Showtime bags more Billions

Hedge fund drama Billions stars Damian Lewis

US cablenet Showtime has ordered a second season of its Wall Street drama Billions just two episodes into its first run.

The show, which stars Damian Lewis, was created by journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin (Too Big To Fail), Brian Koppelman and David Levien (Ocean’s Thirteen, Rounders), who will exec produce the new episodes.

Billions’ premiere has become Showtime’s most watched episode for a new series and is a fictional story that focuses on an aggressive US attorney in New York and some of the richest hedge fund billionaires in the country.

Sorkin, a columnist for The New York Times and co-anchor of the morning programme Squawk Box on business news channel CNBC, wrote the best-selling book Too Big to Fail: How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System – and Themselves, which chronicled the events of the 2008 financial crisis. He was also a coproducer of HBO Films’ adaptation of his book in 2011.

Levien and Koppelman’s credits include Rounders, Runaway Jury, Ocean’s Thirteen, The Girlfriend Experience and Runner Runner – all of which they co-wrote. The duo also served as producers on The Illusionist.