HBO has announced that Entourage, the pay-cable network’s longest-running show, will be ending after its eighth and final season. The show is currently filming season seven, and HBO has negotiated with Entourage creator Doug Ellin for a shortened eighth season, which will likely comprise about six episodes.

There’s also talk of a film to follow the series, a la Sex In the City, but nothing is official yet. Meanwhile, HBO president of programming Michael Lombardo tells The Hollywood Reporter that he expects his network to sign Ellin for a brand new show of his own creation in the next few years.

FX’s Damages is a hot show — but not hot enough to save it from the chopping block. The Glenn Close vehicle has been on the verge of cancellation for a while now due to poor ratings, even though most of the cast is contracted through two more seasons.

But swooping in to the rescue at the 11th hour is DirecTV, which has taken the show off of FX’s hands. Seasons 4 and 5 of Damages will air exclusively on DirecTV (probably on its proprietary Channel 101), and the first three seasons will repeat there as well.

The final hope for Ghost Whisperer fans has just gone belly-up. As you may recall, CBS canceled Ghost Whisperer earlier this month, but there was talk that the show might get picked up by ABC.

Today, EW’s Ausiello reports that ABC will not be coming to the show’s rescue after all. The show was co-owned by ABC Studios and CBS, so ABC had the option to pick it up after CBS dumped it. But after five seasons on the air, Ghost Whisperer’s time has run out.

So long, farewell.

Ahead of its upfront presentations next week, Fox has announced five new series it has picked up for the Fall 2010 season, as well as two (somewhat  unexpected) renewals: Lie to Me and Human Target. Neither of those shows are huge hits in the ratings, but Lie to Me has an A-list star, and Fox might be looking to Human Target to fill the “action hour” void that 24 is going to leave on the schedule.

The five new shows Fox ordered are:

• RideAlong – an hour-long police drama from creator Shawn Ryan about a cowboy-style cop and a female police chief who try to clean up the streets of Chicago.
• Midland – a drama about a con artist working in the oil industry. (Boy, that show practically writes itself, doesn’t it?)
• Keep Hope Alive – a single-camera comedy from creator Greg Garcia about a single parent.
• Traffic Light – another single-cam comedy centering on male relationships.
• Wilde Kingdom – a single-cam rom-com starring Will Arnett as a hedonistic Beverly Hills resident who falls in love with an environmentalist, charitable woman who hates his lifestyle and values.

It looks like with those last three, Fox is hoping to build an entire night of back-to-back live-action comedy as a companion to its entirely animated Sunday night of comedy.

NBC has picked up three new series for its fall season — ahead of the much-anticipated “fall upfront” announcements that are coming in a few days.

Perhaps most exciting of the three is The Event, a high octane conspiracy thriller starring Jason Ritter (pictured) as an everyman who investigates the disappearance of his fiancee, and unwittingly begins to expose the biggest cover-up in U.S. history. His quest will send ripples through the lives of an eclectic band of strangers, including the newly elected U.S. President, the leader of a group of mysterious detainees, and the main character’s own father-in-law. NBC’s press release states, “Their futures are on a collision course in a global conspiracy that could ultimately change the fate of mankind.”

Outsourced is a new comedy by one of the producers of The Office. It’s about a culture clash that occurrs when an “all-American company” that sells novelty items outsources its call center to India. Todd Dempsy stars as the company’s new manager who learns that he’s being transferred to India to run the new call center.

Lastly, Love Bites is an hour-long romantic comedy anthology (there’s three words you don’t see together often), featuring three loosely connected, modern stories of love, sex, marriage, and dating. Each episode contains multiple vignettes, all illuminating the theme of love with an edgy, irreverent spin. Becki Newton and Jordana Spiro anchor the series with their ongoing tales of attempted romance, while other characters will come and go each week.

NBC is proving to be the most web-savvy network of the new season, as it’s already registered Twitter accounts for all three series: @NBCTheEvent, @OutsourcedNBC, and @NBCLoveBites.

Ah, Spring. Birds are singing, flowers are blooming, and network TV shows are being renewed or canceled. Or… something else.

Deadline Hollywood (which admittedly is known for reporting rumors more than facts) has an interesting exclusive today: they’re reporting that CBS shows Ghost Whisperer and The New Adventures of Old Christine are under consideration to possibly move networks over to ABC.

