Showtime Renews 'The Borgias'

3:55 PM PDT 4/25/2011 by THR staff

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Showtime

The series, starring Jeremy Irons, debuted to strong ratings earlier this month.

Showtime has ordered a second season of The Borgias, Showtime entertainment president David Nevins announced Monday.

The series, which debuted earlier this month, delivered the best ratings for a new Showtime drama series in seven years and attracted 3.71 million viewers across multiple platforms (On Demand, replays and DVR) during its premiere week.

Season-to-date, The Borgias is pacing ahead of The Tudors' fourth season, the series' highest-rated season.

Ten new episodes of The Borgias -- which stars Jeremy Irons as Rodrigo Borgia, the manipulative patriarch of the Borgia family -- will go into production this summer to air in 2012.

"The Borgias has become Sunday night appointment viewing for a broad swath of our subscribers," Nevins said in a statement. "Neil Jordan's cleverly crafted tale of a 15th century papal family has proven quickly addictive. It's a tribute to his incredible skills as an auteur and to the extraordinary cast led by Jeremy Irons that this show fits so seamlessly into our line-up of quality shows."