Party Down has been canceled after just two seasons. The show, which airs on Starz, is a critical darling, but its lagging ratings barely qualify it for “cult favorite” status. It simply never caught on, and Starz’ executive vice president of programming, Stephan Shelanski, tells EW.com that Starz has “after careful consideration… decided not to continue with subsequent seasons of Party Down.”
In related news, the even lower-rated Gravity has also been canceled by the pay cable network.
Starz just keeps ordering new shows. Their latest is one you may have heard of.
The fourth season of Torchwood, the hot BBC spinoff of Doctor Who, is coming exclusively to Starz next summer. The ten-episode season will be a co-production between Starz, BBC Cymru Wales, and BBC Worldwide. BBC One will debut the third season in the U.K. at the same time.
Stars John Barrowman and Eve Myles will return, but with a new supporting cast. The show will take on a more international scope as well, venturing outside of Great Britain for adventures all over the world.
Torchwood is a dark science fiction thriller that focuses on a branch of the fictional Torchwood Institute that’s devoted to fending off extraterrestrial threats to Earth. It was created by Russell T. Davies, the man responsible for the 2005 revival of Doctor Who. (Davies has since moved on from Doctor Who, but remains the showrunner behind Torchwood.)
Starz continues to expand its portfolio of original programming, this time with a retelling of the legend of King Arthur. Camelot is scheduled to begin shooting in late June for a 10-episode series order. It’s slated to air in early 2011.
The network has just announced the main cast of Camelot, and it has a few names you might recognize. Joseph Fiennes stars as the wizard Merlin (and hey, was that was fast or what, right off the cancelation of FlashForward?), while Eva Green (Daniel Craig’s first “Bond girl,” Vesper Lynd) is his villainous foil, Morgana Le Fay. This marks Green’s first role for television.
Starring as Arthur is 21-year-old Jamie Campbell Bower, who’s following-up on a series of small parts in high-profile films such as Sweeney Todd, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, and the upcoming Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Newcomer Tamsin Egerton rounds out the cast as Guinevere.
After what Starz did with Spartacus, it should be interesting to see what they come up with in regards to King Arthur. How will it differentiate itself from other tellings of the Arthur legend? Can it stand out from the crowd, even from the BBC’s currently-running Merlin?
In light of star Andy Whitfield’s diagnosis of cancer, Spartacus: Blood and Sand has gone on an indefinite hiatus. But Starz hopes to continue the series’ popularity by launching a six-part prequel series.
Whitfield will make a cameo appearance in the prequel, but the storyline is said to center on the rise of the House of Batiatus, aka John Hannah’s Batiatus and his wife, Lucy Lawless’ Lucretia. Other characters are expected to return as well, but a new major character will be introduced as the gladiator who was champion of the House of Batiatus before Spartacus. No title has been settled on yet for the prequel, which is set to start production this summer in New Zealand.
Starz is hopeful that Whitfield will be able to return to the show sooner than later, reporting that the actor is responding well to his treatments for Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. Until his return, Starz plans to continue expanding what it calls “the Spartacus franchise” in creative ways.
