Showtime Puts NURSE JACKIE On Call

Showtime Puts NURSE JACKIE On Call

Network Orders 12 Half-Hour Episodes of The Showtime-Lionsgate Produced Series NURSE JACKIE (WORKING TITLE) Starring Three-Time Emmy(R)Winner Edie Falco as a New York City Nurse

LOS ANGELES, July 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Three-time Emmy(R) Award winner Edie Falco is coming to a New York City hospital for SHOWTIME's new half-hour single camera dark comedy series NURSE JACKIE (working title), it was jointly announced today by Robert Greenblatt, President of Entertainment for Showtime, and Kevin Beggs, President of Programming and Production for Lionsgate. The twelve episode, half-hour series will star Falco as a strong-willed, iconoclastic New York City nurse juggling the frenzied grind of an urban hospital and an equally challenging personal life. The series will go into production in New York in late 2008, and will premiere in 2009.

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"Nothing is more thrilling for us than bringing Edie Falco to Showtime in this unique, quirky, touching comedy/drama," said Greenblatt. "If you suddenly found yourself in the hospital and fighting through our health care system, you would want no one other than Edie Falco -- or Nurse Jackie -- by your side. This show will illuminate the complex and often heroic people who devote their lives to healing the sick while simultaneously trying to make sense of their own complicated personal lives. It's quintessential premium cable, and with Edie on board, quintessential Showtime."

"We're thrilled about the pick-up of 'NURSE JACKIE' and the expansion of our relationship with Showtime on what we expect will be another groundbreaking series," said Beggs. "This subversive, yet wildly entertaining examination of our broken health care system, brought to life by the incomparable Edie Falco and an amazing creative team, promises to excite and provoke audiences."

The series is a co-production of Showtime and Lionsgate. The pilot was written by Liz Brixius, Linda Wallem (The Comeback, That '70's Show), and Evan Dunsky. Wallem and Brixius are executive producers and show runners. Caryn Mandabach will serve as an executive producer. Richie Jackson will serve as co-executive producer.

NURSE JACKIE is a half-hour dark comedy that is at turns wicked, heartbreaking and funny. Edie Falco stars as the title character Jackie O'Hurley, a strong-willed and brilliant -- but very flawed -- emergency room nurse in a complicated New York City hospital. A lapsed Catholic with an occasional weakness for Vicodin and Adderall to get her through the days, Jackie keeps the hospital balanced with her own kind of justice. Every day is a high wire act of juggling patients, doctors, fellow nurses and her own indiscretions. The series also stars Eve Best, Peter Facinelli, Merritt Wever, Haaz Slieman and Paul Schulze.

For her role as Carmela Soprano, Edie Falco was nominated six times for a Lead Actress in a Drama Series Primetime Emmy(R) Award -- and won three times. She has also collected two Golden Globes(R) (seven nominations) and three SAG Awards (seven nominations). On Broadway she starred in Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, 'night, Mother and Side Man.

The show is co-produced by Lionsgate and Showtime in association with Caryn Mandabach Productions and Madison Grain Elevator Inc.

About Showtime

Showtime Networks Inc. (SNI), a wholly-owned subsidiary of CBS Corporation, owns and operates the premium television networks SHOWTIME(R), THE MOVIE CHANNEL(TM) and FLIX(R), as well as the multiplex channels SHOWTIME(R) TOO(TM), SHOWTIME(R) SHOWCASE, SHOWTIME EXTREME(R), SHOWTIME BEYOND(R), SHOWTIME NEXT(R), SHOWTIME WOMEN(R), SHOWTIME FAMILYZONE(R) and TMC XTRA. SNI also offers SHOWTIME HD(R), THE MOVIE CHANNEL HD(TM), SHOWTIME ON DEMAND(TM) and THE MOVIE CHANNEL ON DEMAND(TM). SNI also manages Smithsonian Networks, a joint venture between SNI and the Smithsonian Institution. 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(R) PPV.

About Lionsgate

Lionsgate (NYSE:LGF) is the leading next generation filmed entertainment studio with a major presence in the production and distribution of motion pictures, television programming, home entertainment, family entertainment, video-on-demand and digitally delivered content. The Company has generated more than $450 million at the North American theatrical box office in the past year and has forged leadership positions in television and home entertainment with the production of such critically-acclaimed television series as Weeds and Mad Men, the distribution of Tyler Perry's House of Payne, Family Feud, South Park, Trivial Pursuit and The Dead Zone, among others, and approximately 7% market share and the industry's leading box office-to-DVD conversion rate in home entertainment. Lionsgate handles a prestigious and prolific library of approximately 12,000 motion picture and television titles that is an important source of recurring revenue and serves as the foundation for the growth of the Company's core businesses. The Lionsgate brand is synonymous with entrepreneurial innovation and original, daring, quality entertainment in markets around the globe.

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Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060131/SHOWTIMELOGO
Source: Showtime Networks Inc.

CONTACT: Faye Katz, +1-212-708-1406, Faye.katz@showtime.net, or Frank
Marchesini, +1-310-234-5342, Frank.marchesini@showtime.net, both of SHOWTIME
PR; Leah Krantzler, of The Lippin Group for Lionsgate, +1-323-965-1990,
lkrantzler@lippingroup.com

Web site: http://www.sho.com/

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