In the face of stiff competition, Showtime‘s Shameless and House Of Lies wrapped their fourth and third seasons, respectively, with best-yet wrap-up stats. Shameless’s surprise finale — in which, during closing credits (SPOILER ALERT) Jack pulls up to the Gallagher household, looking for all the world like a resurrected Jimmy/Steve — delivered its biggest telecast of the season and highest-rated finale ever with 1.93 million viewers at 9 PM and 2.83 million viewers for the night, outperforming the Season 3 finale by 18% (2.39 million) and its Season 4 premiere by 23% (2.3 million). House Of Lies, meanwhile, ended its third season with 731,000 viewers at 10 PM and 1.4 million viewers for the night — the show’s best finale night ever, outperforming its Season 2 finale and Season 34 premiere by 16%; both had delivered 1.2 million viewers. It too was fraught with drama including (SPOILER ALERT) busy Marty Kaan about to be indicted and having admitted love to Jeannie, who comes off looking pretty bad.

Season-to-date, Shameless averages 5.7 million weekly viewers for Season 4 — up 7% vs. last season through the same time frame, and on track to rate as its highest-rated season ever. House Of Lies’ Season 3 is averaging 3 million weekly viewers, which is on par with last season through the same time frame.

One week earlier, despite stiff competition across broadcast and cable, Shameless copped its biggest episode premiere crowd ever on Sunday — 2.8 million viewers — surpassing previous high, aka Episode 6 of this season. It also was a pretty eventful episode — SPOILER..oh, nevermind — what with Fiona going back to prison, Frank waking up in the hospital, and Mickey coming out. Meanwhile, House Of Lies that same night logged its best night this season with 1.44 million viewers.

Both shows were renewed for an additional season in February: Showtime made 12-episode orders for a Season 5 of Shameless and Season 4 of House Of Lies, to air in 2015.