Fresh off the news that True Blood will return this June, HBO has announced a firm premiere date for the second season of The Newsroom.  Season two of creator/executive producer Aaron Sorkin’s drama series will kick off on Sunday, July 14th at 10pm ET/PT.  The show centers around the goings-on at a fictional cable news network, and we know that the new season will focus heavily on the 2012 presidential election with recurring appearances set for Patton Oswalt, Marcia Gay Harden, and Constance Zimmer.  HBO has an additional plot synopsis that, while vague, hints at a larger arc that may or may not play out over the course of the season: “the staff of ‘News Night’ chases a mysterious tip, which leads to a story that ultimately spins out of control.”

Though the show’s first season wasn’t near as strong as Sorkin’s previous series The West Wing and Sports Night (or even the first few episodes of Studio 60), I still found a significant amount of things to like about the show (Alison Pill, for one) and I’m looking forward to seeing how/if Sorkin “course corrects” with the upcoming season.  The series also stars Jeff Daniels, Emily Mortimer, Sam Waterston, John Gallagher, Jr., Thomas Sadoski, Olivia Munn, and Dev Patel.