Starz has picked up an additional season of the Golden Globe®-nominated STARZ Original series Outlander from executive producer Ronald D. Moore and Sony Pictures Television. Matthew B. Roberts will continue as showrunner. Adapted from Diana Gabaldon’s international bestselling book, Starz has committed to this 12-episode order for Outlander, assuring the hit time-travel saga will run a seventh season.
Season seven of the hit series will be based on the seventh of the eight books in the "Outlander" series, entitled "An Echo in the Bone."
“Starz is committed to investing in unapologetic, bold premium storytelling that amplifies diverse voices and shines a spotlight on women in front of and behind the camera through our #TakeTheLead initiative,” said Christina Davis, president of Original Programming for Starz. “The hit series Outlander embodies everything about our initiative including a powerful female lead character and an amazing team of storytellers. We look forward to following the adventures of Claire and Jamie in America during the Revolution as well as more time travel during this next season.”
“We are so excited Starz has given us the opportunity to continue the epic Outlander journey,” said Roberts. “We can’t wait to get into the writer’s room and start breaking 'Echo in the Bone' and look forward to giving the fans another season of this exhilarating story.”
Moore, Roberts, Maril Davis, Toni Graphia, Andy Harries and Jim Kohlberg will executive produce. Caitriona Balfe (Claire Randall Fraser), Sam Heughan (Jamie Fraser), Sophie Skelton (Brianna Randall) and Richard Rankin (Roger Wakefield), who are currently filming the sixth season of Outlander in Scotland, will return for the seventh season.
Heughan (Bloodshot, The Spy Who Dumped Me) can currently be seen in Men in Kilts: A Roadtrip with Sam and Graham on Sunday nights at 8:00PM ET/PT on STARZ. The eight-episode docuseries follows Heughan and Outlander star Graham McTavish (Preacher, The Hobbit trilogy) on an epic adventure through Scotland, as they explore their heritage while meeting an incredible collection of people who truly showcase what it means to be Scottish.
“Men in Kilts has given fans desperate for the end of Droughtlander relief by featuring Outlander clips within the travel docuseries. The series premiere episode was the second-highest series premiere viewed on the STARZ app1 and the #1 most social premium cable series across all live, new primetime episodes on February 14. Men in Kilts was a Top 3 series season premiere on STARZ since the beginning of 20202 with Outlander taking the #1 spot for regular premium scripted series among women viewers in 2020.3
The critically-acclaimed fifth season of Outlander drew a series high 6.7 million multiplatform viewers per episode, while averaging 5.7 million multiplatform viewers for all five seasons. Outlander has been a Top 5-rated scripted series on cable with women each of the last four years.5
The Outlander television series is inspired by Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series that has sold an estimated 50 million copies worldwide, with all of the books gracing the New York Times best-seller list. The Outlander television series has become a worldwide success with audiences, spanning the genres of history, science fiction, romance and adventure in one amazing tale.
Outlander is produced by Tall Ship Productions, Left Bank Pictures and Story Mining & Supply Company, in association with Sony Pictures Television.
Starz recently launched its #TakeTheLead initiative, the company’s comprehensive effort to deepen its existing commitment to narratives by, about and for women and underrepresented audiences.
Ex-OpenAI engineer who raised legal concerns about the technology he helped build has died
Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI engineer and whistleblower who helped train the artificial intelligence systems behind ChatGPT and later said he believed those practices violated copyright law, has died, according to his parents and San Francisco officials. He was 26.
Balaji worked at OpenAI for nearly four years before quitting in August. He was well-regarded by colleagues at the San Francisco company, where a co-founder this week called him one of OpenAI's strongest contributors who was essential to developing some of its products.
"We are devastated to learn of this incredibly sad news and our hearts go out to Suchir's loved ones during this difficult time," said a statement from OpenAI.
Balaji was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on Nov. 26 in what police said "appeared to be a suicide. No evidence of foul play was found during the initial investigation." The city's chief medical examiner's office confirmed the manner of death to be suicide.
His parents Poornima Ramarao and Balaji Ramamurthy said they are still seeking answers, describing their son as a "happy, smart and brave young man" who loved to hike and recently returned from a trip with friends.
Balaji grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and first arrived at the fledgling AI research lab for a 2018 summer internship while studying computer science at the University of California, Berkeley. He returned a few years later to work at OpenAI, where one of his first projects, called WebGPT, helped pave the way for ChatGPT.
"Suchir's contributions to this project were essential, and it wouldn't have succeeded without him," said OpenAI co-founder John Schulman in a social media post memorializing Balaji. Schulman, who recruited Balaji to his team, said what... Read More