"Evil" Nears Move from CBS to Paramount+ for Season 2

[JamesG]

"Evil" Nears Move from CBS to Paramount+ for Season 2
by Nellie Andreeva
May 17, 2021


Robert and Michelle King’s dark and compelling CBS drama "Evil" is on the move. According to sources, negotiations are underway for the serialized show to relocate from the linear network to ViacomCBS streamer Paramount+.

It is one of three CBS dramas that are expected to move to Paramount+ for their upcoming seasons, including "SEAL Team" and "Clarice". Reps for Paramount+ and CBS Studios declined comment.

https://deadline.com/2021/05/evil-mo...us-1234758581/

[JamesG]

"SEAL Team" & "Evil" Officially Move to Paramount+
by Nellie Andreeva
May 18, 2021


Two CBS drama series, "Evil" and "SEAL Team", are relocating to Paramount+, ViacomCBS’ streaming service, for their new seasons.

"SEAL Team" ranks among the most-watched CBS dramas on Paramount+ this season, and "Evil" ranked similarly as one of the most-watched during its debut season last year.



"SEAL Team", which is wrapping its fourth season, will kick off its fifth season on CBS next fall and air its first several episodes — likely four — on the broadcast network before migrating to Paramount+.

The second season of "Evil" will debut exclusively on the service. In addition, prior seasons of both series are available to stream now on Paramount+.

https://deadline.com/2021/05/seal-te...ns-1234759730/

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Evil unveils its first Paramount+ trailer for Season 2

The supernatural horror drama from Robert and Michelle King returns for its long-awaited second season on Sunday, June 20 at its new home on Paramount+.

[AB]

If the shows were doing fairly well on CBS then why move them? I just don't get why they do this. I have Paramount in our cable package so I'll still be able to watch but what about the people who don't have cable? What a bummer.

[JamesG]

Originally Posted by AB

If the shows were doing fairly well on CBS then why move them? I just don't get why they do this. I have Paramount in our cable package so I'll still be able to watch but what about the people who don't have cable? What a bummer.

Maybe they feel they can do more creatively then what they were allowed to do on network TV.

I definitely see "SEAL Team" and "Clarice" getting more graphic and violent. David Boreanaz joked that now he can say the "F Bomb!" I haven't watched "Evil" so I don't know anything about that one.

[TMC]

For Evil, "creatively, it’s a godsend" in move to Paramount+

The former CBS supernatural drama series makes its formal debut as a Paramount+ series with Season 2's arrival on Sunday. Moving to Paramount+ means that the show’s sexual undercurrents can be less subtextual, they can swear, and they’re not, as Robert King puts it, “bound into that 42-minute straitjacket.” King and wife/co-creator Michelle King were in the middle of editing Episode 5 when they received the news that Evil was moving to Paramount+. So they’ve re-added scenes they’d cut from the first episodes because of length — and also edited in things “to do with language and sexuality,” Robert King says, adding: “We had footage that was a little like, ‘Oh ****, we’ll never get this past standards and practices!’” Michelle King adds: “We are now editing with Paramount Plus in mind. So it will feel like a streaming show...It’s been tough to do sin with network standards."

ALSO:

• Evil Season 2 sets up another relentlessly compelling season of one of the hardest-to-classify but irresistible shows on TV
• Evil remains riveting television in Season 2, mordant and sinister with a faint sadness hanging around its edges
• Evil has become ambitious to a fault in Season 2: It is not, so for, as frightening as Season 1
• Mike Colter and Katja Herbers preview what to expect in Season 2

[AB]

I watched the first episode of the second season and they did swear more in it. But I think they could have kept it on CBS. I imagine many people won't pay extra to watch now that it's on Paramount+.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by AB

I watched the first episode of the second season and they did swear more in it. But I think they could have kept it on CBS. I imagine many people won't pay extra to watch now that it's on Paramount+.

Evil is dubbing in profanity now that it's on Paramount+

Profanities are usually edited out of TV shows. But Season 2 of Evil, originally made for CBS, is now free of network censorship on Paramount+. So the show has dubbed in profanities such as "f***er" in the season premiere.

Evil finally became fun to watch in Season 2 by leaning into the silliness of its premise

"Evil, the horror-drama about a Catholic anti-demon taskforce investigating possessions, hauntings, and other religious mysteries, took a while to find its footing," says Daniel Schroeder. "The first season of the show, which follows Dr. Kristen Bouchard (Katja Herbers) as she joins priest-in-training David Acosta (Mike Colter) and mythbuster Ben Shakir (Aasif Mandvi), wasted too much time on church politicking and Dan Brown-style intrigue. We simply do not need to see fusty investigators from the Vatican show up with a book of ancient prophecies and a demonic org chart, nor the church getting sued because of a botched exorcism. Evil kept getting bogged down in bureaucracy. But in between the show’s alarmingly gruesome exorcisms and actual courtroom drama, you could still find comedic bits in the first season, like a demon with an ordinary name like George, or Bouchard’s nemesis Dr. Leland Townsend, played with a permanent smirk by Michael Emerson. From the moment Emerson appears, it’s clear he knows what show he’s on, just waiting for the rest of the cast to catch up. And as of Season 2, which saw the series jump from CBS to Paramount+, they have. For all its holy trappings, Evil is really just another iteration of the procedural, but with crosses and bibles instead of handcuffs and cop cars. And once it figured out how seriously it should be taking Christian mythology—which is not seriously at all—everybody could loosen their ties and start having fun."

[JamesG]

"Evil" to Take a Break This Summer — Find Out When Season 2 will Return
by Kimberly Roots
July 9, 2021


Paramount+’s supernatural drama "Evil" will pause for a four-week, midseason break at the end of July, the streaming service announced Friday.

Episode 6 of the current season will begin streaming on Sunday, July 25, as usual. But after that, Season 2 will go on hold until Aug. 29, when Episode 7 will kick off the second half of Season 2. All told, Season 2 will consist of 13 episodes.

https://tvline.com/2021/07/09/evil-s...aramount-plus/

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Evil came into its own in Season 2

The Paramount+ supernatural drama from Robert and Michelle King produced a second season that was a "mesmerizing metaphysical juggling act," says Steve Greene, adding: "Doubt is a common villain, particularly in stories where faith plays an outsized role. One of the real joys of watching Evil come into its own over the course of Season 2 is watching it embrace such a fundamental idea. The Paramount+ series has its share of lore — what is Catholicism if not a few millennia of meticulously documented tradition? — but it’s also thrived in a dangerous grey zone between out-and-out procedural and season-long religious Big Bads, spinning something thrilling with each passing week. For a show that so easily could quadruple down on a Pazuzu of the Week framework, the Season 2 finale of Evil brought into focus a different kind of goal: connect its three main characters through the basic idea of not knowing what comes next."

ALSO:

• Robert and Michelle King discuss Evil's Season 2 finale
• Katja Herbers breaks down the finale shocker