After much speculation, TNT announced they are picking up Southland. The drama was canceled by NBC before even one episode of its sophomore season aired.

“We’re delighted that TNT has stepped forward to pick up Southland,” said executive producer John Wells. “We are all extremely proud of the show.” The network will also replay the first season as they have gained exclusive rights to the first seven episodes as well.

Plus, fans can look forward to super sized episodes on TNT too. According to Michael Cudlitz, “It’s my understanding that the actual episodes will have more airtime on TNT, so I believe they will be going back in and [adding] content. They’ll have the opportunity, and, in my opinion the need, to open up the [initial seven] episodes a little bit.”

Its still unclear why NBC dropped the show after they had already filmed nearly 6 full episodes for the second season. Many think it has to do with simple mathematics. Five nights of The Jay Leno Show at 10 PM means less slots for original prime-time programming.

This isn’t the first show to jump ship after being canceled by NBC in recent years. Last year Scrubs moved to ABC after being canceled and Medium is now aired on CBS after its cancellation last spring.

TNT will air episodes beginning January 12 on Tuesdays @ 10 PM ET/PT.

Though the cancellation of Southland came as a surprise for fans and cast alike, the cop drama’s proposed move to TNT isn’t so shocking.

Earlier this month NBC renewed the drama after a positive first season. Before the second season could begin, NBC pulled the rug from under its cast in a bizarre move, despite NBC having six shows from Southland’s second season already produced. Don’t fret fans as in comes cabler TNT to rescue the show from certain doom in a deal that seems easy to do on paper.

Southland is owned and produced by Warner Bros. Television, the same corporate owner as TNT so the content move may seem like a done deal. “We continually look at all programming opportunities that fit our portfolio of brands,” read a statement from TNT.

The proposed deal would release NBC from any shutdown costs. NBC will also get some of the $10 million that the network has spent on season two. Also, if the show does get picked up, NBC will keep getting paid, until its entire second-season investment is returned.

TNT currently has a slew of well-produced cop shows including The Closer, Dark Blue and syndicated runs of Law & Order. Southland may fit nicely into TNT’s lineup.

The official word on why Southland was abruptly canceled remains a mystery though many speculate that the show’s dark content may not have not tested well with audiences. Other believe that NBC’s vision of prime-time, which includes Jay Leno’s “new” talk show, didn’t mesh with the drama. NBC reportedly played hardball in negotiations with Warner Bros, demanding a high, upfront licensing fee for the six second season episodes.

With its debut in April 2009, Southland started out strong, garnering 9 million viewers a week for the first two episodes but steadily declined as time went on.

In the past couple years, viewers have seen an unusual flurry of shows switching networks. Scrubs made a leap from NBC to ABC last season and Project Runway moved from Bravo to Lifetime. Medium went from NBC to CBS.

It’s not known whether TNT would air all 13 episodes if the deal goes through.

NBC announced their fall line-up today too. Of course, NBC’s new schedule revolves around the addition of The Jay Leno Show Monday through Friday at 10 PM EST.

Noticeably absent from the schedule are My Name Is Earl and Medium, both have been cancelled but may be picked up by ABC or CBS. It looks like the shows’ stars were as surprised as their fans to hear the news. This morning, My Name Is Earl star Ethan Suplee tweeted: “Just got the call that My Name Is Earl has been canceled. They sure did take their time with that decision or rather informing us of it.”

New shows on the network include a new paramedic show, Trauma, which will follow Heroes on Mondays, a new apocalypse show, Day One,will air Mondays at 9 p.m. beginning in February, Joel McHale’s Community, which will follow The Office on Thursday and Parenthood which will be on at 8 p.m. on Wednesdays in the fall before  Mercy takes over the time slot in mid season. Here’s a look at the full fall season:

NBC’s Fall 2009 schedule:

MONDAY: 8 p.m. “Heroes”
9 p.m. “Trauma”
10 p.m. “The Jay Leno Show”

TUESDAY: 8 p.m “The Biggest Loser”
10 p.m. “The Jay Leno Show”

