Your TV News and Commentary for Wednesday 6/10/09

It’s official, Futurama is the new Family Guy! While we told you about pick-up rumors on Monday, Variety reports that Comedy Central has ordered a full 26-episode season of the show, returning with all of the cast members you know and love. The terms of their deal with 20th Century Fox allow for the network to have first crack at any new episodes produced, but either way, the show is back. They’re aiming for a mid-2010 premiere. Let’s just hope that, unlike Family Guy, the first few returning episodes aren’t of a significantly lower quality.

In other pick-up news, Nurse Jackie has been renewed by Showtime after only one episode airing. Why so soon? Not that the quick renewal is a foreign move to the network, but in this case it might have something to do with the premiere being Showtime’s highest-rated ever. In fact, coupled with a stellar performance by Weeds, Jackie delivered the network its highest-rated night in the network’s history. I’m sure a lot of this initial popularity is based on the Weeds lead-in (which always works out well for Showtime debuts) and that the titular character is played by The Sopranos’ Edie Falco. Still, Showtime seems convinced that the audience will stick around. Judging by remarks of critics who have previewed the entire first season, it sounds like a safe bet.

And finally, good news for Mad Men fans (which should be anyone who’s ever seen the show), the AMC advertising crisis has been averted. For the uninitiated, AMC wanted to shorten the length of the show by a few minutes to allow for more advertising during the hour, but show-runner Matthew Weiner fought to preserve every second of storytelling time. The compromise? They’re extending the timeslot of the show to run a few minutes over. Sounds like AMC really wants to keep the guy who single-handedly made their network happy. Mad Men is back on August 16th,which isn’t nearly soon enough.