Hung and Entourage returning soon

HBO's Hung and Entourage will return on June 27, following True Blood. The comedies are taking the time slot from Treme, which will have finished its first season. HBO had previously announced that True Blood will be back June 13. The station has already renewed rookie comedy series How To Make It In America, ordering a further eight episodes to debut in summer of 2011. The news comes the day after the network also renewed Curb Your Enthusiasm for an eighth round, with 10 episodes to air next year.

"After much soul searching – and by the way, it was nowhere to be found – I have decided to do another season of 'Curb,'" creator David said. "I look forward to the end of shooting, when I can once again resume the hunt for my elusive soul. I know it’s here somewhere or perhaps in the rugged mountainous regions of Pakistan." Adds HBO programming president Michael Lombardo: "Larry always loves to paint himself into a corner, and after the incredibly wonderful seventh season of 'Curb,' you have to ask, ‘How does he ever top this?’ But he always finds a way. We can’t wait to see what he does in season eight." With 70 episodes to date, "Curb" has become HBO's longest-running scripted series.

As far as Entourage is concerned, it could be two more seasons of and then a movie according to the show's executive producer Mark Wahlberg. Asked about the future of the comedy series, which recently was picked up for a sixth cycle coming off one of its strongest seasons, Wahlberg indicated that he believes there are two more seasons left in the show. "We'll see; there could be more," he said at the premiere of his latest film, The Lovely Bones. "But then, a movie." HBO seems on board with the idea. "It is not out of the realm of possibility," an HBO spokeswoman admitted. "Although, right now, the creators are concentrating on the new season." In following a successful series run with a movie, the Doug Ellin-created Entourage would mirror another long-running HBO comedy, Sex and the City.


Elsewhere, criminally under-watched Starz comedy Party Down already lost Jane Lynch last season to Fox's Glee, now three more key cast members have commitments to other TV projects. So can the show realistically continue? At the Party Down event at the Paley Center last night, Philiana Ng reports that co-creators and executive producers Rob Thomas (Veronica Mars), John Enbom and Dan Etheridge were adamant that the show can continue.

Leading man Adam Scott (Henry) recently signed on for NBC's Parks & Recreation as an unwelcomed state arbiter, causing many to believe that the upcoming sophomore season may be Party Down's last. Also, Ryan Hansen (Kyle) was cast in a NBC comedy pilot Friends With Benefits and Lizzy Caplan (Casey) is committed to CBS' True Love project. That's three to four main characters potentially leaving by season's end. "It's catering. People come and people go," Enbom said. "We never had the money to go, 'You're in a 10-year deal!'"

"We love our cast, but I think it's a show that can survive," Thomas added. "I think in the real world catering is not a career choice for most people so it would make sense that new people would come into the show." I'm not so sure. While people leaving a catering company might make sense from a logic standpoint, that has little to do with keeping viewers. Casting is catching lightning in a bottle. Not only does each character need to pop, they need to click with each of the other characters. Viewers get emotionally invested in a character's story and once they're gone, often, so is the audience.

Since it started launching scripted programming, Starz hasn't had much luck with actors. Dennis Hopper, star of the network's first drama, Crash, is battling cancer. Andy Whitfield, star of the network's second drama, Spartacus, is also battling cancer. Now the cast of Party Down, a show that really needs to grow in the ratings, has one foot out the door.

Finally, the wife of Michael C. Hall says the Dexter star is "fully recovered" from cancer and has returned to work. Jennifer Carpenter said Friday that Hall was "incredibly brave" when he announced in January that he was undergoing treatment for Hodgkin's lymphoma, a cancer that attacks the lymph nodes. The 38-year-old Hall went into remission and continued treatment at a health facility near Los Angeles.

Hall won a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Golden Globe Award earlier this year for his portrayal of Dexter, a serial killer who targets other murderers. Carpenter stars on the bloody Showtime hit series as Dexter's seemingly unknowing sister.