USA picks up summer series 'Necessary Roughness', 'Covert Affairs' and 'Royal Pains' for another season

Cable network previously renewed 'White Collar', 'Suits', 'Burn Notice' and 'In Plain Sight'

By HitFix StaffThursday, Sep 15, 2011 8:47 PM

'Covert Affair''s Christopher Gorham and Piper Perabo would be celebrating right now if they weren't in character

Credit: USA

USA just wrapped up a stellar summer that saw the cable network beat all of its competitors in the ratings for a sixth straight season. Now they've added to their list of original series-renewals with 16-episode orders of "Necessary Roughness", "Covert Affairs" and "Royal Pains" - meaning that seven of their eight summer shows have been picked up for another season ("Law & Order: Criminal Intent" ended its run this summer after ten years on the air).

As noted by Deadline, that counts as the highest number of original series ever renewed by a cable network in a single season.

This was the freshman season for "Necessary Roughness", the second for "Covert Affairs" and the third for "Royal Pains". All three received 16-episode renewals.

"Covert Affairs", starring Piper Perabo as a young CIA trainee working with the Domestic Protection Division, will air six new episodes (the second half of season two) beginning November 1st.

"Royal Pains" starring Mark Feuerstein closed out the summer with an average of 7.2 million viewers per episode, while "Necessary Roughness" starring Callie Thorne scored an average of 5.9 million.