Showtime Gives Dexter Another Season

Showtime ordered a second season of new drama Dexter. Production on 12 new episodes is set to begin next spring for a 2007 premiere on the pay cable network.

Dexter, which stars Michael C. Hall, follows a Miami forensics expert who leads a secret life as a serial killer. The show premiered to a solid 603,000 viewers on Sun., Oct. 1 at 10 p.m. and brought in 443,000 to the repeat at 11 p.m., bringing the show's total to 1.04 million viewers. Those were Showtime's best numbers since its Fat Actress debut in March 2005.