HBO Renews True Blood, Entourage And Hung

HBO announced the renewal of freshman comedy Hung, veteran comedy Entourage and hit vampire drama True Blood. Hung will get a second season, True Blood a third and Entourage a seventh. The new seasons will debut sometime next year, with True Blood firmly planned for summer 2010.

Next year HBO intends to air Big Love in January and roll out its highly anticipated World War II miniseries The Pacific in March. The war epic will eventually serve as lead-in for Treme, the New Orleans drama from David Simon. Flight of the Conchords will also likely return, with executives making a third season sound very probable.

The Sunday-night lineup has given HBO two consecutive hours of hit programming for the first time in years. True Blood has managed to increase its audience with nearly every episode, giving the network its most-watched show since The Sopranos. True Blood has averaged 3.8 million viewers (11.2 when you add repeats, DVR and On Demand viewing), Hung has averaged 3.1 million and Entourage brings in about 3.0 million.

Though HBO’s full development pipeline is expected to give the network some tough choices in the coming months, one project looking almost certain to make the air is Martin Scorsese’s Boardwalk Empire. Executives were less certain about critical favorite In Treatment and The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, the latter program having lost executive producer Anthony Minghella during a cancer operation, but didn’t rule out either show returning.