Pimps, rehab and cocaine all part of packed network schedules

THE FUTURE: Perhaps expecting that more people will be staying home to weather the economic storm anticipated in 2009, some of the networks are ramping up production on new shows to debut in the next 12 months. First there are the midseason premieres lined up and waiting to air starting in the new year – besides the return of Idol, Lost and 24, and cable hits like Nip/Tuck and Damages, there are new shows like The Beast on A&E, TNT’s Trust Me, set in the advertising world, and United States Of Tara on Showtime, starring Toni Collette.

There are the supersized episodes of Celebrity Apprentice in March, and a deluge of reality shows coming from MTV – 16 in total, according to a Variety story, from producers such as Sean Combs, Matt Stone & Trey Parker, Donald Trump and Nick Lachey. Oxygen has a dancing-plus-fitness reality title called Dance Your Ass Off, VH1 has Sober House, a Celebrity Rehab spin-off with Andy Dick and Rodney King, and Starz has Party Down, a comedy about a bunch of wannabes working for an L.A. catering company from Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas.

HBO looks like they’re doubling down, after a post-Sopranos ratings slump and an executive shake up, with new shows announced every day. There’s two comedies – How To Make It In America and Bored To Death, starring Jason Schwartzman – and Cocaine Cowboys, a fictionalized remake of the 2006 documentary about the blow trade in Miami. It’s a big deal piece of work, with Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay teamed up for what looks like a quality cable mash-up of Miami Vice and Scarface.

On the other coast, HBO is turning another documentary – 1999’s American Pimp – into Gentlemen Of Leisure, the story of a pimp in his 40s trying to get out of the business. It’s set in Oakland, but the city’s mayor has no intention of letting it get filmed there. “While the mayor understands that there are certain benefits to having a major film project in our city, he is not willing to support this project at this time,” mayor Ron Dellums’ chief of staff told the Mercury News. “The people of Oakland have come too far to have our city's name trampled upon in the name of entertainment.”

Finally, there’s Hung, a new show from The Riches creator Dmitry Lipkin, and starring Thomas Jane as a high school basketball coach who tries to ride out economic hard times his sole physical asset – the nature of which should be obvious from the show’s title. “It has its sexual moments, but the show is very much about what's happening in the country, how people are trying to survive using what God had given them,” Lipkin told the Hollywood Reporter.