In another sign of its growing reliance on original programming, TNT is expected to announce Monday that it will begin showing “Southland,” the critically acclaimed but abruptly canceled NBC police drama, starting in January. With the move, “Southland” becomes the rare TV series to be dropped by a broadcaster and revived by a cable outlet, where it will compete at 10 p.m. with NBC’s “The Jay Leno Show.”

TNT was talking to the producer of “Southland,” Warner Brothers, within hours of the cancellation in October. “We want to provide what the broadcast networks aren’t,” Mr. Koonin said (Steve Koonin is the President of Turner Entertainment Networks.)

In January, TNT will begin to show the seven episodes of “Southland” that NBC introduced last spring, and the six episodes that NBC ordered but did not show. It will monitor the show’s ratings performance before deciding whether to order more.

But the stars, the sets, and the scripts are all costly. In the case of “Southland,” NBC was paying Warner a license fee of about $1.6 million for each episode. (It reportedly dropped the program because it was more cost-effective to show the newsmagazine “Dateline” instead.) TNT will pay $1.4 million to $1.5 million an episode.

Some budget trims will have to be made if a new season’s episodes are ordered. But Mr. Koonin said the show would retain its lead actors and its writing staff. On cable, “will the show look the same? The answer’s yes,” he said.

Scoop: TNT may expand 'Southland' episodes

More good news on the Southland front: On the heels of this morning’s confirmation that TNT will run all 13 Southland episodes (including the six season 2 episodes that NBC never aired), comes word that the cable net may pad the seven season 1 eppys with never-before-seen bonus footage.

According to my go-to guy at Southland, Michael Cudlitz, “It’s my understanding that the actual episodes will have more airtime on TNT, so I believe they will be going back in and [adding] content. They’ll have the opportunity, and, in my opinion the need, to open up the [initial seven] episodes a little bit.”

Cudlitz, meanwhile, is optimistic that TNT will order additional episodes beyond those 13. “I really do feel like it’s going to do fantastic,” he says. “It may even be a bigger hit this time around.”

Until a final decision is made (likely in January), the cast will remain under contract. And what about the show’s sets? “We only had two,” Cudlitz says with a laugh. “We were always shooting on the street. And as far as I know, they’re not packing up the city of Los Angeles and putting it away, so I think we’ll be fine.

“I’m just really happy that the show gets a chance to sink or swim based on what we’ve done creatively,” he adds, “and it’s not some arbitrary business decision.”

Amen, brother.