Early ABC Renewals:
ABC has announced early pick-ups for the 2009-10 season for 12 of its established series. And they are (in alphabetical order) America’s Funniest Home Videos, The Bachelor, Brothers & Sisters, Dancing With the Stars, Desperate Housewives, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Grey’s Anatomy, Lost, Private Practice, Supernanny, Ugly Betty and Wife Swap. Still vying for a spot on the fall schedule (or midseason) are sitcoms According to Jim. Samantha Who?, Better Off Ted, In the Motherhood and Surviving Suburbia; dramedy The Unusuals; dramas Castle and Cupid; newsmagazine Primetime: What Would You Do?; and the non-scripted Homeland Security USA and True Beauty. Veteran newsmagazine 20/20 is, of course, also expected back next season.

USA Announces White Collar:
USA Network has picked-up 14 episodes (a 90-minute pilot, plus 13 one-hour installments) of a new drama tentatively titled White Collar. White Collar focuses on the unlikely partnership of a prison agent (Tim DeKay) and a con artist (Matthew Bomer), who trades a prison sentence for the opportunity to assist the Feds in tracking down other notorious criminals. No official premiere date has been announced yet.

DVD Alert:
The ninth, and final, season of Mr. TV’s all-time favorite, The Waltons, will be coming out on DVD on April 28. Sadly, Grandpa is long gone, Grandma is off tending to her sister in Buckingham Country, Mama is still MIA, Ralph Waite as Daddy is about to exit the series, and Robert Wightman as the “new” John Boy is no Richard Thomas. But, even a diluted Waltons is still a show worth watching and this season will feature a young Jennifer Leigh Jason guest starring as Jim-Bob’s girlfriend, the end of the war in Japan, Ronnie Claire Edwards (Corabeth) as her sassy twin sister Orma Lee, the return of the “fake” Curt, and a closing montage of the entire series in the final episode.

BET Unveils New Programming Initiatives:
Cable net BET has announced several new programs for the 2009-10 season, including a nightly talk/variety hour hosted by former The Parkers star Mo’Nique; sports-driven Changing Lanes, which chronicles the search for NASCAR’s net generation of drivers; Crews Control, a docudrama featuring Everybody Hates Chris Dad Terry Crews, his wife and their five kids; docudrama First In, which focuses on emergency response teams; and makeover series The Hollywood Treatment (with Mary J. Blige in the pilot). Other projects include Monica: Still Standing, a docudrama focusing on Grammy winning singer Monica; game show Pay It Off; and music-driven A Time to Laugh. First In, Monica: Still Standing and Pay It Off will debut in fourth quarter 2009. The Hollywood Treatment and A Time to Laugh are slated for first quarter 2010.

Scheduled to return on BET next season is 106 & Park, Bobby Jones Gospel, Brothers to Brutha, and Sunday Best, which will go back in search of the next great gospel star.

BET Networks has also announced a new entertainment and music themed channel called Centic, which is aimed at what the network describes as today’s affluent, trend-setting, sophisticated African American adult. Centric is scheduled to debut in fourth quarter 2009 in approximately 45 million homes.