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Homeland won’t be the only long-running, signature Showtime series coming to an end in 2020. The network has picked up its comedy Shameless for its 11th and final season, which will air this summer.
Showtime entertainment president Gary Levine made the announcement today at the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour in Pasadena, Calif.
Shameless, which debuted in 2011, is Showtime’s most-watched comedy and has the youngest-skewing audience of any Showtime series. Its 10th season, which will wrap Jan. 26, has been averaging 5.7 million weekly viewers across all platforms.
The series received a huge audience bump after it began streaming on Netflix in 2017, following Season 7. The eighth season saw a 25% ratings jump on Showtime, averaging 8 million viewers weekly.
Shameless’s Netflix run “definitely helped introduce it to another audience,” said Showtime Networks CEO and chairman David Nevins—now also chief creative officer of CBS—told Adweek in 2018. It gave new life to a series that “had come to the end of its license period, and it was not necessarily going to come back for [Season 8].”
Unless Showtime breaks up Season 11 into two parts, Shameless will be Showtime’s second major series finale in 2020, following the Homeland finale on Sunday, April 26.
So Showtime spent its time at the winter press tour looking ahead to its next wave of shows that will help replace its departing stalwarts.
The network has renewed freshman series The L Word: Generation Q and Work in Progress, and set premiere dates for two new shows: The docuseries Vice will debut March 29 and Penny Dreadful: City of Angels will premiere April 26, following the Homeland finale.
As for its returning shows: Season 5 of Billions will debut Sunday, May 3; Black Monday will return for Season 2 on Sunday, March 15; and The Chi’s third season will premiere Sunday, July 5.
Showtime now has 27 million total subscribers, between its cable channel and OTT network (yesterday, CBS All Access said that Showtime’s OTT offering and CBS All Access have a combined 10 million-plus subscribers). It saw a 35% year-over-year increase in streaming customers, according to Showtime entertainment president Jana Winograde.
