• Fox has ordered another season of "American Dad." That's in addition to this coming season, meaning the animated series will continue through the spring of 2008.

Gee, remember when Fox aired only high-quality animation like "The Simpsons," "Futurama" and "King of the Hill"? What with "American Dad" and "Family Guy," quality apparently doesn't mean much anymore.

• There is better renewal news within the Fox family — cable network FX is extending its dark cop drama "The Shield" to a seventh and final season.

Like a lot of cable shows, counting seasons is somewhat creative. FX has a sixth season of "The Shield" coming in early 2007 that consists of 10 episodes produced at the same time as the fifth season that aired early this year.

At any rate, we'll see those 10 and 13 more sometime later in 2007.

• FX has also ordered its first drama with a female lead — Courteney Cox Arquette returns to series TV for the first time since "Friends" as the editor of a pair of celebrity gossip magazines in "Dirt," which will air sometime next year.

She's also executive producing the show with her husband, David Arquette.

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E-mail: pierce@desnews.com