USA Network postpones Shooter premiere in the wake of Dallas mass shooting

In another case of life imitating art (or was it the other way around?), USA Network has decided to postpone the series premiere of Shooter. Following the mass shooting that took place last week in Dallas, the show will not premiere on the originally scheduled July 19th, but one week later on the 26th. Check out Emily’s preview for the show here.

Shooter is based on the 2007 Mark Wahlberg movie. It stars Ryan Phillippe as Bob Swagger, an “expert marksman living in exile who is coaxed back into action after learning of a plot to kill the president”. Omar Epps co-stars as Secret Service agent Isaac Johnson, who was in the Marines together with Swagger and asks his assistance on a clandestine operation that ends very badly. The premiere episode boils down to a remake of the movie, but includes a shooting that is all too similar to the Dallas shooting.

“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 to July 26,” a spokesman for the network said.

This is the second time in a few weeks that the premiere of a show is postponed because it includes scenes reminiscent of harrowing real-life events. Just last month, the season 3 premiere of TNT’s The Last Ship was postponed. The main plot of that episode included a shootout in a Vietnamese nightclub, and it was scheduled to air just days after the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida.