The Showtime show Billions, about the cat-and-mouse battle between petty US attorney Chuck Rhoades and hedge fund tycoon/white collar criminal Bobby Axelrod (Damian Lewis), may have seemed beyond its prime to the ordinary viewer.
Despite receiving a seventh-season renewal, the show’s quality and cultural cachet began to decline after four seasons, which was made worse by Lewis’ departure from the show last season. But despite this, Showtime isn’t ready to abandon the series. In fact, according to a recent Wall Street Journal story, the network is doubling down on the show by creating a Billion franchise.
What about this news is the most astounding? The spinoffs for Billions, which are still under development, are now referred to as Millions (Less than billions!) and Trillions (More than billions!). According to the Wall Street Journal, Millions will concentrate on “young people on the rise in finance.” In contrast, Trillions will naturally focus on the glitz and drama of the super-wealthy.
Along with Billions, Showtime has plans to create several shows based on well-known Dexter side characters, such as Arthur Mitchell, a.k.a. the Trinity Killer, who was played to great acclaim by John Lithgow in the fourth season of the show.
(For those who already forgot: New Blood, a limited Dexter revival, which starred performers like Michael C. Hall and Jennifer Carpenter again, was not renewed. It was released in November 2021.) Showtime is also considering an Americanization of the French spy drama The Bureau, to be directed by George Clooney, to duplicate the popularity of Homeland.
As observed by WSJ, the action taken here is comparable to what happened with HBO Max after the Warner Bros. Discovery merger, when several high-profile programs, including Batgirl, were canceled. Let the Right One in and American Gigolo, two film adaptations that got mixed reviews, as well as a compensated TV version of Lisa Taddeo’s nonfiction book Three Women, in which Shailene Woodley, De Wanda Wise, and Betty Gilpin were slated to feature, are among Showtime’s losses. Due to this merging within Paramount, there will probably be massive layoffs at Showtime, like at Warner Bros.
These significant adjustments coincide with Paramount’s intention to merge its two streaming services, Paramount+ and Showtime, into a single organization known as Paramount+ With Showtime. Kevin Costner portrays the father of a prominent ranching family in Taylor Sheridan’s western drama series Yellowstone.
Paramount has had great success behind executive Chris McCarthy in creating an interlinked universe around it. Yellowstone, which is currently in its fifth season, has already given rise to two prequel series, 1883 and 1923 (which focus on previous Dutton family members), with the latter serving as one of Harrison Ford‘s first television appearances.
Copying the Paramount-Yellowstone strategy represents a meaningful strategic pivot for Showtime, which has historically focused more on fresh new series than creating franchises. “Of course, we’re going to do new shows,” McCarthy said, per The Wall Street Journal, “But we’re going to do [originals] in a way that has a much more stable base because we’ll have these big tentpoles that bring and hold the audience.”
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