Michael is going to be doing some promotion this week – tune in!

September 28, 2010 – Regis & Kelly (ABC)
October 1, 2010 – David Letterman (CBS)
October 8, 2010 – Ellen Degenres (FOX)

With Over 2.3 Million Viewers, Dexter Delivers Showtime’s Best Season Premiere In 15 Years!

Last Night’s Fifth Season Premiere Up Double Digits Vs. Season Four

* Dexter’s fifth season debut marked the series’ highest rated premiere ever and the best season premiere for a SHOWTIME original series in 15 years.
* With 2.34 million viewers, DEXTER attracted the largest season premiere night audience in series history.
* The fifth season premiere ranks as the top telecast for the network in 2010.

9:01p 1.77 MM viewers (+16% vs. last year’s premiere 1.52MM)
11:00p 575K viewers
Total 2.34 MM viewers (+22% vs. last year’s premiere night 1.92MM)

Source: TV By the Numbers

Here is what is in store for tonight’s fifth season premiere of Dexter! I can not wait! As always, avoid this synopsis if you wish to remain spoiler-free. A clip from the premiere is posted after the jump.

This post may contain spoilers for readers still catching up on DVD.

Q. Are there some key themes or narrative arcs threading through Dexter this season?

A. We’re primarily dealing with the blowback from Rita’s death and the fact that Dexter is culpable. In a way, discovering his infant son in that pool of blood is a new origin story. We’re familiar with the original origin story, where Dexter is an innocent baby, but now his son is that baby and Dexter is not so innocent. So he’s carrying around a heavy dose of guilt and is motivated to atone for the responsibility he feels for his wife’s death.

If you’re waiting to watch season four of Dexter on DVD, don’t read this interview yet. The ending of last season was so shocking, we’ve got to talk about it with Michael C. Hall. Season five will pick up right after the death of, uh, that person we’re trying not to spoil. Hall did a good job teasing a group of reporters from the Television Critics Association, so all he spoiled was the fourth season, which most of us are already caught up on.

CraveOnline: How is Dexter dealing with remorse, if he has any?

Michael C. Hall: I think it’s sublimated. I don’t know if he’s consciously aware of it and yet I think a lot of the things he does and doesn’t do at the outset of the fifth season and throughout it are motivated by some sort of subterranean sense of remorse that he can’t even quite consciously be aware of but I think he does want to atone.

Ultimate Dexter Fan Pack Contest

This doesn’t need a lot of explanation. Latina Magazine is giving out this absolutely killer gift pack which includes Seasons 1 to 4, autographed script, and other goodies to one lucky fan! You can enter until October 22nd.  Good luck everyone!! I hope one of you wins this.  I already entered.

In a new People Magazine interview, Michael C. Hall opened up and said that his own father died of prostate cancer at age 38, and at the age of 11 he always wondered if he would live to age 39.  At age 38 he was also diagnosed with cancer, but he has made it past age 39!  Dexter is premiering in just 6 days.  Rachel at The Avid Appetite has a great Dexter cupcake recipe and a giveaway so please check it out!

Hi all Michael fans! Are you excited for the premier of Dexter Season 5 in just about 2 weeks? I really can’t wait.Only 16 days are left! If you are into the origins of Dexter, you should be aware that the show is based on a series of novels by Jeff Lindsay. The first season is pretty much based off of Darkly Dreaming Dexter, and if you watch it again you will notice all the alliterative things Dexter says. Anyway, the newest book is the fifth in the series and is called Dexter is Delicious and was just released this week. It deals with Dexter trying to be a new man and stop his killing spree and also some teenage “vampires”.  Don’t worry though, this is not some Twilight ripoff.  Will the writers at Showtime incorporate this? I have no idea, but no matter what the writers do, I’m sure Michael will do a superb job portraying the character.

Meanwhile, Showtime has released a new promo clip with Julia Stiles where she talks about how great an actor Michael is.