Nellie Andreeva

After another successful summer of original scripted programming, USA Network has made more renewals: sophomore series Royal Pains and White Collar for a third season and veteran Psych for a sixth season. The Royal Pains‘ order is said to be for 18 episodes, while I hear Psych and White Collar are being picked up for 16 episodes each. The decision was made while the 3 series are still in production on their current seasons (White Collar wraps this week, while Royal Pains and Psych are filming their last couple of episodes) to give producers the opportunity to lock in key crew members. With the pickups, which follow similar renewals for Burn Notice and In Plain Sight (both picked up for 2 more seasons) and freshman Covert Affairs as well as a miraculous final season eight-episode pickup for Law & Order: Criminal Intent with original star Vincent D’Onofrio on board, the top basic cable network is bringing back its entire 7-series slate. ”To have such success with our existing series gives us a platform to experiment and push the envelope with our next generation of shows,” said USA’s president of original programming Jeff Wachtel.

Royal Pains, from Universal Cable Prods., was cable’s top summer cable series in adults 25-54 (3.5 million). The Fox TV Studios-produced White Collar averaged 5.5 million total viewers, while UCP’s Psych was the top cable series on Wednesday in adults 18-49 (2.3 million). In a report released today, USA was listed as the most valuable asset of NBC Universal at $11.7 billion, while the value of broadcast sibling NBC was listed as a negative $600 million.

TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.