David Nevins, who was a producer for “Arrested Development,” “Friday Night Lights” and “24,” is now president and CEO of the premium cable channel Showtime, which has racked up recent hits like “Homeland” and “The Affair” – and “The Circus,” its slickly packaged documentary series on the 2016 presidential race. It’s too early to say what the future holds for Circus stars Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, he told us, but bragged that the show had broken through with some big-name fans, including Tim Kaine and Kamala Harris. On Nov. 8, Showtime is airing “Stephen Colbert’s Live Election Night -- Democracy’s Series Finale: Who’s Going To Clean Up This Sh*t?” Nevins also previewed the next season of “Homeland,” premiering in January, which focuses on the conflict that can arise over covert actions between the end of a presidency and the start of a new one. Excerpts:

Scriptwriters are more political these days: “[W]e are [getting more political scripts]. There are a lot of political things in the air. I’ve seen a lot of things that deal with the divided political landscape and the sharp division between right and left is influencing script-writers. The new awareness of cyberwarfare and cybercrime and meddling in our political system [was] in significant ways the subject matter of last season’s ‘Homeland’ and is going to be touched on again in ‘Homeland’ this year. And that’s the subject of ‘Zero Days’, which we actually rushed: Alex Gibney, who is one of the great documentarians, looks at the recent history of cyberwarfare from Stuxnet to the present. ... It premieres November 5 ... [and I] think it’s likely to be an Oscar contender this year.”

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More important than ever for the channel to feel ‘current’: “There are more ways for people to buy us and watch us. And it’s made being current important. And politics is a way for us to be more current. Our shows tend to have a zeitgeist feel to them in the way that ‘Billions’ is very much about the current climate in the New York power structure or ‘Homeland’ is very much about the current climate in the national security structure. And both shows make great effort to be current and I think given the newer ways to consume us, currency and being part of the daily conversation is at a premium and is really valuable. Attention spans are shorter and it’s easier to turn us on and easier to turn us off. It’s easy to sign up and easy to cancel so we need to stay relevant to our subscribers.”

TV shows now get rewarded for quality: “Demand is still there and you generally get rewarded for making the good stuff. That wasn’t always the case in television, so I see no reason why the wave of improving narrative content can crash. There is demand and television is driving the culture more than ever, and scripted television is driving the culture more than any other form of story-telling. ... It’s not so easy to get adults to leave their home to watch movies.”

‘The Circus’ exceeded his expectations: The show is “getting viewership way beyond what I expected. I expected the show to be pretty niche but it’s turned out to be a very sticky audience show, getting a little over a million viewers a week, which for a documentary show is kind of amazing. ... For a Showtime show, we found it to be a pretty all-family show. ... It ended up being pretty significantly different from the pundit shows on basic cable or the news highlights that you get on the evening news. It’s giving you a sort of high-energy, behind-the-scenes [look at] the process and personality of picking a president, and that’s turned out to be really unique.”

Mark Halperin/John Heilemann’s future at Showtime up in the air: “It remains to be seen. I have no hold of them but I think they’ve turned into real stars for us. ... I don’t think anybody else is really doing it in the same way that we are, of documentary programming that is must-see among the Washington press corps. I think that’s a new thing and I think it’s going to continue. ... If you go backstage at the debate, that whole room is watching the Circus. And that’s a new phenomenon. And politicians are watching the Circus too. ... Tim Kaine and Kamala Harris have claimed to be devoted fans of the Circus.”

Sneak peek of next season of “Homeland”: “Homeland this year is dealing with the transition of presidential power and fundamentally about the 70 days between the election of a president and the swearing in of the president and how the transition team and the national security briefings to the president elect and what happens when there’s conflict about ongoing covert actions. So it’s very much about where the country will be when the show airs in January.”

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