Last month came word that the second season of acclaimed supernatural thriller series “Evil,” would be moving from the CBS network to the Paramount+ streaming service.
The series was created by “The Good Wife” alums Robert and Michelle King who are no strangers to that SVOD service thanks to being there from its inception with “The Good Fight” which they also produce.
Speaking with Variety recently, Michelle King revealed they got the news of the shift around the same time everyone else did and CBS Studios president David Stapf sold it to her as a good thing.
They were told this way the new season wouldn’t have to wait until the Fall to premiere, they would have a chance to broaden the audience, and as King says: “we’re [already] sort of doing a streaming show on the network” which includes cost as the series is “an expensive show for CBS”.
Robert King tells the outlet the move to Paramount+ is a “godsend” creatively as they are no longer “bound into that 42-minute straitjacket,” characters can now swear and the show’s sexual undercurrents can be less subtextual.
The series began shooting its thirteen-episode season in New York City in the Fall and the Kings were in the midst of editing the fifth episode when they got the news.
As a result, they re-edited the earlier episodes and re-added the scenes they had cut because of issues of episode length, language and sexuality which wouldn’t make it through a network’s stricter standards and practices. They are now editing the season with Paramount+ in mind.
Both the King’s shows will premiere within days of each other with “Evil” S2 kicking off June 20th and “The Good Fight” returning June 24th.
