Masters of Sex is an American television drama series developed for television by Michelle Ashford and based on the biography Masters of Sex: The Life and Times of William Masters and Virginia Johnson, the Couple Who Taught America How to Love by Thomas Maier. Masters of Sex tells the story of Dr. William Masters (Michael Sheen) and Virginia Johnson (Lizzy Caplan), two pioneering researchers of human sexuality at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. The series premiered on September 29, 2013 on Showtime, and was cancelled on November 30, 2016 after four seasons.
During the course of the series, 46 episodes of Masters of Sex aired, between September 29, 2013, and November 13, 2016.
Series overview
| Season | Episodes | Originally aired | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First aired | Last aired | |||
| 1 | 12 | September 29, 2013 (2013-09-29) | December 15, 2013 (2013-12-15) | |
| 2 | 12 | July 13, 2014 (2014-07-13) | September 28, 2014 (2014-09-28) | |
| 3 | 12 | July 12, 2015 (2015-07-12) | September 27, 2015 (2015-09-27) | |
| 4 | 10 | September 11, 2016 (2016-09-11) | November 13, 2016 (2016-11-13) | |
Episodes
Season 1 (2013)
Main article: Masters of Sex season 1| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | US viewers (millions) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | "Pilot" | John Madden | Michelle Ashford | September 29, 2013 (2013-09-29) | 0.998 |
| 2 | 2 | "Race to Space" | Michael Dinner | Michelle Ashford | October 6, 2013 (2013-10-06) | 1.090 |
| 3 | 3 | "Standard Deviation" | Lawrence Trilling | Sam Shaw | October 13, 2013 (2013-10-13) | 1.042 |
| 4 | 4 | "Thank You for Coming" | Jennifer Getzinger | Amy Lippman | October 20, 2013 (2013-10-20) | 1.012 |
| 5 | 5 | "Catherine" | Michael Apted | Sam Shaw & Michelle Ashford | October 27, 2013 (2013-10-27) | 1.009 |
| 6 | 6 | "Brave New World" | Adam Davidson | Lyn Greene & Richard Levine | November 3, 2013 (2013-11-03) | 0.933 |
| 7 | 7 | "All Together Now" | Tim Fywell | Tyler Bensinger | November 10, 2013 (2013-11-10) | 1.095 |
| 8 | 8 | "Love and Marriage" | Michael Apted | Story by : Tyler Bensinger Teleplay by : Michael Cunningham | November 17, 2013 (2013-11-17) | 1.050 |
| 9 | 9 | "Involuntary" | Jennifer Getzinger | Noelle Valdivia | November 24, 2013 (2013-11-24) | 1.128 |
| 10 | 10 | "Fallout" | Lesli Linka Glatter | Sam Shaw | December 1, 2013 (2013-12-01) | 1.076 |
| 11 | 11 | "Phallic Victories" | Phil Abraham | Amy Lippman | December 8, 2013 (2013-12-08) | 1.234 |
| 12 | 12 | "Manhigh" | Michael Dinner | Michelle Ashford | December 15, 2013 (2013-12-15) | 1.207 |
Season 2 (2014)
Main article: Masters of Sex season 2| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | US viewers (millions) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 | 1 | "Parallax" | Michael Apted | Michelle Ashford | July 13, 2014 (2014-07-13) | 0.825 |
| 14 | 2 | "Kyrie Eleison" | Michael Apted | David Flebotte | July 20, 2014 (2014-07-20) | 0.716 |
| 15 | 3 | "Fight" | Michael Apted | Amy Lippman | July 27, 2014 (2014-07-27) | 0.838 |
| 16 | 4 | "Dirty Jobs" | Michael Engler | Steven Levenson | August 3, 2014 (2014-08-03) | 0.706 |
| 17 | 5 | "Giants" | Jeremy Webb | Bathsheba Doran | August 10, 2014 (2014-08-10) | 0.971 |
| 18 | 6 | "Blackbird" | Keith Gordon | Eileen Myers | August 17, 2014 (2014-08-17) | 0.793 |
| 19 | 7 | "Asterion" | Michael Dinner | David Flebotte & Michelle Ashford | August 24, 2014 (2014-08-24) | 0.840 |
| 20 | 8 | "Mirror, Mirror" | Michael Apted | Steven Levenson | August 31, 2014 (2014-08-31) | 0.726 |
| 21 | 9 | "Story of My Life" | Jeremy Webb | Amy Lippman | September 7, 2014 (2014-09-07) | 0.760 |
| 22 | 10 | "Below the Belt" | Adam Arkin | Bathsheba Doran & Eileen Myers | September 14, 2014 (2014-09-14) | 0.804 |
| 23 | 11 | "One for the Money, Two for the Show" | Adam Bernstein | Amy Lippman | September 21, 2014 (2014-09-21) | 0.714 |
| 24 | 12 | "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" | Adam Arkin | Michelle Ashford | September 28, 2014 (2014-09-28) | 0.889 |
Season 3 (2015)
