E! is saying goodbye to its last scripted series in the wake of a sexual harassment scandal involving its creator.
According to TVLine, E! has cancelled The Royals after four seasons. The fate of the series — which stars Elizabeth Hurley as the fictional British royal Queen Helena — was up in the air following the firing of showrunner Mark Schwahn.
A spokesperson for E! told Refinery29 of the cancelation:
"E! will not be moving forward with another season of The Royals, which launched in 2015 as the network’s first original scripted series. Over four seasons, The Royals took viewers behind the palace gates on a scandalous journey filled with twists and turns. We are grateful to the cast and our producing partners at Lionsgate and Universal Cable Productions."
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In November of 2017, Schwahn came under fire after Audrey Wauchope, a writer on Schwahn's previous series One Tree Hill, tweeted about his bad behaviour while working on the CW drama. After Wauchope's tweets went viral, crew members and stars on the series — including its women leads Bethany Joy Lenz, Sophia Bush and Hilarie Burton — published an open letter in Variety detailing allegations of harassment against Schwahn.
Shortly after the One Tree Hill letter was published, the women cast and crew members on The Royals also made public allegations of sexual misconduct in their own statement to Variety.
In December of 2017, E! investigated the claims against Schwahn and opted to fire him from the series.
Despite the cancellation, there still might be some good news on the horizon for fans of The Royals. According to Deadline, it's possible that the series will continue on Pop, E!'s sister network.
Until then: At least we can still count on E! to keep us updated with America's royal family, the Kardashians.
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