SoHo Fast Tracks Second Seasons of Showtime Hits

SoHo will screen the latest seasons of Ray Donovan and Masters of Sex within a week of their US broadcasts.

Last year three months elapsed between the former’s US and NZ premieres while a month separated the latter’s.

Season two of Ray Donovan will screen here from July 16, three days after it goes to air on Showtime, and Masters of Sex from July 20, a week after the US.

They follow faster tracking of other upcoming dramas, too, including the final season of True Blood and the premiere of The Leftovers, which this month will air within 24 hours of its HBO bow.

Newcomers to Ray Donovan include Hank Azaria as an FBI boss and The Wire’s Wendell Pierce as a parole officer who’s fallen on hard times.

Ray Donovan was the highest-rating new series in Showtime history and will screen 8.30 Wednesdays.

Masters of Sex will screen 8.30 Sundays, with Sarah Silverman and Breaking Bad’s Betsy Brandt signing on as Dr William Masters and Virginia Johnson cut their university ties in the fallout from their controversial research and look to open their own institution.

“One of the things that’s exciting about our show — daunting but exciting — is that every year is going to look pretty different,” showrunner Michelle Ashford told Entertainment Weekly.

“Bill and Virginia’s careers changed and they went from total obscurity to the front of Time magazine.

“The sexual revolution was exploding, and Masters and Johnson were a huge part of that.”

EW says season two picks up “immediately after a newly unemployed Bill showed up on Virginia’s doorstop with a desperate declaration of love, and viewers will get a taste of our favorite sex researchers taking their academic relationship out of the lab and into the bedroom.”

For an in-depth insight into both Masters and Donovan, see Variety’s Q&A session with their producers.

SoHo will precedes Masters’ second season with a box set weekend of season one (July 5) and the July 15 premiere of the fifth and most recent season of Justified with a box set of season four on July 12; SoHo also will box set season two of The Americans on July 19 and season four of Game of Thrones on July 26.