Showtime has decided to move forward with a new season of The Circus. The political series faced an uncertain future after its co-host Mark Halperin was dropped amid multiple allegations of sexual misconduct.
The show will move forward with “CBS This Morning Saturday” co-anchor Alex Wagner joining longtime hosts John Heilemann and Mark McKinnon. The news was first reported by the New York Times Tuesday evening.
“No one co-host was irreplaceable,” McKinnon told the Times. “Everybody said, ‘We want the show to go on.’ We’re going to let the dust settle, and the dust settled.”
Reps for Showtime did not immediately respond to request for comment from TheWrap. The decision roughly tracks a previous statement from the network issued in October saying they were holding out the possibility of continuing the show without Halperin.
New episodes will begin in April.
The veteran political reporter and MSNBC contributor saw his career implode in October after CNN published multiple accounts of sexual harassment and assault, while Halperin worked as political director at ABC News more than a decade earlier.
In just days, he was dropped from MSNBC, including a very prominent perch at “Morning Joe,” and from “The Circus.” A book deal with Penguin Press was also scuttled.
Halperin has mostly stayed out of the spotlight since his public humiliation. His last tweet, a lengthy statement of apology, was on October 27, 2017.
Please read my statement below. pic.twitter.com/8ld8k8DC6O
— Mark Halperin (@MarkHalperin) October 27, 2017