I’m not thinking Southland will have great ratings. It could, but I don’t think it has the steady fan base that a show that has aired for even a full half season would have and it did lose viewers almost every week when it did air. They might be like me, its a good show, but not great, and too depressing to watch every week, so after a few weeks, they opted out. If I want to watch riveting intense depressing drama, I’ll watch the brilliance that is Breaking Bad.

Does anyone think if this manages to get Leverage/Saving Grace-type numbers (3-3.5M viewers a week) that will be enough for a “2nd” season?

However, the one drawback is the cast and crew of the show isn’t going to wait around for TNT to make a decision. Don’t be surprised if some of the cast and crew take other jobs on films or Pilots during Pilot season.

With Southland “saved” only 2 series are officially axed, Trauma and The Beautiful Life. My guess of the next shows are (in order)

Three Rivers (This week)
Hank (Pulled after November 18th airing)
The Forgotten (Pulled after December 15th airing)
Brothers (Finishing December 27, 2009)
Eastwick (Finishing likely December 30, 2009)
Dollhouse (Finishing January 22, 2010)

ABC’s Hank will likely be pulled (but not officially axed) Eastwick will run all 13 episodes (but also probably not officially axed), The Forgotten may be axed soon but will likely run through December.
CBS’ Three Rivers should get the axe in a few days,
FOX’s Brothers has gotten the unofficial axe and the eps will just be burned off, as will Dollhouse.

With the exception of Accidentally on Purpose, all other freshman network shows have gotten a full season or already axed.

Is this “better news” than nothing for fans of the show? Yes, for at least two reasons:

1.) the six episodes that didn’t air will likely air a heck of a lot sooner than they would’ve if WB hadn’t gotten those rights back from NBC. NBC would’ve aired the episodes sooner or later, but it might have been MUCH later during “summer burn off theater”
2.) there is at least a chance TNT will order new episodes. There is no chance NBC would’ve!

Since there is no doubt TNT will air all the episodes, I really doubt that the fate of future episodes would be decided until the new episodes air unless the already aired episodes are doing very well. If the already aired episodes pull a 1.9 on TNT, that would be very well received by the network, but if they pull, say a 1.2, I can’t imagine they won’t wait until late February and perhaps even a few weeks beyond to see how the yet-to-air episodes perform.

The show has a new lease on life which by any definition is “saved” whether it is cancelled in 2010 or not. There is no reason to assume new production could not happen with a successful run which I imagine the network would want to green light (or not) as soon as the show appears viable (or failed on their air).

The deepest concern I have as a fan of the show is whether that decision will come on re-airing of shows from last spring or the first run episodes. I suspect the former which might be a slightly tougher hill to climb.

For now, Southland remains effectively canceled, albeit with a home for the six episodes that never aired.

So a WB owned Cable Network agreed to purchase and broadcast already produced episodes of a WB television series.

Would someone explain to me why this is surprising at all?

Yes, this is great news to Southland fans, I congratulate you. But considering how much the studio likely doesn’t want to take a bath on the already produced episodes, this should be a no brainer.

But they picked up Southland?!

Good for fans of Southland though.