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Showtime’s original program Weeds, set to return to the cable network tonight at 10 p.m., is the most-watched show on the network, drawing an average of 1.6 million viewers last season.
That number is about 1 million fewer viewers than HBO’s Entourage is averaging, but Showtime’s subscribers number barely half of HBO’s (14.5 million compared to 28 million), and Showtime’s subscriber numbers are up 12 percent from the same time last year. In fact, if HBO’s new shows like Lucky Louie continue to flop, Showtime may take over the mantle as best pay cable original programming, writes Media Life.
Also helping Showtime’s rise is the fact that HBO’s staples The Sopranos and Deadwood are nearing the ends of their runs, while Showtime has new shows such as Brotherhood, which Media Life writes is “to politics as Sopranos is to the mob.”
And Weeds, which helped Mary-Louise Parker win the Best Actress in a Comedy Golden Globe Award against all four Desperate Housewives, looks as though it will have a promising plot for season two. The pot-peddling mom has found a new love in her life, who also happens to be a Drug Enforcement Administration agent. Her brother-in-law will decide to attend rabbinical school in order to avoid armed service and her youngest son Shane will enter puberty.
In May, CBS Corp.’s CEO Leslie Moonves announced at a Morgan Stanley annual media investor conference his plans to shake things up at Showtime, saying the network would become more like HBO with programming aimed at large audiences rather than television critics.
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