#Here’s when Showtime plans to air ‘The Comey Rule’

By Rebecca Iannucci, TV Line

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Jeff Daniels as James Comey in Showtime’s “The Comey Rule.”
Courtesy of CBS Television Studios/SHOWTIME

It’s official: Showtime’s James Comey-Donald Trump miniseries will premiere well before voters head to the polls on Election Day.

“The Comey Rule,” initially slated to debut in late November, will now air on Sunday, Sept. 27, and Monday, Sept. 28, at 9/8c, the premium cabler announced Wednesday.

The scheduling move comes in the wake of criticism from series writer and director Billy Ray, who had expressed disappointment that “The Comey Rule would air” after the 2020 presidential election on Nov. 3. “We all were hoping to get this story in front of the American people months before the coming election,” Ray wrote in an email to his cast members, adding that “word started drifting back to me that a decision about our airdate had been made at the very highest levels of Viacom: All talk of our airing before the election was suddenly a ‘non-starter.’”

Earlier this week, a Showtime spokeswoman told The New York Times that “several changes to our schedule” were on the horizon, including a “likely” pre-Election Day move for “The Comey Rule.”

Based on Comey’s bestselling memoir “A Higher Loyalty,” the four-hour mini stars Jeff Daniels (“The Newsroom”) and Brendan Gleeson (“Mr. Mercedes”) as former FBI Director Comey and President Donald Trump, respectively. Per its official synopsis, “The Comey Rule” is “an immersive, behind-the-headlines account of the historically turbulent events surrounding the 2016 presidential election and its aftermath, which divided a nation.”

In other Showtime scheduling news, Ethan Hawke’s “The Good Lord Bird” has been pushed back nearly two months to Sunday, Oct. 4, with the docuseries “The Comedy Store” bowing that same night. “The Reagans,” a four-part docuseries about Nancy Reagan’s role in that White House, will premiere Sunday, Nov. 15; and R.J. Cutler’s John Belushi documentary will air Sunday, Nov. 22. Also, “We Hunt Together,” a six-episode, cat-and-mouse drama from BBC Studios, will premiere Sunday, Aug. 9.