Showtime Free Preview Weekend Begins Friday

SHOWTIME will be available to over 70 million households during a Free Preview Weekend this Friday, January 9 through Sunday, January 11. Viewers nationwide will be able to sample the network's award-winning programming on SHOWTIME, Showtime On Demand, Showtime ANYTIME and select distributors' TV Everywhere portals. The Free Preview weekend will include sampling of the season premieres of the hit comedy series SHAMELESS, HOUSE OF LIES and EPISODES, hard-hitting sports programming, as well as feature films, including the television premieres of Philomena and Last Vegas.

Free Preview Weekend viewers will have access to current and past episodes of critically-acclaimed Showtime original series including HOMELAND, THE AFFAIR, PENNY DREADFUL, RAY DONOVAN, MASTERS OF SEX and NURSE JACKIE, all available on Showtime On Demand and Showtime ANYTIME. The network will also air the network premieres of Philomena and Last Vegas, as well over 60 feature films available on Showtime On Demand and Showtime ANYTIME including Silver Linings Playbook, Django Unchained, Lee Daniels' The Butler, Scary Movie 5, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2, August: Osage County and Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom. Documentary programming will include The Lost Songs: The Basement Tapes Continued, surrounding the long-lost lyrics penned by legendary songwriter Bob Dylan in the summer of 1967 and Lance Armstrong: Stop at Nothing, an intimate but explosive story about the man behind one of the greatest frauds in sporting history, among many others.

Friday's line-up will be anchored by the television premiere of Academy Award and Golden Globe Best Picture nominee Philomena starring Oscar winner Dame Judi Dench, and Oscar and Golden Globe nominee Steve Coogan at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Philomena is based on the moving true story of an Irish woman in her 70s (Dench) who embarks on an international journey with a journalist (Coogan) to find her long lost son, who was born 50 years earlier out of wedlock and TAKEN AWAY by her church. Friday will also feature the latest Showtime Sports installment of the Emmy Award-winning ALL ACCESS documentary series, ALL ACCESS: Stiverne vs. Wilder at 10:45 p.m. ET/PT, a prelude to the most significant heavyweight matchup in the U.S. in nearly a decade. The behind-the-scenes series provides an intimate portrait of hard-hitting WBC Heavyweight World Champion Bermane Stiverne and unbeaten knockout specialist Deontay Wilder, and their respective training camps, as they prepare for the explosive bout. Stiverne vs. Wilder headlines the first major boxing event of the year - Saturday, January 17 live on Showtime from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas (10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT). Immediately following the ALL ACCESS: Stiverne vs. Wilder premiere on Friday, ShoBox: The New Generation, the acclaimed boxing series featuring up-and-coming prospects, makes its 2015 debut with a three-fight card from Morongo Casino Resort and Spa in Cabazon, Calif.

On Sunday, January 11, Showtime will debut the television premiere of Last Vegas starring Academy Award winners Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Kline as a group of friends who head to Las Vegas together to celebrate the last remaining bachelor of the group before he gets married. Then, starting at 9 p.m. ET/PT, viewers nationwide will sample the highly-anticipated season premieres of the network's three hit comedy series SHAMELESS (9 p.m. ET/PT), HOUSE OF LIES (10 p.m. ET/PT) and EPISODES (10:30 p.m. ET/PT).

The fifth season of the network's No. 1 comedy series, SHAMELESS, premieres on Sunday, January 11 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. The series stars Oscar, Emmy and Golden Globe nominee William H. Macy and Golden Globe nominee Emmy Rossum, along with Jeremy Allen White, Ethan Cutkosky, Shanola Hampton, Steve Howey, Emma Kenney, Cameron Monaghan, Noel Fisher, Emily Bergl and special guest star Joan Cusack. This season, the Gallaghers are dealing with both the upside and downside of personal and urban renewal. As their neighborhood begins a move towards gentrifying, the Gallagher clan begins to reconcile their chaotic past in the hopes of building a better future. Dermot Mulroney, Steve Kazee, Sasha Alexander and Justin Chatwin are also special guest stars this season. SHAMELESS has garnered three Emmy Award nominations, and a Golden Globe nomination and Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Macy in the comedy categories. Based on the long-running hit UK series, SHAMELESS is executive produced by Emmy Award-winning television and film producer John Wells, Andrew Stearn, Christopher Chulack, Nancy M. Pimental and Davey Holmes. Wells developed the series for American television based on the original series created by Paul Abbott. Abbott serves as executive consultant. SHAMELESS is produced by Bonanza Productions, Inc. in association with John Wells Productions and Warner Bros. Television.

