Showtime Announces January 2014 Premiere Schedule, Introduces Live East and West Coast Feeds

Showtime made a number of announced at Tuesday's Television Critics Association press event. Check out a roundup below:

Showtime Announces January 2014 Premiere Schedule

A good 'Friend' will help Showtime celebrate the New Year: beginning Sunday, January 12th, EPISODES, starring Golden Globe winner Matt LeBlanc, will join SHAMELESS and HOUSE OF LIES in the network's prime Sunday programming block. The fourth season of SHAMELESS, starring William H. Macy and Emmy Rossum, will kick off the night at 9:00 pm ET/PT, followed at 10:00 pm by the third seasons of HOUSE OF LIES, starring Don Cheadle and Kristen Bell, and EPISODES at 10:30 pm. The seventh season of CALIFORNICATION will premiere in the spring, along with the sixth season of NURSE JACKIE.

From Emmy Award-winning television and film producer John Wells, SHAMELESS stars Academy Award nominee William H. Macy and Golden Globe nominee Emmy Rossum. The series also stars Justin Chatwin, Ethan Cutkosky, Shanola Hampton, Steve Howey, Emma Kenney, Laura Slade Wiggins, Noel Fisher and Emma Greenwell. Based on the long-running hit UK series, SHAMELESS is executive produced by Emmy Award-winning television and film producer John Wells, Andrew Stearn and Mark Mylod. Wells developed the series for American television. Paul Abbott serves as Executive Consultant. SHAMELESS is produced by Bonanza Productions, Inc. in association with John Wells Productions and Warner Bros. Television.

HOUSE OF LIES is a half-hour comedy series from the hit tell-all book House of Lies: How Management Consultants Steal Your Watch and Tell You the Time by Martin Kihn. It's a scathing look at a self-loathing management consultant from a top-tier firm. Don Cheadle (Iron Man 3) stars in his two-time Emmy nominated and Golden Globe-winning performance as Marty, a highly-successful, cutthroat consultant who is never above using any means (or anyone) necessary to get his way with and for his clients. Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars) plays a razor-sharp, Ivy-League graduate who works on Marty's team, along with Emmy winner Ben Schwartz (Parks & Recreation) and Josh Lawson (Romantically Challenged); Dawn Olivieri (Vampire Diaries, Heroes) is Marty's acerbic ex-wife; Emmy winner Glynn Turman (In Treatment) is his psychoanalyst father; and Donis Leonard Jr. (His Good Will) rounds out the cast as Marty's young son. Produced by Showtime, HOUSE OF LIES is created and executive produced by Matthew Carnahan. Jessika Borsiczky, Stephen Hopkins, Don Cheadle (and David Walpert) also serve as executive producers.

EPISODES stars Matt LeBlanc in his Emmy nominated and Golden Globe Award-winning role as a fictionalized version of himself. "Sean" and "Beverly Lincoln," the husband-and-wife writing/producing duo lured to Hollywood are played by Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Greig; Kathleen Rose Perkins is "Carol Rance," the network's second-in-command programming executive; John Pankow is the recently deposed network head "Merc Lapidus;" and Mircea Monroe plays the age-defying actress "Morning Randolph." New guest stars this season include Chris Diamantopoulos (24) in a season-long arc as "Castor Soto," the new head of the network; Roger Bart (Revenge) appears in four episodes as LeBlanc's agent; along with Tracy Spiridakos (Revolution) as a family member of actress Morning Randolph. The series is created and executive produced by award-winning writing partners David Crane (Friends) & Jeffrey Klarik (Mad About You), and is also executive produced by Jimmy Mulville through his Hat Trick production company.

The Showtime 2014 Sunday Night Schedule is as follows:

Sunday, January 12th

SHAMELESS (9 p.m.)

HOUSE OF LIES (10 p.m.)

EPISODES (10:30 p.m.)

All times Eastern/Pacific.

Showtime Announces Pilot Order of "Trending Down" Starring Oscar Winner Philip Seymour Hoffman

Oscar winner Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote) is set to star in the lead role and executive produce the twisted Showtime comedy pilot TRENDING DOWN. Acclaimed actress Kathryn Hahn (Revolutionary Road) will also star in the pilot as Lee Payne, Thom Payne's (Hoffman) wife. TRENDING DOWN is a blistering attack on our youth-obsessed culture, and a darkly comic examination of what it means to matter. Or matter not. The project centers on Thom Payne, a man facing his own obsolescence after his advertising agency is taken over. The pilot is set to begin filming on the East Coast this fall, and marks the third pilot pick-up from the Network this year. As previously announced, Showtime picked up the drama pilots THE VATICAN and THE AFFAIR, and gave a series commitment to PENNY DREADFUL earlier this year.

Created, written and executive produced by author and This American Life contributor Shalom Auslander, TRENDING DOWN was developed by Ken Kwapis, who will executive produce, and Alexandra Beattie, who will co-executive produce, under their In Cahoots banner. John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and The Angry Inch) will direct the pilot. Philip Seymour Hoffman and producing partner Emily Ziff will also executive produce under their Cooper's Town Productions banner.

