TV's Favorite Con Artists Prepare to Steal Christmas and More In Five All-New Episodes of TNT's "Leverage"

Winter Episodes Begin Tuesday, Nov. 27, at 10 p.m. (ET/PT)

For five years, television's coolest gang of con artists have used their unique skills to help level the playing field for people whose lives have been destroyed by the rich and powerful. This winter, things are going to get personal as TNT's hit series Leverage returns with five brand new episodes. Academy Award(R) winner Timothy Hutton stars in this clever and compelling drama, along with Gina Bellman, Christian Kane, Beth Riesgraf and Aldis Hodge. Leverage is set to begin its winter run Tuesday, Nov. 27, at 10 p.m. (ET/PT), following an all-new episode of Rizzoli & Isles.

Leverage focuses on a team of five top-notch specialists out to give everyday people a helping hand against the machinations of corrupt bigwigs. Leading the crew is mastermind Nate Ford (Hutton), a former insurance investigator whose son died when his employer refused to pay for life-saving surgery. Sophie Devereaux (Bellman) is the team's resident grifter, a brilliant con artist who shares a long and complicated history with Nate - both professionally and romantically. Eliot Spencer (Kane) provides muscle as the team's bone-crunching retrieval specialist with a passion for gourmet cooking and a soft spot for the underdog. Gadget and technology wizard Alec Hardison (Hodge) provides the team with everything from communications and video surveillance to target dossiers and virtual environments, rarely getting the credit he feels he deserves. And Parker (Riesgraf) is the team's thief, a slightly off-center charmer who gets giddy at the thought of rappelling off a building or cracking an unbreakable safe.

With the rallying cry, "Let's go steal a...," Nate and his team set out each week to tackle corrupt executives, politicians and other big shots by taking something they hold dear. The team has since "stolen" everything from an airplane to a baseball stadium. They've even stolen a country. And this winter, they're going to steal something they've never gone after before: a man's dreams.

Winter will also pit the Leverage crew against the ruthless manager of a discount store whose tactics threaten not only her employees but also the town itself. They'll target a corrupt winery owner whose workers are collapsing. And in a special holiday episode, the team will try to steal Christmas in order to prevent an unscrupulous toy company CEO from unleashing a dangerous product into the market. In addition, the team will once again face their nemesis, insurance-investigator-turned-InterPOL-agent Jim Sterling (guest star Mark Sheppard).

With each and every case they handle, Nate, Sophie, Elliott, Hardison and Parker prove themselves to be more than just a league of extraordinary con artists. They are a family. But in Leverage's gripping season finale, the bond that holds this family together could be torn apart permanently with an extremely risky case involving the death of Nate's son.

Since premiering in 2008, Leverage has been a solid hit, averaging more than 3.8 million viewers in its fifth season, with 1.4 million adults 18-49 and 1.7 million adults 25-54. Leverage is executive-produced by Dean Devlin (Independence Day, TNT's The Librarian movie series) and creators John Rogers (Transformers) and Chris Downey (The King of Queens). The series is produced for TNT by Devlin's Electric Entertainment.

About Electric Entertainment

Electric Entertainment is a full service film, television, and new media production company and studio headed by veteran producer Dean Devlin along with Marc Roskin and Rachel Olschan. Electric's television credits include TNT's The Librarian: Quest for the Spear, starring Noah Wyle, which was the highest rated cable movie of 2004; its sequel, The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mine; and the third installment of the franchise, The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice. Along with Bryan Singer's Bad Hat Harry production company, Electric produced Syfy's The Triangle, which won an Emmy(R) for its visual effects and was the highest-rated miniseries on the cable channel since Steven Spielberg Presents TAKEN (2002).

About TNT

TNT, one of cable's top-rated networks, is television's destination for drama. Seen in 99 million households, TNT is home to such original drama series as Rizzoli & Isles, Falling Skies, Dallas, Perception, Major Crimes, Franklin & Bash, Leverage, Southland and the upcoming Monday Mornings. The network also features dramatic unscripted originals like the upcoming Boston's Finest (working title), 72 Hours (working title) and The Hero (working title). In addition, TNT is the cable home to popular dramas like The Mentalist, Bones, Supernatural, Las Vegas, Law & Order and Castle, which starts this year; primetime specials, such as the Screen Actors Guild Awards(R); blockbuster movies; and championship sports coverage, including NASCAR, the NBA and the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship.

Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner company, creates and programs branded news; entertainment; animation and young adult; and sports media environments on television and other platforms for consumers around the world.