Just when I'd added Southland to my list of shows to spotlight in upcoming editions of "Gone Too Soon," now there are glimmers of hope for its future. After NBC unceremoniously dumped it before it premiered this season, in favor of more Dateline, fans and television pundits were stunned.

Executive producer John Wells has reportedly been in contact with the cast to tell them he has at least two cable networks interested in picking up Southland. The good news comes in two ways. One, the series gets to come back. And two, a cable network is a lot less likely to tamper with the storytelling style Southland was developing in its first season. NBC already had them de-emphasizing the larger cast and the serialized nature of their storytelling in the episodes they were filming for the new season.

As TNT is corporate kin to Warner Bros., which produces the show, it seems a likely target. The thinking now is that if it does get picked up, the thirteen episodes already produced (seven from last season, and six produced so far for season two) would make up a new "first" season, with subsequent seasons to follow. I suspect a lot of industry insiders are hoping that not only does Southland find a new home off of NBC, but that it thrives.

Even bolder would be for its new cable home to put it on some weeknight at 10pm, so it would take on The Jay Leno Show, the ultimate reason didn't make it onto NBC this year. NBC is afraid to gamble any of their precious remaining schedule to a show that might not perform as well as Dateline, which has a consistency they can count on. But a network that's afraid to gamble on a scripted show because it might not do well is a network that is dying or dead already.

If I were a production studio, I can guarantee you I wouldn't be shopping any new shows to NBC anytime soon. Even if I have a solid first season, get renewed and start production on my new season, there's still no guarantee that NBC might not get nervous and just cancel me anyway. That's no way to run a show. That's no way to run a network. It's crazy, and I'm not seeing how NBC comes out of this looking like anything other than desperately flailing around grasping at anything that can promise instant ratings.