Big Love Forums: HBO Renews 'Big Love' For 2nd Season!

From www.thefutoncritic.com:

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HBO has renewed the hit drama series Big Love for a second season, it was announced today by Carolyn Strauss, president, HBO Entertainment. Filming of new episodes will begin this August, with debut set for 2007. "Big Love is a unique and remarkable series," said Strauss. "The second season will offer more of the terrific storytelling that has gripped critics and subscribers this year." Big Love tells the story of Salt Lake City native Bill Henrickson, who balances the needs of his three wives - Barb, Nicki and Margene - their seven kids, three houses and his home improvement stores. Bill Paxton, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Chloë Sevigny, Ginnifer Goodwin and Harry Dean Stanton star in the series, which will be executive produced next season by Playtone's Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman, series creators Mark V. Olsen & Will Scheffer, and David Knoller. Kicking off its first season March 12, Big Love currently debuts new episodes Sunday nights (10:00-11:00 p.m. ET/PT), immediately following new episodes of "The Sopranos." The series has already sparked a host of rave reviews, with People hailing it "the best new show of the year," while the Wall Street Journal called Big Love "sharp, seriously compelling drama." The Washington Post described the series as "adventurously outrageous," and Time termed it "fascinating... first-rate drama."

No airdate yet for the second season. Of course this will only encourage the show's producers to leave us with a major cliffhanger at the end of Season 1 (which I freaking hate), but I'll live!

Edited on 04/20/2006 3:54pm

Excellent news. And, bah on contrived cliffhangers!

Yes! Awesome news.

Great news indeed! I'll pin this thread.
EDIT: This prompted me to ask the staff if we could possibly get a show banner for Big Love. We'll see how it goes...

Yikes! If the following article is true then get ready for a 'Sopranos'-like lengthy wait for Season 2 of 'Big Love' to return to HBO:

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"Variety reports that HBO is commiting to another season of Big Love, the polygamy drama from Tom Hanks Playtone Productions. An exact episode count has not been released, but new shows wil begin airing in August 2007. HBO entertainment president Carolyn Strauss said, "It's striking a chord with viewers and critics, so it was a fairly uncomplicated decision to move forward."

Source: www.dvdverdict.com. Since the first story (the 2nd season renewal) mentions that they start shooting the episodes in August of '06 maybe the second story accidentally misunderstood the shooting date with next year's airdate. Stay tuned!

Edited on 04/21/2006 5:30am

I found this article as well.

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HBO orders second helping of "Big Love" By Andrew Wallenstein Thu Apr 20, 7:26 AM ET "Big Love" just got bigger. HBO has ordered a second season of its drama series about a polygamist family, the network said Wednesday, just halfway into its rookie year. "We all just felt the show was really solid and only getting better," HBO president of entertainment Carolyn Strauss said. "It's gathering momentum with subscribers and critics." "Big Love" will go back into production in August in anticipation of returning to the air sometime next year. The number of episodes has yet to be determined; the opening order was 12. The second-season order was not exactly guaranteed given that "Love" has not been a big ratings draw for HBO. Airing opposite stiff competition like ABC's "Grey's Anatomy," "Love" has averaged fewer than 4 million total viewers for its Sunday 10 p.m. premieres, hanging on to less than half of the audience from its lead-in, "The Sopranos." Still, a closer examination of "Love's" ratings indicates it is far from a lost cause. An additional 3 million viewers catch "Love" in multiple repeat broadcasts throughout the week. The cumulative audience also has been kind to "Sopranos," which averages 8.8 million viewers in its premiere airing. That haul climbs to 12.8 million when repeats are added. Additional viewers come in via HBO On Demand, though the network does not yet have measurement of viewership on that platform. However, "Sopranos" is still feeling the pain of its competitive premiere time slot; Sunday saw its smallest audience in more than five years. Strauss indicated it is unlikely "Sopranos" and "Love" will be paired again, with "Love" likely to return in the latter half of the year; "Sopranos" will commence its final eight episodes in January. She also suggested that "Love" might be a better fit with a 9 p.m. slot given that its themes -- family, marriage, relationships -- might resonate earlier in the evening. "I think we'd be comfortable putting the show on at 9 o'clock," Strauss said. "It feels like a solid 9 o'clock show in terms of story line, subject matter." The cast and production team from the original season are expected back. Bill Paxton stars as the busy husband of Chloe Sevigny, Jeanne Tripplehorn and Ginnifer Goodwin. Also at HBO, the network began production on a second season of "Rome" at Rome's Cinecitta Studios. A co-production of HBO and the BBC, "Rome" also will return to air sometime next year after completing production in October. Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

Definitely good news even if it will be another 16 months until it starts.

I think they might have gotten their Augusts mixed up... at least I hope so. But here's more great news: I PM'd freaksandgeeks, TV.com graphics designer, about getting a banner for the show and he(?) replied that he's already working on it. Hopefully we'll see it very soon!

Great news! I think this show started off with a slow start because not a lot of people knew what it was about. I actually had not heard anything about it until I saw the actor who plays Bill on Regis and Kelly the week before it premiered. They also showed a clip with him and Nikki and the interaction between the two looked really interesting.

I watched it and loved and then started asking people if they had seen it. Most said, oh, that's the show after Sopranos isn't it? Why do they call it Big Love?, etc. Once they started watching it, they got hooked. Even my boyfriend got hooked and he laughed about the idea of a show with a guy that has 3 wives. He said, how unrealistic! But once you watch it, it seems realistic. The character development is very good.

2007! oh that's not so great but the good news is it's coming back! i love this show.

Woohoo, the banner is up. It would have been great to have more characters on the banner but that pic of Bill might have been the only one they got the permission to use. I've seen that same pic in the early promo posters of the show and also on the HBO website before they opened it.

I love that picture though.. I love the look of frustration on his face. The three wedding rings are definitely a nice touch as well.

So they begin filming this August. How long do you think it takes to tape?

Well a show on network television takes about 7 days per episode but HBO shows may take their time.

I read an article that said the second season would start early next year

I am glad it will be coming back. HBO knows how to do drama.

My guess is it'll probably exactly a year inbetween seasons. Season two will probably be around March.

I'm sure that if it comes back for a third season, which I'm already hoping it will (crosses fingers) it probably won't be such a long time between seasons. My guess is that season three will probably start around the same time in 2008 as season two will in 2007, next year. Chances are it will probably only be a nine month break between the two.

What a freesh of breath air, this show has been!!
The ensemble cast is remarkable!