Fox Picks Up American Dad For Sixth Season

Fox has renewed American Dad for a sixth season. The renewal means that all three series from Seth MacFarlane – American Dad, Family Guy and The Cleveland Show – have pickups through next season. The show, which centers on security-obsessed CIA agent and devoted family man Stan Smith (voiced by MacFarlane) airs at 9:30 PM/ET Sundays. Wendy Schaal, Rachael MacFarlane and Dee Bradley Baker round out the voice cast of the series, which is exec produced by Seth MacFarlane, Barker, Weitzman, Rick Wiener and Kenny Schwartz.

Scrubs, Better Off Ted Returning In December

ABC has set the return dates for Scrubs and Better Off Ted. Scrubs is going through a shakeup leaving the hospital and introducing a largely new cast. The ninth season will premiere with back-to back episodes December 1 at 9:00 PM/ET. The show will then move to its regular Tuesday at 9:00 PM/ET time slot the following week. The show’s companion, Better Off Ted, will debut its second season on December 8 at 9:30 PM/ET following Scrubs.

NBC Cancels Trauma

NBC has opted not to pick up additional episodes from Trauma beyond the freshman drama’s original 13-episode order. The big-budget action medical drama from UMS has been in limbo after a weak start behind Heroes. It got a glimpse of hope this week when, against CBS repeats, it showed a small ratings uptick, prompting the network to book the series for three more weeks. The series now will finish production on its 13-episode order before winding down.

Bravo Extends Top Chef Into Desserts

Bravo is extending its Top Chef franchise into the dessert genre with a new reality competition. Trying to capitalize on the recent success of TLC’s foray into Food Network’s dessert space with Cake Boss and Ultimate Cake-Off, Bravo is launching Top Chef: Just Desserts. The entry in the Top Chef franchise will have pastry chefs competing in a series of challenges. The series will launch in 2010 and is from Top Chef producers Magical Elves.

NBC Picks Up Community, Parks And Mercy For Full Seasons

NBC has picked up full seasons of Thursday-night comedies Community and Parks and Recreation, as well as its Wednesday night medical drama Mercy. All three have shown stability in their time periods in recent weeks. Absent from the pickup list: Monday night medical thriller Trauma.

Community, Parks and Recreation and Mercy have been modest performers, but this back-nine order gives the shows some breathing room to potentially improve. NBC, the final broadcaster to order additional episodes of their new shows this fall, also has a limited inventory of scripted content to fill any open slots. The network has Chuck ready, which has been speculated might replace Trauma should NBC pull the medical thriller.

NBC has Parenthood and Day One for set midseason.

In Treatment Will Return For Third Season On HBO

HBO has renewed In Treatment for a third season. The show will begin production in New York in early 2010 for a premiere later in the year. Gabriel Byrne is set to return as Dr. Paul Weston, with casting on the other roles expected to begin shortly. Anya Epstein and Danny Futterman are joining the therapy-themed drama as executive producers/co-showrunners. That follows the July departure of Warren Leight, who served as executive producer/showrunner on the second season of the show, which earned three Emmy nominations.

Also complicating the pickup decision was the fact the Israeli series on which the HBO show is based only ran for two seasons, so a third season had to be written from scratch.