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Showtime’s fourth season finale of Weeds Monday at 10p and 11p drew in 1.3 million total viewers over both episodes. These episodes were equal to an increase of 31% over season three’s last episode over two airings. Showtime has renewed Weeds for two more seasons. (Cynopsis 9/17)

Also closing on Monday night was TNT’s The Closer with 7.6 million viewers and 2.4 million A18-49. (Cynopsis 9/17)

TNT announced renewals of two of its primetime drama series: Saving Grace starring Holly Hunter and produced by Fox Television Studios will return for season three later in 2009 with 15 episodes. And after being on the air for only a couple of episodes, TNT has also ordered back for a second season Raising the Bar from ABC Studios and Steven Bochco with 15 new episodes. (Cynopsis 9/17)

SCI FI Channel’s acquired series Lost debuted on the network Monday night airing from 7-11p, delivering 658,000 A18-49 viewers, 719,000 A25-54 viewers and nearly 1.3 million total viewers. (Cynopsis 9/17)

ESPN averaged 12.5 million viewers with its telecast this past Monday of the Minnesota Vikings-Green Bay Packers football game — the largest single audience so far this year on ad-supported cable TV. Mediaweek (9/16)

Bravo’s growing list of successful series, including “Project Runway” and “Top Design,” are fueling interest in its Friday- and Saturday-night lineup of theatrical movies, according to Executive Vice President and General Manager Frances Berwick. This fall, Bravo will premiere 11 movies, including “Miss Congeniality 2,” “Bad Boys 2,” “While You Were Sleeping” and “Be Cool.” Variety (9/16)

A&E Network has announced a public service campaign called “The Recovery Project” that’s designed to show people with addictions that their diseases are treatable. The initiative, which begins Sept. 27, includes a series of ads on History, the Bio Channel and A&E, the channel that offers “The Cleaner,” which stars Benjamin Bratt and focuses on drug addiction. Multichannel News (9/16)

FOX and Jeff Foxworthy are teaming on another project as the network approved an animated pilot from Foxworthy about a dysfunctional family involved in NASCAR, reports Variety. The unnamed comedy will be produced by Twentieth Century Fox TV with one of the characters voiced by Foxworthy. (Cynopsis 9/17)

The Wall Street implosion won’t be good for getting any big media deals done anytime soon, according to Jeff Zucker, Mel Karmazin and Steven Rattner, speaking at a panel discussion hosted by Conde Nast Portfolio. Big deals “are simply not going to happen.” (Iwantmedia 9/17, http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/mixed-media/2008/09/16/ma-outlook-zucker-rattner-karmazin-weigh-in 9/16)

NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker says he would take a “hard look” at Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks film studio if it were available. But after its recent acquisitions of Oxygen Media and the Weather Channel, NBC plans to spend the next few months “getting our house in order.” (Iwantmedia 9/17, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601204&sid=awgpSk0tzaJE 9/16)

Discovery Channel parent Discovery Communications plans to seek acquisitions after it goes public on Thursday, says CEO David Zaslav. Also, Discovery doesn’t plan to make its video content available for free on the Web because non-fiction programming has a longer TV life. (Iwantmedia 9/17, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601204&sid=al_kXb22nagA 9/17)

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