Showtime has announced that Nurse Jackie will be back for a fifth season. The cast and crew will resume production late this year.

The cable channel hasn’t disclosed how many episodes have been ordered this time around or when season five will debut. The first three seasons had a dozen installments each while the current season has just 10 episodes.

Season four debuted in April and will conclude on June 17th. Here’s the Showtime press release with further details about season five.

SHOWTIME(R) RENEWS “NURSE JACKIE” FOR FIFTH SEASON

Peabody Award Winner And Emmy(R) Award Nominee Clyde Phillips Named New Showrunner

New York, NY – May 31, 2012 – After his highly successful run as the executive producer and showrunner of the hit SHOWTIME drama series DEXTER(R), Peabody Award winner and Emmy Award nominee Clyde Phillips has been tapped as the new showrunner for the network’s hit comedy series NURSE JACKIE, which has been renewed for a fifth season. The announcement was made today by David Nevins, President of Entertainment, Showtime Networks Inc. Phillips will join Richie Jackson as executive producer on NURSE JACKIE. Caryn Mandabach is also a series executive producer. The fifth season of the series, which is a co-production of SHOWTIME and Lionsgate, will begin production in late 2012.

NURSE JACKIE stars Emmy Award-winning actress Edie Falco as Jackie Peyton, a strong-willed and brilliant – but very flawed – emergency room nurse. Currently in its fourth season, the series also stars Eve Best, Merritt Wever, Paul Schulze, Dominic Fumusa, Anna Deavere Smith and Peter Facinelli. Arjun Gupta and Stephen Wallem are guest stars. Lenny Jacobson co-stars. The season four premiere delivered over 1.1 million viewers for the night, up 30 percent over its prior season’s premiere night. Overall, the series averages 2.77 million total weekly viewers across platforms (including On Demand, Live +7 and replays).

“Clyde brings a unique combination of skills in both comedy and drama, and he is a master at making entertaining and compelling television,” said Nevins. “We are so thrilled with the series’ performance this year, and we know that with the incomparable Edie Falco in front of the camera, the fifth season of NURSE JACKIE will be even better.”

Phillips was executive producer and showrunner on the first four seasons of DEXTER. Prior to that, Phillips created “Get Real,” which starred Anne Hathaway and Jesse Eisenberg, “Suddenly Susan,” and “Parker Lewis Can’t Lose.” A national bestselling mystery novelist as well, Phillips’s fourth book, Unthinkable, will be published in January 2013 by Amazon.

Showtime Networks Inc. (SNI), a wholly-owned subsidiary of CBS Corporation, owns and operates the premium television networks SHOWTIME(R), THE MOVIE CHANNEL(TM) and FLIX(R), as well as the multiplex channels SHOWTIME 2(TM), SHOWTIME(R) SHOWCASE, SHOWTIME EXTREME(R), SHOWTIME BEYOND(R), SHOWTIME NEXT(R), SHOWTIME WOMEN(R), SHOWTIME FAMILY ZONE(R) and THE MOVIE CHANNEL(TM) XTRA. SNI also offers SHOWTIME HD(TM), THE MOVIE CHANNEL(TM) HD, SHOWTIME ON DEMAND(R) and THE MOVIE CHANNEL(TM) ON DEMAND, and the network’s authentication service SHOWTIME ANYTIME(R). SNI also manages Smithsonian Networks, a joint venture between SNI and the Smithsonian Institution, which offers Smithsonian Channel(TM). All SNI feeds provide enhanced sound using Dolby Digital 5.1. SNI markets and distributes sports and entertainment events for exhibition to subscribers on a pay-per-view basis through SHOWTIME PPV(R).

What do you think? Are you glad that Nurse Jackie has been renewed or would you rather see it cancelled? How long do you think that the show should continue?