As regular blog readers already know, ABC is bringing back “Pushing Daisies,” but no more new episodes until this fall, and “Desperate Housewives,” which will be rushing back into production to bring you a few more episodes this May and June.

On Tuesday, ABC Entertainment announced pickups for nine of its most popular shows, returning broadcast television’s most successful fall series. “Men in Trees” and “October Road” were among the shows not mentioned and may be “on the bubble” for renewal.

“Desperate Housewives” stars Eva Longoria as Gabrielle Solis, Felicity Huffman as Lynette Scavo, Marcia Cross as Bree Van De Kamp, Teri Hatcher as Susan Mayer, and Nicollette Sheridan as Edie Britt. (ABC/ANDREW ECCLES)

ABC Entertainment ordered episodes of “Brothers & Sisters,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Dirty Sexy Money,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Lost,” “Private Practice,” “Pushing Daisies,” “Samantha Who?” and “Ugly Betty.”

“Big Shots,” the show starring Bay Area’s own Christopher Titus, has not yet gotten a pick-up and one is not expected. When Titus performed at Tommy T’s in Pleasanton for a New Year’s Eve show, he was hopeful the show would return, but indications from the network suggest otherwise.

“Big Shots” Christopher Titus and Michael Vartan, Photo: ADAM TAYLOR/ABC

Other ABC shows that aren’t expected to make an appearance on the new fall schedule are “Cavemen” and “Carpoolers.” And if ABC asks me, and I’m sure they won’t, I’d put that awful “Cashmere Mafia” on the endangered list too.

I couldn’t wait to watch the first episode of “Lost” - and when you are a TV critic, that means you get the DVD screener before it airs.

Now, ABC offers critics an even faster way to see the show, via the not-for-public-viewing Web site. And I can tell you, this first episode doesn’t disappoint. It’s non-stop action from start to finish, leaving you aching for more.

It’s been a while since we’ve seen our “Lost” pals, and ABC has whipped up a great 8 minute and 15 second recap.

We should have gotten a full ride of all 16 episodes, but darn that strike (yes, we are still behind you), we’ll only be getting eight episodes and perhaps not getting the next ones until almost summer time if then.

“Lost” is a series that ends after 48 episodes. Fans expected 16 episodes a year until 2010, when the series would finish. If the strike ends by mid-February, there’s still a chance that “Lost” could produce the other eight episodes in time to finish airing in May.

After watching “The Beginning of the End,” I’m back on board the “Lost” train. The producers now have an end game and the energy level is back with the actors and the writing.

There’s a list of things ABC doesn’t want us to reveal to viewers, so I’ll just say that we get to jump into the future where some of the castaways have left the island - and are conflicted about it. And we see some of the things that happened on the island.

Oh, and one person comes back from the dead.

We can also tell you that Locke wants the survivors to stay on the island after Charlie’s last message saying that they aren’t from Penny’s boat, while Jack says it’s time to get off the island.

Who will stay and who will go?

m>In the season premiere episode, “The Beginning of the End,” feeling that their rescue is close at hand, the survivors don’t know whether to believe Charlie’s final message that the people claiming to liberate them are not who they seem to be. (ABC/MARIO PEREZ) EMILIE de RAVIN

Damon Lindelof always said that “Lost” was about redemption. Perhaps some left the islad a bit too early to be redeemed.

Come back here after the show airs on Thursday and, as Heidi Klum says, we’ll have a little chat.

Those wacky “Lost” publicists are back at it again, sending out press releases for phony companies associated with the ABC series.

On Friday, they sent out a press release saying today Oceanic Airlines is back in business. If only the TV networks were back in business and the Writers strike was over. But that’s just my own personal New Year’s wish.

Instead we get funky press releases like this one:

December 28, 2007

OCEANIC AIRLINES ANNOUNCES ITS RETURN TO THE AIRWAYS
“TAKING YOU PLACES YOU NEVER IMAGINED”

Flights Begin December 31 To Nine Markets

Oceanic Airlines announced today their return to the airways. Beginning December 31, operations and flights to nine markets will resume, “Taking You Places You Never Imagined.” Destinations include:

Los Angeles, CA
Tustin, CA
Ames, IA
Miami, FL
New York, NY
Portland, OR
Knoxville, TN
Seoul, South Korea
Sydney, Australia

“We are very eager to resume flying and apologize for any inconvenience our temporary closure may have caused our loyal customers,” said Michael Orteig, President, Oceanic Airlines. “Oceanic Airlines is proud to be a top tier flight provider and looks forward to providing travelers with many more years of unparalleled service.”

