‘Garfield’ Animated Series Ordered By Paramount+ With Lamorne Morris Voicing Famous Orange Cat

Garfield is making a TV return. Paramount+ has picked up a new original 2D-animated series featuring the iconic lasagna-loving orange cat, voiced by Emmy-winning actor-comedian Lamorne Morris (New Girl, Fargo).

Tentatively titled Garfield, the series, from Nickelodeon Animation Studios, is inspired by Jim Davis’ original comic strip and features the chonky feline at his finest, most sarcastic and lackadaisical. Dave H. Johnson (Middlemost Post) and John Trabbic III (SpongeBob SquarePants, Middlemost Post) serve as executive producers.

This pickup of Garfield, which is currently in production, brings to an end the project’s lengthy road to the screen. It started back in 2019 — two Paramount mergers and regimes ago — when Nickelodeon’s then-parent Viacom acquired the IP to the cartoon from owners Paws and announced the development of a new Garfield animated series.

Under the agreement, Paramount predecessor Viacom also took over managing the global merchandising rights to the property. Since then, the Garfield character has been integrated into the Paramount Products & Experiences portfolio across categories spanning apparel, toys, publishing, food, pets and more, including such Nickelodeon game franchises as All-Star Brawl and Kart Racers, in which the Mondays-loathing cat was voiced by Frank Welker.

Meanwhile, the animated series has taken awhile to come together, spending seven years in development and production.

It is the first Garfield animated series since Paws’ 2009 The Garfield Show, which ran for five seasons on Cartoon Network/Boomerang in the U.S. with Welker voicing the title character.

Separately, there is Alcon/Sony’s Garfield 3D CGI animation feature franchise with Chris Pratt as the voice of the tabby cat. The first film, The Garfield Movie, was released in 2024; plans for a sequel, with Pratt reprising his role were announced last year. It is moving forward.

Since its launch in 1978, Davis’ syndicated comic strip has chronicled the life of the eponymous cat, his owner Jon Arbuckle and Odie the dog, as well as various friends. The brand currently counts over 200 million daily comic readers and millions of social media followers.

Garfield marks the latest new series pickup at Paramount+ by the streamer’s new post Skydance-Paramount merger team led by Cindy Holland, Paramount’s Chair of Direct-to-Consumer, and Paramount+‘s Head of Originals Jane Wiseman.

In the kids and family space, it joins the recently ordered animated series The Elephant & Piggie Show! and The Pigeon Show! Starring the Pigeon from Mo Willems’ Hidden Pigeon Company.

From Nickelodeon Animated Studios, Paramount+ has the upcoming film The Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender, originally targeted for a theatrical release, and the 2D series Avatar: Seven Havens, ordered by Nickelodeon a year ago, both with Nick Animation banner Avatar Studios.

On the live-action side, over the last few months, Paramount+ has ordered legal drama Discretion starring Nicole Kidman and Elle Fanning, as well as limited series 9/12, headlined by Jeremy Strong, and Fear Not, starring Anne Hathaway. The streamer also formalized the pickup of Tulsa King spinoff Frisco King, toplined by Samuel L. Jackson, which had been in the works as NOLA King.

While original drama series is Paramount+’s focus on the live-action side, it plans to be opportunistic in unscripted, starting with the pickup this week of dating show Making Love. The streamer also has the upcoming four-part docuseries Made for March designed to complement CBS and Paramount+’s 2026 March Madness basketball coverage.

Morris has a history sharing the screen with a feline; his character on New Girl Winston Bishop was known for his close bond with his beloved cat, Ferguson.

An Emmy for his role on Season 5 of FX’s Fargo, Morris will next be seen starring opposite Nicolas Cage in Prime Video’s Spider-Noir and is currently in production on Jumanji 4. He also co-hosts The Lamorning After podcast with Kyle Shevrin and the New Girl rewatch podcast, The Mess Around, with former castmate Hannah Simone. Morris is repped by CAA, Entertainment 360 and Myman Greenspan.

MTV Is Becoming More Like E! Entertainment And That's Bad

Last year, Comcast spun off most of its cable networks such as CNBC and E! under the company, Versant. Leaving brands like NBC, Bravo and Telemundo alongside their studios and Peacock, their streaming service under NBCUniversal.

E! which serves as one of the few brands alongside CNBC to be distributed internationally by Versant has seen in declines across Europe in recent years. 

Since the spinoff was announced, NBCUniversal had begun phasing out of E! across its portfolio either by shutting down the channel as seen in the UK or replacing it with Bravo as seen in Africa.

Prior to this, E! had seen a major reduction in content as NBCUniversal axed E! News with Keeping Up With The Kardashians later revived on Disney+ as The Kardashians. Point being made is that these were one of their most stable brands.

It appears MTV is starting to make the same mistake cause following the acquisition of Paramount by Skydance Media. They've already cancelled 3 of their top shows like Ridiculousness, Catfish: The TV Show and Jersey Shore.