"We are taking a markedly unconventional approach to process and content - a cross between the BBC series model and a theater workshop. And a meth lab," said Auslander. "I wasn't particularly interested in doing TV, and fortunately, neither was Phil. When Showtime said they weren't either, we knew we had something. We don't know what that is, but at least we know what it isn't."

On his birthday, Thom Payne gets the gift of insignificance and also a new boss. He suspects his ED pills are interfering with his anti-depressants, leaving him with neither happiness nor... happiness. In a culture that reveres youth - a culture he helped create - Thom needs to figure out what his purpose is now that he's halfway to death and nobody cares what he thinks. Because in a world where any Kardashian is trending up, perhaps the wise among us would heartily embrace trending down.

Philip Seymour Hoffman has Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Anton Corbijn's A Most Wanted Man opening in theaters this fall. He was most recently seen in The Master and A Late Quartet. Hoffman made his feature directorial debut with Jack Goes Boating which was produced by his company, Cooper's Town Productions, and based on the play of the same name. His other film credits include The Ides of March, Moneyball, Doubt, The Savages, Charlie Wilson's War and Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. It was Hoffman's performance in Capote, directed by Bennett Miller and also produced through Cooper's Town Productions, which earned him an Academy Award. An accomplished actor on the Broadway stage as well, Hoffman starred in the recent revival of Death of a Salesman, Long Day's Journey Into Night and True West.

Kathryn Hahn will play the role of will play Lee, Thom's wife and mother to their six-year-old son Julius. Honest and direct to a considerable fault, Lee believes that people are good and the world can be a better place, which is probably why she is so pissed off: because we aren't, and it can't. But she loves Thom, and Thom loves her, even though they both despise themselves. Hahn's television credits include Parks and Recreation, Girls, Hung, Crossing Jordan and Childrens Hospital. Her feature film credits include Revolutionary Road, Wanderlust, Our Idiot Brother, Step Brothers, The Holiday, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.

Golden Globe Nominee Ruth Wilson Joins Showtime Pilot "The Affair"

Showtime has cast Golden Globe nominee Ruth Wilson (The Lone Ranger, Luther) as the female lead of its drama pilot THE AFFAIR. Ruth Wilson will play the role of Alison, a young married woman, working in a pancake house, trying to piece her life back together in the wake of a tragedy. As previously announced, Golden Globe nominee Dominic West (The Wire, The Hours) stars as Noah, a father of four, who makes Ruth question the choices she's made, and wonder whether there's a way to start all over again.

Award-winning playwright and writer/producer Sarah Treem (House of Cards, In Treatment) wrote the original script with Hagai Levi. They first worked together on the American adaption of Levi's show In Treatment. THE AFFAIR is an intense and intimate exploration of two marriages and an affair that disrupts them - with all of the complex consequences that result. Written by Sarah Treem from a story by Treem and Levi, this provocative, one-hour relationship drama will be told separately from the male and female perspective. Treem and Levi also serve as executive producers alongside director and executive producer Mark Mylod (SHAMELESS).

Wilson is best known for her roles in Luther and Jane Eyre. Her film credits include The Lone Ranger and Anna Karenina. She will soon be seen in the upcoming films Locke, Saving Mr. Banks and A Walk Among the Tombstones.

Josh Hartnett & Eva Green Set to Star in "Penny Dreadful"

Film stars Josh Hartnett (Black Hawk Down) and Eva Green (Casino Royale) are the first stars to sign on to the hotly-anticipated Showtime drama series, PENNY DREADFUL, which will begin filming this fall for a 2014 premiere on the network. Hartnett will take on the role of 'Ethan Chandler,' a charming American who finds himself trapped in the darkest corners of Victorian London, while Green will play 'Vanessa Ives,' a seductive and formidable beauty full of secrets and danger.

PENNY DREADFUL is a frightening psychological thriller created, written and executive produced by three-time Oscar nominee John Logan (Hugo, The Aviator, Gladiator) and executive produced by Logan's Desert Wolf Productions, along with Oscar winner Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Skyfall) and Neal Street's Pippa Harris (Revolutionary Road, Call The Midwife). Of the eight episodes, the first two, will be directed by Juan Antonio Bayona, who helmed The Orphanage and the acclaimed film, The Impossible starring Naomi Watts in her Oscar-nominated performance.

Actor and producer Josh Hartnett has starred in a wide range of blockbuster and indie films. He is best known to fans worldwide for his star turn opposite Ben Affleck as 'Capt. Danny Walker' in Michael Bay's blockbuster film Pearl Harbor, followed by O, 40 Days and 40 Nights, and Hollywood Homicide. He made his film debut in Halloween H20:20 Years Later, followed in quick succession by The Faculty and Sofia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides. On television, he played 'Michael Fitzgerald' on the television series Cracker: Mind Over Murder and later returned to film in a string of memorable performances in Black Hawk Down, Wicker Park, Sin City, Lucky Number Slevin and The Black Dahlia. He was also named one of People magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People" in 2002.

