Channel Surfing: Season Five of "Lost" to Air Uninterrupted, "One Tree Hill" Creator to Pen "Melrose Place" Pilot, "NCIS" Spin-off Details, and More

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. I'm still in shock after last night's jaw-dropping episode of Skins on BBC America; fortunately, I've already got the season finale in my possession. Otherwise, I think I would explode from anticipation.

Lost fans can look forward to watching Season Five of the ABC hit without interruption, according to sources. However, the network has expressed some interest in stretching out the fifth season with one or two weeks off, in order to have the finale air closer to the end of May sweeps, so don't count this a done deal quite yet. (TV Guide)

It looks like One Tree Hill creator Mark Schwahn will write the script for the CW's update of Melrose Place, after all. That is, one a deal closes. Schwahn is currently under a deal at Warners, which produces One Tree Hill, and although he recently signed a deal with CBS Paramount Network Television, that deal does not start until June. Additionally, his current Warners deal calls for him to serve as an executive producer/showrunner on One Tree Hill, should the series be renewed for a seventh season. It's thought that Schwahn will write the script but not remain with Melrose Place past the pilot. (Hollywood Reporter)

ABC has ordered an untitled legal drama from Dave Hemingson. However, it's not quite the same pilot project that Hemingson shot earlier this year with 20th Century Fox Television about a law school grad (Matt Long) from a working class background who joins an LA law firm. ABC is said to be have liked the writing, the setting, and some of the cast (including Long) but wanted a project that was more dramatic than the untitled legal dramedy that Hemingson had created. While ABC had passed on the Hemingson project's previous incarnation in August, two other pilots are still said to be in contention for series orders, including Damon Wayans comedy Never Better and Warner Bros. fantasy Captain Cook's Extraordinary Atlas. (Hollywood Reporter)

TV Guide talks to Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles' Summer Glau about tonight's "midseason finale," in which some big surprises emerge, including a shocker about one character. Glau admits that she is hoping for a fight scene with Shirley Manson's character and says she has hopes that fans will follow them once the series moves to Fridays. (TV Guide)

Robert Carlyle (24: Redemption) has been cast as the lead in Sci Fi's new series Stargate Universe from Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis co-creators Brad Wright and Robert Cooper. The former Trainspotting star will play Dr. David Rush, the leader of a group of civilians "left to fend for themselves when forced through a Stargate after their hidden base comes under attack" who "emerge aboard an ancient ship missing in the far reaches of space." Rush works to unlock the ship's many mysteries and get the team home but he may have other motives as well. Sci Fi is expected to order 20 episodes of Stargate Universe. (Hollywood Reporter)

Michael Ausiello has scoop on character breakdowns for CBS' untitled NCIS spin-off series, which will shoot its pilot in late February. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

BBC One has ordered a second season of fantasy drama Merlin. Season Two will begin filming in 2009 on location in Wales and France. Other 2009 drama commissions for BBC One include new seasons of Spooks (a.k.a. MI-5), Ashes to Ashes, and Waking the Dead, along with new series Hope Springs and All the Small Things. (BBC)

Danny Comden (I'm With Her) will write and star in Temps, a multi-camera ABC comedy pilot from ABC studios that tracks the staff at a temp agency as they go out on various short-term jobs. Comden will play a 10-year temping veteran at the agency. (Hollywood Reporter)

NBC Universal has renewed daytime syndicated talkshow The Martha Stewart Show for a fifth season. (Variety)

Stay tuned.