Showtime Deploys 'Dexter' Fifth-Season Finale For 'Shameless' Promotion

Showtime will use the fifth-season finale of Dexter as a stage to preview its upcoming original series Shameless.
Following the conclusion of serial-killer show Dexter, which premieres Dec. 12 at 9 p.m. (ET/PT), Showtime will provide viewers with a 20-minute preview of Shameless, starring William H. Macy in a U.S. rendering of the long-running hit series in the UK.
The preview will be available to premium network subscribers on-air immediately after the Dexter installment and on Showtime on Demand, as well as to a national audience on SHO.com. Due to mature content, the online preview will require age verification.

Showtime this past week renewed Dexter for a sixth season, with the current campaign on tap to be its most-watched season thus far.
The Shameless preview will come four weeks before the show officially bows on Showtime on Jan. 9 at 10 p.m.
In the series, from Bonanza Productions in association with John Wells Productions and Warner Bros. Television, Macy stars as Frank Gallagher, a hard-drinking, working-class patriarch on an unconventional Chicago brood of kids, whose eldest daughter (Emmy Rossum, The Phantom of the Opera, Mystic River) keeps the home afloat while he's out drinking and carousing. Joan Cusack plays the role of Sheila, an agoraphobic Chicago housewife who strikes up a special friendship with Frank.