Does ‘Shameless’ Season 8 Have A Premiere Date?

The finale episode of Shameless Season 7 aired on December 18 of last year and fans everywhere are dying to know when Season 8 of the Showtime series is going to premiere.

Does Shameless Season 8 have a premiere date yet? When will Shameless Season 8 Episode 1 air on Showtime? These are the questions Shameless fans everywhere desperately want answered.

It wasn’t that many months ago that Shameless fans weren’t even sure if the Showtime series was going to be renewed for Season 8. This was largely because of a payment dispute between Emmy Rossum and the producers of the show.

As those who watch Shameless know, Emmy Rossum plays the role of Fiona Gallagher – who is basically the glue that holds the family together. Emmy was unwilling to continue her role as Fiona unless she was given a raise to compensate for the fact that William H. Macy – who plays Frank – was paid more than her for the first seven seasons of the show.

Emmy Rossum’s argument was that she played just as big – if not a bigger – role in the show than William H. Macy and felt as though she deserved to be paid the same wages he was receiving. Not only did Emmy want a pay increase, but she wanted to be compensated for the seven seasons she believes she was not paid fair wages for as well.

Fortunately, Emmy put the minds of Shameless fans at ease when she took to Twitter in December of last year to announce that she loved her role as Fiona and would be continuing her role for Season 8. She also revealed that they would start filming Season 8 in May of this year.

Deadline speculates it was William H. Macy’s Oscar nomination in 1996 for Fargo that resulted in him having a higher salary than Emmy for their roles in Shameless. TMZ asked William H. Macy if he thought Emmy Rossum should have the same salary as him. He affirmed that Emmy worked just as hard as he did for the show and was completely deserving for it. He also jokingly speculated it was the fact that he was “better looking” that was the real reason why he had the higher salary.

Unfortunately, there is not an official premiere date for Season 8 of Shameless as of yet. While there is no way of knowing the exact air date of Season 8 Episode 1 of Shameless, fans can make educated guesses by looking at the way Showtime has released previous seasons of the show. Season 7 of Shameless was confirmed in January of 2016 with an October 2 air date. So, it is possible Season 8 of Shameless could have a premiere date in the fall of 2017. It is, however, worth noting that previous seasons of Shameless have had an air date in January. So, it is just as possible for Season 8 to have a premiere date in January of next year. At this time, fans of Shameless can just keep their fingers crossed that the premiere date will be sometime between October of this year and February of next year.

For anyone who is behind in watching Shameless, Seasons 1 through 6 are available on Netflix. Inquisitr also speculated that Shameless Season 7 would be added to Netflix in September of this year.

Are you patiently – or impatiently – waiting for Season 8 of Shameless to premiere on Showtime? What do you think is going to happen to the Gallagher family in Season 8? Will Carl go back to boarding school? Will another Gallagher pass away? Will Fiona get a new boyfriend? Could Mickey return to be with Ian? Share your thoughts and theories on what will happen in Season 8 of Shameless in the comments section below as we wait for the official premiere date.

[Featured Image by Jason Kempin/Getty Images]