How I met your Mother- ninth season being discussed by CBS!

Net in negotiations with 20th for more of hit comedy

'How I Met Your Mother'

Bays

Thomas

CBS and 20th Century Fox TV have begun negotiations on ordering at least one more additional season of "How I Met Your Mother."

The series' unexpected ratings rejuvenation last season renewed interest from both sides in extending its run beyond the upcoming eighth season CBS already committed to, but that could be tough given all the dealmaking that needs to get done: Contracts for creators and exec producers Carter Bays and Craig Thomas don't extend beyond the 2012-13 season, nor do deals for any of the five stars. CBS' two-year license deal with 20th expires next May as well. Reps for CBS, 20th and Bays and Thomas declined to comment.

At this point, sources caution CBS and 20th have engaged in only preliminary talks, with no timetable in place for getting all these deals wrapped up. But the good news for "Mother" fans is that they're even talking about the future, which wasn't the case until relatively recently.

While in some years past the Eye held off on renewing "Mother" until May, the net will have to move much earlier this time around to give the show's producers time to put the creative plan in place that will either extend or wrap up the series' plotlines. Bays and Thomas already know how lead character Ted Mosby will meet the love interest alluded to in the series' title and are prepared to get the endgame going either at the end of this season or the next. Writers haven't yet begun work on the show's coming season.

Complicating the closure of those deals will be the cost to CBS given that 20th is no longer on the hook, as is customary: Studios typically don't get billed after the first five years of a series' run in exchange for deficit-financing the production. It's expensive enough to absorb the rising costs in any long-running series, but with "Mother" coming off its second-most watched season to date, the cost to CBS may have increased.