Showtime's DEXTER to End After Upcoming Season 8?

TVGuide reports that the upcoming season of the Showtime hit Dexter may be its last. At yesterday's Deutsche Bank Media, Internet and Telecom conference, Les Moonves, president and CEO of CBS Corp., which owns Showtime, commented that the drama will begin its final season this summer.

"We have Ray Donovan coming on, with Liev Schreiber, which comes on with Dexter's last season starting in June," he said, according to Broadcasting & Cable.

A representative from the cable network denied the news yesterday, saying there has been
"nothing confirmed" regarding the future of the series. Showtime President David Nevins also denied rumors at the Television Critics Association winter TV previews in January, commenting, "I'm not making any announcements about when Dexter will end. Before Dexter goes on the air for their next season, there will be a clear end game in place, but I can't talk about it. The decision of when Dexter will end is ultimately a creative decision and made on creative reasons."

Season 8 of Dexter will premiere on Sunday, June 30 at 9/8c on Showtime.

Dexter stars Michael C. Hall in his Golden Globe Award-winning role as Dexter Morgan, a complicated and conflicted blood-spatter expert for the Miami police department who moonlights as a serial killer. The series also stars Jennifer Carpenter, Desmond Harrington, C.S. Lee, Lauren Vélez, David Zayas and James Remar. Season seven guest stars include Jason Gedrick, Katia Winter and Santiago Cabrera, and special guest stars Ray Stevenson and Yvonne Strahovski. The show has received multiple Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for best television drama series, as well as a prestigious Peabody Award in 2008, and was twice named one of AFI's Top Ten television series.

Dexter is the No. 1 rated series on SHOWTIME, watched by nearly 5.5 million weekly viewers across platforms. Season six was the series' highest rated season ever. Season seven returns in dramatic fashion, as Dexter (Hall) is finally forced to confront his greatest fear, as Debra (Carpenter) witnesses his insatiable, ritualistic slaying of a killer. Now Deb knows the secret of his Dark Passenger, as she tries to reconcile the unfathomable idea that her beloved, mild-mannered brother is Miami's most notorious serial killer. Dexter is still pulled by his natural impulses to seek out the guilty and exact his brand of vigilante justice, leading him on the trail of a brutal Ukrainian mobster (Stevenson). Along the way, Dexter meets Hannah McKay (Strahovski), a strong, independent woman with a past that she's struggled to put behind her. Produced by SHOWTIME, Dexter is executive produced by John Goldwyn, Sara Colleton, Scott Buck, Manny Coto, Tim Schlattmann, Wendy West and Michael C. Hall.