WEDNESDAY: 8 p.m. “Parenthood”
9 p.m. “Law & Order: SVU”
10 p.m. “The Jay Leno Show”

THURSDAY: 8 p.m. “Weekend Update”
8:30 p.m. “Parks & Recreation”
9 p.m. “The Office”
9:30 p.m. “Community”
10 p.m. “The Jay Leno Show”

FRIDAY: 8 p.m. “Law & Order”
9 p.m. “Southland”
10 p.m. “The Jay Leno Show”

SATURDAY: 8 p.m. “Dateline”
9 p.m. Repeats

SUNDAY: “Sunday Night Football”

NBC has officially announced its fall line-up which includes 6 new scripted series, The Jay Leno Show, and three new “alternative” programs, The Marriage Ref, Who Do You Think You Are?, and Breakthrough with Tony Robbins.

As we’ve mentioned, one of the new scripted shows the network is trying is a one-hours series based on the 1988 movie Parenthood. The show’s cast has been filled in with some of TV’s biggest names including Peter Krause (Dirty Sexy Money, Six Feet Under), Craig T. Nelson (The Family Stone, Coach), Sarah Ramos (In Treatment), and two ER alums, Maura Tierney and Miles Heizer which gives us hope the show might be pretty good but like everything else in TV, there are no guarantees.

Anther show officially added to NBC’s fall line-up is Trauma, a drama about first-responder paramedics who rush by land, sea or air to reach their victims in San Francisco.

After finally canceling the network’s longest running medical drama, ER, NBC just couldn’t resist ordering a new one to replace it. Mercy, starring Gossip Girl’s Michelle Trachtenberg and Men in Trees’ James Tupper, is about a nurse who “bucks the rules and schools the doctors at their own game.”

What is sure to be their most buzzed about new series, Day One, is about “the aftermath of a global catastrophe that has devastated the world’s infrastructures and an eclectic band of survivors who try to rebuild society and figure out what happened. Not surprisingly, the show is produced by Jesse Alexander who teamed with J.J. Abrams for Lost and Alias.

Chevy Chase is returning to TV in Community, a sitcom about a group of misfits who form a study group at a community college.

100 Questions rounds out the network’s new scripted programming. The series is about a woman searching for love online. She flashes back to previous relationships as she answers each of the 100 computability questions asked on a dating website.

The Office, 30 Rock, The Biggest Loser, The Celebrity Apprentice, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Friday Night Lights, Heroes, Southland, Parks and Recreation and Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday will all be returning as well.

Yesterday, we took a look at the mid-season premieres ABC has lined-up this month. Here’s a look at what we can expect from NBC.

Southland is a new cop drama about Ben Sherman (Ben McKenzie), a rookie cop who’s being shown the ropes by his partner, John Cooper (Michael Cudlitz). The young cop struggles with the cost that comes with his new profession, like the difficulty he has with shooting a man dead on his first day. The show has a perfect time slot, it will take over ER’s Thrusday night position on April 9th, which is fitting since its executive producer, John Wells, was also the executive producer of ER.

Amy Poehler’s much hyped new show, Parks and Recreation also premieres on April 9th. Parks and Recreation is a mockumnetary about a local government public works office brought to you by the same folks who are running The Office. Critics love it, positioning Poehler to be the next Tina Fey, but hopefully Amy will have better luck finding an audience than her friend Tina has had with 30 Rock.

NBC’s third mid-season show is their biggest gamble. Kings premiered last night to so-so ratings. The epic drama is set in an alternate-universe monarchy in which a peasant prince is groomed to become the king. Fans of epic tales, like Battlestar Galactica, will most likely love Kings but the rest of us will probably pass it by.

Fox is premiering yest another prime-time animated series, Sit Down, Shut Up, about a high school as seen through the eyes of the demented teachers and administrators who run it. The twist in Sit Down, Shut Up is that the characters are animated but the background is live action. Even if that doesn’t sound appealing, The stellar cast makes up for it. Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, Kristin Chenoweth, Cheri Oteri, and Tom Kenny all provide voices.