series pick-up

It took a few weeks to get it done, but at least all of the produced episodes of Southland have a home now. The show developed a little bit of buzz with its first seven episodes last season. Then it developed a lot of buzz this year when NBC pulled the plug on it before its second season had even begun, leaving six episodes created and in limbo.

Apparently, its darker tone didn't fit in with the network's plans anymore. After all, the 10 p.m. slot, where most of your more sophisticated shows used to live on NBC, is the home of Leno now. Immediately word came out that various cable networks were looking to pick up the series, but no one knew exactly what that meant. There were theories, of course, and TNT emerged as the front-runner.

Now we know, and it looks like everyone was right. TNT has secured the rights to Southland; primarily the right to broadcast the 13 episodes produced so far.