Deadline is reporting that the 20-year partnership between HBO and writer-producer Terence Winter—a relationship that spans from the early days of The Sopranos, through Boardwalk Empire, and into this year’s Vinyl—has just hit a hiccup: Winter has been let go from his showrunning duties on the Bobby Cannavale-starring ’70s musical drama, with the network citing “creative differences” for the change. Winter will be replaced by screenwriter Scott Z. Burns, who scripted The Bourne Ultimatum and The Informant! for Steven Soderbergh, when the show returns for its second season—likely next year. (Godzilla and Minority Report’s Max Borenstein has also signed on as an executive producer.)
The change presumably comes as something of a surprise for Winter, who was talking about plans for Vinyl’s second season before its first had even begun airing. (The show is currently eight episodes into a 10-episode first season, and recently released an episode that our reviewer called its strongest of the season.) The show premiered to somewhat disappointing ratings back in February, despite a pedigree that included Mick Jagger and Winter’s old Boardwalk Empire collaborator Martin Scorsese. Its immediate renewal suggested a vote of confidence from the network, though, one that now seems to have been rescinded. “As we head into the second season of Vinyl, we have decided it is an appropriate time to make a change in the creative direction of the show,” the network said in a statement. “We have enjoyed a longtime partnership with Terry Winter at HBO,” it added, “and we look forward to our next collaboration with him.”