Similar to E! which was reliant on Bravo for The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills, Watch What Happens Live and Below Deck. MTV is doing the same with Caught In The Act: Unfaithful (VH1) and Ink Master (The Smithsonian Channel).

The problem part is that since Paramount's takeover there hasn't quite as yet been any word on new content for MTV.

Even if they were reports none can hold a candle to what Ridiculousness, Jersey Shore or even Catfish: The TV Show had to offer. Because of that any new production looking to rollout will likely be discarded by the loyal viewers.

For MTV, I think it's going to be a whole lot worse because they closed a bunch of their music channels around the world. In some of these markets like Africa, MTV Base was the top dog and gave the MTV trademark some bling.

MTV had a bunch of local shows like Guy Code and Ghosted SA and after Paramount Africa decided to shut it's operations which affected these shows it's basically become a European import.

Unlike E!, they probably won't be an ending where shows like Teen Mom and Help, I'm In A Secret Relationship breath new life.

Paramount is making a play for Warner Bros. Discovery and for all we know the company could divert it's attention from MTV onto TLC. Outside of CBS, Paramount's doesn't have a strong portfolio to leverage from.

The buyout of Warner Bros. Discovery could led to rationale process where MTV is not deemed core in its strategy. For NBCUniversal that is Bravo and for Warner Bros. Discovery that's TLC and compare these two with MTV it's clear whose weaker here.

Post the takeover, Paramount has been struggling to bring MTV back to its glory days. There's been talks for a while about making it an online only service where it would rival with Spotify but again you killed off this audience by closing your music channels.

Whoever was watching MTV Base or MTV Hits had already moved on and probably found alternatives that audience is not going to magically come back.

Did Canal+ Blow It With The HBO Deal On DStv?

Not long ago, it was reported that DStv and Showmax subscribers will be losing out on The White Lotus and House Of Dragons as Canal+ is slashing costs at MultiChoice. As a result, all this content is now going to be curated for streaming.

This means DStv customers would wait for the latter to rollout on HBO Max which might be available in South Africa within the year. It is likely to be added onto the Explora Ultra alongside Netflix and Disney+.

A lot was riding on getting this deal on the table, it wasn't only the future of The Sopranos on M-Net at stake but that of Cartoon Network. MultiChoice was open to replacing but the reality is there's no real alternative to any of Warner's cable networks.

Cartoon Network alone is responsible for 49% of kids viewing on DStv while Cartoonito is the top rated kids channel on the family package. A replacement will most definitely not be able to recoup the figures by those brands.

Same goes for TLC, TNT and CNN as they're ranked #1 in their respective fields on DStv. Several scenarios do however come into play for the fall of HBO and Warner Bros. on M-Net.

Firstly, Canal+ deemed those as non viable but their road on DStv is not up yet just how it will distributed going forward. If Netflix bid for Warner Bros. succeeds that's where it's likely to end up another as mentioned would be HBO Max.

Another has to deal with the decline of DStv, M-Net losing out on HBO will definitely lead some to end their subscription. But it wouldn't be as impactful or massive as the loss of 12 TV channels alongside the 4 closed by Paramount.

DStv Premium has been a sinking ship post the pandemic and even before Canal+'s acquisition of MultiChoice. M-Net can't fight the streaming wars it does however have the edge over Universal TV and Comedy Central in its primetime offering.

But a majority of people nowadays would rather watch these shows on Netflix then pay R1000 to get them on DStv. It's not M-Net's fault but rather one of the various setbacks to linear TV.

Is The 24 Hour WWE Channel Going Dark On DStv?

During the month, it was reported that WWE would be streaming on Netflix in April for viewers across Africa, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. This comes ahead of WrestleMania 42 which is scheduled to broadcast on April 18.

The question on some people's minds right now is about the fate of WWE on SuperSport. As it was understood, MultiChoice had an existing agreement which was scheduled or so we thought to expire in 2027 with the latter consolidated under Netflix.

But after Netflix sent notice to viewers, we reached out to them (even WWE) for further confirmation on the matter and this was their response.

 

Starting on 1 April 2026, WWE content will be exclusively available on Netflix.

SuperSport was asked several times about WWE's move to Netflix and whether this would lead to the removal of its content on SuperSport as well as the cancellation of the 24 hour channel and Jambo WWE.

First response: There's no confirmation at this stage 

Last response: No, it is not leaving 

During the year, MultiChoice widened the reach of the 24 hour WWE channel to its DStv Access consumers alongside Trace Gospel and Trace Ngoma. Canal+ Afrique currently distributes the WWE channel to consumers in French markets.

Canal+ Axes MultiChoice Streamer Showmax

Canal+, busy with aggressive cost-cutting since it recently acquired Africa’s MultiChoice pay-TV group, is shuttering its loss-making and money-guzzling video streaming service Showmax that MultiChoice ran in partnership with NBCUniversal.

