[Televisionary]

The pay cabler may have moved Big Love to Monday nights this season, but that doesn't mean there isn't more than enough love for the drama to go around. HBO has renewed Big Love for a third season, which will launch in 2008. Series, which stars Bill Paxton, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Chloe Sevigny, and Ginnifer Goodwin as a polygamist family hiding out in the suburbs of Utah, will begin filming in November. Writing on the third season begins this month, to ensure that Season Three of Big Love is completed and ready to air in case of a labor stoppage in June. Meanwhile, it's possible that Big Love could move back to Sunday nights, at least once John From Cincinnati completes its run; series was originally intended to air on Sunday nights at 8 pm, but HBO shunted the series to Mondays at the last second. Given the creative strength of this season, I'm just happy that HBO has decided to look at the overall viewers for each of Big Love 's episodes over the course of six d

Now that you've read the news about Big Love 's third season renewal (above), let's get talking about last night's episode ("Good Guys and Bad Guys"), which was probably the weakest episode we've had for a while. I say that with the utmost love as even a weak episode of Big Love is a vast improvement on most things currently on the airwaves. While it lacked some of the dramatic punch of recent installments, it still kept me on the edge of my seat (or at least the Barb storyline did, anyway) and filled in some of Margene's backstory . Barb. I was pretty surprised--and rather unnerved--that Barb would go to the Juniper Creek compound by herself, even though Joey begged her to retrieve Wanda from the mental hospital (or "booby hatch" as Lois calls it) and take her home. I don't like the idea of her being there in the first place, much less without Bill or Nicki for protection. Same goes for standing up to that evil bully Frank (apparently

In a summer filled with premature cancellations, I shouldn't really be surprised by any network pulling the trigger. That said, I was stunned to learn that CBS has canceled reality series Pirate Master , which had recently moved to Tuesday nights after launching a few weeks ago (and failing to find traction) on Thursday. Five unaired episodes of Pirate Master , from reality maven Mark Burnett, remain and will be burned off on CBS.com, with new episodes appearing every Tuesday at 3 am ET/midnight PT, beginning tomorrow. Pirate-themed reality series, which failed to find an audience this summer, will also be made available to the CBS Audience Network. Hmmm, maybe the pirates shouldn't have voted Joe Don off the ship after all.

Looks like the Peacock has a reason to be proud. The Television Critics Association handed out its trophies this weekend, giving four key awards to NBC. I'm pleased as punch that NBC's The Office nabbed the trophy for outstanding achievement in comedy for the second year in a row. (Take that, According to Jim !) Lest you worry, 30 Rock wasn't shut out of the proceedings; 30 Rock 's Alec Baldwin picked up the award for individual achievement in comedy. On the drama side, Heroes walked away with the trophy for outstanding program of the year, while The Sopranos ' swan song racked up two: one for outstanding achievement in drama and the Heritage Award, given to programs that are felt to have a long-term impact on culture and society. Meanwhile, Michael C. Hall was awarded the individual achievement award for his work on Showtime's Dexter. In a surprise move, NBC's Friday Night Lights took home the top prize for outstanding new program, beating out a slew of

Fans of BBC's Hyperdrive or Channel 4's Black Books might just want to make their way down to the ABC Family booth at Comic Con. Cabler ABC Family will be on hand at the convention later this week to promote several of its series, including upcoming animated series Slacker Cats , about the misadventures of two ne'er-do-well cats. Voice talent includes Alex Borstein, Stephen Root, Dave Foley, Harland Williams, Sinbad, Emo Philips, and Nicole Sullivan. So what does this series have to do with Black Books and Hyperdrive ? I'm glad you asked. Creators Kevin Cecil and Andy Riley, who created the BBC2 comedy Hyperdrive (starring Sean of the Dead and Hot Fuzz 's Nick Frost) and wrote several episodes of the hysterically surreal Black Books --including one of my personal favorite episodes "Manny Come Home," which guest starred Simon Pegg--just happen to be the creators of Slacker Cats , which launches August 13th on ABC Family. They'll be at the ABC Famil

24 has elected its first female president. Supporting a rumor I had heard last week (which FOX, via the Hollywood Reporter , still refused to confirm), Season Seven of beleaguered drama 24 will feature its first female president and has cast Cherry Jones. Producers on the series had been weighing creating a female president for the series, which returns for its seventh season in January, after a season that many--both viewers and critics (myself included)--felt was creatively lacking . No word on whether the early rumors that indicated the female president would be living at the White House with a husband and child are still true or if these characters have been removed. The Tony Award-winning Jones, best known for her work as an acclaimed stage actor, has also been featured in films such as Ocean's Twelve , Signs , Cradle Will Rock , and The Village . What's On Tonight 8 pm: How I Met Your Mother /The New Adventures of Old Christine (CBS); Age of Love (NBC); Everybody Hate

Pie and a comic book? Only a few more days to go to Comic-Con and, while I've already seen the pilot for ABC's Pushing Daisies about a zillion times (check out a new promo here ), I cannot wait to attend the Q&A panel after the pilot screening with the cast and crew of Warner Bros. Television's new drama. Along with giving out pie to the first 300 attendees (the pie is an in-joke that those of you familiar with the series will already get), Warner Bros. has unveiled the cover (shown left, thanks to the good folks at Warner Bros. Television) for the comic book companion to Bryan Fuller's super-saturated supernatural drama Pushing Daisies . It's a Comic-Con exclusive, which means you can only get the Pushing Daisies comic book next week in San Diego at the Warner Bros.' booth. Supplies, as they say, will be extremely limited so be sure to drop by and get your Pushing Daisies comic before they're gone!