Ray Donovan season 7 renewal official; show staying in New York
This morning, the network officially confirmed that they have greenlit a season 7 of the Liev Schreiber series, which has been a staple for the network for a rather-long time now. While superficially it may seem like the ratings for season 6 are down by a hefty margin, live+same-day ratings can be deceiving. Showtime is making new episodes available early via their app, and these viewings don’t count towards live+same-day estimates. Also, the series gets enormous DVR, app, and On-Demand viewings during the week. Basically, the live ratings these days are a tiny piece of the puzzle.
What we’re really trying to say here is simple this — Ray Donovan is not going to be going anywhere in the near future.
As for the more-surprising news from the renewal, it appears as though production for the series is actually going to remain in New York City; filming will begin at some point in the spring. The show moved over from Los Angeles at the end of season 5, but we’ve wondered for most of the year if this was going to be just a one-time experiment or something that we could actually envision being a part of the show’s fabric for a rather-long time. Based on what the network is doing right now, it definitely feels a little bit more like the latter than the former.
How much story is really left?
Based on where things are with Ray at the moment, we could conceivably imagine the show sticking around through at least season 8. Most Showtime series have a hard time sticking around past that, especially as they become increasingly expensive to make over time. Yet, Shameless is currently in its ninth season, even though it is losing some of its main cast members in Emmy Rossum as well as Cameron Monaghan. We may not be at the point just yet where the network is thinking hard over the long-term future of Ray Donovan, but it may be something that is at least on their mind at this particular point.
Related News – Be sure to get some more news when it comes to Ray Donovan
What do you think about Ray Donovan getting a season 7 over at Showtime? Be sure to share right now in the attached comments below, and we’ll have more on the show’s future soon. (Photo: Showtime.)