Exclusive: Housewives to Make Merry for Two Additional Seasons?

Should you count on a bit more hysteria from the ladies of Wisteria Lane?

TVGuide.com has learned exclusively that at a Wednesday cake-cutting ceremony marking 100 episodes of ABC's Desperate Housewives, series creator Marc Cherry announced his desire to extend the prime-time sudser's run to a total of nine seasons, versus his previously envisioned seven.

But will ABC make Cherry's dream a reality? One studio source tells me that while the idea of unspooling even more saucy stories for the resurgent Housewives seems a natural, much paperwork — including a formal pick-up from ABC — needs to be in hand first.

In February 2007, when Cherry inked a four-year deal with ABC Studios, he revealed his plan to wrap up the story of Bree, Susan et al in 2011, saying, "At the end of my deal, and after seven seasons, it will be a good time to call it quits. I don't want anyone else to run the show, and I don't want us to fade away." In keeping with that sentiment, insiders suspect that Cherry is open to extending his own pact to 2013, so that he can remain at the helm for the additional seasons.

And the Housewives themselves? While one source tells me that Marcia Cross, Teri Hatcher, Felicity Huffman and Eva Longoria Parker are already on board for the added seasons, another insider cautions that all I's and T's may not yet have been dotted and crossed.

What's your take, readers? Do you think the Housewives four-and-a-half years' worth of sex, lies and cellar-dwellers left in them?

Additional reporting by Michael Maloney

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