HBO Renewing Three Popular Shows for Another Season

For fans of some of HBO’s most popular shows, there is good news. It has recently been announced that the entire summer lineup of HBO original programming will be renewed. This includes the first-year comedy "Hung" as well as "Entourage" and "True Blood." Hung will be back for a second season, while True Blood will be moving into it’s third iteration and Entourage its seventh. All of the new seasons will begin in 2010, with True Blood slated specifically for the summer.

HBO is enjoying a great deal of success with the three shows, which comprise two straight hours of hit programming on Sunday evenings. True Blood is on a particularly strong role, having increased viewership for just about each episode. It is the network’s most-watched show since "The Sopranos." The vampire drama is averaging 3.8 million viewers, a number that jumps to 11.2 million when repeats and digitally-recorded and on-demand numbers are added in. Hung is averaging 3.1 million viewers while Entourage currently boasts a viewership of 3 million.

HBO also announced that "Big Love," a drama about a bigamist family in Utah, will air in January, while World War II miniseries "The Pacific" will come out in March. It is expected that the WWII miniseries will lead into the much-anticipated return of "The Wire" creator David Simon’s "Treme." Simon’s new show is based in New Orleans. HBO executive Michael Lombardo also noted that Martin Scorsese’s "Boardwalk Empire," which stars Steve Buscemi, looks like a "go." Noted Lombardo, "By everything we’ve seen, it’s fantastic. It’s big; it’s everything we hoped it would be."