HBO

It's official: The boys will be back.

Just five episodes into its resurgent fifth season, and two weeks after Jeremy Piven's third consecutive Emmy win for playing a long-suffering agent, HBO has renewed Entourage for another go-round.

Production on the sixth season is expected to begin early next year, ensuring that Vincent Chase and his Hollywood crew will return to the premium-cable airwaves by summer 2009.

Though it's apparently not just the fictional players who are excited by the news.

"We just spoke to the real Johnny Drama, and he is overjoyed by this pickup," executive producers Mark Wahlberg and Stephen Levinson said. "Most of all, we love being part of the HBO family."

"We're thrilled to be back for another season," creator Doug Ellin added. "HBO has been amazing in allowing the show to grow and mature. I never imagined when we started that we would make it to six seasons."

AP Photo/Rick Wilking, Pool

Last night's vice presidential debate was no second banana.

The showdown between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden was watched by just under 70 million people, Nielsen Media Research said late today.

The audience blew away the old record for a vice-presidential debate—56.7 million for 1984's face-off between then-veep George H.W. Bush and Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman on a major party's presidential ticket.

Keep Reading

Chris Gordon / Getty Images

Showbiz feuds may come and go, but Rosie O'Donnell and TV hosting gigs are here for the long run.

The erstwhile Queen of Nice—or piggishness, if you're Donald Trump or perhaps Elisabeth Hasselbeck—is returning to the airwaves just in time for the holidays, signing on to host Rosie's Variety Show as a one-off special for NBC.

The hourlong show, airing live Nov. 26—the night before Thanksgiving—could develop into a regular series should enough Nielsen-boxed viewers tune in to the program.

O'Donnell and NBC seem to be throwing everything they can into the show to ensure a something-for-everyone appeal.

Keep Reading

Dave Hogan/Getty Images; Jason Kempin / Getty Images; Matthew Imaging / Getty Images

• Sounds like it's time for Hilary Swank to start working on another Oscar speech. The actress is on the case in Betty Anne Waters, an Erin Brockovich-like drama based on a true story about a woman who fights to clear her brother of a murder he didn't commit. The flick will be helmed by director Tony Goldwyn (best known as the bad guy in Ghost), according to Variety.

• Jack Black will be kickin' it in an untitled action-comedy for Universal. Taking a cue from The Bourne Identity, Black will play an American who awakes on a beach in Cuba with no idea who he is and how he got there and then mistakenly decides he's a superspy.

Keep Reading

DC Comics

Holy origin story, Batman!

The Caped Crusader's No. 2 is stepping out from the shadows of his Gotham-saving friend and into the limelight, with the CW announcing plans for The Graysons, a pilot centering on comicdom's top sidekick, Robin, in his pre-Bat-partnering days.

The Boy Wonder-centric show will follow Dick "DJ" Grayson before he donned the cape, according to Variety, much like Smallville centers on a pre-Superman Clark Kent.

The hourlong series, which will be set in present day, will follow Grayson as he navigates through family dramas, first loves and rivals.

Keep Reading

CBS

Apparently Maw-Maw's getting in all her favorite crime stories before the daggummit digital conversion ruins everything.

That's one way of explaining how while most premiere-week shows were down from last year, an uncommon number of veteran CBS shows were up.

NCIS (18 million) added 4.1 million viewers over last fall; CSI: Miami (17.2 million) grew by 4.5 million. Criminal Minds (17 million) added 4.3 million to its ranks, while CSI: NY (14.6 million) scored 1.9 million more.

Even two comedy shows got into the act: Two and a Half Men (14.9 million), which was up by 1.3 million; and How I Met Your Mother (9.8 million), up by 1.7 million.

One CBS series that didn't get the memo was Without a Trace (11.3 million), which shed more viewers—5.4 million—than any returning show, save NBC's Heroes (10 million), which suffered a whopping 7 million desertions.