While best known for playing the lethal Bond Girl 'Vesper Lynd' opposite Daniel Craig's James Bond in the worldwide blockbuster Casino Royale, French actress Eva Green made her debut and earned acclaim in 2003 for her work in Bernardo Bertolucci's The Dreamers. She starred opposite Orlando Bloom and Liam Neeson in the hit film Kingdom of Heaven, and played 'Morgan' in the epic mini-series Camelot. Most recently, she starred with Johnny Depp in Tim Burton's Dark Shadows. She will soon be seen in the Sin City prequel, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, opposite Josh Brolin and Mickey Rourke, and as 'Artemesia' in 300: Rise of an Empire. Additional film credits include Cracks, Perfect Sense, Womb and His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass.

Showtime Networks Inc. (SNI), a wholly-owned subsidiary of CBS Corporation, owns and operates the premium television networks Showtime, THE MOVIE CHANNEL(TM) and FLIX, as well as the multiplex channels Showtime 2(TM), Showtime SHOWCASE, Showtime EXTREME, Showtime BEYOND, Showtime NEXT, Showtime WOMEN, Showtime FAMILY ZONE and THE MOVIE CHANNEL(TM) XTRA. SNI also offers Showtime HD(TM), THE MOVIE CHANNEL(TM) HD, Showtime ON DEMAND, FLIX ON DEMAND and THE MOVIE CHANNEL(TM) ON DEMAND, and the network's authentication service Showtime ANYTIME. SNI also manages Smithsonian Networks(TM), a joint venture between SNI and the Smithsonian Institution, which offers Smithsonian Channel(TM). All SNI feeds provide enhanced sound using Dolby Digital 5.1. SNI markets and distributes sports and entertainment events for exhibition to subscribers on a pay-per-view basis through Showtime PPV.

Showtime Anytime Introduces Live East and West Coast Feeds of Showtime, a First in the Premium Space Available Today

Showtime Networks announced today the addition of live East and West Coast feeds of Showtime to Showtime ANYTIME, the network's "TV Everywhere" service. This announcement marks the first time a premium network has offered live TV viewing on an authentication service. Showtime subscribers can now watch the network's critically-acclaimed hit series, along with box office hits, specials, documentaries, and hard-hitting sports programming live as it happens on their computer, iPhone, iPad, Kindle Fire(TM) and Android(TM) phone and tablets at home or on the go, anywhere in the U.S.

Authenticated subscribers can simply click on the "Live TV" button on Showtime ANYTIME, then choose between Showtime EAST and Showtime WEST and immediately tune-in to what's currently airing on the network. At any time, users can click on the "live TV schedule" menu to see what's coming up or to switch between the two feeds. Subscribers will continue to have unlimited on demand access to current and past seasons of award-winning Showtime original series including DEXTER, RAY DONOVAN, HOMELAND, CALIFORNICATION, HOUSE OF LIES, WEB THERAPY, EPISODES and NURSE JACKIE, along with hit movies, sports, specials and much more.

Showtime ANYTIME is available now nationwide to AT&T U-verse, Cablevision's Optimum TV, COMCAST XFINITY, DIRECTV and Verizon FiOS customers. To access Showtime ANYTIME, network subscribers can go to www.Showtimeanytime.com or download the Showtime ANYTIME app for free by visiting the iTunes App store (http://bit.ly/SZnB15) for iOS users, Amazon app store (http://amzn.to/ZnVeNL) and the Google Play store (http://bit.ly/SZnyTd) for Android users. The subscriber can then choose their television provider and log-in with their TV provider's authentication credentials to immediately start watching the network's line-up. Additional cable and satellite providers will be announced later this year.

Showtime Inks Two-Year Overall Deal with "Dexter(R)" Executive Producer Scott Buck

Today, SHOWTIME announced that it has signed a two-year overall deal with five-time Emmy and Writers Guild Award nominee, and DEXTER showrunner and executive producer Scott Buck. Buck is currently in development on a few projects for the network, including supervising the script for Matthew Specktor's novel American Dream Machine, which DEXTER's Michael C. Hall will also executive produce and Specktor will write. The announcement was made by David Nevins, President of Entertainment, Showtime Networks Inc.

"For the last seven seasons, Scott has helped shepherd DEXTER, the most valuable and lucrative franchise we have ever had," said Nevins. "We really wanted to remain in business with Scott, and we are looking forward to getting to work with him on a number of new projects. I'm incredibly excited to see what he has up his sleeve."

Buck has also been honored with two prestigious Peabody Awards for DEXTER and Six Feet Under. He began his career in half-hour comedies, writing for Coach and Everybody Loves Raymond, before making the move as a writer and co-executive producer to the acclaimed drama series Six Feet Under. In his first season for Six Feet Under, the show won a Golden Globe(R) for Best Drama. While there, Buck wrote the controversial episode "That's My Dog," as well as the WGA-nominated "Singing for our Lives." After four seasons on Six Feet Under, he moved to Rome as a writer and co-executive producer, and then to DEXTER in 2007.

DEXTER's eight and final season premiere delivered 2.5 million viewers, the series' biggest season premiere ever. DEXTER's growth continues to be unmatched - the season premiere telecast has grown every year the show has been on air, a record in the premium TV landscape.