EXCLUSIVE: Two months after the Season 1 finale of The Conners, ABC’s multi-camera comedy is inching closer to a second-season pickup.

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I have learned that the three principal cast members of the Roseanne spinoff, Sara Gilbert who also serves as an executive producer, John Goodman and Laurie Metcalf, have closed new deals to return next season. I hear the new pacts, not all of which may have been signed yet, would allow for the trio to do 13 episodes next season, up from 11 in Season 1.

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I hear Gilbert, Goodman and Metcalf would each make about $375,000 an episode in Season 2, an increase from their Season 1 fees (and those for the Roseanne revival that were said to be about $250,000 an episode). I hear the trio also have each secured a piece of the new series’ backend.

Tom Werner’s Werner Entertainment, which produces The Conners, had been handling the cast negotiations. Once the company has the entire cast signed, which should be shortly, it is expected to finalize a deal with ABC for next season. Showrunner Bruce Helford already had been working on story ideas for Season 2.

In addition to Gilbert, Goodman and Metcalf, the cast of The Conners also includes fellow Roseanne veterans Lecy Goranson and Michael Fishman.

All the stars had indicated that a Season 2 was happening. “We are close,” ABC Entertainment President Karey Burke said about a Conners renewal in early February.

Renewing the blue-collar family sitcom is a no-brainer for ABC. In its first season, the Roseanne followup averaged 9.5 million total viewers and a 2.2 adults 18-49 rating (Live+7) to rank as the season’s No. 1 new comedy in total viewers and 18-49 and ABC’s No. 1 comedy in both categories.