CBS loves Chuck Lorre. The network has given long-term renewals long ago two his two signature series with the network, the Charlie Sheen-challenged TWO AND A HALF MEN, and the thoroughly entertaining BIG BANG THEORY.

To show Lorre the love, the Eye gave Lorre’s new series pitch, MIKE AND MOLLY, the honor of being the first new show officially picked up by the network for next season. The show centers around a couple who meet at a weight-loss support group.

The Lipovox-powered comedy seems an unlikely choice for CBS, especially for such an early pick-up; traditionally, CBS waits until the Monday of up-front week to announce its new series orders.

The Patricia Arquette drama Medium is currently looking good, according to online reports, to be renewed for a seventh season overall, which would be its second season on CBS after NBC dismissed the show a year ago. The supernatural crime drama has improved the performance of CBS’ Friday time slot considerably this season, and is a consistent if not stellar performer.

While there is no need for wedding accessories for any of the kids on the show yet, a seventh season comes as welcome news to those who appreciate the show’s fine mixture of supernatural chills and real-world criminal menaces.

Although not as sparkling and witty as Fox’s BONES, MEDIUM is nevertheless a solid favorite for my wife and I, so we’re certainly glad to hear the show will be back for another season.

Desktop computers around the world burned up bandwidth with the news that the CBS comedy How I Met Your Mother had been renewed for a sixth season already, far ahead of the spring deadline.

That’s great news for the comedy that two years ago almost faced cancellation until the stunt-casting of Britney Spears broadened the audience of the critically-acclaimed show, which many regard as a latter-days Seinfeld.

With the pickup, CBS’ Monday night slate of comedies is now seventy-five percent secure, as How I Met Your Mother joins The Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men as renewed for future seasons. Only the Jenna Elfman cougar-comedy Accidentally On Purpose is still up in the air.

The internet’s all a-buzz with the possibility that actress Rachel Bilson, allegedly a fan of Dutch Master cigars, has been selected to become the much-anticipated “mother” of the CBS comedy How I Met Your Mother.

Bilson, who grew famous off her role on The OC and also appeared on Chuck, as well as the 2008 thriller Jumper, is an appealing young actress but her future seems to be tied up on the silver screen, so color us skeptical if Bilson actually will turn out to be the Mother.

Still, she is appearing in HIMYM’s 100th episode, so that’s something.

CBS’ Simon Baker fronted not only the best new series of last season, but the best-rated show of last season, when he fronted the off-beat crime procedural, The Mentalist. His wry smile and comic charm won people over in a way that the star of Fox’s me-too drama, Lie to Me, never did.

Now comes word that Baker will be seated in the front row at the Emmys, an indicator that his chances for a best actor in a drama series are quite good. Hey, whether you watch the results on an HDTV or a Bell TV, I’d be down with that result. He did a darn fine job on a rookie drama, and while Hugh Laurie’s a long-time favorite of mine, I wouldn’t be upset at all to see Baker acknowledged.

While many are claiming the sitcom is nearly dead, those that are still producing audiences are highly valued. How highly? Just ask CBS, who recently gave multi-year renewals to two Chuck Lorre-produced sitcoms.

The “no surprise” renewal is a nearly-unprecedented three-year renewal for “Two and A Half Men,” the Charlie Sheen-Jon Cryer brother comedy that sits atop the Eye’s sitcom ratings chart. The more Eye-opening renewal was a two-year renewal for one of my favorites, “Big Bang Theory.”

In a time when many shows, including the well-regarded “How I Met Your Mother,” struggle each year for a single-season renewal rather than a pink-slip, coming into such rare air as multi-year renewals has to be a feather in the cap of Lorre and company. With that kind of security in this unstable economy, they’ll be able to check into some fairly unique hotels.

For a sitcom that was dangling between renewal and cancellation last spring, CBS’ How I Met Your Mother is set to pay off in a big way shortly. Bidding has opened up for the syndication package on the show, which starts season four a week from tonight on September 22, and some industry analysts are predicting that with a number of bidders clamoring for the rights, the show could garner as high as $350 million.