Both shows — which have been successes for CBS for years — are currently “on the bubble,” which means that CBS is considering canceling them due to falling ratings. But if that should happen, ABC is ready to swoop in and save the day. Ghost Whisperer is currently paired with Medium on Friday nights; Medium jumped from NBC to CBS last year, so CBS losing Ghost Whisperer to ABC would be especially ironic.

ABC is reportedly interested in coupling Julia Louis Dreyfus’ Old Christine with The Middle, a show they believe has a similarly popular female sitcom star in Patricia Heaton.

FX’s Glenn Close starring vehicle Damages has gotten tons of great press, but it’s not a ratings hit. What to do?

Outsource.

Damages producer Sony Entertainment is in talks with DirecTV to co-finance a potential fourth season. EW reports that with the third season ending on April 19th, and the pricetag of the show fairly high thanks to the heavy-hitting talent that toplines it, there aren’t too many options left to keep the show afloat. But the show has a strong following internationally, so Sony is fighting to keep it going.

Can DirecTV save the day?

Hey, it worked for Friday Night Lights.

Don’t you just love it when networks do theme-weeks or nights? (Yes, that was sarcasm.) Like that night years ago when NBC had all of their Thursday night programs involved in a New York City blackout storyline?

Fox has something similar up its sleeve. Inspired by the success of Glee, a full week of programming on Fox will find nearly every show on the network engaging in song-and-dance numbers. From Thursday April 29th through Wednesday May 5th, shows like Bones, Fringe, House, The Simpsons, and more will feature musical performances woven into their episodes.

This sounds like a horribly cheesy idea on the surface. No doubt about that. But on the other hand, maybe Fox’s shows will take this as an opportunity to really challenge themselves creatively and come up with some clever ways of incorporating music into their eps.

We can only hope.

Showtime series’ really do justice to their motto “TV at it’s best.” I very rarely watch the movies but am really hooked with their “dramedies”. I first got hooked with Weeds then Dexter and now, on its second season it seems like Nurse Jackie (played by Edie Falco) will be another one on my “must follow” list.

I actually missed most of season’s 1 episode and only saw the last couple but even they were enough to grab my attention. Who wouldn’t enjoy seeing her sleight of hand as she lectures the hospital staff about taking just the right number of prescription meds from the dispensing machine that has been document while tucking away an extra vial for her personal use (though someway along the road she’ll surely get caught if only for the drama it bring)? Who wouldn’t want to watch as Jackie as she lets her walls down more often at work? And who wouldn’t want to see the other characters’ stories get more colorful? This season it’s obvious that things are starting to stir up with the comic reliefs (Mrs. Akatilus) getting more serious screen time without of course losing the comic edge of the entire show. The truth though is that while I find myself laughing  I end up identifying more with the tragic side of Nurse Jackie, a thing I found/find myself doing with Dexter and Weeds. I wouldn’t be surprised if Nurse Jackie’s humour starts getting darker as well. It’s ok though, because no one does it better than Showtime.

Holidays are great for watching reruns. Today we’re having a “Weeds” marathon. We’re still on Season 1 and I’m wondering how many seasons we’ll finish this weekend.

Though I still like “Weeds” I do have to say that Season 1 is still the best season to watch over and over again. Of course that is just me but I do like its lighter tone. I guess I will be having the theme song playing endlessly in my head for the next few weeks. After several episodes all I can say is that I am so glad that Weeds will be back for yet another season (Season 6) next year. Hopefully it won’t be the last.

For those who don’t watch “Weeds” the series in a nutshell centers about the life of widow Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker) and her family. Nancy lives with her kids in an affluent suburb neighborhood and for all appearances seems to be an ordinary single-mom struggling to make ends meet. Of course what makes the whole show totally quirkily interesting is that she sells marijuana (bakes them and sells her goodies) to make a living.

My “summary” doesn’t do it any justice so if you don’t believe me that it’s a must-watch show then just believe the awards show because it been consistently nominated since 2005 and has even won several some of them.

As for me its time to stop writing because “Weeds” marathon break is over and the next episode is about to start.

…Little boxes, little boxes…