It's not often that a show gets booted off a network, disappears for more than a year, and then re-launches on a new network, with the entire cast in tact to boot.

Yet that's the journey "The Game" (BET, 10 tonight) has taken, and so consider this premiere a cause for celebration for all fans who've had a favorite show dropped without satisfying resolution.

If you're not familiar with the show, it chronicles the life and times of the players of a San Diego pro football team, The Sabres, and their families and hangers-on. It's billed as a half-hour comedy, but it's better described as a dramedy. There are comic moments for sure, but "The Game" isn't afraid to tackle serious/timely issues like gay athletes, interracial relationships, workplace sexism and politics.

Just yesterday I was having a conversation with someone about BET's mulitple programming missteps.

But here are two bit of news that show the network may finally be figuring it out.

The Hollywood Reporter says that BET is close to finalizing a deal to produce new episodes of "The Game," the CW series that was cancelled after that network decided to focus on hour-long dramas. The word has been out there for a while, with cast members like Wendy Raquel Robinson, openly talking about the possibility, but now, THR says, BET is set to announce the deal later this month.