As part of the Showtime portion of the TCA Press Tour, President of Entertainment David Nevins took some time to talk about current and upcoming shows for the network, and the end game for a few of their long-time series.  During the interview, he talked about how he felt about the creative direction of Homeland for Season 2, whether he’d consider continuing the series without Damian Lewis, how Dexter is progressing, that the contemporary genre thriller The Vatican (from Paul Attanasio and Ridley Scott) will go into production in April, how John Logan will be writing every episode of Penny Dreadful with the hope that Sam Mendes will direct, that it will be a psychological and highly erotic story set in Victorian London, what fans can expect from The Borgias, when Californication might end, the plan for when Episodes will return, what makes Masters of Sex a compelling series, and the epic feel of the multi-episode event documentary Years of Living Dangerously, from James Cameron.  Check out what he had to say after the jump.

As part of the Showtime portion of the TCA Press Tour, President of Entertainment David Nevins took some time to talk about the status of a number of their current shows, as well as a couple of their upcoming projects.  During the interview, he confirmed that Season 8 will likely be the last for Dexter, the status of Episodes, the future of The Borgias and Californication, what they see for Homeland, and why they’ve chosen to wrap up The Big C with four one-hour episodes. Nevins also talked about the tone of Masters of Sex, and the development of the Aztec drama Conquest with Ron Howard.  Check out what he had to say after the jump.

On Season 2 of the Showtime comedy series Episodes, it is four months after the events of Season 1 and Pucks! has gone from a pilot to full-blown series while its creators, Sean (Stephen Mangan) and Beverly (Tamsin Greig) are no longer living together. As Beverly struggles to save her marriage, Pucks! star Matt LeBlanc is determined to save his bromance with Sean, network head Merc Lapidus (John Pankow) is trying to salvage the plummeting ratings, and his second-in-command and mistress Carol (Kathleen Rose Perkins) is just trying to get the recognition she deserves.

During this recent exclusive phone interview with Collider, actress Kathleen Rose Perkins, whose pitch-perfect performance is both hilarious and heart-breaking, talked about what fans can expect from the new season, the advantage of getting to have the same writers and director for the entire season, how they stick to exactly what’s written in the script, and how exhausting it is to play someone so high-strung. She also talked about playing a haggard Las Vegas prostitute in Diablo Cody’s untitled feature directorial debut, about a woman (played by Julianne Hough) who denounces her faith in the Christian church, and then goes to Vegas for a night and meets all these different types of people just so that she can experience sin. Check out what she had to say after the jump.

I’ve just spent the past three hours watching and live-blogging the 2012 Golden Globe Awards.  My brain feels mushy.  After the jump and presented without comment is a list of this year’s winners. If you don’t even want to hit the jump, The Artist and The Descendants won Best Comedy/Musical and Best Drama, respectively.  If you want to awards prognosticate, I’ll save you the trouble: both were nominated for a Best Picture Oscar.  Those nominations haven’t been announced yet, but they were nominated.  Trust me.  I’m a professional.

Also, feel free to sound off on the winners and losers.  Lord knows I’ve been doing it for the past three hours.

As part of the network’s TCA Press Tour presentation, President of Entertainment at Showtime, David Nevins, took some time to talk about their popular, long-running drama series Dexter, what he thought of the creative choices for this season, and the relationship between Dexter (Michael C. Hall) and his adopted sister Deb (Jennifer Carpenter). Nevins also talked about the status of future seasons of Nurse Jackie and The Borgias, his hopes for their latest comedy, House of Lies, and where this season’s most critically acclaimed new drama, Homeland, will be headed in Season 2. Check out what he had to say after the jump:

The 2011 Golden Globes nominations have been announced.  I don’t pay them much attention as an awards barometer since their nominations can be purchased (the Globes are run by the shoddy Hollywood Foreign Press Association) and the event is more to get a bunch of celebrities in a room together and hand them an over-valued award.  But that doesn’t mean it’s not a fun show to watch and this year should be plenty entertaining with Ricky Gervais returning to host.

As for the nominees, you’ll find the usual suspects: The Artist, The Descendants, Hugo, The Help, and Midnight in Paris.  I have to give the Globes credit for having a separate comedy category, which allows actors like Brendan Gleeson (The Guard) and Kristen Wiig (Bridesmaids) to get nominated.  As for “snubs” (again, it’s tough to take the Globes nominations seriously), nothing from The Muppets was nominated for Best Song .  Hit the jump for the full list of nominees.  Winners will be announced on January 15th.

As part of the Showtime portion of the TCA Press Tour, President of Entertainment David Nevins took some time to talk about a growth in subscribers of the network, the direction of returning series, and where he sees series development going in the future. Here are the most interesting points:

• Showtime has added over 2 million subscribers, taking their total accounts to 20.5 million.
• Dexter returns for its sixth season on October 2^nd, as the lead-in to the new drama series. Homeland, about a CIA officer (Claire Danes) who becomes convinced that a recently rescued American POW (Damian Lewis) may be connected to an Al Qaeda plot to be carried out on U.S. soil.
• Shameless, The Borgias and Episodes are all returning for a Season 2, with The Borgias being a massive production in its size and scope.
• The subversively funny comedy House of Lies, starring Don Cheadle and Kristen Bell, about cutthroat members of a top-tier management consultant firm, will premiere in early 2012.
• Laughing Stock (premiering in early 2012), from producers Steve Carell and David Steinberg, will showcase in-depth, one-on-one interviews with the greatest comic minds of the past four decades, including Jerry Seinfeld, Tina Fey, Chris Rock, Larry David, Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Judd Apatow, Ellen DeGeneres and Steve Carell, himself.
• They’re working on the script for the adaptation of the comic book 100 Bullets (written by Brian Azzarello and illustrated by Eduardo Risso) and, even though they’re not ready to commit to it yet, it is an important project for the network.
• He is optimistic about the future of Weeds, but United States of Tara was canceled because they felt the show had accomplished what it set out to accomplish.

Hit the jump for more of what he had to say.

Apparently Showtime is pleased with both their hour long family drama/comedy Shameless (read my very positive review here) and the half-hour comedy Episodes enough to warrant another season for both of the freshman series. The cable network announced today each series has been given an order for another season. While the order for Shameless stands as 12 episodes, the count for Episodes has yet to be determined.

Showtime entertainment president David Nevins commented, “The viewer loyalty and critical acclaim that has met both [these shows] since their January debuts makes it clear that these two brash and sophisticated series are burgeoning hits. John Wells is carving out a tone that is truly unique in the television landscape [with Shameless] — equal parts drama and comedy. And Episodes marks the universally embraced and hilarious return to television of an inspired comedy triumvirate: Matt LeBlanc, and creators Jeffrey Klarik and David Crane. We are thrilled with the response to both series and eager to start planning for their second seasons.”

Since Matt LeBlanc had some trouble being anybody but Joey Tribbiani from his breakout work on Friends, maybe playing a fictional version of himself on a cable series will help. That’s the idea behind Showtime’s forthcoming new series Episodes, which follows a British couple who has their popular TV show in the UK being remade for American audiences. The duo find themselves pressured by executives to cast Matt LeBlanc, a washed up TV star, in the lead role.

While this sounds like it hits a little too close to home for the actor, LeBlanc told journalists at the TCA press tour that “It’s not really myself. It’s a character that David [Crane] and Jeffrey [Klarik] wrote that happens to have the same name as me. There are some similarities, but for the most part it’s a fictitious character.” You can judge for yourself by checking out the first trailer for impressive-looking new series after the jump.