HBO’S EMMY®-WINNING DRAMA SERIES THE NEWSROOM TO BEGIN PRODUCTION ON THIRD AND FINAL SEASON
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 13, 2014 – The Emmy®-winning HBO drama series THE NEWSROOM will begin production on its third and final season this spring, with debut slated for fall, it was announced today by Michael Lombardo, president, HBO Programming.
“THE NEWSROOM is classic Aaron Sorkin – smart, riveting and thought-provoking,” said Lombardo. “I’m sure this farewell season will be one to remember.”
Created by showrunner Aaron Sorkin (Oscar® winner for writing “The Social Network,” executive producer and creator of the multiple Emmy® winner “The West Wing”), THE NEWSROOM follows the members of a cable news team on their quixotic mission to do the news well in the face of a fickle audience, corporate mandates and tangled personal relationships. Sorkin, Scott Rudin and Alan Poul return as executive producers, with Paul Lieberstein (“The Office”) joining the show as an executive producer.
Returning cast regulars include Jeff Daniels (who received an Emmy® in the category of Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for the show last September), Emily Mortimer, Sam Waterston, John Gallagher, Jr., Alison Pill, Thomas Sadoski, Dev Patel and Olivia Munn.
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 13, 2014 – The Emmy®-winning HBO drama series THE NEWSROOM will begin production on its third and final season this spring, with debut slated for fall, it was announced today by Michael Lombardo, president, HBO Programming.
“THE NEWSROOM is classic Aaron Sorkin – smart, riveting and thought-provoking,” said Lombardo. “I’m sure this farewell season will be one to remember.”
Created by showrunner Aaron Sorkin (Oscar® winner for writing “The Social Network,” executive producer and creator of the multiple Emmy® winner “The West Wing”), THE NEWSROOM follows the members of a cable news team on their quixotic mission to do the news well in the face of a fickle audience, corporate mandates and tangled personal relationships. Sorkin, Scott Rudin and Alan Poul return as executive producers, with Paul Lieberstein (“The Office”) joining the show as an executive producer.
Returning cast regulars include Jeff Daniels (who received an Emmy® in the category of Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for the show last September), Emily Mortimer, Sam Waterston, John Gallagher, Jr., Alison Pill, Thomas Sadoski, Dev Patel and Olivia Munn.
Final season? At least we're getting it, but rude.
ReplyDeleteEven though season 2 was pretty underwhelming compared to that amazing 1st season, I am sure I will be disappointed when it ends.
ReplyDeleteHopefully it gets back to telling stories in season 3 & less about an overall seasons tory arc. That killed S2.
Final season? That was unexpected, though kinda understandable. I mean, up until now it wasn't even officially confirmed if there was going to be a 3rd season. I'm ok with it, personally.
ReplyDeleteWhere's my comment? I posted and it's not here.
ReplyDeletestrange True Blood, Broadwalk Empire and The Newsroom all getting final seasoned the same year
ReplyDeleteAwww too bad, but am grateful for one more season.
ReplyDeleteThree final seasons at the same time on HBO, they're really beggining a new era.
ReplyDeleteWOW, you're right, that does raise some questions. But I firmly believe that for Newsroom it was because of Sorkin, he seemed preoccupied with some other projects that he didn't really care to continue doing this show.
ReplyDeleteNooooooooooooooooooo :(
ReplyDeleteIf this is going to be the final season, which really blows btw, they damn well better make more episodes than they did for season two.
ReplyDeleteOh... Well, here's hoping there's at least 10 episodes. Given that Aaron Sorkin is a very busy man (that's why there was no official announcement until now), I will gladly take a final season over nothing.
ReplyDeleteOn a related note, I have just finished watching season 1 of The West Wing, at last. Riveting, just fantastic TV, and better than The Newsroom for sure — which I sometimes love (when it deals about the news, morals, politics and all things Sam Waterston), and sometimes dislike (all the romantic stuff, usually).
HBO must be hoping The Leftovers becomes a major hit, otherwise they're kind of fucked, with one show performing very well (True Blood) and two shows performing quite well (Boardwalk Empire, The Newsroom) ending in 2014 (and Tremé ended on December 30, too).
