ABC Keeping Desperate Housewives Until 2011

Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry has signed a four-year, eight-figure overall pact with ABC Television Studio.

The deal, which keeps Cherry under wraps until May 2011, ensures creative continuity on Desperate Housewives through the show's seventh season.; the studio has also quietly negotiated deals with all key members of the cast that will keep them for at least as long as Cherry is attached. And, if Cherry gets his way, the ladies of Wisteria Lane will have their final season in 2011, the same time his new deal wraps.

Variety reports neither the studio nor Cherry's reps would comment on financial particulars. Still, it's believed the pact exceeds the rich $15 million, 3½-year deal Nip/Tuck creator Ryan Murphy inked with three News Corp. units last week.