Deadwood to end after this season???

"How [expletive deleted] is it that we're not coming back"? says David Milch, understandably and appropriately.

Looks like the third season will be the final season of the greatest TV/anything else ever, Deadwood. HBO won't guarantee contracts for a fourth season, freeing up the actors to make other commitments. That pretty much signals the end. Apparently Chloe Sevigny's vintage wardrobe budget for the thoroughly mediocre "Big Love" is breaking HBO. That, and "Rome," of course.

HBO better watch itself. They're building fan bases and then abandoning them. Surely the third season of Deadwood ends with a cliffhanger, which will never be taken care of. Same as Carnivale.

The upside? The article linked above says HBO is producing another Milch pilot about surfing, called "John from Cincinatti." Sounds suspiciously like "The North Shore."

Dealing with the power of pilot testing

Informative article in the Hollywood Reporter about how audience testing is utilized in evaluating pilots.