AP Photo/Peter Kramer

OK, so Gilmore Girls and Men in Trees are not technically returning to TV, but the next best thing is happening:

ABC insiders confirm that the network has ordered a new Lauren Graham pilot about a self-help guru who helps women to live empowered and more fulfilling lives but who struggles with these issues herself after...wait for it...her boyfriend dumps her!

Sound familiar? Yes, take out the snowy mountains and burly men in plaid shirts and that is so Men in Trees!

No, Anne Heche is not onboard and neither is MIT creator and writer Jenny Bicks, but Lauren will be getting a love interest...

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ABC

Well, this just sucks. My five-day flu fever finally breaks, I get back to the world of the living and I awake to find this?!

Sources inside ABC confirm that the wonderful world of Elmo so many of us have come to whole-heartedly adore is no more. Men in Trees will not be coming back next season. And I think I feel sick again.

I'm told the cast and crew were informed late Friday that the decision had been made. And despite the creative uptick this season and some of the finest and most heartwarming and sincere storylines around, the suits at the Alphabet Net have decided to pull the plug. Word is they haven't been impressed with recent ratings. But you gotta wonder, what would have been if they'd supported Tees all along?

"I wish the show had not been moved six times and put onto two long hiatuses," Jenny Bicks told my good frenemy Michael Ausiello. "No show could survive that." So, so true.

Obviously, this comes as a huge disappointment to us fans, especially those who spearheaded the philanthropic fanpaign to save the series, Plant It Forward. To date, they have purchased 7,000 food trees for needy families.  

The only teeny-tiny sliver of good news? We'll get a real series-ender, thanks to Bicks' team plotting out an alternate season finale, in the off chance they were canceled. Maybe a double wedding for Marin and Jack and Patrick and Annie? Hey, a girl can dream...

Now tell ABC what you think of this Trees-chopping decision below, will ya?

NBC / Paul Drinkwater

"It's not final, but it's close."

That's the latest I'm hearing on NBC's on-the-bubble, fan-favorite series Friday Night Lights—that the deal for season three is "nearly done" (a deal that would bring FNL to both NBC and DirecTV in the fall).

I'm also hearing that castmembers' agents and managers are being told it's looking "likely" that the show will come back this fall for...13 episodes.

Yes, it seems FNL may be on a probationary period for season three (awaiting pickup of the back nine episodes), but fear not! With the new eyeballs coming to the series via DirecTV, and the new attention to the show via the kickass fanpaigns to save it, surely the ratings will improve and FNL will get a full season. So if you ask me, this is all good news! Or rather, it will be good news...If they'd only finalize everything and announce it.

Perhaps it's just my wishful thinking, but what the hey, I'm gonna toss this out to the universe (ahem, Ben Silverman). It certainly would be a very good thing for an announcement on Friday Night Lights' pickup to come out today or tomorrow, since the cast will be hitting the Paley Television Festival tomorrow night, and that's the perfect opportunity to get some nice, happy, NBC-loving press and to celebrate with the fans.

(Speaking of, if you have any Q's for the FNL cast or producer Jason Katims, please email them to tvdiva@eonline.com! If you have a special message for Taylor Kitsch, get in line.)

Meanwhile, in other on-the-bubble news...

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Bob D'Amico/ABC

Tonight we reunite with Marin Frist, her friends and the quaint little town of Elmo, Alaska, as Men in Trees returns for 11 new episodes.

This move to Wednesdays marks the fifth time-slot change in about a year, but creator Jenny Bicks is excited about this latest shuffle. “[It is] certainly a better place to be than Fridays! There are people who want to find the show again. Hopefully they will.”

Here's a little dish on what our Elmo pals will be up to during the next few months...

Jack:  Marin’s main man is still lost at sea, but die-hard fans (and celeb-romance followers) know James Tupper couldn’t possibly be a show casualty. “I have found that people are very upset when Jack and Marin aren’t together,” says series star Anne Heche. “It’s a credit to the writing. Everyone asks all the time. I love that people are so invested.” According to Bicks, Jack will be doing a lot of growing, overcoming his fear of relationships and the emotional scars he acquired with past love Lynn (Justine Bateman).

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