TV Jots

Will the CBS Comedy Get Lucky?

CBS’ rookie Jenna Elfman sitcom Accidentally on Purpose ends its first season tonight, April 20, at 8:30pm ET with the second half of the two-part finale “Speed.”

The first half featured Elfman’s pregnant character Billie pretending to go into labor, all to save her much younger baby daddy Zack from receiving a deserved speeding ticket.

When the action resumes, Billie will predictably (this is a sitcom after all) experience legitimate labor pains. That’s not as wonderful as it could be, however, because Zack ends up heading to the slammer around the same time when the law catches on to the previous charade. Whoops!

The big question is will we be seeing more of Accidentally on Purpose during a second season? The simple answer is nobody seems to know for sure at this point, and if they do, they’re not saying yet.

CBS has three comedies in a limbo state right now, all of which call(ed) Wednesday night home: Accidentally on Purpose, which was demoted from its original slot in CBS’ mostly successful two-hour Monday-night comedy block; Gary Unmarried, which wrapped its sophomore season about a month ago; and Emmy-winning The New Adventures of Old Christine, presently at the end of its fifth season.

Since CBS’ Wednesday comedy lineup is just an hour long as of now, three sitcoms clearly won’t fit. Whether or not each show scores a renewal will depend on how much money CBS wants to spend and what CBS plans to do about the network’s less popular second block of primetime comedy. Keep it? Extend it? Ditch it? Move it? Alter it?

Whatever happens, Old Christine is obviously the cream of the current crop. So, the Julia Louis-Dreyfus series should get top pickup priority over its two mediocre but perfectly watchable companions.

The promo for Accidentally on Purpose‘s finale “Speed 2″ follows, along with a video recap of the first season for those who haven’t been watching or who need a refresher. It looks like chaos in the delivery room is the main theme of tonight’s episode. A fresh half-hour of The New Adventures of Old Christine, guest starring returning Will & Grace Emmy winner Eric McCormack, precedes at 8pm.