Boss’ Won’t Return To Starz For Season 3, May Wrap Story With Two-Hour Movie
By NELLIE ANDREEVA Tuesday November 20, 2012 @ 9:00am PST
There won’t be a third season of Starz‘s acclaimed drama Boss starring Kelsey Grammer and created by Farhad Safinia. However, I’ve learned exclusively that there are discussions between the pay cable network and Boss producer Lionsgate TV about possibly doing a two-hour movie that would wrap up the story of Chicago Mayor Tom Kane, played by Grammer. “After much deliberation, we have made the difficult decision to not proceed with (a third season of) Boss,” said Starz in a statement Tuesday. “We remain proud of this award-winning show, its exceptional cast and writers, and are grateful to Kelsey Grammer, Farhad Safinia and our partners at Lionsgate TV.”
Ratings-wise, Boss was soft but relatively steady. The series premiered to 659,000 viewers in October 2011. Season 2, which was ordered before Boss‘ series debut, opened with 317,000 viewers this past August, down 52% from Season 1, but subsequently recovered. It averaged 937,000 viewers over its weekend premiere airings on the Starz flagship channel and around 2.4 million across all platforms per episode. That was down slightly from Season 1 (1.1 million, 3 million). But Boss brought cachet to Starz, earning critical praise. It earned the first major awards nominations for the pay cable network, winning a Golden Globe for star Grammer who probably delivered the strongest performance of his career in Boss. Additionally, the show developed strong following by a small but devoted fan base. Its ratings performance was probably hampered by the fact it didn’t have a strong lead-in as Starz doesn’t have enough original series to go around, and that it aired on low-trafficked Friday night. (Though the network puts emphasis on a series’ cumed weekend viewership). Going into Season 2, the show beefed up the cast with new additions Sanaa Lathan, Jonathan Groff and T.I. while keeping its status as one of the less expensive Starz series. However, unlike Magic City, whose first season did only marginally better than Season 1 of Boss, the Grammer-starring drama was not owned by Starz, with Lionsgate TV controlling international and DVD rights.
After Season 1, Boss also brought in Dee Johnson as showrunner. Since Boss wrapped production on Season 2, Johnson moved to take the reins of ABC’s freshman soap Nashville but remained in first position to Boss. She will now be available to continue on Nashville, which recently received a back-nine order. Boss was executive produced by Safinia, Grammer, Gus Van Sant (who directed the pilot in his series debut), Johnson, Brian Sher and Stella Bulochnikov.
With Boss‘ cancellation, Spartacus now is the only Starz original series so far to go beyond two seasons. If a Boss movie becomes a reality — which is tricky as it involves new deals with the cast and crew — it would bring the show’s run to 20 hours.