I could get used to this daily dose of good news from How I Met Your Mother. First, Bays and Thomas get a new deal, then Mother gets an early renewal for next season, and now Jennifer Lopez is going to guest on How I Met Your Mother.

That's right, JLo will be hanging with the crew, and in a move that I heartily support, she will not play herself. Jennifer has been cast as Anita Appleby, a self-help author who knows all about male-female relationships.

When Robin meets Anita and tell her all about Barney Stinson, master of the universe and womanizer extraordinaire, Anita decides that she will break him of his nasty ways with women.

It looks like Conan O'Brien isn't leaving NBC after all -- well, technically. Following a tumultuous battle with the former 'Tonight Show' host, NBC has picked up the hourlong pilot 'Justice' from his production company, Conaco (not as catchy as "Team Conan," but we'll take it). According to reports, 'Justice' will tell the tale of a former Supreme Court justice who packs up and leaves to start his own law practice. O'Brien, who just reached a multi-million settlement with NBC, will serve as co-executive producer. [PopEater]

More pilot news after the jump.

If you have ever worried that How I Met Your Mother might be canceled by CBS before the identity of "mother" is revealed, this bit of news should bring you great relief. CBS has renewed How I Met Your Mother for a sixth season. I give all fans of the comedy permission to join me now in a hearty "Hooray!"

In all seriousness, this is great news. Two years ago, a renewal for HIMYM wasn't a sure thing. The decision wasn't made until well into the spring. So, clearly, CBS has a new attitude about the Carter Bays-Craig Thomas creation, not to mention liking their work enough to give Bays-Thomas a rich new contract and the opportunity to make another sitcom.

Although we're still awaiting crucial plot details on the popular CBS series 'How I Met Your Mother,' that hasn't stopped show creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas from thinking about their next move.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the duo has inked a large deal with 20th Century Fox TV to produce a new untitled comedy series, set to hit the marketplace sometime this week.

What will the show be about? Details are scarce; however, the report says the show will be in the same vain of 'How I Met Your Mother' as it follows a Pittsburgh-based couple and their friends.

"The new show is similar tonally to 'HIMYM' and investigates the next chapter, the next stage of adulthood," Bays said.

Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, the creators of How I Met Your Mother, have signed a contract with 20th Century Fox TV to create a new show. The new comedy is untitled as of yet but is about a young couple and their friends in Pittsburgh, which could actually qualify as a clone of the HIMYM cast if that show was set in Pittsburgh.

The fact that this duo are creating a new show is a good thing for two reasons. First, they are pretty talented at what they do and whatever show they create will undoubtedly be worth a look (at least to determine if HIMYM was their only good idea). Second, perhaps this will motivate the pair to wrap up HIMYM and allow the fans to finally meet the friggin' mother! That particular mystery feels as if it's been going on for too long. The mother should be introduced so they can end the show and move on to Pittsburgh.

(S05E13) This was one of those episodes that seemed like it would be more fun than it actually was. The stories seemed to be potentially amusing, and there were some funny moments. But this was definitely on the lower side of the ledger as far as this season's episodes are concerned.

Which one of the stories did I like better? Hm... the Jenkins one, but only by a little bit. It was fun seeing Amanda Peet playing someone who was even more alpha male than Robin, and envisioning Peet doing some of the things Marshall described Jenkins doing wasn't exactly unpleasant. Oh, and it introduced us to Big Fudge, who I hope plays more Skee-Ball as the seasons go on.

(S05E12) After I wrote my gushing preview of this episode, I went back and re-watched it, hoping my first impression was correct. It turned out that it was, but for a very different reason than I thought. The 100th episode of HIMYM didn't have everything that makes the show such fun for its fans: there was no time-shifting, and not a lot of misdirection. It just told two straight-ahead stories that were really funny and gave us confidence in how things are going to play out going forward.

Oh, and it had a song-and-dance number that was fun as hell.

If you're a fan of How I Met Your Mother -- and if you're reading this, you likely are -- the video preview of Monday's episode probably got you pretty excited. After all, it's Neil Patrick Harris and the cast, singing and dancing about Barney Stinson's love of suits. What's not to like, right? If you were wondering, though, how the rest of the episode was, I'm here to tell you that it's the best episode of the season, and maybe the best episode we've seen in a couple of years.

