Monday round-up: Latest news, deals & hires

Euphoria wraps after S3

HBO series Euphoria has ended after its third season, creator Sam Levinson has confirmed.

The show, whose third eight-part season came four years after its second, tracked teenagers as they depart high school to become adults leading increasingly complex lives. It was produced by HBO Entertainment and A24 among others.

Levinson told the New York Times: “In terms of the story that we set out to tell, which is a story about addiction and its consequences, this feels like the end to me.”

KSI exits The Sidemen

UK-based YouTube star KSI (Olajide Olatunji) is leaving his collective known as The Sidemen.

KSI broke the news with a YouTube post to his 18 million subscribers, adding that the decision was “completely my own.”

The Sideman confirmed his exit, adding that they had were saddened by his exit but have “lots of exciting stuff planned”.

KSI has been at the forefront of the merging worlds of YouTube, TV and streaming over recent years. He has been a judge on ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent, while The Sidemen shifted their reality show Inside from YouTube to Netflix for its second season.

Hat Trick hires BBC comedy chief

BBC comedy director Jon Petrie is leaving to join Derry Girls indie Hat Trick Productions.

He will leave the corporation in August to take up the role of creative director at the How to Get to Heaven from Belfast outfit.

Emma Lawson will step up as interim BBC director of comedy with immediate effect. 

Since joining the broadcaster in 2021, former Channel 4 commissioning editor Petrie has ordered hit shows including Amandaland, Black Ops, Death Valley, Ludwig, Small Prophets, Such Brave Girls, Things You Should Have Done, We Might Regret This and Hat Trick-produced Smoggie Queens. He has also overseen family sitcoms including Ghosts, Here We Go and Gavin and Stacey: The Finale. Read more

Wild Cherry sells into US, Canada & Europe

Paramount+ has picked up rights to BBC drama Wild Cherry in the US, Canada, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France and Latin America.

Wild Cherry follows a self-made businesswoman, Lorna, and her best friend, Juliet, who was born into a world of wealth and good fortune. The story tracks a shocking scandal involving the duo’s daughters.

It was produced by BBC Studios-owned Firebird Pictures and written and created by Nicôle Lecky, with Toby MacDonald (Extraordinary, Fifteen-Love) directing. Carmen Ejogo and Eve Best star, with BBCS handling sales.

It will stream exclusively on Paramount+ on 24 June.