Fringe and Heroes Officially Renewed, Chuck in Limbo

As reported here and elsewhere, we already suspected that FOX would be renewing Fringe for a second season, but it took them today to make it official. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the J.J. Abrams sci-fi show will be returning for a second season with a full 22-episode order. Heroes on NBC, meanwhile, has also officially been renewed for a fourth season, but may return with as few as 18-20 episodes this time around. Fans of Chuck, on the other hand, will have to wait a little longer for official word that their spy show is coming back for a third season. Or not.

For some strange reason, NBC still refuses to say either way if Chuck will be back for another season. TV Guide recently went to get some answers from the network’s co-chair Ben Silverman, who wouldn’t say either way, but did offer up this:

“It could shake out in some way to be a similar lineup, or maybe Chuck would go in a different slot, if we brought it back,” he told TVGuide.com. “We haven’t locked in [the complete fall schedule], but we like Heroes on Monday. It’s established an audience, and we don’t want to move it.”

Silverman indicated that Heroes could get moved up an hour to 8 pm, where it would be followed by Trauma, a new medical drama, which he says shares a similar “adrenaline.”

It’s [a matter of] evaluating what works best with what,” he said, “and we don’t have it all defined yet.”

Sorry, Chuck fans, it’s still a maybe, maybe-not. You’ll just have to wait to find out. Though the silver lining is that at least NBC is trying to figure out what to do with you, so even if they aren’t yet sold on bringing you back, they aren’t sold on NOT bringing you back, yet.

Fans of Fringe and Heroes, meanwhile, can sleep well knowing that their show will be back for another season.