Premiering at 10 p.m. ET/PT, HOUSE OF LIES is the edgy, provocative hit comedy series starring Oscar nominee Don Cheadle in his three-time Emmy-nominated and Golden Globe-winning role as elite consultant Marty Kaan, a man with a single-minded pursuit: power. We last left a despondent Marty alone in the desert after a cataclysmic double-cross by Jeannie (Kristen Bell) and a visit by the Feds. This season, Marty's brief stint in WHITE COLLAR prison left Jeannie to pick up the pieces of the now tainted Kaan & Associates with Clyde (Ben Schwartz) and Doug (Josh Lawson). Client flight has decimated the bottom line, but Marty has a singular focus: winning, at any and all cost. The series also stars Donis Leonard, Jr. and Emmy winner Glynn Turman. Guest stars this season include Larenz Tate, Demetri Martin, Mary McCormack and Valorie Curry. From the hit tell-all book House of Lies: How Management Consultants Steal Your Watch and Tell You the Time by Martin Kihn, HOUSE OF LIES is created and executive produced by Matthew Carnahan and produced by Showtime. Jessika Borsiczky, Don Cheadle and David Walpert serve as executive producers.

Matt LeBlanc returns in his Emmy-nominated and Golden Globe Award-winning role as a fictionalized version of himself in the fourth season of EPISODES at 10:30 p.m. ET/PT. This season, Matt faces a financial crisis and is forced to make some tough decisions. Matt being Matt, he will likely make the wrong ones. Sean (Stephen Mangan) and Beverly (Tamsin Greig) have been dragged back to L.A. to shoot more episodes of their disastrous sitcom Pucks! Meanwhile, their other project, The Opposite of Us, refuses to go away. And there's a new network head who will, in all likelihood, make life more complicated for everyone. A Showtime and BBC co-production, the series also stars Mircea Monroe, Kathleen Rose Perkins and John Pankow. EPISODES is created and executive produced by award-winning writing partners David Crane (Friends) and Jeffrey Klarik (Mad About You), and is also executive produced by Jimmy Mulville through his Hat Trick production company.

The Free Preview Weekend is available on both SD and HD feeds to digital subscribers of participating providers only. Select providers will offer the Free Preview via Showtime ON DEMAND and Showtime ANYTIME. The preview will be available across a number of distributors including AT&T U-verse, Bright House Networks, Cable ONE, CenturyLink Prism, Comcast, DIRECTV, DISH, Mediacom, RCN and Verizon FiOS. Available platforms will vary by participating distributor. Previews may contain PG, PG-13, TV-14, TVMA and R-rated programming. You must be a digital subscriber to receive video on demand and HD. For additional details and a full schedule of programming, go to SHO.com/freepreview.

Showtime Networks Inc. (SNI), a wholly-owned subsidiary of CBS Corporation, owns and operates the premium television networks SHOWTIME, THE MOVIE CHANNEL and FLIX, as well as the multiplex channels Showtime 2, Showtime SHOWCASE, Showtime EXTREME, Showtime BEYOND, Showtime NEXT, Showtime WOMEN, Showtime FAMILY ZONE and THE MOVIE CHANNEL XTRA. SNI also offers Showtime HD, THE MOVIE CHANNEL HD, Showtime ON DEMAND, FLIX ON DEMAND and THE MOVIE CHANNEL ON DEMAND, and the network's authentication service Showtime ANYTIME. SNI also manages Smithsonian Networks, a joint venture between SNI and the Smithsonian Institution, which offers Smithsonian Channel. 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.

Photo Credit: Eric Charbonneau/Invision for Showtime/AP Images

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