Sunday series open well for Showtime

Showtime comedy "House of Lies" is away and off to a good ratings start, because the net's "Shameless" looked excellent beginning off its second season. The Don Cheadle starrer "House of Lies" came a combined 1.6 000 0000 audiences over its three telecasts Sunday evening, according to Nielsen -- 13% greater in comparison to at least one.38 million for your airings of "Homeland" on its premiere evening in October. Nielsen preliminaries also demonstrate that the second-season debut of "Shameless" taken roughly 2 million combined audiences over its two telecasts despite coping with original cases of dramas on ABC, CBS and NBC. For premiere telecasts, "House of Lies" came 1.03 million (on componen with October's launch of "Homeland") and "Shameless" attracted 1.58 million -Up within the 982,000 who seen its series preem this past year as well as the 1.16 million who up-to-date looking for its first-season finale last spring. Showtime offered audiences a free of charge Preview Weekend, nevertheless the viewership levels released by Nielsen reflect only clients in the cabler. "House of Lies" was supplied by Showtime just like a preview via on the web and if needed in December. People viewings totaled 1.2 million. "House of Lies," that's produced by Showtime, toplines Cheadle just like a mind from the speaking to firm. Series was created by Matthew Carnahan, who professional produces with Jessika Borsiczky, Stephen Hopkins and Cheadle. U.K. import "Shameless," professional produced by John Wells, Paul Abbott and Andrew Stearn, originates from Warner Bros. Television. Also premiering Sunday was the fifth-season premiere of "Californication." The David Duchovny skein came millions of audiences over two showings. Contact Stuart Levine at stuart.levine@variety.com