Showtime News By: Valerie Milano – Pasadena, CA (Hollywood Today) 1/12/12

On Thursday, the Television Critics Association hosted the Showtime executive panel featuring president of entertainment at Showtime David Nevins.

Nevins began the Q&A by discussing where Showtime’s programming currently stands. “We’ve launched six successful freshman series in a row,” he said. “The year-end has been punctuated by a real swell of attention for Homeland, which is our highest-rated freshman series ever.” Nevins also reiterated Showtime’s announcement that they will bring back Dexter for two more seasons. For which, they gave “Dexter” coffee mugs to most of the journalists.

He celebrated Showtime’s success with Golden Globes nominations by mentioning the channel’s eight nominations spread over five series. “We’re tied for the most series nominations of any network, cable or broadcast,” he said.

Looking ahead, Nevins spoke on the highlights of 2012 so far. “We’ve just premiered House of Lies, Shameless

Showtime topper David Nevins stressed the premium cable network's relevance when it comes to original programming, noting there's a "huge opportunity to challenge the world that we live in." He stressed the timeliness of the network's programming -- including Homeland and House of Lies -- as what distinguishes the network, while previewing what's to come on Episodes and Nurse Jackie. Panels for Shameless, docuseries Inside Comedy and a pair of panels supporting youth-skewing sibling network the CW were among the highlights from Thursday's Television Critics Association's winter press tour.

and Californication this past Sunday to really great numbers,” he began. “In sports, we’re deep in conversations with Major League Baseball about Season 2 of The Franchise.” Continuing to discuss sports, Nevins mentioned the announcement of a new show with Jim Rome.

Moving on to documentaries, Nevins confirmed that Showtime is doing a documentary about Dick Cheney. Nevins also added, “Antoine Fuqua, was the great director of Training Day, is in the midst of shooting what promises to be a very revealing film about Suge Knight. And I’m also working in the latter stages of putting together a very intriguing documentary about Richard Pryor with Marina Zenovich, who directed the very memorable film about Roman Polanski.”

April 8, according to Nevins, brings the premieres of Nurse Jackie, Big C and The Borgias.

During the question-and-answer portion of the session, Nevins addressed the possible negative reactions to Dexter’s subplot of a therapist encouraging Debra to date her adopted brother by responding, “I don’t know that she was encouraging them to date. She was encouraging Debra to confront it, and that’s a story that will continue next season.” He continued, “I’m aware that there’s a certain taboo, despite the fact that they’re not genetically related. Absolutely. but it’s something that has been building for a number of years, I think. And if you go back, and you look at the last couple seasons, it’s an idea that has informed how they’ve done the show for a long time. And I definitely dispute that she was encouraging them to date, but she did want Debra to start to deal with it, confront it, and that led to the big reveal at the end of the season.”

Defending House of Lies, Nevins stated, “We’re not really about taking the sanctimonious obvious route to confront those issues of income disparity, but I think it’s got very interesting things to say with how businesses run, and ultimately it’s a comedy about everything that’s messed up in American capitalism, and that’s the subject of the show.”

Arguing against the statement that all of Showtime’s main characters are unlikeable, Nevins defended, “I dispute the fact that all our lead characters are unlikable. I think people really like Hank Moody. They really like Jackie. They really like Laura Linney. I think people really like Don Cheadle. The people who are going to like that show are really going to like Marty Kahn. And they’re going to understand them.” He continued, “We don’t show totally clean, pristine characters, but I think people come to us looking for challenging characters and challenging situations. If you really don’t like our characters, you’re not going to like the show. So the people who are watching clearly like the main characters. And we do actually think about that. My goal is not unlikability. But also to me, the enemy is boredom, and the enemy is predictability. So if you’re finding it too predictable, then it’s time to change.”

Given the success of The Borgias, Nevins allowed, “I would anticipate multiple seasons.” Nevins also dismissed the notion that Nurse Jackie is facing its last season, concluding by stating, “So we’ll see what happens this season and then make decisions. But I think I believe there’s life.”

 Another show that Nevins touted is Episodes, which he described as having real potential. Nevins explained, “We’ve got top comedy writers writing at the top of their game. The show is much more ensemble. It’s got many more things cooking in it. And I didn’t expect it to get embraced so quickly, first the Emmys, now the Golden Globes. And I think audiences are just beginning to understand what it is.” Nevins concluded the session with this teaser for Homeland: “Here’s one thing I’ll say about that I know will be central in Homeland next year: Brody and Carrie have only just begun, and there’s an enormous amount unresolved. And I know that, one way or the other, that will be a central issue in Season 2.”