About Oceanic Airlines
In business for over 25 years, Oceanic Airlines is a major airline carrier and offers the highest caliber of service for international and domestic flights. Destinations include Los Angeles, London, Sydney and South Korea.

###

Oceanic Airlines Contact:
Georgia Cavanagh (818) 460-5520

If you call, Georgia tells you to leave a message. Let me know if they get back to you. Also, you get an address to go to the Oceanic Airlines site There’s not much there, but then that would also be the same for the series.

Viewers were promised 16 episodes this season, with no interruption. Only eight were completed with a quasi-cliff hanger at the end that insiders say will make viewers more angry than enticed. Because of the strike, there simply aren’t any more episodes shot.

Ben, don’t make Danielle mad. You know you don’t like it when Danielle gets angry…(ABC/MARIO PEREZ) MICHAEL EMERSON, MIRA FURLAN in the Jan. 31 season premiere of “Lost”.

But you can spend the better part of the day getting caught up with previews, recaps, webisodes and even full episodes on the official “Lost” Web site. The hilarious video recap is worth the trip to the site.

The show swaps to Thursday nights beginning Jan. 31 with an episode titled “Beginning of the End.”

On the season premiere of “Lost” at 9 p.m. Jan. 31 on ABC, everyone looks happy except Claire (Emilie de Ravin). (ABC/MARIO PEREZ)

According to my “DH” producer pal, who should be downing egg nog and taking advantage of the mistletoe, Mary Alice says in the teaser that “one of the women will lose a husband, and they all will lose a friend.”

We already know, or think we know, that the husband refers to the obviously dead Victor. Could the friend be Ida? I’m not so sure I’d call her a friend to the Wisteria women. Let’s try someone more imaginative. I don’t want to lose Tom, but he would certainly fall into both those categories.

And thanks blog reader Rene for commenting on the sad demise of a main character: The ugly, noisy fountain.

Could Carlos (Ricardo Antonio Chavira) fill the bill as the “husband and friend” on “Desperate Housewives”? We already know the fate of Victor (John Slattery), who was no friend to anyone on Wisteria Lane. (photo Danny Feld/ABC)

Talk among yourselves while I check on those Christmas cookies.

OK, I’m sensing a need for some picket fence chat time. We know there’s only one episode of “Desperate Housewives” in the can, and that one according to an inside source, will answer most of the cliff-hanger questions when it airs on Jan. 6 on ABC.

But after that, we’re going to have to face the fact that there won’t be an end of the strike before January and we’ll all be facing a very bleak winter without new episodes of DH.

So what’s a fan to do?

Let’s hark back to the baseball strike of who-gives-a-crap, when baseball fans were forced to live without the game. They decided to start fantasy baseball leagues. Playing off the notion, I say we form a fantasy TV League for Desperate Housewives.

Tom, say you aren’t gone! We’d be “Desperate Housewives” indeed if that’s true.

We’ll all put in our thoughts as to what we think happened. Did Tom and the kids perish? Did Ida go to the cat house in the sky? What about Carlos? I think that Victor biffed it, primarily because he got that new gig on AMC’s hit series “Mad Men” playing the head of a New York ad agency.
Oh, and I base it on the fact that he got staked like a vampire.

Looks like Victor’s bit the big one on “Desperate Housewives”

OK, let the fantasy begin. Who do you want to be gone? Who do you want to see back? And better still, how would you like to see the season continue?

Well, at least the hideous fountain is now a moot point on Wisteria Lane as Bob (Tuc Watkins) surveys the post-tornado damage.
Photos by ABC/CRAIG SJODIN

Well, you knew it had to happen. First Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien announce they’re coming back Jan. 2 whether or not the WGA strike is over, and now Jimmy Kimmel has followed suit.

Jimmy Kimmel with Nicole Richie on “Jimmy Kimmel Live”

New episodes of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” pick up at 12:05 a.m. on Jan. 2, but not without Kimmel issuing an under-pressure press release:

“Though it makes me sick to do so without my writers, there are more than a hundred people whose financial well-being depends on our show. It is time to go back to work. I support my colleagues and friends in the WGA completely and hope this ends both fairly and soon.”

Kimmel has, without fanfare, been paying staffers out of his own pocket during the strike to cushion the blow. Even though Leno, O’Brien and Kimmel have given in to the networks about coming back - and we do think they have an honest concern about the financial well-being of the staffers - when the strong lines start breaking down, it could result in a much longer strike.

The producers said they didn’t want to do it. But ABC has opted to plunge ahead and show the first eight episodes completed of “Lost” beginning at 9 p.m. Thursday on Jan. 31. The deal was “Lost” would run for 16 episodes straight, but only eight were produced before the writers strike.

