The people at Starz have changed their minds about moving forward with Dangerous Liaisons. Last month, it was reported that the series had been renewed for season 2 ahead of the show’s premiere. Six episodes into the first season, however, Deadline reports that Starz has now canceled the series. The remaining episodes of the show’s eight-episode freshman season will air as scheduled with the finale premiering on Jan. 1, 2023.

Not all hope is lost for fans wanting to see a second season, as the team behind the show is reportedly shopping it around to other possible homes. Perhaps it will fare better outside of Starz, where its viewership numbers weren’t impressive. It premiered with a 0.03 rating in the key 18-49 demo with 88,000 total viewers. Viewership had fallen to 0.02 with 52,000 viewers by the end of the month. The report notes that Dangerous Liaisons was expected to pull in most of its viewership through the Starz app, and while those numbers haven’t been revealed, they must not be as high as what was expected.

When the show was renewed, it was described by Starz head of original programming Kathryn Busby as an “addictive, provocative, and beautifully rendered” TV show. Noting that they saw great potential in the series, which isn’t working out so well now, Busby also said that Starz was “confident that by the end of season 1, viewers will be craving more scheming and seduction.”

On where season 2 would have gone, executive producer Colin Callender also teased, “We’re very excited to share Harriet Warner’s brilliant vision for season 2, which will see our world expand and the relationships between our characters deepen in thrilling, dangerous new ways.”

Dangerous Liaisons Won’t Move Forward at Starz

     Starz

The series is based on the novel of the same name by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, and Harriet Warner developed the TV series adaptation for Starz. Warner and Callendar executive produce with Tony Krantz, Bethan Jones, Scott Huff, and Christopher Hampton. Dangerous Liaisons stars Nicholas Denton, Alice Englert, Hakeem Kae-Kazim, Hilton Pelser, Kosar Ali, Nathanael Saleh, Paloma Faith, and Maria Friedman.

The official logline for the series reads:

The penultimate episode of Dangerous Liaisons will premiere on Dec. 18 followed by the season finale, which will serve as the series finale if the show isn’t picked up elsewhere, debuting on Jan. 1, 2023.