Meloni and Hargitay Resign with Law and Order: SVU

Law and Order: SVU fans can start breathing again: leads Christopher Meloni and Mariska Hargitay have signed a new two-year contract that will keep both of them on the 10-year-old show.

Negotiations with both actors had gone on for months, broke down in the spring, and started up again a few weeks ago.  Despite not having reached an agreement with the show leads, earlier this year NBC announced that it was renewing the show for another season and made it clear that the show would continue even without Meloni and Hargitay.

The actors, who have both starred in the drama since its debut in 1999, conducted the negotiations as a unit, making similar contract demands.

Award-winning actress Christine Lahti will also be joining the duo next season as a guest star during the first four episodes. [Variety]

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NBC Locks Down Fall Premiere Dates

NBC has announced its fall premiere schedule which starts rolling out in mid-September. Current premiere dates are:

• Sunday, September 13 - Football Night in America, NBC Sunday Night Football
• Monday, September 14 - The Jay Leno Show
• Tuesday, September 15 - The Biggest Loser
• Thursday, September 17 - Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday, Parks and Recreation, The Office, Community
• Monday, September 21 - Heroes (2-hour premiere)
• Wednesday, September 23 - Parenthood, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
• Friday, September 25 - Law & Order, Southland
• Saturday, September 26 - Dateline NBC, Trauma, Saturday Night Live
• Thursday, October 15 - 30 Rock

[Hollywood Reporter]

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TV News: NBC Announces Split Seasons, CW Taps Into Vampire Craze

- NBC is bookending its coverage of the Winter Olympics with two separate TV seasons, featuring different lineups for fall and spring. As part of the unusual move, the Peacock is ordering a smaller number of episodes for many of its shows, but will actually air fewer repeats throughout the year. Heroes and Chuck, for example, will share the Monday 8pm timeslot with one show airing its full season in the fall and the other running in the spring. Click here for a summary of the new NBC lineups for each season. [Variety]

- The latest buzz says that The CW has put in series orders for Vampire Diaries (starring Ian Somerhalder of Lost fame), Melrose Place 2.0 (featuring Ashlee Simpson-Wentz) and Beautiful Life (starring Mischa Barton). Two other CW shows, Lily and Body Politic haven't officially been axed, but things don't look good for them. [E! Online]

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TV News: ABC announces fall lineup, The Unit and My Name Is Earl canceled...

- ABC has presented its fall lineup, which will include returning shows like Grey's Anatomy and Dancing with the Stars. There will also be a Wednesday night, two-hour block of comedies (including Cougar Town). Scrubs and Better Off Ted are supposed to appear midseason. For more about the network's fall lineup, go here. [The Hollywood Reporter]

- Meanwhile, NBC has decided to cancel My Name Is Earl, but 20th Century executives are speaking to FOX and ABC about picking it up. The peacock network has also passed on ordering another season of Medium, but those rumors that show owner CBS could pick it up are still alive and kicking. Meanwhile, CBS has decided not to pick up The Unit. [Entertainment Weekly]

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TV News: Renewals and Cancellations as of May 18, 2009

We've been posting sporadic news about recent TV renewals and cancellations since last week, and I just posted my thoughts about the Sarah Connor cancellation here earlier today. But since we've all got day jobs here at Pop Wenches, it's tough to post each and every bit of TV scheduling news that's come out today.

So here's a little rundown of the fall line-ups so far:

- FOX announced its line-up of shows today, confirming the cancellation of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and stating that an abbreviated season of Dollhouse will (still) be airing on Friday nights. Fringe will move to Thursday night, while other established hits like House will stay in their current time slots (which means House will be on Monday nights). For a more comprehensive look at FOX's fall schedule, go here. [THR.com]
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- Meanwhile, it looks like ABC has decided to cancel Samantha Who? But executives have renewed Castle, meaning Nathan Fillion is finally on a series — not including Two Guys and a Girl — that hasn't been canceled only 10 or so episodes into its first season. Better Off Ted, which is actually pretty quirky/funny, has also been renewed. And as posted this weekend, Scrubs is coming back...[Entertainment Weekly Link 1; Link 2]

- CBS has picked up four new dramas, including an NCIS spin-off starring Chris O'Donnell and LL Cool J, alongside a Jenna Elfman comedy. For more information on that go here. [Entertainment Weekly]

- As posted this weekend, NBC decided to renew Chuck and has renewed established shows like Heroes as well.

For a final tally of all the shows that are getting renewed and canceled, you can always visit this cheat sheet by Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello. It's a little messy, but gives you a good idea of his predictions and final outcomes for each major network's TV line-up.

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