Fourth 'Dexter' season will shoot next spring

Showtime has ordered up two addition seasons of its acclaimed drama "Dexter."

The premium cable network announced Tuesday (Oct. 21) that the fourth and fifth seasons of "Dexter" will be 12 episodes apiece. In addition, shooting on that fourth season will begin next spring in Los Angeles, setting the show up for another fall premiere in 2009.

"'Dexter's' enormous success is a tribute to the great achievements of its cast, the producing team, the author of the original book, and the gifted Michael C. Hall," says Showtime Entertainment President Robert Greenblatt. "I thought at best we would attract a devoted cult audience but soon realized that, ironically, this show is so thematically rich and layered with humanity that audiences of all kinds have flocked to it."

Starring Hall as a Miami blood spatter expert (and moonlighting serial killer), "Dexter" is Showtime's highest rated drama and its bestselling DVD title. The series

"Dexter" received its first best drama series Emmy nomination earlier this year, while Hall earned his second nod for the series. Want more honors? "Dexter" won a 2008 Peabody Award, has twice been named one of the AFI's Top 10 TV programs and won a Television Critics Association prize for Hall in 2007.

The third season of "Dexter" premiered last month and drew 3 million viewers spread out over its first week of airings.