Fall premiere dates for Shameless, Masters of Sex, and The Affair announced
Showtime has announced their fall premiere dates for Masters of Sex season 4 and The Affair season three while also revealing that Shameless will be coming back for its seventh season.
Masters of Sex will return on Sunday, September 11th at 10 p.m. ET/PT with Emmy and Golden Globe nominee Michael Sheen and Emmy nominee Lizzy Caplan as real-life pioneers of human sexuality, William Masters and Virginia Johnson. Masters of Sex also stars Caitlin FitzGerald and Tony Award winner Annaleigh Ashford. The season will begin in 1968, and will take viewers into the “swinging ‘70s” during which time our characters will take on new partners both professionally, personally and sexually. Masters of Sex was developed for television by Michelle Ashford (The Pacific) who also serves as an executive producer.
Though it just ended its sixth season in April, Shameless will be returning on Sunday, October 2nd at 9 p.m. ET/PT. The series stars Oscar nominee and Emmy winner William H. Macy and Golden Globe nominee Emmy Rossum, along with Jeremy Allen White, Ethan Cutkosky, Shanola Hampton, Steve Howey, Emma Kenney, Cameron Monaghan and Isidora Goreshter. When we last saw the Gallagher clan, they threw their narcissistic dad Frank (Macy) off a bridge into the Chicago River after he showed up high at Fiona’s (Rossum) wedding with a revelation that destroyed her happy ending. Based on the long-running hit U.K. series, Shameles is executive produced by Emmy Award winning television and film producer John Wells, Christopher Chulack, Nancy M. Pimental, Krista Vernoff, Etan Frankel and Sheila Callaghan.
Then, on November 20th at 10 p.m. ET/PT, the Golden Globe-winning hit drama series The Affair will make its debut. The Affair features Ruth Wilson in her Golden Globe-winning role as Alison, a young woman attempting to move on from tragedy and build a lasting relationship while contending with the judgment of others and her own self-doubt. Her lover Noah (Golden Globe nominee Dominic West) is a burgeoning writer trying to balance the temptations of success, the family he left behind, and the woman he loves. Noah’s former wife Helen (Emmy Award nominee Maura Tierney) is attempting to piece her life together while navigating divorce proceedings, care for her children, and her parents’ noxious influence. Screen Actors Guild nominee Joshua Jackson plays Cole, Alison’s former husband struggling to overcome past heartbreak and start a promising new life. At the conclusion of season two, the mystery of who killed Scotty Lockhart was finally solved when it was revealed that Helen (Maura Tierney) was at the wheel of the hit-and-run that killed him on the night of Cole’s (Joshua Jackson) wedding. To save Helen, his ex-wife and the mother of his children, Noah (Dominic West) confesses to the crime. Meanwhile, his new wife Alison (Ruth Wilson) is left to raise her daughter, whose father turns out to be Cole, Alison’s ex-husband.Award-winning playwright and writer/producer Sarah Treem (House of Cards, In Treatment) and Hagai Levi (In Treatment) created the series.
In addition, Showtime has confirmed that Homeland will shift from its regular slot in the fall to a winter premiere in January 2017. The series will return to the U.S. after spending the last two seasons shooting in South Africa and Berlin. Season six is set to begin production in New York starting in August. Homeland season six will once again star Emmy, Screen Actors Guild and Golden Globe Award winner Claire Danes, Emmy nominee Rupert Friend, Oscar winner and Emmy nominee F. Murray Abraham and Emmy and Tony Award winner Mandy Patinkin.
“We are proud that HOMELAND has been so consistently recognized for its excellence with awards and critical acclaim, but we are in awe of how the series fearlessly mines the geopolitics of our complicated world and translates that into compelling human drama,” said David Nevins, President and CEO, Showtime Networks Inc. “Under Alex Gansa’s brilliant leadership, HOMELAND has shown an uncanny ability to reinvent itself which makes us supremely confident that this show will remain as distinctive, relevant and cutting edge as anything on television for as long as these producers want to continue.”
After she thwarted a terrorist attack in Berlin, season six picks up several months later and finds Carrie Mathison (Danes) back on American soil, living in Brooklyn, NY. She has begun working at a foundation whose efforts are to provide aid to Muslims living in the United States. Season six will tackle the after effects of the U.S. presidential election, with the entire season taking place between election day and the inauguration. It’s a strange, transitional time in the halls of government filled with anxiety and different competing interests, where a very fragile and complex transfer of power takes place between the outgoing president and the incoming president-elect.
