FX Renews ‘Tyrant’ for Second Season

The troubled FX drama about Middle-Eastern politics has been renewed for a second season.

The 13-episode second season (in comparison to the 10 episodes of the first) should start filming this spring, with the premiere date set for next summer. That might change however, as they have not decided yet where they will be filming.

Despite critical backlash and production issues, Tyrant got generally positive audience reviews on websites like Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB. It was also dependable in its ratings with an average of 5.1 million total viewers each week, 2.3 million of which were received in the highly sought after 18-49 audience. The ratings also stayed the same from the first half of the season to the next.

Tyrant’s dependable ratings are even more impressive given all of the production issues. These included backouts from director Ang Lee, several writers, and even the creator. Having to film in three different countries due to political unrest, which is ironic since that is a major point in the show, all add up to very improbable odds. The show also faced problems from the Council of American-Islamic Relations, despite not having seen the first episode at the time. The show involved a panel of Middle-Eastern activists and scholars to help them with the culture very early on, but that apparently wasn’t enough for the panel.

The show centers on the son of a dictator of a fictional Middle-Eastern country. He returns after 20 years with his American wife to two kids, thrown back into the political issues that plagued his youth.

Do you think the show portrayed the Middle-Eastern culture accurately? What do you think of having an expanded season? Answers are welcomed in the comments.

Via: The Hollywood Reporter
Source(s): FX