Showtime to be swallowed up by Paramount Plus, and shows are already getting canceled

Showtime is dead. Long live… Paramount+ With Showtime. Premium cable has lost an icon today, with Deadline saying that Showtime set to be killed off and replaced with a newly rebranded network called Paramount+ With Showtime—which, let’s be clear, may be one of the worst rebrandings of all time. They could’ve called it The Paramount+ Network. They could’ve called it The Paramount Network 2: Premium Edition. They could’ve just called it Showtime!

But no, it’s Paramount+ With Showtime, and it’s all part of the previously teased merger between Showtime’s streaming content and the Paramount+ library. At some point later this year, the Showtime network’s name will change to that dumb thing, the Showtime app’s name will change to that same dumb thing, and also the stuff available on the Showtime app will be added to Paramount+ premium tier.

Speaking of stuff, this rebrand has also claimed a few casualties in addition to the Showtime name: Upcoming series Three Women, which has already completed production on its first season, has been dropped by P+WS (pronounced “paws” or maybe “pee-paws”?). Deadline says “there has been interest” from some other network/streamer, though, so it might find new life elsewhere. Also, P+WS has canceled both American Gigolo and Let The Right One In, with the former apparently being last-nail-in-the-coffin dead and the latter now being shopped around to other places as well.

Worryingly, for Showtime employees, Deadline says a note from boss Chris McCarthy indicated that the company will explain what all of these changes mean for them at the end of February (which seems cruel), but it will involve moving money “away from areas that are underperforming” and account for “less than 10% of our views.” Other than these immediate cancellations, we don’t know exactly what that means yet, but it does indicate that some more Warner Bros. Discovery/HBO Max-style belt-tightening is on the horizon for the network formerly known as Showtime—and that the network formerly known as Showtime is not above some Warner Bros. Discovery/HBO Max-style cancellations of shows that have already been completed.