In most cases, it doesn’t take more than five or six seasons for a TV show to get a little stale and lose favor with its audience.
The rare exception may be the seemingly-immortal Showtime series Shameless, which is now circling in on its ninth (!) season. And, unsurprisingly, the show, which has already tackled teen pregnancy and back-alley kidney surgery, has a few tricks up its sleeve to keep the newest season fresh. Two seasoned TV veterans, Friends and Cougar Town star Courteney Cox and Married With Children and Sons of Anarchy alum Katey Sagal, are set to join the series, according to Variety.
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Cox will guest star as Jen Wagner, a famous actress with an alcohol problem who hires Lip Gallagher (Jeremy Allen White) as a sober companion during a stay in Chicago and ends up taking him on a “wild ride” on a hunt for a cocktail.
Sagal has a recurring role as Ingrid Smith, a psych patient who, upon encountering Frank Gallagher (William H. Macy), quickly gets him to fall for her.
Emmy Rossum, who plays Fiona Gallagher and famously advocated for herself to receive equal payment for her work on the show alongside her co-star Macy in 2016, is apparently pretty excited about Cox and Sagal joining the show.
On Friday, Rossum posted a screenshot of the casting news to her Instagram story with the caption, “Yes to these wonderful talented powerhouse females!”
Shameless’ ninth season will come in two parts. The first seven episodes premiere on September 9, with a mid-season finale on October 21. The second half of the season premieres on January 20, 2019.