TNT extends 'Leverage' summer season

Jeri Ryan will appear in the newly added Sept. 9 summer finale

Tuesday, Aug 18, 2009 4:01 PM

Daniel Fienberg

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Timothy Hutton of 'Leverage'

Credit: Erik Heinila/TNT

TNT has added two additional episodes of "Leverage" to its summer lineup.

The cable network announced on Tuesday (Aug. 18) that the current run of new "Leverage" episodes will now include hours on Wednesday, Sept. 2 ("The Ice Man Job") and a seasonal finale on Wednesday, Sept. 9 ("The Lost Heir Job").

In addition to regular stars Timothy Hutton, Gina Bellman, Christian Kane, Beth Riesgraf and Aldis Hodge, the summer finale will introduce Jeri Ryan's new recurring character Tara, a grifter who lends assistance to the team.

Where are these new magical episodes of "Leverage" coming from? Simple: TNT ordered a 15 episode second season of "Leverage" and originally planned on airing seven episodes in the summer and eight at a later date. Two of those eight have now been pushed forward to September, while the additional six carryover episodes will be programmed at a later date.

The "Leverage" scheduling shift comes just days after TNT announced that "Saving Grace," originally set for a run of winter episodes, won't return to the air until next summer with its final set of episodes.