Showtime Orders Final Season of ‘The Tudors’

Showtime’s The Tudors has been renewed for a fourth and final season according to Variety. The series’ third season launched just two weeks ago and comes in the wake of the premium channels’ decision not to buy four new series. Showtime did not launch a new series in 2008 and the pressure is on to launch successful projects in order to grow and remain competitive with HBO and Starz.

Jonathan Rhys Myers returns as King Henry VIII for the final ten episodes which will shoot in Dublin starting in June and air next spring. Creator/showrunner Michael Hirst will be writing all the scripts as he has for the previous thirty installments.

The third season opened April 5 and the ratings showed a cumulative audience of 1.3 million once all airings were totaled. The first two seasons, which we positively reviewed, are available on DVD.