FOX Captures Another Season of "Prison Break," Slays "Jezebel James"

FOX giveth and it taketh away.

Thus was the moral yesterday when FOX announced that it had officially ordered a fourth season for crime drama Prison Break, with 22 episodes expected for the 2008-09 season. The news of an official pickup came after Prison Break writer Nick Santora spilled the beans on the renewal on his MySpace blog.

While this past season's 13 episodes had Michael Scofield (Wentworth Miller) trapped inside Panama's bleak Sona prison, Season Four will find him and brother Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purcell) on the run once again, with Michael out for revenge against the people who brutally murdered his lover, Sarah Tancredi.

Production will relocate for Season Four from Dallas to Los Angeles; the series had been based in Chicago during its first season as well.

Meanwhile, it was the end of the road for Amy Sherman-Palladino's struggling comedy The Return of Jezebel James, which starred Parker Posey, Lauren Ambrose, and Scott Cohen.

After two weeks of disastrous ratings, FOX announced that it had pulled Jezebel James off the schedule, effective immediately, and would fill its Friday night timeslot with repeats of drama Bones.

I can't say that I am surprised by the news. I love Sherman-Palladino, but I was not a fan of the pilot episode and the sub-par ratings predicted that FOX would not take a dim view of yanking the series off before it had burned through the truncated seven-episode run.

Better luck next time, Amy.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: NCIS (CBS); Biggest Loser (NBC; 8-10 pm); Beauty and the Geek (CW); Dancing With the Stars Recap (ABC); American Idol (FOX; 8-9:30 pm)

9 pm: Big Brother 9 (CBS); Reaper (CW); Dancing with the Stars (ABC)

10 pm: Jericho (CBS); Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (NBC); Primetime: What Would You Do? (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

8 pm: Beauty and the Geek.

Sigh. After the latest disastrous "game-changing twist," I don't know why I am still watching this disastrously botched series. On tonight's episode ("It's Game Time"), the beauties and the geeks play a game of flag football that turns ultra-competitive and one player winds up injured.

9 pm: Last Restaurant Standing on BBC America.

On the eighth episode of this addictive British import, three teams are forced to enter Raymond's latest challenge: to cater a three-course meal for 50 guests at Blenheim Palace. They won't have the opportunity to meet their clients ahead of time and they'll be cooking (and serving) side-by-side in a reception tent. Oh, is that rain I see on the horizon?

10 pm: The Riches on FX.

On tonight's installment ("Friday Night Lights"), Dahlia, the kids, and Nina are taken hostage in Texas and are forced to use their Traveler skills in order to escape the clutches of their captor; back in Eden Falls, Wayne tries to deal with Hugh, Dale, and the dead Pete and the family must make a decision about their next move.