Great news for fans of Outsourced, The Event or Law and Order: Los Angeles, those shows have all been picked up for a full season by NBC. Getting what’s called the “back nine” green light means you will continue to see these shows for the rest of the current TV season. That is, if their ratings hold out.

In addition to these shows, a similar pickup for Chase is supposedly on the way as well as one for Chuck. Those announcements are expected later this week. Meanwhile, Undercovers is close to receiving an order for additional scripts but not additional episodes, at least for now.

In a statement about the decisions, NBC’s primetime entertainment president Angela Bromstad indicated that the network brass didn’t focus on the ratings when deciding what to do. “We are pleased with the quality of The Event, Law & Order: Los Angeles and Outsourced, and feel they are an important part of helping to re-build our schedule and our studio pipeline,” she said. “We believe in these new series and the creative auspices behind them.”

Let’s hope that’s true, especially in the case of Chuck and The Event, two shows we’ve definitely got programmed into The Flickcast’s office TiVo. As for the others, we’ve not really gotten into Law and Order and as Chris and Matt have expressed on the podcast, we’re not fans of Outsourced either. So, if those shows don’t make it we probably won’t be too disappointed.

Expect more developments such as this from NBC and the rest of the networks during the coming weeks.

After airing only two episodes the extremely low rated Fox series Lone Star has met its demise and been canceled by the network. Starting next Monday, Lone Star will be replaced by the surprise (at least to me) hit Lie to Me, which is having its premiere moved up to fill the gap left by Lone Star.

This shouldn’t come as any surprise given the ratings disaster that was Lone Star. Even with strong critical praise, It opened with a 1.3 rating. Not great for a show with as much press around it. Fox gave it one more chance but in its second airing the show actually slipped further in the ratings delivering a dismal 1.0 for the second outing. That pretty much closed the door on the show for good.

In the fallout of the Lone Star cancellation, Fox will move Human Target from Fridays to Wednesdays, taking over the slot originally given to Lie To Me which will now be on Monday. Lie to Me was to premiere on November 10 and run on Wednesday at 8 PM, leading into an one-hour Hell’s Kitchen.

Human Target will now premiere on November 17. A two-hour Hell’s Kitchen will air on November 10. Do you follow all that? We hope so. Are you sad to see Lone Star go? What do you think will be the next casualty of the Fall season?

Fans of NBC’s Chuck and ABC’s V it’s time to break out the champagne (or celebratory beverage of your choice). Why? Because both of these shows ave been renewed by their respective networks.

That’s right, both Chuck and V will be getting thirteen new episodes next season which will actually be season four for Chuck and season two for V. As a big fan of both shows I, for one, am thrilled with the news. I’ve been with Chuck since the beginning and was worried about the perpetual “on the bubble” show most of this season, just like last season when renewal was in question right up to the end.

That was the case with V as well, which took a very long hiatus after a short run and then came back to finish its season, which concludes next week. Fortunately, after a somewhat slow start, ratings for V have improved significantly, especially last week’s episode, while those for Chuck have remained steady but have not been spectacular.

Fortunately, Chuck has seemingly done well enough to get another go and now we know we get to enjoy both shows again next season. Great news indeed. Sadly, things are not so good for another freshmen show Flash Forward, which has seen its ratings steadily decline and has gone through a host of creative changes. The network has decided to pull the plug and it will not be coming back next year.

Even though Showtime’s Nurse Jackie and The United States of Tara have recently had their new season premieres, the network must be so impressed that they’ve already given the green light to another new season for both shows. The pickups come after both shows returned strong for their second debuts in the ratings.

Nurse Jackie had it’s most-watched episode ever with Tara close behind. All of which must have impressed Showtime execs very much indeed. In fact, here’s what they said about the shows, according to The Hollywood Reporter:

“Showtime is enormously proud of these two series starring two of the best actresses working today,” said Robert Greenblatt, president of entertainment, Showtime. “Both are iconic shows for our brand and our thanks to the dedicated producers, cast, and crews who work so hard to make them so great. Edie Falco’s portrayal of the fierce ‘Jackie’ is another extraordinary example of her range and brilliance, and recent Emmy and Golden Globe wins for Toni Collette in her tour de force role as a woman with multiple personalities put her in a class by herself. Strong women will continue to rule on this network for a long time to come.”

Well, there you have it. A network that rewards quality and stands by its shows is nice to see. Maybe Joss Whedon should do a show for Showtime?

For the first time in nearly nine years, WWE’s Monday Night Raw went head to head with opposing wrestling programming. TNA, who’s normal timeslot runs on Thursday night from 9 to 11, has made the jump to Monday nights in hopes of going head to head with Monday Night Raw much like WCW Nitro did for the first time back on September 4th, 1995. This rivalry lead to some of the greatest programming in wrestling history in the eyes of its fans.

