Shooter series delayed due to real shootings
USA Network is delaying the premiere of a new series starring Ryan Phillippe because of recent fatal shootings in Dallas and elsewhere.
Phillippe stars in Shooter, based on the 2007 film of the same name and Point of Impact, the Bob Lee Swagger novel by Stephen Hunter. Phillippe plays the fictional Swagger, a military veteran who is an expert marksman wrongly accused of a crime and trying to clear his name.
It was scheduled to premiere July 19 but has been postponed by a week to July 26.
The show has been picked up by Bravo in Canada but isn’t scheduled to air until the fall.
A statement released by USA Network says: “In light of recent tragic events and out of respect for the victims, their families and our viewers, we have decided to postpone the premiere date for the upcoming USA Network series Shooter.”
Last Thursday night in Dallas, former army reservist Micah Xavier Johnson fired on a crowd attending a march to peacefully protest fatal shootings in other cities. Johnson killed five police officers and wounded other law enforcement officers as well as civilians before he was killed by authorities. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation reported that one driver was killed and three others, including a police officer, wounded after a man shot randomly at people early Thursday at a Days Inn hotel in Bristol and at vehicles driving along Volunteer Parkway. And more recently, on Tuesday, two bailiffs were killed in a shooting in Berrien County, Mich.
The move by the cable network follows a similar move in June by TNT to postpone the Season 3 premiere of The Last Ship because of a scene that was too reminiscent of what happened at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla.
In 2015, USA delayed the Season 1 finale of Mr. Robot because of a graphic scene similar to real-life events broadcast on a Virginia TV station in which a reporter and cameraman were fatally shot.