Main article: Masters of Sex season 3| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | US viewers (millions) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 | 1 | "Parliament of Owls" | Jeremy Webb | Michelle Ashford | July 12, 2015 (2015-07-12) | 0.583 |
| 26 | 2 | "Three's a Crowd" | Dean Parisot | Amy Lippman | July 19, 2015 (2015-07-19) | 0.535 |
| 27 | 3 | "The Excitement of Release" | Miguel Sapochnik | Steven Levenson | July 26, 2015 (2015-07-26) | 0.509 |
| 28 | 4 | "Undue Influence" | Christopher Manley | Gina Fattore | August 2, 2015 (2015-08-02) | 0.585 |
| 29 | 5 | "Matters of Gravity" | Adam Arkin | Esta Spalding | August 9, 2015 (2015-08-09) | 0.552 |
| 30 | 6 | "Two Scents" | Michael Weaver | David Flebotte | August 16, 2015 (2015-08-16) | 0.734 |
| 31 | 7 | "Monkey Business" | Adam Arkin | Michelle Ashford & David Flebotte | August 23, 2015 (2015-08-23) | 0.643 |
| 32 | 8 | "Surrogates" | Matt Earl Beesley | Steven Levenson | August 30, 2015 (2015-08-30) | 0.688 |
| 33 | 9 | "High Anxiety" | Dan Attias | Jonathan Igla | September 6, 2015 (2015-09-06) | 0.562 |
| 34 | 10 | "Through a Glass, Darkly" | Jeremy Webb | Steven Levenson & Esta Spalding | September 13, 2015 (2015-09-13) | 0.601 |
| 35 | 11 | "Party of Four" | Susanna White | Amy Lippman | September 20, 2015 (2015-09-20) | 0.548 |
| 36 | 12 | "Full Ten Count" | Michael Apted | Michelle Ashford | September 27, 2015 (2015-09-27) | 0.605 |
Season 4 (2016)
Main article: Masters of Sex season 4| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | US viewers (millions) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 37 | 1 | "Freefall" | Colin Bucksey | Michelle Ashford | September 2, 2016 (2016-09-02) (online) September 11, 2016 (2016-09-11) (Showtime) | 0.518 |
| 38 | 2 | "Inventory" | Jeremy Webb | Steven Levenson | September 18, 2016 (2016-09-18) | 0.420 |
| 39 | 3 | "The Pleasure Protocol" | Adam Arkin | Ellen Fairey | September 25, 2016 (2016-09-25) | 0.422 |
| 40 | 4 | "Coats or Keys" | Colin Bucksey | Amy Lippman | October 2, 2016 (2016-10-02) | 0.525 |
| 41 | 5 | "Outliers" | Eric Galileo Tignini | Esta Spalding | October 9, 2016 (2016-10-09) | 0.341 |
| 42 | 6 | "Family Only" | Colin Bucksey | Seth Fisher | October 16, 2016 (2016-10-16) | 0.506 |
| 43 | 7 | "In To Me You See" | Michael Apted | Matthew-Lee Erlbach | October 23, 2016 (2016-10-23) | 0.486 |
| 44 | 8 | "Topeka" | Julie Anne Robinson | Esta Spalding | October 30, 2016 (2016-10-30) | 0.393 |
| 45 | 9 | "Night and Day" | Karyn Kusama | Steven Levenson | November 6, 2016 (2016-11-06) | 0.463 |
| 46 | 10 | "The Eyes of God" | Michael Apted | Michelle Ashford | November 13, 2016 (2016-11-13) | 0.457 |
Ratings
Masters of Sex : U.S. viewers per episode (thousands) | Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. Updates on reimplementing the Graph extension, which will be known as the Chart extension, can be found on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org. |
| Season | Episode number | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | ||
| 1 | 998 | 1090 | 1042 | 1012 | 1009 | 933 | 1095 | 1050 | 1128 | 1076 | 1234 | 1207 | |
| 2 | 825 | 716 | 838 | 706 | 971 | 793 | 840 | 726 | 760 | 804 | 714 | 889 | |
| 3 | 583 | 535 | 509 | 585 | 552 | 734 | 643 | 688 | 562 | 601 | 548 | 605 | |
| 4 | 518 | 420 | 422 | 525 | 341 | 506 | 486 | 393 | 463 | 457 | – | ||
References
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- For the first season, see "Masters of Sex: Season One Ratings". TV Series Finale. December 17, 2013. Archived from the original on March 9, 2023. Retrieved June 20, 2021.
For the second season, see "Masters of Sex: Season Two Ratings". TV Series Finale. September 30, 2014. Archived from the original on March 9, 2023. Retrieved June 20, 2021.
For the third season, see "Masters of Sex: Season Three Ratings". TV Series Finale. September 29, 2015. Archived from the original on March 9, 2023. Retrieved June 20, 2021.
For the fourth season, see "Masters of Sex: Season Four Ratings". TV Series Finale. November 30, 2016. Archived from the original on March 9, 2023. Retrieved June 20, 2021.
External links
| Masters of Sex | |
|---|---|
| Episodes |
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| Related | |