THE TV GODS ARE KIND: PASSIONS IS SAVED!!!

This has been a great day; I got a new job, a doo-wop band on the subway performed a beautiful rendition of "I Only Have Eyes For You" — my favorite song, especially the version by the Flamingos — I made an incredible seafood stew of scallops, catfish, and bacon in a creamy white wine sauce, and then I received news that put the icing on the cake: PASSIONS, the greatest TV show in the known universe, is moving to cable! Here's the scoop:

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - DirecTV is getting into the scripted series business for the first time with "Passions," the low-rated soap that will end its eight-year run on NBC in September. The show will move to the satellite broadcaster's original programming channel, the 101, on September 17 -- 10 days after it wraps on NBC.

While continuing to produce "Passions" for NBC didn't make sense because of the show's low ratings, it works great for DirecTV, said Marc Graboff, president of the network's corporate sibling, NBC Universal Television, West Coast. "The studio gets to continue to produce it, and its core audience of devoted fans gets to continue to watch it," he said.

NBC Universal TV has found a way to "produce the show effectively" by reducing the budget, accomplished mostly by going from five episodes a week on NBC to four on DirecTV. While the majority of the cast and crew are expected to continue on the series, the revenue from DirecTV still "more than covers" the studio's costs, Graboff said. What's more, the pact, a first between a major TV studio and a satellite provider on a scripted series, feels like a test deal for the future, he said. "I can see shows that are too narrow for the broad network tent but make sense to continue on other platforms finding a future there," Graboff said.

-Reuters/Hollywood Reporter