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Veteran Showtime comedy Weeds and freshman The Big C have just been picked up, marking the first renewal for David Nevins since he joined the pay cable network as entertainment president. Big C‘s order is for 13 episodes, Weeds has been picked up for at least 13. Nevins recently made his first move on the development side with a pilot order to Homeland, a drama from 24 executive producer/showrunner Howard Gordon. The Big C premiered in August with 1.154 million viewers, Showtime’s largest audience in 8 years for an original series debut. Overall, the premiere episodes of Big C and Weeds were watched by 6.5 million and 6 million viewers, respectively, across various platforms. “The unprecedented viewership for both The Big C and Weeds proves that audiences love these shows as much as we do,“ Nevins said. “For six seasons, we’ve happily traveled along with Nancy Botwin and we’re equally as excited to follow Laura Linney and The Big C team as they chart Cathy’s unique journey through such a provocative and personal subject as cancer.” Both series will return next year.
Big C stars Laura Linney as Cathy Jamison, a suburban wife/mother/teacher whose terminal cancer diagnosis forces her to shake up her life and find hope, humor and the light side of a dark situation. The series also stars Oliver Platt, John Benjamin Hickey, Phyllis Somerville and Gabriel Basso. Big C was created by Darlene Hunt, who serves as and executive producer along with Jenny Bicks, Linney, Vivian Cannon and Neal H. Moritz. It is produced by Sony Pictures Television. Weeds, starring Mary-Louise Parker, is executive produced by creator Jenji Kohan, Roberto Benabib and Matthew Salsberg and produced by Lionsgate TV.
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Does anyone actually watch “The Big C.” I adore Laura Linney…but the show is sooooo random. I have cancer – but almost no one knows – look at me being crazy and wild! It’s wildly uneven and Linney deserves much better material than this dreck.
Must agree. I love the actors on THE BIG C, but I hate them on that show. Must be the show. Everything seems so unmotivated and behavior is manic and goofy to the point of irritation. Look at me, world — cancer made me wacky!
“Does anyone actually watch “The Big C”.”
Yes, if you’d read the article, clearly 6.5 million people do.
Showtime should put “Weeds” out of its misery. This once-great show has been dreadful this season.
So, now with a seven season ready for take off, this would now make “Weeds” – the longest ever series on Showtime.
Congrats to Lionsgate.
~
Coat
I gotta say, as much as I love Showtime – what they do, and what they’ve done – Weeds has fallen off a cliff, and “Big C” is a travesty. Every cancer patient and cancer survivor must be hurling rotten tomatoes at their screens every time this drippy, phony, smirky, chirpy, fantasy cancer land story comes on. But I guess everyone likes it (’cause it makes it seem so darn FUN to be dying!).
Not to mention the friends and relatives of those who didn’t survive cancer…
Thanks for your post.
Weeds is always good (save for that horrendous Season 4) even if it’s a shame that it no longer resembles the great comedy it was when it started. Still, any chance to see Mary-Louise Parker on screen is welcome.
The Big C is a disaster not even Laura Linney can make it watchable, you can see her trying hard to make her character anything but completely unlikable and unrelatable but it’s too hard a task. The characters are all terrible and the cast is not that interesting (not to mention the fact that Oliver Platt and Linney are not believable as a couple and have zero chemistry).
Weeds is HORRIBLE and The Big C is an embarasment. What is David Nevins doing? I have had cancer and the show Side Order of Life was so much better than The Big C.
Weeds needs to be put out of its misery. Is Nevins in over his head? This and I only buy from my friends Howard Gordon? Uh oh…
Wow, for all you people who “hate” the show, I have to ask: Why are you watching. As a cancer survivor, I find it inspiring. It’s original, daring and provocative. And the cast is amazing. Sooo many haters on this site. Unemployed and bitter much?
Seriously! Or maybe all these haters actually work at HBO so their bitterness makes sense as well. This is a great show which like ANY new show is finding it’s voice. And having actually been through two cancers myself I can tell you that this is precisely the show we need: honest, warm, funny, weird and true– kudos to Showtime.
Well, for balance, let me weigh in as another kind of cancer survivor. I watched it because I’m always curious about what messages are being sent into the world on the topic. I find the messages behind The Big C, and its tone, to be phony, hackneyed, and unrealistic. I find it avoids any glimpse of real grief or anger, much less rage – oh, except for one tidy (fake feeling) moment in each episode. It does nothing to communicate to anyone what I felt about life going through a serious illness. I agree it’s expertly done. I just find it expertly communicated dreck.
