'Curb Your Enthusiasm' Goes to ... TV Guide Network?

We've had some interesting repackaging deals for TV comedies to go to basic cable lately, with It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia reruns headed to Comedy Central, and 30 Rock reruns to Comedy Central and WGN America. Now comes the strangest of them all: HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm will start airing second-run episodes in February 2010 on the TV Guide Network.

Yes, the channel that tells you what's on the other channels has been slowly de-emphasizing its listings, and focusing more on actual programming, of which Curb will now be a part. I don't know if people realize that you can watch this channel for actual programming yet, or how shows will fare even with smaller versions of listings covering part of the screen. Regardless, this seems like a kind of lame home for the edgy Curb, which has already also been sold into broadcast syndication. The show will move to TV Land once the multi-year TV Guide deal ends, which seems like a slightly better home but is still not quite the right fit. I guess Comedy Central fell asleep on this one.

Photo courtesy of HBO