Evil showrunners note "irony" of getting canceled right as show becomes a streaming success

Earlier this year, news broke that Paramount+’s deliriously fun religious procedural Evil was getting canceled—albeit, in an admittedly gentle form of the process. (Which is to say that Paramount and its various subsidiaries agreed to give showrunners Michelle and Robert King four more episodes on their extant fourth-season order so they could wrap up the show’s very particular spin on Catholicism-heavy horror.) And then, a funny, but by no means unprecedented, thing happened on the way to the cancellation: Evil got licensed to Netflix for streaming, and quickly began racing to the top of the charts, because, turns out, if you give Netflix viewers some delicious pulp to guzzle down, they still absolutely will.

Which means the Kings are now in the bizarre position of having a genuine hit show—it was hanging out right behind Bridgerton on the streamer’s charts—that is also, well, dead. The pair remarked on the phenomenon in a recent THR interview, in which they (very diplomatically) described their feelings on the topic as “ironic.” “Look,” said Michelle King, ” I’m glad we got the opportunity to do the last four episodes so that we could wrap up this story in hopefully a satisfying way. But, yeah, more people than ever are watching the show. It seems like a funny time to say goodbye.” Her husband Robert said they got the news from Paramount+ late last year, and ended up convening a writers room to take their previous plans for the show’s fourth season and shift them toward an ending point.

Later in the interview—after the requisite worries from the Good Fight creators about The Politics—the Kings circle back around to a TV universe where having a massive hit show can no longer protect you from not being allowed to make that massive hit show anymore. When asked what the most worrying conversations they’ve had with a TV exec in the last six months was, the pair was blunt. “ The most concerning conversation is the one that just happens over and over — which is, ‘There’s no money to make shows,'” Michelle King said. Her husband echoed the sentiment: “‘We’re canceling your show — and not because of quality or that people aren’t watching,’ I don’t know what it is. It’s all going to horses.”