After a couple of solid seasons, WEEDS went off the rails when Nancy and her crew left Agrestic and, by what must have been an exercise in internal show logic, they took out that brilliant intro song “Little Boxes”. That said, I still watch the show, although, as a woman, I hate that character with every fiber of my being. (All the men I know who watch this show are just besotted with Parker.) BIG C is just a mess from the outset. Maybe it will get better, but without a major concept adjustment, I don’t see it happening. The sad part is that, given the pickup, Laura Linney and the rest of the solid cast will not be working on other, better material.
I like the show The big C, and I think it has been pretty good so far. But the character of the “sassy black chick” is OBNOXIOUS! The actress may have been good in the movie, but she stinks in this. She sounds like she is reading her lines, and they keep making her seem silly and nasty by making her out to be a conceited jerk who thinks men are after her. Why? I guess its funny to think butt ugly fat people think they are sexy! I guess they just needed a black in the show to mix it up. It’s stupid. And they rush the scenes, the actors don’t have good timing, acting like they are rushing through. Though I wished they’d drop the tired done to death “Sassy black fat chick” the show has potential. I hope it gets better.
I’ve never seen a show jump the shark so fast. They have already thrown in all the life preservers, Adultery, Illegal teen age sex acts, the perversion that destroys a family, jealousy, and of course the social misfit Black person committing unlawful acts. All of this has nothing to do with topic. So pull the handle and watch it flush.
i love weeds! and i love this season! but not as much as i love nancy, and im not a dude. no they couldnt stay in agrestic, or else the show would have ended a long time ago. instead they took and chance and went in a totally different direction which most shows dont have the balls to do. not once but twice! i mean shit, they are on the run now! come on people how boring are you guys? better stick to watching shows like csi or house, where every episode is exactly like the last…
6.5 mil and 6 mil are referring to watching these shows in “various platforms”, so that means that these shows don’t get those ratings each week but they have combined IMO, DVR, online viewing with the actual live numbers.
My wife and I are fans. The characters are well developed, with flaws a plenty. Laura Linny is brilliant. The teens act like teens. Cancer does throw life off of the rails, not with the consistent humor of this show, but in unexpected ways nonetheless.
It will be interesting to see how the show deals with the downward spiral of the disease. The show is life affirming but it will be a challenge to stay “popular” with what is coming.
I’ve been watching Weeds since the show began and while I’m willing to roll with the inevitable changes that come along when a popular series experiences some success, I’m officially over the show! I knew this because a few weeks ago, during episode 8 (“Gentle Puppies”), a woman threatens Nancy Botwin and I found myself rooting for the woman! I’ll have to watch the last three episodes, just to satisfy my curiosity, but when you find yourself longing for more screentime with secondary characters and less (or no) screentime with primary characters, it’s time to pull the plug!
Stop popping off about Weeds. I salivate for every new episode. Start sending your ideas to the show’s writer. Until then, up the St. John’s Wort.
We love The Big C. Linney is superb as are the rest of the cast. Don’t much care for the language though, esp. that of the black HS student. None-the-less tonight’s episode threw us for a loop. If that particular character truly is gone, that is a not a good thing for the show. That character brought humor and spice on a weekly basis.
My daughter and I LOVE weeds and the big c we look forward to monday night -keep up the excellant writing ,thanks for getting the dog out of the shelter!! It was a tearjerker when her son went to the storage unit and broke down and cried and realized how much his mom loves him and for it to sink in he might lose his mom to cancer. Wonderful shows! Thank you Showtime!!
I think the Big C, like most new shows, started out a little misguided. But the last few episodes have been really good, the past two made me cry a bit. Hopefully it keeps giving us a little more good drama and a little less “childrens’ miracle network” crap.
Just finished watching the final espisode of Big C on Demand. Wow, what a tearjerker. Glad to hear it has been renewed. Still cannot believe that Marlene had to “die off” to further the series. Hopefully she will come back – as in the end of the final episode, in dreams or memories.
I love WEEDS ! ! I think it is a great show ! I cannot wait for season seven and to see how Nancy gets out of this one . I think all the characters are great together ! I love everyone on the show! looking forward to the new adventures of the Botwins !