Last Summer's Hottest Hits Are Back!

NEW YORK, April 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Two of the hottest shows on television return in exciting form to kick off the summer weekday block of USA original series! Last summer's biggest hit and #1 new show of 2009, ROYAL PAINS, and the #1 cable show of 2009 and #1 series on cable in 1Q10, BURN NOTICE, return on THURSDAY, JUNE 3 at 9/8c and 10/9c only on USA Network.

Delivering this year for the first time a powerful weekday block of originals, USA is poised to repeat summer domination starting with ROYAL PAINS and BURN NOTICE in June, with WHITE COLLAR, PSYCH and the highly anticipated COVERT AFFAIRS series premiere bowing in July.  Appetizing USA audiences with spring offerings and continuing through mid-summer, LAW & ORDER: CRIMINAL INTENT and IN PLAIN SIGHT kicked-off their respective seasons earlier this week.

ROYAL PAINS stars Mark Feuerstein as Hank Lawson who, after becoming blacklisted from the medical community, revives his career as a "doctor for hire" to the rich, famous and infamous in the Hamptons.  In addition to his wealthy patients, Hank treats the town's less fortunate, and finds himself walking the line between doing well for himself and doing good for others. The show also stars Paulo Costanzo, Reshma Shetty and Jill Flint.  Henry Winkler ("Arrested Development") joins the cast for season two as Eddie R. Lawson, Hank and Evan's father.  ROYAL PAINS is executive produced Michael Rauch as well as by Rich Frank, Paul Frank and Jeff Kwatinetz from Prospect Park and written and executive produced by Andrew Lenchewski.  Christine Sacani and John Rogers serve as co-executive producers. The series is produced by Universal Cable Productions.

Proving again that USA continues to deliver record-breaking ratings, ROYAL PAINS launched as the top-ranked new series in cable history, delivering more P25-54, P18-49, P18-34, and total viewers than the freshman year of any other scripted series in history.  It was the #1 new original series of the year, ranking second to BURN NOTICE, for P25-54 (3.56 million), P18-49 (3.15 million). ROYAL PAINS also came in second among total viewers (7.47 million) and households (5.29 million).  

BURN NOTICE, the sexy smash hit, stars Jeffrey Donovan as Michael Westen, a blacklisted spy who finds himself stranded in sun-soaked Miami, returns in June with all-new episodes.  The action-packed season four commences with a new counterintelligence expert, Jesse Garcia, played by Coby Bell ("Third Watch"), who loves to fight bad guys just as much as Michael does.  Heating up the night with our hot undercover agent are Fiona (Gabrielle Anwar), the beautiful ex-IRA operative and ex-girlfriend of Michael; Sam (Bruce Campbell), our favorite washed-up military intelligence muscle; and Michael's mother (Emmy Award-winner Sharon Gless), who is one tough cookie herself. BURN NOTICE was created and is written and executive produced by Matt Nix. Mikkel Bondesen and Jeff Freilich also serve as executive producers. The series comes from Fox Television Studios and Fuse Entertainment.

BURN NOTICE, cable's #1 program in 2009, kept up the heat in 1Q10 as the #1 series on cable, delivering more P25-54, total viewers and households than any other cable original series.  It was also the top scripted series among P18-49.  The winter season premiere was the quarter's #1 scripted telecast among P25-54 and P18-49. 

For photos of ROYAL PAINS and BURN NOTICE, as well as all USA Network projects, please log on to the NBC Universal Media Village at http://www.nbcumv.com.

For more information on ROYAL PAINS and BURN NOTICE, including press kit materials, screeners, clips and photos, log on to the USA digital press site at http://www.usanetwork.com/press/royalpains or http://www.usanetwork.com/press/burnnotice.  

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SOURCE USA Network