Oscar winning Irish director Neil Jordan has a hit on his hands. The Borgias, which he created and filmed in Ireland, has been renewed for a second season with a 10-episode order.

The series, which stars Irish based actor Jeremy Irons, debuted earlier this month with 1.06 million viewers - Showtime's largest premiere audience for a drama series in seven years.

Set in Renaissance Italy, The Borgias is quickly outstripping even the highest-rated season of Showtime's previous favorite period drama, The Tudors.

It's understood Showtime had already commissioned new scripts for the second season, which are currently being written by Jordan. Production of Season 2 will commence this summer for a 2012 premiere.

Oscar-winner Irons stars as Rodrigo Borgia, the formidable patriarch of the Borgia family who builds an empire by bribing, buying and muscling his way into the papacy.

Jordan is expected to continue to serve as the show's executive producer and writer and will once again direct the first two episodes.