Nurse Jackie - Renewed for Season 5 - Press Release

After his highly successful run as the executive producer and showrunner of the hit SHOWTIME drama series DEXTER®, Peabody Award winner and Emmy Award nominee Clyde Phillips has been tapped as the new showrunner for the network’s hit comedy series NURSE JACKIE, which has been renewed for a fifth season. The announcement was made today by David Nevins, President of Entertainment, Showtime Networks Inc. Phillips will join Richie Jackson as executive producer on NURSE JACKIE. Caryn Mandabach is also a series executive producer. The fifth season of the series, which is a co-production of SHOWTIME and Lionsgate, will begin production in late 2012.

NURSE JACKIE stars Emmy Award-winning actress Edie Falco as Jackie Peyton, a strong-willed and brilliant – but very flawed – emergency room nurse. Currently in its fourth season, the series also stars Eve Best, Merritt Wever, Paul Schulze, Dominic Fumusa, Anna Deavere Smith and Peter Facinelli. Arjun Gupta and Stephen Wallem are guest stars. Lenny Jacobson co-stars. The season four premiere delivered over 1.1 million viewers for the night, up 30 percent over its prior season’s premiere night. Overall, the series averages 2.77 million total weekly viewers across platforms (including On Demand, Live +7 and replays).

“Clyde brings a unique combination of skills in both comedy and drama, and he is a master at making entertaining and compelling television,” said Nevins. “We are so thrilled with the series’ performance this year, and we know that with the incomparable Edie Falco in front of the camera, the fifth season of NURSE JACKIE will be even better.”

Phillips was executive producer and showrunner on the first four seasons of DEXTER. Prior to that, Phillips created “Get Real,” which starred Anne Hathaway and Jesse Eisenberg, “Suddenly Susan,” and “Parker Lewis Can’t Lose.” A national bestselling mystery novelist as well, Phillips’s fourth book, Unthinkable, will be published in January 2013 by Amazon.