Following a successful contractual negotiation with actor Michael C. Hall, Showtime's Dexter has been renewed for two more seasons, which means the popular serial-killer drama will be on-air for an eighth season in 2013.
David Nevins, Showtime Entertainment President:
"Dexter's enormous success is a real tribute to the great achievements of its cast, producers, and the powerhouse performance of Michael C. Hall. Together with Michael, the creative team on the show has a very clear sense of where they intend to take the show over the next two seasons and, as a huge fan, I'm excited to watch the story of Dexter Morgan play out."Michael C. Hall, actor:
"On behalf of the entire Dexter family, we relish the invitation to delve ever deeper into Dexter's world."As we've discussed here on numerous occasions, I still think this long-term approach to Dexter has been very damaging to the show. There are those who say the concept only deserved two or three seasons, in an ideal world, but now we're halfway through the sixth! I personally think four or five years was enough to cover everything and resolve the character's arc, so to me it seems ridiculous they're going ahead to be making eight. And there could be more seasons beyond that, who knows!
Of course, from a business perspective this all makes perfect sense. Dexter is Showtime's #1 show, it gets good ratings every week (a 5.1m average across all platforms), and the cable channel can't really afford to drop it. I was hoping Michael C. Hall might leave, rather than risk the show hitting rock bottom, but job security and money are powerful motivators. I just hope he stipulated season 8 has to be The End, so the writers can now work towards a series finale.
