CBS has announced a return date for "Jericho."

The apocalyptic series, which was canceled by the network last spring but revived by a fan campaign, will return with seven new episodes Feb. 12.

“Law & Order” fans who’ve been wondering where that longrunning drama has been can rest easy: It returns to NBC’s schedule Jan. 2.

When the new season begins, Sam Waterston’s character, Jack McCoy, will be New York’s district attorney (filling the role vacated by presidential candidate Fred Thompson). Jeremy Sisto (“Kidnapped”)will join the show as Det. Cyrus Lupo and Linus Roache will play assistant district attorney Michael Cutter.

“Law & Order: Criminal Intent” left NBC and migrated to the USA Network a few months ago, but the strike by the Writers Guild of America, which began Nov. 5, has left NBC and other networks in need of fresh scripted programming. So “Criminal Intent” will return to NBC Jan. 9.

NBC noted it its press release that Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump will guest on the flagship “Law & Order,” as will Chicago native Lara Flynn Boyle and January Jones (“Mad Men”).

CBS also announced that “The New Adventures of Old Christine” will return Jan. 28.

Press releases from CBS and NBC follow.

Former "Law & Order" cast member Fred Thompson is expected to announce soon that he is running for president – but did you know that many other candidates have links to the show?

Zap2it.com has a list of presidential candidates and their links to “L&O” here.

We already know three things about the next season of “Law & Order”: It will be returning for an 18th season, after months of rumors that the long-running procedural might get the ax; it will return after the football season ends; and Fred Dalton Thompson will mostly likely not return as curmudgeonly District Atty. Arthur Branch.

Thompson, a former U.S. senator from Tennessee, has been mulling a presidential run, and though NBC president Kevin Reilly said he had no inside information on the actor/politician’s plans, Reilly told the press Monday that “it’s pretty clear that Fred is going to be leaving the cast of the show no matter what.”

So that’s settled. The next step is to reinvigorate this aging series with some energetic new cast members. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with S. Epatha Merkerson, who ably plays Lt. Anita Van Buren, or Sam Waterston, who gives the show its moral center as A.D.A. Assistant District Atty. Jack McCoy. But Jesse L. Martin has always been a bit of a cipher as Detective Ed Green. Not bad, just - to me - a little on the bland side.

The fact that Martin has been paired with Milena Govich this season hasn’t exactly helped matters. As the show’s first female detective, the hotheaded Nina Cassidy, Govich has been an unfortunate misfire. Granted, the tightly plotted “Law & Order” doesn’t give actors much to work with in terms of character development, but Cassidy is nowhere near as interesting to watch as classic “L&O” cops played by Chris Noth, Dennis Farina, Jerry Orbach … I could go on, but you get the idea.

Speaking of blah characters, Alana de la Garza doesn’t exactly set my world on fire with her portrayal of Assistant District Atty. Connie Rubirosa (then again, I don’t think the show has had a decent ADA for a decade or more). True, much of “L&O” is formulaic, but the best actors on the show can invest their roles with something meaty and memorable. That’s not the case here.

Still, the franchise rumbles on, and Friday’s season finale, despite those cast deficiencies, is solid, though it makes you wonder if the “Law & Order” writers think there are any law-abiding, morally decent rich people in the city of New York.

Harry Hamlin plays a former U.S. senator whose wife ends up dead in the episode’s opening minutes. That ends up being turns out to be the least of his family’s problems; in a back story that recalls Hamlin’s spoiled, wealthy character on “Veronica Mars,” the skeletons in the senator’s closet come out and a sad history of child abuse and spousal battery comes to light.

In two other satisfying guest turns, Jeremy Sisto (“Six Feet Under”) plays the lawyer defending Hamlin’s charcter, and Jeffrey Tambor (“Arrested Development”) adds a welcome element of showboating as the media-loving judge presiding over the case.

Showboating? On “Law & Order”? Well, why not? The show is, of course, known for its sober, if caustic, takes on high-profile crime cases. It’s not really an actor’s paradise, though some have made their characters into much more than they are on the page. That’s why the occasional quirky turn, such as Tambor’s, is necessary to keep the show from becoming too predictable.

And if the show wants to make it to its 20th season - and it is creator Dick Wolf’s fervent wish that his show overtake “Gunsmoke” as TV’s longest-running drama - it certainly needs to shake its cast up once again.

By the way, in case you missed the news, the spinoff “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” is sticking around, but this fall, it is moving to another NBC Universal property - to cable’s USA Network. “Law & Order: SVU” will remain on NBC’s Tuesday schedule next season.

Photo: Harry Hamlin and Jesse L. Martin on Friday's "Law & Order."

NBC has found a way to keep all three of its "Law & Order" series alive, including the aging flagship series, which was in danger of cancellation after 17 seasons.

The original “Law & Order” will remain on NBC’s schedule for fall, but “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” will move over to USA Network for its seventh season. After episodes of “L&O: CI” air on USA, they’ll air once more on NBC (in previous seasons, that scenario ran in reverse).

Both USA and NBC are owned by NBC Universal, so this keeps all three “L&O” series in the family, so to speak. There had been rumors that the flagship “L&O” series might move its first-run episodes to TNT, where the crime procedural has been a steady success in syndication.

NBC announced weeks ago that the successful “Law & Order: SVU” had already been renewed for another season. The network will unveil the rest of its fall schedule on Monday in a presentation to advertisers.

“I am very grateful that 'Law & Order' is coming back for its 18th season on NBC,” “L&O” creator Dick Wolf said in a statement issued by NBC Sunday. “Creatively, the show is still firing on all cylinders and I have no doubt that the show's quality can and will continue for years to come. We are scheduled to celebrate our 400th episode next season, which is a milestone that is absolutely staggering. And we are now one year closer to my ultimate dream -- to become the longest running drama in the history of television, beating ‘Gunsmoke.’” “Gunsmoke” was on the air for 20 years.

According to NBC’s release, “more than 100 million viewers watch the 'Law & Order' dramas on cable or broadcast each month, making it television's most-watched drama franchise.”

I’m not sure I’d agree that the flagship “L&O” is firing on all cylinders: When I’ve checked it out this season (which hasn’t been all that often, I must admit), I’ve found the series to be rather tired and over-reliant on ripped-from-the-headlines plots. And I don’t think there are many people who’d make the case that Milena Govich is one of “L&O’s” most memorable detectives (least memorable is more like it). But Dick Wolf is addicted to shaking up his casts, so perhaps we’ll see Jesse L. Martin paired with someone more interesting next fall.

Still, all things considered, I do hope “L&O” gets to beat “Gunsmoke” as the longest-running drama series in TV history. Who hasn’t spent a pleasant hour of escapism with that familiar “thunk-thunk” sound, with those tick-tock plots and with the fine work of Sam Waterston and S. Epatha Merkerson (along with that of other fondly remembered but long-gone cast members)?

There are few things you can rely on in television, and one of them is that you can, without too much effort, find (“thunk-thunk”) an hour of “L&O” to chill out with. And there’s something to be said for that.

Photo: Jesse L. Martin as  Detective Ed Green on "Law & Order."