Showtime is fast-tracking a dark comedy project starring Edie Falco says The Hollywood Reporter. The pilot is a single-camera comedy starring Falco as a strong-willed, iconoclastic New York City nurse juggling the frenzied grind of an urban hospital and an equally challenging personal life.
The pilot, co-produced by Showtime and Lionsgate TV, will go into pre-production immediately and will be shot in New York. The pilot was written by Evan Dunsky. Linda Wallem and Liz Brixius will serve as executive producers/show runners and writers. Caryn Mandabach is also an exec producer.
Showtime has ordered a third season of Brotherhood. The cable network has ordered eight more episodes of the gritty political/crime drama starring Jason Isaacs, Jason Clarke and Annabeth Gish. Despite its strong critical acclaim, which includes a 2007 Peabody Award, Brotherhood wasn’t a sure-thing for renewal because of its modest ratings. However, the drama showed growth airing behind Showtime’s breakout ratings hit Dexter in the fall. The Showtime record-setting November 18 episode of Dexter gave Brotherhood the series’ largest audience ever.
Showtime has greenlighted a second season of Big Brother: After Dark, an exclusive, live televised look inside corporate sibling CBS’ Big Brother house after the network primetime cameras have been turned off. Starting February 12, Big Brother: After Dark will feature a live feed from the Big Brother house on the cable network’s SHO2 multiplex channel.
TV Guide is reporting that CBS is bringing Showtime’s Dexter to broadcast TV on February 17. The first season of Dexter will air Sundays at 10pm. Dexter will become the first pay cable show ever to get a full-season broadcast run on CBS, as the network’s supply of scripted programs is being depleted by the WGA strike. Dexter stars Emmy-nominated Michael C. Hall as a Miami police forensics expert with an uncontrollable urge to kill. CBS will edit the 12 episodes of the first season to meet broadcast television content standards.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull will make its exclusive pay TV debut on Showtime under a deal with Paramount, Variety reported. The fourth Indy movie is the most high-profile of the Paramount movies that Showtime is negotiating to buy as part of a multiyear renewal of the current theatrical-output deal, which expires on December 31, the trade paper reported. Showtime may be taking its time on a new contract because it has the exclusive pay TV rights to all of Paramount’s movies released in 2007, which will play on the network throughout 2008 and into the first part of 2009.
Showtime is still high on Weeds. The premium cable network has renewed the comedy series for a fourth season, ordering 13 new episodes. The half-hour series, starring Mary-Louise Parker as a pot-dealing widowed mother in the suburbs, is targeted to go into production in April for a summer debut. Weeds ranks as Showtime’s most-watched original comedy series, with Season 3 currently outperforming the previous season by 19%, according to Nielsen Media Research. Season 3 also is Showtime’s most-watched original series among adults 18-34, a demographic coveted by advertisers.
Variety is reporting that Showtime has renewed Californication for a second season. Twelve additional episodes of the half-hour comedy have been ordered, with filming expected to start in April. After a strong debut last month Californication has impressed Showtime executives by adding viewers. Its last three Monday premiere telecasts have averaged 18% more viewers than the show’s August 13 debut, scoring Showtime’s best ratings for a new series since 2004. Most cable shows tend to premiere well and then lose viewers, making Californication’s performance all the more encouraging for Showtime.
Michael Ausiello is reporting that sometime Grey’s Anatomy surgeon Brooke Smith has scored a four-episode arc on Showtime’s comedy Weeds. The actress - also a fixture on the final season of Crossing Jordan — will play Valerie, the ballsy ex-wife of Martin Donovan’s Peter who strikes up a close kindred-spirit-esque friendship with Nancy (Mary-Louise Parker). She’ll first appear midway through the show’s third season, which debuts August. 13.
Variety is reporting that recent Criminal Minds bad guy Keith Carradine is joining Showtime’s Dexter as a series regular this coming season, playing an FBI agent snooping into a string of murders at the hands of Dexter, and also serving as a love interest for Dexter’s sister.
Peter O’Toole, a recent Oscar nominee for his work in Venus, will play Pope Paul III and thus square off against Jonathan Rhys Meyers’ Henry VIII in a VII-episode arc on Showtime’s The Tudors next season.