TNT Renews Leverage For A Third Season

TNT has renewed its fast-paced drama series Leverage, starring winner Timothy Hutton, Gina Bellman, Christian Kane, Beth Riesgraf and Aldis Hodge. The network has ordered 15 episodes of the series, which is currently in its second season, airing Wednesdays at 9:00 PM/ET. The show’s summer finale will air Wednesday, September 9. It will then return to complete the second season in winter, with the third season scheduled to air in summer 2010.

Leverage scored big in its first season, ranking as ad-supported cable’s #1 show in its timeslot with an average of 3.9 million viewers. The second season has averaged 4.1 million viewers* and ranks as ad-supported cable’s #1 Wednesday program in delivery of adults 25-54, viewers and households. The show is enjoying solid growth when compared to its first season, with viewers up 5% and households up 7%. Leverage scores tremendously well with DVR users, garnering an extraordinary 66% growth among adults 25-54 when comparing Live to Live + 7 viewing.

In Leverage, Hutton stars as Nate Ford, a former insurance investigator determined to bring down the kind of corrupt bigwigs whose neglect led to the death of his son. His team includes Sophie Devereaux (Bellman), a grifter who uses her acting skills to corner her marks; Eliot Spencer (Kane), a “retrieval specialist” with fighting skills; Alec Hardison (Hodge), a gadget and technology wizard who keeps the team connected and informed; and Parker (Riesgraf), a slightly off-center thief adept at rappelling off buildings or squeezing into tight places.

Leverage is executive-produced by Dean Devlin and creators John Rogers and Chris Downey. It comes from Devlin’s Electric Entertainment and is one of six original dramas that have populated TNT’s Monday-Wednesday lineup this summer. The six series, which include The Closer, Raising the Bar, HawthoRNe, Saving Grace and Dark Blue, are part of an aggressive TNT strategy to build a slate of quality original programming in primetime.