One of the only non-CBS shows to build from fall premiere to fall premiere was the week's No. 1 show, the Monday edition of ABC's Dancing With the Stars (21.3 million, up 100,000 viewers), which celebrated the debut of 82-year-old Cloris Leachman.

Keep Reading

Bennett Raglin/Getty Images, AP Photo

• He's made the band. Now Diddy's looking to be a StarMaker. The hip-hop multihyphenate is teaming up with MTV and Survivor mastermind Mark Burnett for a new reality series. Taking the Idol formula one step further, StarMaker features solo artists trying to outperform each other while also dealing with photo ops, press interviews, paparazzi and living together. The premiere is set for January.

• Now that she's back from her fab summer at Camp Rock, Demi Lovato is matriculating to Sonny With a Chance. The Disney Channel's family-friendly comedy series riffs on the Hannah Montana show-within-a-show concept with Lovato as a Midwestern teen cast in a sketch-comedy series. Nancy McKeon is on board in a recurring role, presumably to teach our dear Demi the facts of life.

• Jesse Ventura ready to entertain us. He's been tapped to host a new, yet-to-be-titled series for truTV aiming to prove, or debunk, some of the world's greatest conspiracy theories. Let's start with how a former pro wrestler managed to get elected governor of Minnesota.

Keep Reading

Barbara Nitke/BRAVO

As Heidi Klum says, in the world of fashion one day you're in, the next you're out. Lifetime is learning that lesson the hard way.

A judge has granted NBC Universal a preliminary injunction that prevents the Weinstein Co. from moving Project Runway from NBCU-owned Bravo to Lifetime next year.

"NBC Universal is pleased that the court granted our motion for a preliminary injunction against the Weinstein Company," the media powerhouse said in a statement.

"The overwhelming evidence demonstrated that the Weinstein Company violated NBC Universal's right of first refusal to future cycles of Project Runway. After hearing all of the evidence, the court issued an order prohibiting the Weinstein Company from taking the show or any spinoff to Lifetime."

Keep Reading

Fox

Homer Simpson meet Matt Dillon. No, not that Matt Dillon.

Come Sunday, The Simpsons turns 20 seasons old, thereby tying Gunsmoke as the longest-running comedy or drama series in TV history.

Don't think this fact has escaped the powers that be in Springfield.

"You know, I hate to admit it," Simpsons executive producer Al Jean told reporters in a press-conference call this week. "We actually do count episodes."

As such, Jean doesn't need to be told that The Simpsons, standing at Episode No. 420 going into Sunday's season premiere, has a ways to go to catch Gunsmoke in terms of sheer output of adventures. The Western, which came into the world as a radio drama, produced about 635 prime-time episodes between 1955 and 1975.

Keep Reading

Monty Brinton / CBS

As the large-onion alliance forms on one side, so self-destructs the other.

A host of perceived strengths and weaknesses of all stripes were laid bare early on in the two-hour opener of Survivor: Gabon—Earth's Last Eden, the 17th installment of the pioneering reality series, the object of which is to form alliances, chuck the haters and then turn on your frenemies as suavely as possible. (Lots of tests of mental and physical fortitude involved, as well.)

On Thursday's premiere, one tribe dominated while the other was hard-pressed to quit the bickering, leading to two trips to Tribal Council and, subsequently, two eliminations.

Peep the highlights:

Keep Reading

NBC Photo: Mitchell Haaseth

Michael Knight is making Jaime Sommers look good.

NBC's Knight Rider redo got off to a slow start last night, scoring only 7.3 million viewers, Nielsen Media Research estimates said.

Another new show, the Fox comedy Do Not Disturb (3.5 million), ran dead last in its time slot among the big-four network competition—and got yanked for it.

Knight Rider's debut could be called comparable to another failed NBC revamp, except it was much worse. On a Wednesday night last September, the network's new Bionic Woman started off with 13.9 million viewers; with an assist from the writers' strike, the series ended only seven episodes later.

Keep Reading