"The Wire" Returns Jan 6th.

The Peabody Award-winning drama series THE WIRE launches its ten-episode fifth and final season SUNDAY, JAN. 6 (9:00-10:00 p.m. ET/PT), exclusively on HBO, with other episodes debuting on subsequent Sundays at the same time.

In addition to resolving storylines that have continued throughout the previous seasons, the culminating narrative arc of THE WIRE will reflect on the media's role in addressing - or failing to address - the fundamental political, economic and social realities depicted over the course of the series.

Explains series creator David Simon, "It made sense to finish THE WIRE with this reflection on the state of the media, as all the other attendant problems of the American city depicted in the previous four seasons will not be solved until the depth and range of those problems is first acknowledged. And that won't happen without an intelligent, aggressive and well-funded press."

A 13-year veteran of the Baltimore Sun newspaper, Simon decries recent trends in the newspaper industry that have conspired to make high-end journalism vulnerable: out-of-town chain ownership, an economic climate in which the share price of media companies matters more to industry leaders than the product itself, and a newsroom culture in which prizes, personal ambition and the cult of the "impact" story has replaced consistent and detailed coverage of complex issues as the primary goal.

Returning cast regulars on THE WIRE include Dominic West, Sonja Sohn, Lance Reddick, Wendell Pierce, Deirdre Lovejoy, Clarke Peters, Reg E. Cathey, Domenick Lombardozzi, Seth Gilliam, Aidan Gillen, Jamie Hector, Michael Kenneth Williams, John Doman, Andre Royo, Corey Parker Robinson, Tristan Wilds, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Jermaine Crawford and Isiah Whitlock, Jr.

New cast regulars this season include Clark Johnson ("Homicide: Life on the Street") as city editor Augustus "Gus" Haynes, Tom McCarthy ("Year of the Dog") as ambitious reporter Scott Templeton, Michelle Paress as reporter Alma Gutierrez, Neal Huff ("Michael Clayton") as Michael Steintorf, Mayor Carcetti's chief of staff, and Michael Kostroff ("The Closer") as Maury.