Because other than Game of Thrones and hopefully The Leftovers, they have no drama series left guaranting great ratings. I doubt True Detective, being an anthology series, is as dependable for ratings as a show keeping the same cast and continuing an on-going story each year (e.g: there might be a lot of people who would't tune it next year for the next installment of True Detective because no McConaughey/Harrelson and case closed after the first 8 episodes).
This seriously sucks, I really like this series.
ReplyDeleteI know there are a lot of new projects in development such as The Spark ( Alien Drama from Karl Gajdusek) Pilot commitment for remake of film into series Westworld ( Andriod-Cowboy-Amusement Park from J.J. Abrams, Jonathan Nolan, Lisa Joy), The Brink (Jay Roach, Roberto Benabib and Kim Benabib), Open, Bailures, ect
ReplyDeleteAnd then there's new stuff for this year: True Detective, Silicone Valley, The Leftovers, Togetherness, Doll & M.
But I don't recall if the Newsroom's numbers were bad, but if not I could see it being a political problem too...
Oh, it's sad that it's the final season. I love the series and, especially, the cast. Such a bunch of underrated actors in there. On the other hand, I do feel that the concept gets a bit tired at times. It's odd because even though in theory they can do it forever, it does feel a bit limitative - I am not making any sense I realize lol. Anyway, sad that it is ending but at least we will get our farewell season!
ReplyDeleteYeah same here
ReplyDeleteDoes The Leftovers have a premiere date yet?
ReplyDeleteI'm about to marathon The West Wing next actually (almost done with Xena)! I saw most of the final season when it was airing, but now I want to watch the whole show.
ReplyDeleteNo. The press release that just came out says this summer, but the date is TBA...
ReplyDeleteSure! (I'm looking forward to it!)
ReplyDeleteThey have a lot in development though! (made a list in comments above in response to someone else)
ReplyDeleteI think what limits the storytelling is the plotlines where the ACN staff were the news and the focus of media attention. The scandal from season 2 would be a massive deal in real life and would have ended careers. They touched on the fact that since it broke they've struggled to get sources and have generally had a lot of negative attention. To keep things consistent their reporting of future stories is not going to portray actual reporting at all, since they're going to have to battle their new reputation as liars.
ReplyDeleteIt's a bit like the issue the West Wing had after 9/11. 9/11 dramatically changed the United States, set in motion two wars and a whole lot of political stuff that they couldn't reference on the West Wing, because it would obviously have been horiffically offensive if they tried to fictionalise 9/11 and subsequent events on the show for the purposes of entertainment. So what that meant is that as hard as they tried to create stories about Middle Eastern terrorism and attacks on the US, their universe still failed to reflect the real world.
I think Sorkin is worried about repeating this, the Newsroom is supposed to be a fictional take on real events, but the Dantana scandal and Will McAvoy's high profile mean that as time passes, the show will become more and more fictionalised and lose that element wherein it felt like it could have happened based on our recollections of the events.
That said, I'm still going to miss the show once it's gone. Even if the politics felt ridiculously one sided, it was funny and I always appreciate when someone is prepared to point out how insane the US media machine is (I was really happy with the inclusion of Taylor Warren and I hope she's there for the final season because with her there the show felt less like propaganda, until her it felt like most portrayals of republicans were quite negative).
I'd have to agree. I think the charm of season 1 was seeing stories we were familiar with being told either in new ways to highlight different aspects or just generally seeing the background to them, like with Bin Laden's death.
ReplyDeleteThe season 2 scandal was actually pretty dull, I've not rewatched season 2 yet I still rewatch season 1 regularly.
This is so heartbreaking! Newsroom is my favorite show right now along with Scandal..
ReplyDeleteWell, i'll take a final season over no season though. I hope they make it excellent and fill it with more episodes! Def gonna miss it!
Me too
ReplyDeleteI watched every ep of S1 5+ times each, and at least 1 more time since S2 ended.
I don't think I watched a single S2 episode twice.
I LOVED the season 1 concept. I hated the season 2 concept.
Hey at least we know NOW not after its already done filming. We are prepared to say goodbye to the show not blindsided be it. :)
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