Channel Surfing: "Dexter" Season Finale Postmortem, Syfy Renews "Stargate Universe" and "Sanctuary," "Lost" Season Six Photos, and More

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing.

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello has an interview with Dexter executive producer Clyde Phillips about last night's season finale of the Showtime serial killer drama. One very interesting tidbit: when asked about when the decision was made about pulling the trigger on the episode's final scene, Phillips said, "I would say we made the decision pretty late in the season. We didn’t quite know what we were going to do [in the finale]." As for when Deb (Jennifer Carpenter) will find out about Dexter's true nature, don't hold your breath. "We’ve bounced that around the [writers] room," Phillips told Ausiello. "But once we do that... want to talk about game-changers? Once we do that, the game is changed in a way that we just don’t know how to anticipate just yet." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Syfy has given series renewals to Stargate Universe and Sanctuary, picking up both series for additional twenty-episode runs that will begin next fall on the cabler. Stargate Universe, which recently aired its midseason finale, will return with the second half of its freshman season in April. "We're dealing with 15 seasons of expectations with a certain fanbase," executive producer Robert Cooper told Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd when asked about fan reaction. "Hopefully, as the show goes on, people will appreciate Universe for being its own thing." Fans should look for an alien race to show up in the second half of the season, more scenes set aboard the ship, and a storyline involving Rush (Robert Carlyle). (Hollywood Reporter)

New York Post's PopWrap has a look at the newly released promotional photos for Season Six of ABC's Lost, which launches on February 2nd. While the gallery shots reveal absolutely nothing in an of themselves (they feature the regulars against a grey backdrop), PopWrap's Jarett Wieselman notes, "it's interesting that although Boone, Charlie and a whole host of dead Losties will be returning, Miles, Lapidus and Ilana are integral enough to... Lost's endgame to warrant series regular status over characters like Desmond!" (New York Post's PopWrap)

Changes are afoot at the CW's Gossip Girl, according to executive producer Josh Schwartz, who promises that Taylor Momsen's Jenny is going to become a lightning rod for controversy. "You're really going to see a real emotional arc from Chuck [Ed Westwick]," Schwartz tells TVGuide.com's Natalie Abrams. "I think Jenny [Taylor Momsen] and Chuck are really going to be driving a lot of story as we move into the back half of the season." (TVGuide.com)

History has ordered eight-hour scripted miniseries The Kennedys from writer Stephen Kronish, director Jon Cassar, and executive producer Joel Surnow (all of whom worked together on FOX's 24). Production on the miniseries, which will track the famed political dynasty between the 1960 presidential election and John F. Kennedy's 1968 assassination (and flashback, as well, to earlier times), is slated to begin this spring for a 2011 premiere. "I didn't want this miniseries to be a Valentine -- there have been plenty of them -- neither did I wanted it to be a hatchet job," said Kronish. "I think it is a fairly even-handed look at people who achieved big things at amazingly early ages. We're really trying to see them as people and to strip away some of the patina that has attached itself to them because of their early deaths and to show them, warts and all." (Hollywood Reporter)

Scott Patterson (Gilmore Girls) has been cast in the CW's 90210, where he is expected to appear in at least two episodes as the biological father of Matt Lanter's Liam. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Tyler Posey (Lincoln Heights), Tyler Hoechlin (7th Heaven), Crystal Reed (Hard Times), and Dylan O'Brien have joined the cast of MTV's werewolf pilot presentation Teen Wolf, which has been reimagined as "a dramatic thriller with a buddy-comedy element at the center and a romantic plot line." (Hollywood Reporter)

NBC Universal has renewed its overall deal with indie production shingle BermanBraun for another three years. Under the terms of the deal, BermanBraun will continue to function as a fully independent production entity within the studio, with NBC Universal's broadcast and cable networks retaining a first-look on all of BermanBraun's projects. The shingle's current projects include Mercy for NBC and Accidentally on Purpose and pilots such as NBC's Rex Is Not Your Lawyer and Alphas for Syfy. (Variety)

TNT has secured off-network rights to the CW's drama series Supernatural and will launch repeats of the series weekdays at 10 am ET/PT beginning Monday, January 4th. (Futon Critic)

Thomas Haden Church has been cast in FearNet's six-episode short-form series Zombie Roadkill, about a park ranger who forms a partnership with a teenager (David Dorfman) "to escape a portion of highway where roadkill is resurrected as flesh-eating zombie animals." Each episode will last between four and five minutes and the series, written by Henry Gayden and directed by David Green, will be available on FearNet.com and on its On Demand VOD network. (Variety)

Syndicated daytime medical series The Doctors has been renewed through the 2011-12 season, the series' fourth. (Broadcasting & Cable)

Disney XD will launch musical comedy I'm in the Band, about a teenager who joins a once-hot band and sets out to orchestrate its comeback, on January 18th at 7 pm ET/PT. (Variety)

Stay tuned.