"My Name Is Earl" in talks for second life on TBS

Actor Jason Lee, star of the new NBC television network comedy series ''My Name is Earl'' answers questions from television critics during the NBC Summer press tour in Beverly Hills July 24, 2005.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - "My Name Is Earl" might live on.

Weeks after NBC pulled the plug on the series starring Jason Lee, TBS is in preliminary talks to order 13 new episodes of the single-camera comedy from 20th Century Fox TV, sources said.

"Earl" became one of the highest-profile cancellations of for the networks' recent "upfront" programing presentations to advertisers. Speculation was sparked that the series, which has won five Emmys, would find another home.

TBS had already planned to start running repeats of the 4-year-old "Earl" in the fall as part of a deal with Twentieth inked in 2007.

Still, sources stressed that a deal for new episodes of "Earl" is still far from a lock. The two sides have to determine whether an expensive network single-camera series can be produced under a basic cable network's economic model.

In addition, the show's cast has yet to be lined up for a lower-budget reincarnation of the series at TBS.

It has been considered several times, but a cable afterlife for canceled broadcast series has rarely panned out. Showtime, for instance, flirted with the idea of picking up Fox's Emmy-winning single-camera comedy "Arrested Development" after it was canceled, but a deal could not be reached.

(Editing by Sheri Linden at Reuters)