Bill Maher returns to HBO on Friday with new episode of his Emmy nominated talk show “Real Time with Bill Maher”. Like his late night compatriots Maher will reutnr without pre-written material, and instead will rely on his stand-up experience to play off the audience, and it will be missing will be the show-closing segment “New Rules”.

As a member of the WGA, Maher is prohibited from working from any pre-written material, which recent landed Jay Leno into hot water for admitting to writing his own monologues when The Tonight Show returned to late-night. At present, the only hosts who can write jokes are Letterman and Craig Ferguson, whose production company struck and independent deal with the WGA.

The marginally rated FX series Dirt will return in March, according to FX executives.

The show stars Courtney Cox as tabloid maven Lucy Spiller, and pulled in around 5 million viewers per week in FX’s target demographic of adults 18-49. The seven episodes in the can before the strike will air Sunday nights beginning on March 2^nd.

FX will also air the new seasons of The Shield, 30 Days, and The Riches to keep your from the verge of suicide in the bleak days ahead.

What the hell does that mean… Repurposed?

Well whatever it means, CBS has picked up Dexter to fill its sad showless WGA-strike ridden lineup.

it will air Sundays @ 10PM starting February 7^th… I’ll rewatch it just to see what’s left after the network censors are done.

io9 is running an interview with Lena Headey and producer James Middleton of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, in preparation for the big premiere on January 14^th.

In it they reveal a number of secrets of the highly anticipated series, so if the fanboy in you just can’t wait, check out the spoilers after the jump.

Capitalizing on the success of it’s Golden Globe nominated series Mad Men, AMC is rolling out a new series Breaking Bad which premieres January 20.

The show centers on Walt White (Bryan Cranston from Malcom in the Middle) a high school chemistry teacher who, in the midst of a mid-life crisis is diagnosed with terminal cancer and turns to a life of crime in order to provide for his wife and special needs son.

Entertainment Weekly & Ronald Moore give us a sneak peak of season 4.

Full-size image and possible spoilers after the jump.

USA network execs announced today that effective immediately they are canceling both The 4400 & The Dead Zone. This comes as no surprise to anyone who’s followed the dismal success of the serialized dramas last year.