If there's one night of television that NBC has a handle on, it's Sunday. At least during football season. Football Night In America works, and you know the old saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." That said, NBC has renewed its NFL deal for two more years. The new deal – the extension – secures that NBC will be broadcasting NFL games through 2013, so there will be plenty of games for all those analysts to yap about.

NBC has nearly enough guys to field a team on the pre-game show: Bob Costas, Dan Patrick, Keith Olbermann, Tony Dungy, Tiki Barber, Rodney Harrison ... with Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth calling the games. Will we notice that John Madden is gone? Probably not, especially if the games are good.

Fans of the perpetually unwatched but much-loved NBC show Friday Night Lights have a reason to rejoice this morning: the show has been renewed for a third season, according to Nikki Finke.

NBC executives had been looking for a way to renew their low-rated show, mostly through cost-sharing deals with other networks. They finally found a partner: DirecTV. No details of the deal were given; all we know right now is that the satellite company and the Peacock folks will share the costs of producing the show and will both air the show across multiple platforms.

If you've been enjoying the series Brotherhood (and Mike C.'s reviews of the show), then Showtime gave you some good news the other day when it renewed the original series for a second season. The show is about two Irish-American brothers -- one is a local politician, and one is involved in their neighborhood's Irish mob, and he's back from being in hiding -- and it has been getting tons of great reviews from critics.

It looks like Showtime is finally starting to get a roster of original series that might start rivaling HBO's. Between this series and Weeds, the network is starting to generate buzzworthy shows that keep people tuning in week after week. The timing is good, since HBO's slate is at a bit of a weak point, with The Sopranos winding down and the failure of its first "traditional sitcom," Lucky Louie.

[via Cynopsis... look about a third of the way down this page.]

Ah, the Venture Bros., one of the finer half hours in the Adult Swim lineup, and a show its fans should be glad is still around, since according to creator Jackson Publick (a.k.a. Christopher McCulloch), the show was not a huge breakout hit its first season, and Adult Swim was waffling over whether or not to renew it. It was, however, mildly successful, and fans swarmed the Adult Swim messageboards to sing their praises for a show that manages to channel everything from James Bond to Johnny Quest to '60s sci-fi kitsch and still maintain its own unique identity. Oh yeah, and if you're a fan and wondering what's up with Hank and Dean, Publick ain't sayin'. The second season kicks off on June 25.

[via ToonZone]