“It will feel a little like reading half a Harry Potter novel, then having to put it down,” executive producer Carlton Cuse told TV Guide. “There is a mini-cliff-hanger at the end of Episode 8, but it’s like the end of an exciting book chapter, it’s not the end of the novel.”

Fans of “Lost” eagerly await the new season after an ending that showed Jack and Kate back at home without the rest of the “Lost” band.

FRANCES O`CONNOR, JULIAN OVENDEN, LUCY LIU, BONNIE SOMERVILLE, MIRANDA OTTO, PETER HERMANN
“Cashmere Mafia’’ stars Lucy Liu, Frances O’Connor, Miranda Otto and Bonnie Somerville as four gal pals fighting the glass ceiling in the Big City. The series comes from “Sex and the City’’ producer Darren Star.

At least two new scripted series, the disappointing “Cashmere Mafia” which tries too hard to be “Sex & the City” and the promising “Eli Stone” have also been added to the winter line-up. Trying to plump out the bill are two reality programs: “Dance War: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann” and “Oprah’s Big Give.”

“Dance War: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann” premieres with a special two-hour episode on Monday, January 7, followed by 90-minute episodes through January. “Notes from the Underbelly” and “October Road” will continue to air at 9:30 and 10:00 p.m., respectively. “Samantha Who?” will return with original episodes in February at 9:00 p.m. “Dancing with the Stars” and “The Bachelor” start new seasons on Monday, March 17.

“Just for Laughs” returns Tuesday, January 1, at 8:30 p.m., following the Rose Bowl, and will air back-to-back episodes Tuesday nights (8:00 and 8:30 p.m.), beginning January 8. “According to Jim” will also return January 1, with two episodes at 9:00 and 9:30 p.m. The series will regularly air at 9:00 p.m., followed by “Carpoolers” (9:30 p.m.) as of January 8. “Dancing with the Stars the Results Show” will return at 9:00 p.m. on Tuesday, March 25. “Boston Legal” will continue airing Tuesdays at 10:00 p.m.

“Wife Swap” will premiere at 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, January 2, and “Supernanny” returns with special back-to-back episodes at 9:00 and 10:00 p.m. that same night. The new drama series “Cashmere Mafia” premieres in its regular timeslot at 10:00 p.m. on Wednesday, January 9, following a special premiere on Thursday, January 3. Beginning February 27, “MEN IN TREES” will air Wednesdays at 10:00 p.m.

On Thursday nights in January, “Ugly Betty” will continue to air at 8:00 p.m., followed by “Grey’s Anatomy” at 9:00 p.m. and “Big Shots” at 10:00 p.m. “Lost” will premiere on January 31 at 9:00 p.m., followed by the premiere of “Eli Stone” at 10:00 p.m.

On Sunday nights, “Oprah’s Big Give” will premiere on Sunday, March 2 at 9:00 p.m.

ABC’s midseason primetime schedule is as follows:

MONDAY (JAN)

8 p.m. “Dance War: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann”
9:30 p.m. “Notes from the Underbelly”
10 p.m. “October Road”

MONDAY (FEB)

8 p.m. “Dance War: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann”
9 p.m. “Samantha Who?”
9:30 p.m. “Notes from the Underbelly”
10 p.m. “October Road”

MONDAY (MAR)

8 p.m. “Dancing with the Stars”
9:30 p.m. “Samantha Who?”
10 p.m. “The Bachelor”

TUESDAY
8 p.m. “Just for Laughs”
8 p.m. “Just for Laughs”
9 p.m. “According to Jim”
9 p.m. “Carpoolers”
10 p.m. “Boston Legal”

TUESDAY (MAR)
8 p.m. “Just for Laughs”
8 p.m. “Just for Laughs”
9 p.m. “Dancing with the Stars the Results Show”
10 p.m. “Boston Legal”

WEDNESDAY
8 p.m. “Wife Swap”
9 p.m. “Supernanny”
10 p.m. “Cashmere Mafia” (“MEN IN TREES” beginning Feb 27)

THURSDAY (JAN)
8 p.m. “Ugly Betty”
9 p.m. “Grey’s Anatomy”
10 p.m. “Big Shots” (after special premiere of “Cashmere Mafia” on Jan 3)

THURSDAY (FEB)
8 p.m. “Ugly Betty”
9 p.m. “Lost”
10 p.m. “Eli Stone”

FRIDAY
8 p.m. Drama encores
9 p.m. Drama encores
10 p.m. “20/20”

SUNDAY (MAR)
7 p.m. “America’s Funniest Home Videos”
8 p.m. “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”
9 p.m. “Oprah’s Big Give”
10 p.m. “Desperate Housewives”

Our own sweet Sheena has made it into the final four.

