This Sunday, the Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks will face off in the Super Bowl, a reliably popular athletic contest that in its last iteration was watched by an estimated 108.4 million viewers. In the face of what is expected to be, barring a series of impossible events, another widely viewed event, most networks have decided to get the hell out of the way. HBO, for example, recently opted to delay True Detective by two weeks and move new episodes of Girls and Looking to Saturday, rather than get crushed underfoot. But Showtime has announced that it will air original episodes of its shows Shameless, House Of Lies, and Episodes, proving there’s still a place for brazen foolhardiness in the television business.
Showtime executive Kim Lemon explained the decision: “We’ve looked at the competitive landscape, and we have an opportunity to be one of the few scripted alternatives on Super Bowl Sunday." The network now joins PBS—which will air original episodes of Sherlock and Downton Abbey—in taking a stand for all the fans who will probably just DVR those shows to watch later anyway.