Showtime has announced today that its critically acclaimed series “The Borgias” will come to an end later this month after three seasons.
A portrait of one of historys most infamous dynastic families, “The Borgias” is created by Academy Award-winner and Emmy nominee Neil Jordan (The Crying Game, Interview with the Vampire). The series’ final episode will air on Sunday, June 16th at 10 p.m. ET/PT.
The expansive drama series stars Oscar winner Jeremy Irons in his Golden Globe-nominated role as Pope Alexander VI, the cunning, manipulative patriarch of the infamous Borgia dynasty, who builds an empire by bribing, buying and muscling his way into the papacy. “The Borgias” cast also includes François Arnaud, Holliday Grainger, Joanne Whalley, Lotte Verbeek, Sean Harris, Thure Lindhart, Gina McKee, Peter Sullivan, Julian Bleach and Colm Feore.
“It has been an honor to work with the great Neil Jordan and the incomparable Jeremy Irons on ‘The Borgias’,” said David Nevins, President of Entertainment, Showtime Networks Inc. “Neil has written nearly every episode of this series himself. His extraordinary storytelling combined with Jeremy’s fascinating portrayal of the infamous Pope Alexander VI, has made for truly outstanding television that will live on. I look forward to future collaborations.”
I never thought I would make a cable series and have enjoyed every minute of it, said series creator and executive producer Jordan. For a variety of reasons we wont be doing a fourth season, but, The Prince [the final episode], when I wrote it and shot it, did seem like the end of a journey for the family. Whatever bonded them as a family dies in this episode, and the center of the drama for me was always the family. I want to thank Showtime and David Nevins for their unstinting support over the last three years, and look forward to working with them in the future.
Filmed entirely on location in Budapest, the series’ final episode finds Alexander (Irons) and Cesare (Arnaud) reconciled at last, and now ready to take their first step towards their ultimate goal: to create a hereditary kingdom across the heart of Italy. Cesare marches his fearsome army to lay siege to enemy Catherina Sforzas (Gina McKee) castle at Forli. Later, back in Rome, Cesare is embroiled in a brutal scuffle with Lucrezias (Grainger) husband Alfonso, who as a result, is now dying a slow and painful death over the subsequent days. Devastated, Lucrezia turns to her potions to end his life painlessly, with Cesare vowing that now she will be his for good.
Season-to-date, “The Borgias” averages 2.4 million weekly viewers across platforms, on par with its sophomore season through the same time frame, with its most recent eighth episode delivering the series highest-rated episode and night this season. In addition to Irons’ Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by a Television Actor in a Drama, the series has earned a total of 10 Emmy nominations to-date, earning two awards in its second season for Outstanding Costumes and Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music.
Jordan serves as executive producer, writer and director of select episodes. The third season is also executive produced by Jack Rapke, Darryl Frank, John Weber, Sheila Hockin and James Flynn. “The Borgias” is a Canadian-Irish-Hungarian Treaty co-production.
