William Shatner (Kirk) and Rene Auberjonois (Odo) will continue to have regular employment on television during the 2006-7 TV season. ABC announced yesterday that their series, Boston Legal, will return for a third season.

Though E! Online noted that ABC refused to issue an official confirmation, stating that its fall schedule would be unveiled on May 16th, The Hollywood Reporter said that despite a drop in ratings after the show was moved to Tuesdays, which cost it a huge lead-in audience from Desperate Housewives, the show ranked 31st overall and brought in an average of 10.4 million viewers.

The Washington Post reported the news as well, saying that Boston Legal nearly doubled its Less Than Perfect lead-in audience last week and has been averaging about a million more viewers in the timeslot than ABC managed last year with the fading NYPD Blue and short-lived Blind Justice.

Shatner and co-star James Spader have both won Emmy Awards for their portrayal of Denny Crane and Alan Shore, two maverick attorneys in the law firm of Crane, Poole & Schmidt. Auberjonois plays Paul Lewiston, a senior partner in the firm who must contend with their antics. The series also stars Candice Bergen, Mark Valley and Julie Bowen.

Star Trek: Voyager star Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine) will appear in this season's two-hour finale of Boston Legal, playing the host of a TV reality series who tries to shoot a stalker (story).

And in other Voyager-related guest appearance news, Kate Mulgrew (Janeway)'s official web site, Totally Kate!, reported that Mulgrew will appear in the May 9th episode of Law & Order: SVU, "WEB." The episode will air at 10 p.m. Eastern time on NBC.

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