TNA Impact’s first weekly Monday night episode drew a 0.98 cable rating and drew 1.4 million viewers. This rating was down 12% and it’s viewership down 6.1% compared to the preview week’s Thursday edition of Impact. Surprisingly headlined by some of the very same performers from Nitro like Sting, Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair, it is likely that TNA and Spike TV officials were not thrilled with only a 1.0 rating.

On the other hand, WWE’s Monday Night Raw counted in a 3.4 cable rating and 5.1 million viewers based on the overnight reporting. Raw saw a 7.4% drop in ratings and a 4.2% drop in viewership showing that TNA’s move may have affected Vince McMahon and USA Network’s Monday night programming staple.

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Some early renewals for some popular shows over on the CW have just come in. The network has given the green light for new seasons of Supernatural, Vampire Diaries, Gossip Girl, 90201 and America’s Next Top Model.

No word on any other renewals of yet for shows we’re interested in, like Smallville, but with these early ones announced, it’s only a matter of time before we hear about more. The Supernatural and Vampire Diaries renewals weren’t completely unexpected as they’ve been doing well in the ratings, but for some reason I thought Top Model was on its last legs. Oh well, another season of beautiful models doing photo shoots in skimpy outfits can’t be all bad, right?

Here’s all the info from the CW about these renewals from their official press release:

THE CW ANNOUNCES EARLY PICKUPS FOR FIVE SERIES

Freshman Hit “The Vampire Diaries,” “Gossip Girl,” “90210,” “Supernatural” and “America’s Next Top Model” To Return Next Season

February 16, 2010 (Burbank, California) ─ The CW Network has given early pickups to five series for next season, including four signature dramas and the reality hit AMERICA’S NEXT TOP MODEL. All five shows will return in Fall 2010.

The series receiving early renewals include this season’s breakout hit THE VAMPIRE DIARIES, The CW’s most-watched show (4.6 million viewers) and the network’s number one show among adults 18-34 (2.5/8). THE VAMPIRE DIARIES premiere generated the largest audience in network history for a series debut (5.7 million total viewers). THE VAMPIRE DIARIES has improved The CW’s performance Thursday at 8:00 p.m. by 114% among women 18-34 this season.

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You can’t always put stock in what people say on Twitter. Sometimes, people just like to say stuff that isn’t true just to get attention or boost their number of “followers.” However, when someone who is supposedly “in the know” like us or Entertainment Weekly’s Michael Ausielo tweets something, people tend to listen and take it seriously. And given his reputation and insider knowledge, they should.

Case in point is Ausiello’s Twitter post from last night saying that he is hearing from sources that Fox will put episodes of Dollhouse on hold during the important November sweeps and then bring the show back after and air back to back episodes. Here’s what he said exactly:

“Exclusive: Hearing FOX will bench DOLLHOUSE for November sweeps and air back-to-back eps on Friday night in December.”

If true, it isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Maybe Fox wants to keep the show alive and so is actually doing it a favor by not having it air during sweeps so its less-than-stellar ratings won’t be a factor? Or, maybe Ausiello’s source simply got it wrong? To be honest, I hope its Fox actually trying to do a good thing and still give the show some kind of chance. Although, as much as I might want that to be the truth, I sure won’t hold my breath for it.

Set to go live on August 11th, the Summer XBox Live update adds three new features for players to use to expand their XBox Live experience.

Part 1: Games on Demand

Much like the XBox Originals program which has slowed down as of late, players will be able to download full XBox 360 games to their hard drive after purchasing a digital copy off XBox Live Marketplace. Unlike installing the game from the disk, players will not need to insert a disc in to the drive to play the game as all licenses will be saved to the hard drive as well.

To make transactions easier, players can use credit or debit cards to purchase games instead of being forced to use Microsoft points and causing extra unnecessary steps in the purchasing process. Prices have not yet been released for the following titles which should be live when the update launches.

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If you are one of the many fans of Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse and were hoping for some sort of last minute miracle repreve from the chopping block for your show, sadly it seems the chances of that have gotten even smaller. According to info from the Hollywood Reporter, ratings for last Friday’s season (or series) finale of Dollhouse were the worst yet for the freshman series.

2.8 million viewers watched the show and it earned a 1.0 preliminary adults 18-49 rating. That rating could improve slightly in the national average as the show had a minute of Prison Break overrun. But that would only help the show match last week’s season low of a 1.1. Not great.

So, will Dollhouse get a second season? With ratings like these and Fox’s track record with Joss Whedon shows, the chances are slim. Still, Fox may want to bring back at least one of its high-profile Sci-Fi shows for next season and ratings for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles were not any better and its now, supposedly, out of the running. Maybe that will give Dollhouse the edge it needs?

We’ll find out on May 18th when Fox reveals its new fall schedule.