for being such an unusual show for us.”
“Twin Peaks” will end its run with a two-hour finale on Labor Day weekend. “I’m really excited for people to see how it all comes together,” Nevins said.
As for the future of this season, “Twin Peaks: The Return” will live on the Showtime platform. Nevins doesn’t expect Lynch to go back and do a recut. “I would be shocked,” he said. “If he wants to, I’ll support him, I’ll pay for it, I would love it, but I can’t imagine he would do that.”
Meanwhile, Nevins elaborated on the new animated Donald Trump series that Stephen Colbert has in the works at Showtime. Colbert won’t begin working on the series in earnest until after he’s done hosting the Primetime Emmy Awrads in September, but the plan is to have the show up and running by the end of the year.
The 10-episode series will be produced as a family comedy about the life of Trump and the people around him, featuring ongoing characters and storylines. The linchpin of the series, however, will be the show’s ability to produce a three- to five-minute segment per week that is written up to the minute and animated right before air.
“If you’re doing politics immediacy is important,” Nevins said. “Its been conceived in a very interesting way. Because the computer generated kind of animation, we’ll be able to do a portion of each episode that maybe gets written on Thursday and is on the air on Sunday. Whatever happening that week, the show will be able to reflect.”
Nevins also told reporters that “Purity,” the 20-episode limited series based on the Jonathan Franzen novel, may be delayed as star Daniel Craig focuses first on playing James Bond in that franchise’s next film (which currently is being referred to as “Bond 25”).
Production was set to begin in 2017 on “Purity,” which will air over the course of two seasons. But Craig’s “Bond” duties might push the premiere of “Purity” to as late as 2019, Nevins said.
