ABC, the world leader in TV shows with sprawling ensemble casts, is bringing two more actors onto two of its already-loaded hour-long shows.

Nia Long (“Big Momma’s House 2”) has signed to do a guest stint on “Boston Legal,” and Christopher Gorham will become a recurring player on first-year hit “Ugly Betty” after filming two guest spots.

Long will play Vanessa Walker, a meticulous associate from the New York office of Crane, Poole & Schmidt who seeks Alan Shore’s (James Spader) help on “Boston Legal.” She’ll appear in three episodes of the David E. Kelley-produced series; the date of her first episode hasn’t been set.

Long was a regular on “Third Watch” for the NBC show’s final three seasons and has also had recurring parts on “Judging Amy” and “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.” Her film credits include “Are We There Yet?,” “Soul Food” and “Baadassss!”

Gorham, meanwhile, will continue his “Ugly Betty” role as Henry, a buttoned-up accountant for Meade Publications who takes an interest in Betty (America Ferrera), according to The Hollywood Reporter. He first appeared in the show’s Halloween episode and will show up again in Thursday’s broadcast.

He starred in the CBS sitcom “Out of Practice” last season. Gorham’s other credits include “Jake 2.0,” “Popular” and “Odyssey 5.”

HBO hears word of ‘Preacher’

HBO is setting out to find God, via an adaptation of Vertigo Comics’ popular 1990s series “Preacher.”

The network has begun developing an hour-long series based on the comic, about a disillusioned minister who, after merging with a supernatural being called Genesis, seeks out God in hopes of making Him answer for his abandonment of heaven.

Mark Steven Johnson, the writer-director of “Daredevil” and “Ghost Rider,” will write the pilot script, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Howard Deutch (“Gleason,” “Some Kind of Wonderful”) is attached to direct; the two will also serve as executive producers along with Michael De Luca, Chris Bender, JC Spink and George Agusto.

Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon, the creators of “Preacher,” will be co-exec producers.

“Preacher” earned a cult following during its late 1990s run for its handling of spiritual issues, as well as its gallows humor and atmospheric visuals, which often draw on the language of westerns. After merging with Genesis and gaining superhuman powers, preacher Jesse Custer sets off to find God with his trigger-happy ex-girlfriend, Tulip, and an Irish vampire named Cassidy.

The HBO pilot is the latest of several attempts to adapt “Preacher”; none of the previous efforts made it all the way through the process. The most prominent of those was a movie with “X-Men” star James Marsden set to play Custer. It fizzled out in 2004.

NBC stays on ‘Biggest Loser’ diet

“The Biggest Loser,” which will wrap up its third season in a couple of weeks, will continue to wage the battle of the bulge in 2007.

NBC has picked up a fourth season of its weight-loss reality series, which has been a steady performer on the network’s otherwise unstable Wednesday-night schedule this season. The show will be back on NBC’s schedule in the 2007-08 season.

“‘The Biggest Loser’ is a valuable franchise and proven competitor in a very challenging time period,” NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly says. “The producing team has come up with unique ways to keep the series fresh, and we anticipate the next cycle will continue to produce life-changing results for the contestants and jaw-dropping reveals for the viewers.”

So far this season, the show has averaged 7.4 million viewers per week and a 3.1 rating among the adults 18-49 that NBC targets. That’s down by more than 2 million viewers overall and one rating point in the 18-49 demo compared to last season.

However, those ratings have come in a very tough timeslot opposite CBS’ “Criminal Minds” and ABC’s “Lost” and “Day Break,” and they’re a big improvement over what NBC was doing in the hour last season with “The Apprentice: Martha Stewart.”

The show’s current season began with contestants from all 50 states; 14 remained with host Caroline Rhea and trainers Bob Harper and Kim Lyons while the others were sent home to work on their own weight-loss programs.

The Dec. 13 finale will bring all the contestants back. The contestant with the greatest percentage of weight lost in the home-based group will win $50,000, while the best performer among those who were voted off the show gets a hundred grand. The title of “Biggest Loser” carries a $250,000 prize.