The strike is basically over (barring something strange in the WGA group vote tomorrow, everyone goes back to work on Wednesday), but as I mentioned in my story this morning, the networks are still trying to figure out which shows will actually make more episodes this season. The NY Times says that "24" has already been pushed back to 2009 (and that "Heroes" won't make any more episodes until fall), and while it's clear that most hits will be back for at least a few episodes in early spring (and that "Lost" will be able to make something close to a full season), it's still unclear what shows have aired their last original episode for the '07-'08 season. ("Chuck," for instance, isn't coming back until fall.)
To take some uncertainty out of the equation about the long-term future for some shows, ABC just announced fall pick-ups for a bunch of their shows: "Brothers & Sisters," �Desperate Housewives," "Dirty Sexy Money," "Grey's Anatomy," "Lost," "Private Practice," "Pushing Daisies," "Samantha Who?" and "Ugly Betty." So even though "Pushing Daisies" probably isn't coming back until fall, either, ABC can now say that they support that show and intend to continue with it once they have time to do a proper relaunch campaign (and don't have to schedule it opposite "American Idol.")
None of the shows on that list are really a surprise for renewal (maybe "Dirty Sexy Money," but even that did well enough to survive in this weird season), and the only scripted ABC show that I'm confident will be renewed but wasn't on the list is "Boston Legal," which often moves on its own schedule. (There was a brief period where it wasn't on the current fall schedule, for instance.)
My chief concern for the immediate future is "Scrubs," which had seven episodes left on the order for this final season. Bill Lawrence says in an interview with Ausiello that he can wrap up all the storylines in four episodes if he needs to, and that he'd likely get the budget to produce them for the final season DVD if NBC won't air them, and that Ben "But what about '30 Rock,' dude?" Silverman hasn't seemed very enthusiastic about giving the show a proper on-air send-off.
People have been asking questions about show status in the post linking to the strike column, but feel free to ask more here. I can't promise to know everything -- guys like Ausiello and Bill Carter are more plugged into this than I am -- but I'll do my best.
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