New season for Spears' TV show

Actress Jamie Lynn Spears poses on the press line at the Teen Vogue Young Hollywood Party in Los Angeles in this Sept. 20, 2007, file photo.

(AP Photo/Dan Steinberg, file)

By JOHN ROGERS, Associated Press

LOS ANGELES - At least one Jamie Lynn Spears mystery is over.

The younger Spears sister's popular TV character is back at her fictional California boarding school, although the pregnant 16-year-old star of the children's show "Zoey 101" is continuing to stay out of the limelight herself.

"Zoey 101" concluded its third season last month, shortly before Spears, younger sister of Britney Spears, announced she was pregnant with her teenage boyfriend's child. The show has continued to air in repeats since then, with little fanfare from the network, leading to speculation that its fourth season might be shelved.

"The new season is under way. It premiered last night," Nickelodeon spokeswoman Marianne Romano told The Associated Press on Monday.

Filming of the show's fourth season, which was planned to be its last even before Spears became pregnant, was completed last summer.

The third season ended with a cliffhanger episode in which Spears' Zoey Brooks moves to England with her parents, only to learn that her longtime school friend Chase is in love with her.

The new season begins with another plot twist in which Chase (played by Errol Flynn's grandson Sean Flynn) persuades his family to send him to school in England, learning afterward that Zoey has returned and professed her love for him.

Spears, who once helped promote the show heavily, has kept a low profile since announcing that she is pregnant, and that Casey Aldridge is the father.

"She is on hiatus," her publicist, Holly Shakoor, said Monday.