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The pickup makes it one of the longest-running shows in the outlet’s history.
Showtime has ordered an eighth season of its drama The Chi, putting the show into rare company at the outlet.
The renewal comes on the heels of the season seven premiere scoring the show’s best streaming debut to date, as it drew 2 million views on Paramount+ With Showtime in the week after its May 16 debut. With the pickup, The Chi will join Dexter, Homeland and Weeds in a tie for the second longest-running scripted series in Showtime’s history. (Shameless, which ran for 11 seasons, is first.)
“Withtheseventh season ofTheChi, Lena Waithe raisedthebar creatively and it shattered viewership records, becomingthemost-watched season premiere intheshow’s history,” Paramount Global co-CEO and president of Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios Chris McCarthy said in a statement praising the show’s strong season seven debut. “Lena’s storytelling defies convention and cuts through cliché, revealingthedepth, power, and complexity of life ontheSouth Side ofChicago with fearless honesty.”
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The logline for season seven reads, “With Alicia (Lynn Whitfield) at the helm, the pivotal women ofThe Chirise to reclaim their power. Yet as loyalties are tested and new rivalries are stoked, it becomes clear that there’s only one crown and it will come at a heavy cost.”
Waithe created The Chi and executive produces via her Hillman Grad company. Co-showrunners Justin Hillian (Hillianaire Productions) and Jewel Coronel (Uncut Gems, Inc.) also executive produce along with Common, Aaron Kaplan, Rick Famuyiwa, Resheida Brady-Anderson, Derek Dudley and Shelby Stone of ID8 Multimedia and Hillman Grad’s Naomi Funabashi Rishi Rajani. Supervising producers Deondray Gossfield and Quincy LeNear Gossfield each directed multiple episodes this season. Disney’s 20th Television is the studio.
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