(Photo: Skip Bolen/Showtime)
Michael Desiato is returning from the TV graveyard. Showtime has reversed an earlier decision and renewed the Your Honor TV series for a second season. Bryan Cranston will return to star in season two which will air in 2022.
The first season of the Your Honor TV series stars Cranston, Hunter Doohan, Michael Stuhlbarg, Hope Davis, Carmen Ejogo, Isiah Whitlock Jr., and Sofia Black-D’Elia, with guests Maura Tierney, Amy Landecker, Margo Martindale, Lorraine Toussaint, Chet Hanks, Lamar Johnson, and Lilli Kay. In the story, Michael Desiato (Cranston) is a highly-respected New Orleans judge whose personal and professional lives are turned upside down when his teenage son, Adam (Doohan), is involved in a hit-and-run. This leads to a high-stakes game of lies, deceit, and impossible choices for both of them. Meanwhile, Jimmy Baxter (Stuhlbarg) is the much-feared head of a crime family and the husband of Gina (Davis), who might be even more dangerous than her husband.
The first season of Your Honor averaged a 0.08 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 591,000 viewers. The series performed well for Showtime and was one of the cable channel’s top performers. It got off to a slow start in the traditional ratings (the premiere was released online early) but Your Honor showed significant growth over the course of the season.
The cable channel promoted Your Honor as a “limited series” which, these days, can indicate one or two things — that the story will be close-ended (ala a mini-series) or, that a season will have a limited number of episodes and could return for another season.
In this case, Showtime planned to keep Your Honor as a one-and-done series. A January press release noted that episode 10 was the end.
The ninth episode will air Sunday, February 7th at 10pm. The following Sunday, on February 14th at 10pm, the series concludes with the finale, directed by series star and executive producer Bryan Cranston.
Cranston was subsequently nominated for a “Best Actor in a Miniseries or Motion Picture – Television” Golden Globe, a further indication that a second season wasn’t planned.
Though the show seemed to have a firm resolution, Showtime has decided to revive Your Honor for a second season. It seems likely that the show’s ratings success might have played a role. Here’s Showtime’s announcement:
SHOWTIME(R) PICKS UP HIT SERIES “YOUR HONOR” FOR SECOND SEASON
Emmy(R) Winner Bryan Cranston To Return, With Premiere Targeted for 2022
First Season Broke Network Ratings Records
LOS ANGELES – August 24, 2021 – After breaking network viewership records with its debut, SHOWTIME has picked up a second season of the hit series YOUR HONOR, starring Oscar(R) nominee and Emmy, Screen Actors Guild(R) and Tony Award-winner Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) in his performance as Michael Desiato, a respected New Orleans judge whose teenage son is involved in a hit-and-run that leads to a high-stakes game of lies, deceit and impossible choices. BAFTA(R) winner Peter Moffat (The Night Of, Undercover) serves as showrunner, executive producer and writer of multiple episodes. Premiering as a limited series, the first season of YOUR HONOR was the most-watched debut season on SHOWTIME ever (6.6 million weekly viewers) and is currently the network’s most-watched series. Production on 10 episodes for the upcoming season is scheduled to resume next year for a 2022 return to the network. The announcement was made today by Gary Levine and Jana Winograde, Presidents of Entertainment, Showtime Networks Inc.
“We were blown away by YOUR HONOR … by the power of Peter’s storytelling, by the depth of Bryan’s performance, and by the overwhelming reaction from our subscribers who watched in record numbers,” said Levine. “Imagine our delight when we learned that Peter believed he had more story to tell and Bryan felt he had more depths to plumb. So, along with its millions of fans, I am gleefully shouting ‘Encore!’”
In addition to Moffat, the series is executive produced by Emmy nominees Robert and Michelle King (The Good Fight, The Good Wife, Evil) and Liz Glotzer (Evil, The Good Fight). Emmy-winning producer Cranston and Emmy-nominated producer James Degus (All the Way) executive produce the series for Moonshot Entertainment. Season one of YOUR HONOR starred SAG Award winner Michael Stuhlbarg (Call Me By Your Name) as Jimmy Baxter, the much-feared head of a crime family opposite Emmy and Golden Globe(R) nominee Hope Davis (Love Life, American Crime) as his wife, Gina, who might be even more dangerous than her husband. The first season of the series also starred Hunter Doohan (Truth Be Told), Carmen Ejogo (Selma), Isiah Whitlock Jr. (The Wire), and Sofia Black-D’Elia (The Night Of) and guest starred Maura Tierney (THE AFFAIR), Amy Landecker (Transparent), Emmy winner Margo Martindale (The Americans), Lorraine Toussaint (Orange Is the New Black), Benjamin Flores Jr. (The Haunted Hathaways), Chet Hanks (Empire), Lamar Johnson (The Hate You Give) and Lilli Kay (Chambers).
YOUR HONOR, produced by CBS Studios in association with KingSize Productions, is based on the Israeli series Kvodo created by Ron Ninio and Shlomo Mashiach. Rob Golenberg, Alon Aranya, Ninio, Mashiach, Ram Landes, Ron Eilon and Danna Stern also serve as executive producers.
SHOWTIME is currently available to subscribers via cable, DBS, and telco providers, and as a stand-alone streaming service through Amazon, Apple(R), Google, LG Smart TVs, Oculus Go, Roku(R), Samsung Smart TVs, Xbox One and PlayStation(R)4. Consumers can also subscribe to SHOWTIME via Amazon’s Prime Video Channels, Apple TV Channels, AT&T TV Now, FuboTV, Hulu, The Roku Channel, Sling TV and YouTube TV or directly at www.showtime.com.
What do you think? Did you like the Your Honor TV series? Will you be watching season two on Showtime?