Channel Surfing: "Dollhouse" Benched for Sweeps, Perrineau Would Like to Return to "Lost," David Fincher, Sarah Shahi "Facing Kate" at USA, and More

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. Loads of television-related headlines to get through today!

Futon Critic is reporting that FOX has pulled Dollhouse from its November sweeps lineup. The Joss Whedon-created series will air its episode this Friday, after which the Friday lineup will be filled with repeats of House and Bones. ('Til Death and Brothers will also go on hiatus after this week.) Dollhouse will then return in December where it will air back-to-back episodes on December 4th, 11th, and 18th. It's unclear when FOX will air the remaining three episodes from Dollhouse's thirteen-episode commitment. No return dates for 'Til Death or Brothers were indicated. (Futon Critic)

E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos talks to former Lost star Harold Perrineau about the recent rumors that he wouldn't be returning to the ABC drama series this season along with the other original cast members of Lost. The reason, says Perrineau, is not that he's holding out but because he hasn't been asked by producers. "Honestly, no one has asked," Perrineau told Dos Santos. "But if I was asked to come back to Lost, indeed I would say yes. We all started that journey together, and I would love to be able to end it with everybody. It would be a great thing to do, to get to say goodbye to them all at the same time. I would love to go back and hang out a little bit." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

Media Rights Capital and David Fincher are developing a US adaptation of British miniseries House of Cards, which will be reimagined as a one-hour drama series about "political ambition and blackmail." Fincher is on board to executive produce with Eric Roth, Andrew Davies, original novel author Michael Dobbs, and Josh Donen. Project will be taken out to networks soon. (Hollywood Reporter)

Former Life star Sarah Shahi has booked the lead in USA drama pilot Facing Kate, about a divorced lawyer in San Francisco who begins a careers as a mediator. Shahi's casting lifts the contingency on the pilot, which was written by Michael Sardo, who will executive produce with Steve Stark. (Hollywood Reporter)

The CW has given a full season order to supernatural drama series The Vampire Diaries, picking up the series for a full 22-episode run this season. The netlet also ordered five additional episodes of struggling soap Melrose Place, clearly looking to see what effect will be of the return of Heather Locklear to the franchise. (Variety)

Sebastian Roche (The Beautiful Life) has replaced Thomas Kretschmann on FOX's Fringe, following the latter's departure from the series due to a scheduling conflict. Kretschmann had appeared in the series' October 8th episode as a super-soldier from another world. Roche will recur as the same character, described by the Hollywood Reporter's Nellie Andreeva as "a soldier from another dimension who is not quite human/not quite machine, trying to gather information for opening a stable door to the other side." (Hollywood Reporter)

E! Online's Jennifer Goodwin teases upcoming developments on Dollhouse, particularly a reunion between former Buffy and Angel co-star Alexis Denisof and Eliza Dushku, writing that "Dushku and Denisof reunite for scenes centered around industrial espionage, counterintelligence and just a smidgen of existentialism." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

Entertainment Weekly is reporting that Trent Reznor has teamed up with Fringe for a new promo featuring Nine Inch Nails song "Zero-Sum" and Reznor reciting lines of dialogue spoken on the series by Leonard Nimoy's William Bell. The promo can be viewed below:


(Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider)

The Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan is reporting that former Battlestar Galactica star Katee Sackhoff, now a series regular on FOX's 24, will guest star as herself on CBS' The Big Bang Theory, in the series' November 23rd episode. (Chicago Tribune's The Watcher)

Jamie Denbo (Weeds) has been promoted to series regular on FX drama series Terriers, where she will play an attorney who is frequently consulted by the unlicensed private investigators played by Donal Logue and Michael Raymond-James. Elsewhere at FX, Joelie Carter (Wonderland) has been bumped up to series regular on drama series Lawman, where she will play a former girlfriend of Marshal Givens (Timothy Olyphant) after guest starring in the pilot. (Hollywood Reporter)

Entertainment Weekly's Dan Snierson gets Friday Night Lights executive producer Jason Katims to issue some teasers for the fourth season of the drama series, which kicks off on October 28th on DirecTV. (Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider)

Showtime is developing comedy Rapture, based on Craig Chester's memoir "Why the Long Face?: The Adventures of a Truly Independent Actor," that will dramatize his experiences as the 9-year-old gay son of a "devout mom who has visions of Christ and a rock 'n' roll guitar player dad who fears his wife is losing her mind." Lisa Kudrow and Dan Bucatinsky are executive producing via their Is or Isn't Entertainment shingle, along with Paul Miller and Kimber Rickabaugh. Don Roos is additionally attached to direct, should the project be ordered to pilot. (Variety)

Jerry O'Connell has been cast in a multiple-episode story arc on ABC's Eastwick opposite his real-life wife Rebecca Romijn. O'Connell, set to appear in the final two episodes of Eastwick's thirteen-episode commitment, will play Colin, whom Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello describes as "a hot new neighbor of Kat’s (Jaime Ray Newman) who is hiding a dark and magical secret." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Warner Bros. Television has signed an overall deal with Rob Corrdry, under which the former Daily Show staffer will create, star, and executive produce a comedy pilot presentation for the studio, said to be an "unconventional family comedy" parody set in a "an off-kilter world." Peter Principato and Paul Young will executive produce the project along with Corrdry, with production slated for this December. (Variety)

Bravo has renewed culinary competition series Top Chef Masters for a second season, slated to air in 2010. Kelly Choi will return as the series' host, along with judges Gael Greene, James Oseland, and Jay Rayner. (Los Angeles Times' Show Tracker)

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment will release the first thirteen episodes of Glee on DVD on December 29th. Entitled Glee Season One: Road to the Sectionals, the box set will include the director's cut of the pilot episode and behind-the-scene materials as well as a voucher for the Season One box set, which will be released sometime in 2010. (via press release)

In other Glee-related news, Entertainment Weekly is reporting that Madonna has given the FOX musical comedy the rights to her entire catalog, with co-creator Ryan Murphy said to be very keen to do an all-Madonna-music episode for Glee's back nine. (Entertainment Weekly)

NCIS' Pauley Perrette will guest star on NCIS: LA's November 24th episode. "While Abby has talked to the Left Coast expansion team on the phone, this will be her first time touching down at LAX," writes Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello. "Sadly, it looks like it won’t be much of a vacation, as she finds out not everybody in the City of Angels sports a halo. Someone’s going to abduct our dear Abby!" (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Adult Swim has given a pilot order to live-action comedy Eagleheart, about "the fate of a fading TV action icon, and begins when a low-level TV exec is sent to Texas to produce an action series (Eagleheart) with the star. Instead, he winds up in a power struggle with the temperamental thesp." Project, from Conaco and Dakota Films, will be written by Michael Koman and Andrew Weinberg, who will executive produce alongside David Kissinger and Troy Miller. (Variety)

Jesse Metcalfe (Desperate Housewives) will star in Hallmark Channel telepic Fairfield Road, written by Tracy Rosen and directed by David Weaver. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.