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How To Watch ‘Shameless’ Season 8 Before The Season 9 Premiere

By Trisha Faulkner
Published on: 12:02 PST, Aug 25, 2018

The premiere of Season 9 of one of the hottest Showtime series, Shameless, is just two weeks away. As fans everywhere get anxious and fill with anticipation, one surefire way to pass the time is to binge through Season 8 of Shameless and refresh on what happened in preparation for the new season. The question is – how can you watch Season 8 of Shameless beyond getting lucky enough to catch an episode airing on Showtime? Fortunately, you have a few options beyond television.

Showtime Streaming Service

Because Shameless is a Showtime series, the easiest way to watch Season 8 is with a subscription to the network’s streaming service. If you have a Hulu membership, you can sign up for the Showtime extension. Amazon Prime Video members can also sign-up for the Showtime channel. Or, you can just sign up on the Showtime website.

If you sign-up for the Showtime streaming service through Showtime’s website, Hulu, or Amazon, you will also gain access to episodes of Season 9 the day after they air on television. This option is an ideal choice for someone without cable television.

Renew Your Netflix Subscriptions

The latest installment of the Gallagher family adventures wrapped things up in January on Showtime. Those without a Showtime subscription or cable had to sit back and twiddle their thumbs as they waited for Season 8 to drop on a streaming service. Fortunately, all 12 episodes of Season 8 have been available to Netflix subscribers since July 28.

As Netflix subscribers know, Netflix will also drop Season 9 of Shameless roughly six to eight months after the finale airs on television. Season 9 was extended and split into two parts, but it is unclear whether Netflix will also split the release into two parts or just wait to release all of Season 9 after both parts air on Showtime.

As previously reported by Inquisitr, Showtime president and CEO David Nevins speculates part of the reason why Shameless remains so popular as it heads into Season 9 – with Season 8 having the highest viewer ratings since Season 3 – is thanks to being a member of the Netflix library. He believes being available on Netflix exposed the series to an audience that didn’t have Showtime.

“It’s definitely helped introduce it to another audience, but there’s positives and negatives to that. It’s helped its run on Showtime. Fortunately, this season that is currently running on Showtime won’t be on Netflix for another nine months. There’s a much longer period of our exclusivity, which I think is a good thing for us. The downside is I don’t want people thinking it’s a Netflix show.”

Nevins noted the only real downside to this connection is the possibility that people may begin to associate the show as a Netflix series instead of a Showtime series.

In addition to binging through Season 8, fans of the series can keep their eyes peeled for Season 9 spoilers. As Inquisitr reported yesterday, there have been some big additions to the cast for Season 9.

Former Friends star Courteney Cox is set to guest star in Season 9, playing in a lot of scenes with fan favorite Lip Gallagher. Katey Sagal, known best for her role as Peg Bundy on Married with Children, will also be making appearances during Season 9 of the series.

Stick with Inquisitr for the latest Shameless news and spoilers.

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