Variety has reliably learnt that Showmax will definitely be shuttered “soon” although a specific date isn’t yet available given a few remaining legal implications Canal+ and MultiChoice are sorting out.

Canal+ and MultiChoice confirmed the end of Showmax to Variety, saying there will be a “discontinuation of the Showmax service, following a comprehensive review of its streaming activities.”

MultiChoice launched Showmax across Africa 11 years ago in August 2015 to compete with the advent of streamers like Netflix, Apple TV, Amazon’s Prime Video, Disney+ and others which all became available on the continent and started biting into MultiChoice’s legacy pay-TV subscriber base.

Two years ago, in February 2024, MultiChoice, in partnership with Comcast’s NBCUniversal, relaunched Showmax, utilizing the technology behind the Peacock streaming service.

Millions of dollars were poured into the retooling of Showmax’s IT-platform and on content spending to boost the pan-African streamer in its fight against Netflix but it ultimately proved fruitless.

MultiChoice and NBCUniversal roughly poured a combined $309 million in equity funding into Showmax to primarily fuel content creation, but nothing came of the aggressive growth and subscriber uptake targets MultiChoice executives had promised investors before it relaunched.

Looking to shave a combined 400 million euro by 2030 in cost-cutting, including content cuts from the combined Canal+ group, the underperforming and money-guzzling Showmax is the latest victim of Canal+’s rightsizing at MultiChoice.

NBCUniversal has a 30% stake in Showmax as a joint venture. In its last annual results before the Canal+ takeover, MultiChoice revealed that Showmax’s trading losses had worsened by 88% while revenue significantly declined.

According to the company, “The decision to axe Showmax was made by the Showmax board and reflects the continued focus of MultiChoice, a Canal+ company, on financial discipline and investment optimization, in an increasingly competitive and capital-intensive global streaming environment.”

Since Canal+, as part of its agreement to take over MultiChoice, isn’t allowed to get rid of any staff for a period of three years, MultiChoice won’t let any Showmax staff go but will reassign them to other positions within the broader company.

“The decision to discontinue Showmax services will not involve any retrenchments. The group will be engaging and supporting employees through various transition options,” it told Variety.

MultiChoice has already started to quietly rebrand Showmax Originals as Africa Magic, M-Net, kykNET and Mzansi Magic Originals, with original series that will transition to these various DStv linear TV channels on MultiChoice pay-TV platform.

Showmax’s closure comes two years after Amazon MGM Studios shocked Nigeria and South Africa’s creative community in January 2024 when it abruptly announced that it would immediately stop commissioning any new local original content in Africa, and also killed already-existing development deals with a dozen production companies.

In January, during an investors’ call, Maxime Saada, Canal+ CEO, said that Showmax was “not a commercial success” and that its failure as a streaming service was “quite obvious.”

Saada also said that a decision about Showmax’s future would be made soon and that a reduction in the Showmax budget, which has been a huge financial drain on MultiChoice, would contribute significantly to Canal+’s overall cost-cutting goals.

Canal+ says it will “continue to invest in premium content for MultiChoice subscribers, technological innovation and strategic partnerships to consolidate its leadership in the African entertainment market.”

“Further details regarding our expanded content offering and platform upgrades will be shared in due course. We want to reassure our Showmax subscribers that they are our priority as we evolve our services to deliver a superior streaming experience.”

In June, Canal+ and Netflix announced a strategic distribution agreement for Francophone Africa with a new partnership through which Canal+ became the first operator to bundle Netflix subscriptions into its traditional pay-TV offering across 24 Sub-Saharan African countries.

Insiders told Variety that instead of wasting further money through trying to compete with Showmax as a struggling stand-alone streamer, Canal+ is likely to expand its partnership and roll out this Netflix-bundling into the rest of Africa.

An award-winning South African director-producer who has made several series and films for MultiChoice under the Showmax banner, told Variety the end of Showmax is a sad day for South African filmmakers since it closes yet another avenue to showcase work and earn a living in an industry undergoing tumultuous change.

“Showmax was one of the only platforms available to us that was willing to back stories that were bold and authentic in a market that has traditionally always played things safe,” the filmmaker said.

“From ‘Koek’ to ‘Adulting,’ ‘Spinners’ to ‘Catch Me a Killer,’ ‘Khaki Fever’ to ‘Youngins,’ ‘Wyfie’ to ‘Dam,’ these are films and series which would never be created by rival platforms or broadcasters. Losing Showmax is a huge blow to the local industry and audiences, with Canal+ giving us very little to hope that they will fill that gap with anything of value.”

“If 2026 is the Year of the Horse, it feels like this one is getting sent to the factory to be turned into glue and cheap pies.”

Canal+ is scheduled to report its next set of financial results on March 11. This will be the first full-year combined results since the group took effective control of MultiChoice in September 2025.