Britney Spears is back for a second time on the CBS show How I Met Your Mother. Her first appearance on March 24 in a cameo as the secretary to a dermatologist earned the show its highest ratings ever, so it makes sense that they would ask her back. Her episode will air Monday May 12.

Neil Patrick Harris, who plays Barney on the show, hinted at a potential conflict on set about whether to bring Britney on again. He said in April that “I’m in the minority that our show does not need stunt casting in order to succeed… I just am a real fan of our content. I think we have a great show going, and I hope it’s not screwed up by the desire for 700,000 more viewers.” He later clarified and retracted that statement, most likely after a tense conversation with his employers:

Britney did a great job on the show. She really did. In fact, we are all hoping that she returns rather soon to reprise her role as Abby. Look, that episode garnered our highest ratings of the season — I would never ignore or disrespect that fact. I am just very protective of our show, and its content. I have a high standard of quality, and hope to maintain it on every level. Television is big business, I understand that. I have great faith in our casting department, as well as [Twentieth Century Fox Television] and CBS, to find the appropriate person for every role on our show. I was remiss in speculating otherwise. My job description is to act, and I should really do just that. Britney Spears fits into our make-believe world very well — if she chose to return I can only imagine that Carter [Bays], Craig [Thomas], and the rest of the writers would create a humdinger of a storyline for her. We should be so lucky.

[via Hecklerspray]

Someone got in trouble with some bigwigs at CBS for speaking his mind. The Associated Press originally stood by their article and said “Harris told us unequivocally that he did not believe that Britney should be on the show,” but then they issued a “clarification” and said “Harris did not say that he opposed a return engagement for Spears, and our lead said that he did.”

Either way, Britney is back and looking normal. She’s an adequate comedy actress and it’s not bad stunt casting. In his original anti-stunt casting statement, Harris said “I worry that if they start `Will and Grace-ing’ us too much, that the show will suffer.” Or maybe it will get more attention than it ever has, but all attention is not necessarily good as Harris is likely to argue, especially when Britney is involved.