The Following

BLOOD, LOVE & BACKROOM BODIES: THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE FOLLOWING

Serial killers on screen, real‑world drama off it. Kevin Bacon’s cult thriller left a trail of controversy, career shakeups, and one very messy post-show scandal. Grab your Edgar Allan Poe mask; we’re going in.

Cast Romance, Divorce Drama & A Felony Arrest

• Set romance turns sour. While Joe Carroll’s disciples were stabbing their way across America, two of them were quietly falling in love: Valorie Curry (Emma) and Sam Underwood (twin psychos Mark/Luke) later confirmed their off-screen relationship and married in 2016 after meeting on the show .
• The split nobody saw coming. The killer couple separated in 2022 and their divorce was finalized in April 2023, ending the fandom’s favorite “cult ship” in very un-romantic fashion ^[1].
• **Then came the real headlines.** In October 2023, Underwood was arrested in L.A. on suspicion of felony domestic battery after police reportedly found “visible marks” on a woman’s body. He was booked, spent around 10 hours in custody, and was later released .
• Valorie’s quick clarification. Gossip mill went into overdrive, but Curry publicly confirmed she was not the victim and had already divorced him, distancing herself from the incident while outlets like Just Jared and People happily connected the dots back to their Following origins ^[2][3].

Behind the Camera: Creator Walkouts & Showrunner Shakeups

• Kevin Williamson ghosts his own cult. The Scream and Vampire Diaries mastermind launched The Following… then left it. Between seasons 2 and 3 he stepped away to focus on his CBS thriller Stalker, leaving Fox’s bloody baby without its original architect .
• Showrunner in, showrunner out. In June 2014, Jennifer Johnson took over as showrunner. By August—barely three months later—she was gone. Industry reports say her “sensibilities” were a bad fit for the show’s brutal tone, so Warner Bros. and Fox swapped her out, promoting Brett Mahoney and Alexi Hawley to co‑showrunners while director Marcos Siega held the visual reins .
• Translation: creative tug‑of‑war behind the scenes while Joe Carroll’s cult was falling apart on screen. No public screaming match, but a very loud “this isn’t working” in executive-speak.

Violence, Outrage & Fox’s Problem Child

• Too sadistic for primetime? Media critics and advocacy-minded columnists called out the series for its repeated, graphic killings—especially of women—and wondered if Fox had finally crossed the line into pure sadism. One analysis bluntly asked whether the show was “too sadistic for its own good,” pointing to its fixation on butchered female victims and lingering on their fates .
• The creator fights back. Kevin Williamson pushed back at claims that he was just splashing blood around for fun: “It’s a thriller, of course, but some people seem to be very much focused on the violence… I don’t write the show for the violence,” he insisted, saying he’d be “sad” if that’s all people took from it .
• Cast closes ranks. Coverage noted Kevin Bacon and James Purefoy publicly defending the series, arguing that the violence served the story and wasn’t just gore for ratings ^[9].

Joe Carroll’s Real-Life Killer DNA

• Purefoy goes full method… into a murder rabbit hole. To get into Joe Carroll’s head, James Purefoy locked himself in a room in Santa Monica for 16 hours a day for a week, binging every serial‑killer and cult‑leader documentary and interview he could find . Sleep? Overrated.
• Built from real monsters. Purefoy has admitted Carroll is based on “a handful” of real serial killers, both dead and alive. He name‑checks Ted Bundy—charming, well-dressed, “three‑piece gray flannel, beautiful ties, great hair, great smile”—as one blueprint, but refuses to name the others ^[10].
• Three of them are still alive. He’s said one is in England and two are in the U.S., and he deliberately keeps their names secret because serial killers are “the most narcissistic, egocentric maniacs” and he doesn’t want them thinking, “hey, that’s me on the screen” ^[10].
• The director confirms the horror homework. Executive producer/director Marcos Siega called Carroll a “hybrid” inspired by real murderers and admitted they lifted elements of real cases for some of the show’s more brutal set-pieces—then sometimes toned them down because the truth was too unbelievable for TV ^[11].

The Long, Bloody Road to Cancellation

• From “must‑watch” to “maybe not.” The show premiered huge, partly on the back of its shock value. But as seasons wore on—and behind-the-scenes leadership changed—ratings slid and critics complained the violence had become numbing rather than thrilling .
• Fox pulls the plug. In 2015, after three seasons, Fox announced The Following’s death sentence. The Hollywood Reporter highlighted not just the audience decline but also how the series’ graphic violence had grabbed more headlines than its later storylines ^[7].
• A failed resurrection. Warner Bros. TV quietly shopped the series to Hulu, hoping a streaming cult would sustain the on-screen cult. According to industry reports, Hulu wasn’t biting, and the show was left in a shallow network grave ^[7].

Bacon & Purefoy: Frenemies With Benefits

• On-screen enemies, off-screen admiration. While fans fantasized about Ryan Hardy and Joe Carroll strangling each other, Purefoy was out there gushing. “Doing scenes with Kevin is like playing tennis with someone better than you. It raises your game,” he said, painting their scenes as more Wimbledon than war ^[10].
• No real feud, just really good TV. Despite the show’s darkness, there’s no credible report of a Bacon–Purefoy bust‑up—only interviews full of mutual respect and a lot of joking about how far they could push the cat‑and‑mouse dynamic ^[10][11]. Sometimes the juiciest twist is that everyone actually got along.