Showtime to Preview SHAMELESS Following DEXTER Finale, 12/12

SHOWTIME(R) will preview the first 20 minutes of its anticipated new series SHAMELESS to a nationwide audience immediately following the season five finale of the Emmy(R) Award-nominated series DEXTER, airing Sunday December 12 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. The SHAMELESS preview will be available to SHOWTIME subscribers on-air and on SHOWTIME ON DEMAND(R), and to a nationwide audience online on SHO.com. Due to mature content, the online preview will require age verification.

SHAMELESS will premiere on SHOWTIME on January 9, 2011 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. The new drama series from Emmy(R) Award winners John Wells ("ER," "The West Wing") and Paul Abbott ("The Girl in the Caf?," "State of Play") is based on the long-running hit UK series and stars Emmy(R) Award winner and Academy Award(R) nominee William H. Macy ("Fargo," "Pleasantville") and Golden Globe(R) nominee Emmy Rossum ("The Phantom of the Opera," "Mystic River"). Academy Award(R) nominee Joan Cusack ("In & Out," "Working Girl") is the series' special guest star. Macy plays Frank Gallagher, a far-from-stellar working-class patriarch of an unconventional Chicago brood of six motley kids whose eldest daughter (Rossum) keeps the home afloat while he?s out drinking and carousing. Cusack plays the role of Sheila, an agoraphobic Chicago housewife who strikes up a special friendship with Frank.

The series also stars Justin Chatwin ("War of the Worlds"), Ethan Cutkosky ("The Unborn"), Shanola Hampton ("Related"), Steve Howey ("Reba"), Emma Kenney ("Three Little Puppets"), Cameron Monaghan ("Click"), Jeremy Allen White ("Law & Order") and Laura Slade Wiggins ("Eleventh Hour").

SHAMELESS is from Bonanza Productions Inc. in association with John Wells Productions and Warner Bros. Television. Wells and Abbott are executive producers; Andrew Stearn ("The West Wing," "Southland") is the co-executive producer.