Which means next week we get a chance to see how bachelor Brad fared in Walnut Creek with Sheena’s parents. From the previews, it looks like Sheena’s mom is quite a beauty, and a bit more outspoken than her kinda shy daughter.

JENNI, DeANNA, BETTINA, SHEENA , the Final Four

We honestly think it’s between DeAnna and Sheena for the final rose, with Bettina the b-dog getting unmasked by Brad next week. We could have told you about the B weeks ago, Brad. Jenni’s sweet, but we don’t see any sparks flying.

But first, we must talk Hillary and her monumental breakdown at the end of tonight’s show. Didn’t she catch a single vibe Brad was giving out during the four-girl pool party? He obviously looked at her like she was just a pal, and she read all the wrong signals.

Call the wahmbulance. Come on, girl. You’re a nurse. Get it together. Show of hands of anyone who would want her by your bedside after this little meltdown.

HILLARY and BRAD (Photo Craig Sjodin/ABC)

But back to our Sheena. The previews to this episode just loved showing her doing the banana peel slide down the stairs, but actually it wasn’t that bad. She did look fabulous in her diamond earrings Brad gave her. We got all Pretty Woman with that scene. Then when they danced outside with the orchestra playing, I mean gosh golly gee whiz, it doesn’t get any more romantic than that, does it?

I just wish he would stop saying how much his twin brother was smitten with Sheena. It’s almost like he’s trying to talk himself into liking her.

Hey, maybe if things don’t work out with Brad, Sheena can test drive the other twin.

Whatever happened to that sweet, trailer-park baby momma who took her modeling bucks and turned it into a medical degree?

Yeah, we’re talking about you, Izzie. When “Grey’s Anatomy” started out, Izzie was a good-natured girl unbowed by the blows she’d taken in her short life. We learned how she went from unwed mom to a pin-up girl to a dedicated intern.

We loved Izzie.

Does anyone remember when she couldn’t believe that someone could actually fall in love with goofy old George? Who could forget that line, when she realized how much Callie loved George, and she said, basically, “Oh my god. He’s her McDreamy!”

Seriously. I mean, seriously. How could Izzie then turn around a couple of years later and do the deed with George. George, who married his adoring Callie. What a weasel he’s turned out to be.

KATHERINE HEIGL, T.R. KNIGHT. Yeah, Gizzie. Feel the pain.

There are people out there who think that Gizzie is great. We disagree. Izzie never thought of George as anything more than her stuffed puppy pal until it looked like he might actually be hooked up with a woman who loved him.

And I guess that’s the real story on “Grey’s.” Love stinks.

Tonight, Richard’s wife turned on him because he thought of the care and comfort of his dying niece first above the selfish wishes of his estranged wife.

(And speaking of niece Camille, did anyone notice that she’s now being played by Camille Winbush formerly of “The Bernie Mac Show”? Tessa Thompson (”Veronica Mars”), who wasn’t available for the episode, originated the role.)

CAMILLE WINBUSH, JAMES PICKENS, JR., LORETTA DEVINE

And a man makes his girlfriend lose a dangerous amount of weight before he’ll move in with her.

And Karev’s crushed that Izzie decided to sleep with George after she told him she needed some time to get over Denny. A little time and a heapin’ helpin’ of George.

And finally McDreamy pours out his heart to Meredith, only to have her physically recoil. No wonder he might have some feelings for her sister Lexie, who doesn’t seem to suffer from too-close-itish.

Obviously, we’re back on the “Grey” train and just can’t stop thinking about those complex docs.

Walnut Creek’s Sheena got another rose tonight, and things look rosy indeed for our local girl.

SHEENA gets a rose from BRAD

In a touching moment with bachelor Brad Womack, he said that she was “straightforward with her emotions tonight, and I like to see that.” He also mentioned how his twin brother, who tried the old switcheroo with the girls in an earlier episode, “opened his eyes” to what Sheena was all about.

Sheena was one of the bachelorettes who wasn’t fooled by the twin.

The herd is getting thinned pretty quickly now. Brad pared down the group from nine to six women tonight.

The final six are JENNI, KRISTY, BETTINA, BRAD WOMACK, HILLARY, SHEENA, DeANNA Photo by Karen Neal/ABC

Next week’s previews look pretty provocative. We see Sheena looking fabulous as she walks down the stairs for her one-on-one date with Brad. As the narrator says it is the most romantic date ever, we see poor Sheena slip on the stairs.

But the big fall next week seems to be Hillary. The previews mention a “dramatic departure.” Hopefully that means our Sheena is safe.

SHEENA may slip next week, but it’s HILLARY who takes the big fall