EXCLUSIVE: dangerous relations has been canceled from Starz, undoing the early season 2 renewal. The remaining three episodes of the 8-episode first season will air as scheduled.
Executive producers are actively buying the period drama, TBEN hears.
Dangerous relations’ The season 2 renewal was announced on November 1, ahead of the series’ debut on November 6. According to sources, Starz Brass continues to believe in the show creatively, but the prequel to the famous 18th century novel struggled to find an audience, which led to its cancellation.
on linear, dangerous relations premiered with a 0.03 rating among the 18-49 demographic and only 88,000 total viewers, according to live + same day Nielsen data. It failed to improve in subsequent weeks, with the show dropping to 0.02 and 52,000 total viewers for the Thanksgiving weekend episode. While ratings improved somewhat with the December 4 airing, the show has yet to crack a six-figure L+SD audience so far. Starz has not disclosed data on delayed viewing and streaming audiences in the Starz app where dangerous relations he was expected to do most of his business.
The period drama stars Alice Englert as the Marquise de Merteuil and Nicholas Denton as Vicomte de Valmont. It tells the origin story of the two iconic characters as they met on the eve of the revolution in Paris. Kosar Ali, Carice Van Houten, Hilton Pelser, Fisayo Akinade, Michael McElhatton, Nathanael Saleh, Colette Dalal Tchantcho, Hakeem Kae-Kazim and Tom Wlaschiha also star.
dangerous relationscoming from Lionsgate TV, Playground Entertainment and Flame Ventures, is the second period drama to be canceled at Starz, after freshman series become Elizabeth in November.
Lionsgate has been scrutinizing its balance sheets as the company prepares to split its studio from Starz next year.
The series was created and written by Harriet Warner, who also executive produced alongside Playground Entertainment’s Colin Callender, Tony Krantz for Flame Ventures, Bethan Jones, Scott Huff and Christopher Hampton. Barney Reisz produced. Coline Abert, James Dormer and Rita Kalnejais co-wrote the series with Warner.
Katie Campione contributed to this report.
