law & order los angeles

ABC has announced the mid-season return of V. The alphabet net will pair up the alien invasion saga with No Ordinary Family on Tuesday nights at 9:pm, starting January 4th.

NBC, meanwhile, has given full-season orders to three of its new-in-2010 shows. The Event, which is among the highest-rated shows of the new season, has gotten an additional order of nine more episodes, giving it a full 22-episode first season. THR suggests that this is especially good news for fans, since their sources indicate that the big reveal of just exactly what “the Event” is, is planned for the end of the first season. Law & Order: Los Angeles and Outsourced have both gotten a back 9 order as well.

The verdict is still out for freshman series Chase and Undercovers, although Undercovers probably stands a decent chance, thanks to JJ Abrams’ clout in the industry (though speeding up reveals about the show’s mythology would certainly help), and Chase‘s modest ratings could be enough to allow it to survive the season.

Yes, you read that headline right: NBC is prepping another Law & Order series.

Law & Order: Los Angeles would mark the fifth series in the franchise’s incredibly long history, though the fourth to air concurrently at this time. (Law & Order: Trial by Jury didn’t last beyond 13 episodes.) The original L&O is expected to enter its 21st season this coming fall, while Law & Order: Special Victims Unit remains the ratings champ of the bunch, and is guaranteed a 12th season in the fall. Law & Order: Criminal Intent made the jump from NBC to USA a few years ago, and has just begun its 9th season there.

The new series, Los Angeles, is a proposal that’s caught NBC’s eye because it comes with the creative cache of writer/producer Blake Masters attached. Masters is remembered for the little-watched but highly acclaimed Showtime series Brotherhood. Masters and franchise creator Dick Wolf are expected to collaborate on the new show, which has received a 13-episode order from NBC for this fall.

The real question on my mind is whether CBS will answer this challenge by adding a fourth edition of the CSI franchise to its lineup. There’s already CSI: Las Vegas, CSI: Sunglasses (er, Miami), and CSI: New York. Where should they go next? CSI: DC? CSI: Des Moines? CSI: Beirut?