Come with me after the jump and I'll explain. No worries; there won't be any spoilers in this post.

Despite the mainstream audience acceptance of such openly gay performers as Neil Patrick Harris, Ian McKellen, and Ellen DeGeneres, some Hollywood power brokers still feel that TV and movie audiences won't accept gay performers in straight roles.

That was made clear on Wednesday when 'Mad Men' creator Matthew Weiner, speaking on a Hollywood panel, said, "Let's not pretend" that gay actors who come out of the closet aren't risking a future of gay typecasting, according to Greg in Hollywood blogger Greg Hernandez.

(S05E11) You know you have a good episode going when Harvey Fierstein is cast as one of the female character's "smoking voices," and that's only the third funniest thing that week.

Sure, it was great to hear Harvey's painful-sounding voice coming out Alyson Hannigan's mouth after a few days of smoking. It seems like it would fit well with her character; you know that she's only a few years from calling people "dollface," whether she's smoking or not.

But what carried the episode was seeing a new side to the gang that we haven't seen before, and how they all deal with it. Oh, and it was also good to see some new footage of Ted's kids, even if they're both visibly older.

If there was one guy on the New York Yankees championship team this past season who would be best described as a "character," it's outfielder Nick Swisher. This guy always had a smile on his face like he knew he had landed in a cushy spot and was happy about it. Well, he's done it again. Swisher will be guesting on How I Met Your Mother, playing a really complicated role -- himself.

On the February 1 episode (tentative date), Swisher appears at MacLaren's Bar. The episode is called "The Perfect Week" and Nick shows up at the bar, competing with Barney for the attention of the ladies. Barney, reportedly, is not thrilled that a guy with World Series swagger is on his turf.

(S05E10) I'm really starting to think that Carter Bays was telling the absolute truth when he told Mike Ausiello that the writers threw the Barney-Robin relationship into the trash heap. He wasn't being coy about a future plotline; I get the feeling that the writers wanted Single Barney over Relationship Barney and wanted to make sure they got there as quickly as possible.

Why else would we see an entire episode of Barn trying to get laid while wearing Marshall's old overalls? Here's the problem, as others have mentioned: we've seen how much of a good guy Barney can be. So seeing him back to his old tricks seems a bit emptier than it used to, doesn't it?

(S05E09) Let me start off by stating that any HIMYM episode involving the famous slap bet between Marshall and Barney is going to be funny. Just the act of Jason Segel's exaggerated slapping and Neil Patrick Harris' equally exaggerated pratfall in reaction is enough to get me rolling. I just wish the slaps weren't telegraphed so much in advance.

You have to remember that tonight is a sequel to the original Slapsgiving from two years ago. As sequels go, it's not bad; not as good as the original but satisfying nevertheless. But you knew at some point, Marshall was going to say "That's four!" and Barney was going to rub his face. So we have to examine the journey to get there. That journey started off well, but got a little predictable. Still didn't make the slap itself any less funny.

(S05E08) Could it be that, after the whole season five build-up to the Swarkles relationship, everyone would more or less go back to normal by episode eight of season six? It seems that way, and I don't know how I feel about it.

Relationship Barney wasn't that pleasant to watch. Some of his patented awesomeness tried to come through but he was increasingly becoming a content guy, which is no good for comedy. But to see him immediately snap back to the way he was pre-Robin was equally jarring. Maybe that's the way it has to be for Barney ... I don't know. But, as funny as the exploration of Barn's playbook was, it felt like the last two dozen or so episodes never happened.

Oh, and it seems like Robin's quickly moving on too, so it's not all on Barney ...

(S05E07) During most episodes of HIMYM, you tend to forget that this whole show is told from the perspective of Old Ted, who's telling his kids the longest, most boring meet-up story in history of the world. Bob Saget's narration often just goes in one ear and out the other, like the background music. But there are some episodes where the storytelling aspect of the series is firmly in place, with the exaggerations, changes, and bad memories often associated with this activity.

This was one of those episodes. Was Barney really that fat? Was Robin really that haggard? Did Archisexture really accidentally "fly" into Ted's VCR? Of course not. But those whoppers from Old Ted were what made this episode so entertaining. That and Alan Thicke. But Alan Thicke always makes things entertaining; he's Alan Thicke, for crissakes.