Showtime used Friday (July 18) afternoon's Television Critics Association press tour session as the venue to announce a pick-up for "Nurse Jackie," a new dark comedy starring Edie Falco.

"Nurse Jackie" (a working title, Showtime emphasizes) will begin production in New York in late 2008 and will premiere in 2009. The premium cable network has ordered 12 half-hour episodes.

Falco will play a strong-willed New York City nurse juggling her duties at an urban hospital with a ragged personality life and a minor drug addiction.

The pick-up was announced one day after Falco picked up an Emmy nomination for her guest work on NBC's "30 Rock." She's a three-time Emmy winner for her long run as Carmela Soprano on HBO's "The Sopranos."

"Nothing is more thrilling for us than bringing Edie Falco to Showtime in this unique, quirky, touching comedy/drama," says Showtime Entertainment President Robert Greenblatt. "If you suddenly found yourself in the hospital and fight through our health care system, you would want no one other than Edie Falco -- or Nurse Jackie -- by your side. This show will illuminate the complex and often heroic people who devote their lives to healing the sick while simultaneously trying to make sense of their own personal lives. It's quintessential premium cable, and with Edie on board, quintessential Showtime."

The "Nurse Jackie" pilot was written by Liz Brixius, Linda Wallem and Evan Dunsky. Wallem and Brixius will serve as showrunners.

The show's cast also includes Eve Best, Peter Facinelli, Merritt Wever, Haaz Slieman and Paul Schulze.

"We're thrilled about the pick-up of 'Nurse Jackie' and the expansion of our relationship with Showtime on what we expect will be another groundbreaking series," says Kevin Beggs, president of programming and production at Lionsgate, the show's producer. "This subversive, yet wildly entertaining examination of our broken health care system, brought to life by the incomparable Edie Falco and an amazing creative team, promises to excite and provoke audiences.

Showtime has recently been rolling up comedies at a rate the networks would envy.

"Weeds" and "The Secret Diary of a Call Girl" premiered to strong ratings in June, while "Californication" is set to kick off its second season this fall. Also returning on the comedy front is " Tracey Ullman's State of the Union," which is expected to begin its second season in 2009 along with an untitled new series from British comic Marc Wootton. Showtime expects to premiere the Diablo Cody-scripted "The United States of Tara," while the network recently ordered a pilot for "The End of Steve," a comedy based around Matthew Perry.