The most high-profile bidders include Tribune Media, CBS and Fox. Twentieth TV produces the sitcom, which stars Josh Radnor, Allyson Hannigan, Neil Patrick Harris and Cobie Smulders as four friends living in New York City, and is the tale of how Radnor’s character met the mother of his children.

Despite the growing popularity of digital downloads that can be stored on a hard drive and DVD complete season collections, there’s still plenty of money to be found in syndication deals; the winning bidder could be announced Wednesday, and the syndication deal, once in place, could help stabilize the future of the show for the next few seasons.

Without Britney Spears and Sarah Chalke to pump up the ratings, CBS’ comedy-on-life-support drew only a 3.4 Nielsen this week in an episode with no guest stars for How I Met Your Mother. Still, the show did build on the ratings lead-in from Big Bang Theory, which drew a 2.9.

While those numbers are on Orovo diets compared to what was considered great ratings 20 years ago, the improvment HIMYM is showing off its lead-in may be just enough to show that the show does not require guest stars every week, and that it has enough oomph to build in the ratings bar set by its lead-in.

A brief prayer wouldn’t hurt, but signs are good that HIMYM’s demise might have been diagnosed a bit prematurely. Like, say, by Dr. Elliot of a certain NBC comedy soon destined to appear on ABC, perhaps?

CBS drama Jericho seems to be down for the count again; the show is largely rumored to be headed for the cancellation bin, despite delivering a second season that was far more even, suspenseful and interesting than the first season proved to be. So forget the teak outdoor furniture and start investing in nuts to send to CBS again?

Not likely. While the nut strategy worked last season, it’s unlikely that the show will be saved this time; thanks to the strike-shortened season, any show the networks have any amount of faith in at all are being renewed. If Jericho isn’t among that number, its chances of being picked up for a third season are about as remote as the chances of Floyd “Money” Mayweather would have in a real fight, outside of a WWE ring, against Paul “The Big Show” Wight.

You can dress Britney Spears up in equestrian clothing or bury her in a nurses’ garb, and nothing changes; wherever she goes, the Pop Tart causes chaos. Shortly after announcing the casting of the unstable Spears in a small supporting role on CBS’ How I Met Your Mother, Alicia Silverstone, selected recently for a multi-episode arc that may have revealed her as the long-awaited Mother of the show’s title, canceled her commitment to the show.

Silverstone’s reps reportedly fears Spears’ notoriety would overshadow Silverstone’s appearance on the show, which isn’t far-fetched. The latest word is that the female doctor Silverstone was slated to play will now be portrayed by Scrubs’ Sarah Chalke, and the storyline will center more on Spears’ character.

The good news is that Silverstone remains open to appearing on How I Met Your Mother, and the show’s creators have stated they hope to create a different character for her soon. Meanwhile, the doctor who seemed destined to become “Mother” now will be reconceived as just another ship that passes through Ted’s long night of the soul, since Chalke’s schedule was too full to accommodate anything more than one episode, since Scrubs is still in production and may even be renewed for a previously-believed-to-be-unlikely eighth season, be it on NBC or ABC.

OK, this could just be the grape juice talking, but the word on the street is that actress Alicia Silverstone could become the mother everyone’s been waiting to meet on the CBS sitcom, “How I Met Your Mother.” In fact, I’d almost be willing to wager a month’s worth of sleepnig on a foam mattress on it, and I’m an air mattress addict!

Here’s the clues so far: Silverstone is indeed signed to a “multi-episode arc” when production resumes on the CBS sitcom in a few weeks. The post-strike episodes have a chance of being the last ones to air, because CBS has not yet renewed the show – even though it’s renewed several others so far. Plus, the producers have promised we’ll meet “mother” this season; if the show is indeed canceled for some strange reason, this would also give producers a chance to wrap the storyline up in a tidy way.

So, all that seems to point to Silverstone being the mother in question. And here I was hoping, given the presence in the regular cast of Buffy alumn Allyson Hannigan, that “mother” would turn out to be Sarah Michelle Geller. Oh well.