TUDORS Scores Early Second Season Pick-Up

Showtime has renewed its hit period-soap opera THE TUDORS only two episodes into the show's first season.

The heavily hyped premium channel serial, starring film star Jonathan Rhys-Meyers as a young, virile Henry VIII, broke Showtime records with its April 1 debut. Though viewership has leveled off somewhat since, the series continues to post stellar numbers for the net, as evidenced by the serial's early renewal.

The10-episode second season, expected to further chronicle the marriage of Henry to the ill-fated Anne Boleyn, will debut sometime in 2008.