Showtime’s ‘Ray Donovan’ Shifting to New York for Season Six

Showtime has ordered a sixth season of drama Ray Donovan.

Consisting of 12 episodes, the new season will relocate to New York from Los Angeles, where the series has been based for the past five seasons. Production begins in early 2018.

Liev Schreiber and Jon Voight star in the series. The season five finale premieres Sunday, Oct. 29. The show is averaging nearly 5 million weekly viewers across platforms, according to Showtime.

Ray Donovan broke new ground this season with its deeply emotional and innovative approach to Abby’s passing, without sacrificing any of the intensity that has been its trademark,” said Gary Levine, president of programming at Showtime. “We so appreciate that (showrunner) David Hollander is never satisfied with the status quo, and his creative plan for moving the show to New York reflects his relentless ambition for this series.”

The Ray Donovan cast also includes Eddie Marsan, Dash Mihok, Steven Bauer, Katherine Moennig, Pooch Hall and Devon Bagby.

“For our show, creatively, New York is exciting,” showrunner Hollander said. “Fashion, media, finance, theater, culture. It’s going to present new challenges for Ray Donovan which mean new opportunities for us as dramatists. Ray came to Los Angeles to build a life for himself and his family. They're not there anymore. Ray's career has changed and he is looking for a place to rebuild his life. Ray thinks he went to New York to help his daughter. He's going to find out he's there to help himself.”

The current season finds Ray, played by Schreiber, dealing with the death of his wife Abby (Paula Malcomson). As the season comes to a close, Ray’s troubled relationship with his daughter Bridget (Kerris Dorsey) draws him to New York to make amends for a wrongdoing.

A Showtime production, Ray Donovan is executive produced by Hollander, Mark Gordon, Bryan Zuriff and Lou Fusaro. It was created by Ann Biderman.

Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.