Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing.
It's official: the axe has fallen on FOX's low-rated con-man drama Lone Star after just two episodes. The initial outing for the James Wolk-led ensemble drama lured only 4 million viewers or so and the second episode saw its fortunes decline further still, with only 3.2 million tuning in. Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that production on the 20th Cenutyr Fox Television-produced drama will shut down immediately. “We will have shot five completed episodes after the pilot,” a studio spokesperson told Ausiello, “and will not complete principal photography on episode 106.” No word on the fate of the four unaired episodes that have already been shot. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)
[Editor: As one unnamed network insider told Variety's Michael Schneider: "The viewers have spoken." Meanwhile, AOL Television's Maureen Ryan explores her take on what the cancellation of Lone Star means for the broadcast networks, which can be read here.]
FOX meanwhile has announced its timeslot replacement for Lone Star, moving the third season of Lie to Me--which wasn't expected to return to the lineup until November--to Mondays at 9 pm ET/PT beginning next week, while Human Target, slated to air on Fridays, will now move to Wednesdays at 8 pm, where it will fill in the gap left by Lie to Me's shift to Monday beginning November 17th... though it was meant to debut this Friday. FOX will fill that timeslot with repeats of House. Whew. (via press release)
Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that NBC has ordered a pilot for the as-yet-unwritten supernatural romantic comedy Ghost Angeles, from executive producer Josh Schwartz (Chuck) and star Rachel Bilson (The O.C.). Project, from Warner Bros. Television, will also be executive produced by Henry Alonso Myers, Stephanie Savage, and Leonard Goldstein. "Schwartz and Henry Alonso Myers (Ugly Betty) co-created Ghost Angeles and will write it together," writes Andreeva. "Details on the project are being kept under wraps but, according to a concept circulated around, it centers on a young woman in Los Angeles who can talk to the dead, helping the spirits as much as they are helping her." (Deadline)
Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that ex-Heroes star Jack Coleman will guest star in an upcoming episode of NBC's The Office, where he is expected to play a government official with “Jon Hamm-esque wholesomeness,” according to an unnamed source. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)
The Hollywood Reporter's Matthew Belloni is reporting that three of the stars of Discovery's Deadliest Catch--Capts. Johnathan and Andy Hillstrand (who were sued by the network for not appearing for work on a spinoff) and Capt. Sig Hansen--have quit the production. "We have been through a lot over the past year and unfortunately given the current situation with Discovery we are unable to continue participating in Deadliest Catch," said the fisherman in a joint statement. "It has been a fantastic ride, and we wish the best to all of the amazing and supportive 'Catch' fans we have met over the years." (Hollywood Reporter's THR, Esq.)
DirecTV's The 101 network has signed deals with BBC Worldwide to acquire US broadcast rights to three British comedies, including ITV's No Heroics (launching November 4th), short-lived BBC dramedy Mutual Friends (launching November 3rd), and How Not to Live Your Live (November 4th). (Variety)
Casting round-up: Rachel Nichols (Alias) has been cast in a multiple-episode story arc on CBS' Criminal Minds, where she will play FBI cadet Ashley Seager; she's slated to appear in three episodes. Elsewhere, Izabella Miko (Coyote Ugly) will appear in a five-episode arc on NBC's midseason superhero drama The Cape. (Deadline)
Catherine Dent (The Shield) will join the cast of CBS' NCIS for a two episode arc, according to Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello. She'll play Whitney Sharp, described as "a former NCIS agent who shares a past with Ducky" (David McCallum) who is "educated, bright, and extremely capable federal agent who had an eye for talent and a tongue for persuasion back in the day." Her episodes are slated to air in November. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)
Pilot orders for four projects at ABC Family: Nine Lives, Switched at Birth, Strut, and The Lying Game. (Variety)
Lifetime has ordered eight episodes of a US adaptation of British reality format The Fairy Jobmother, which will launch October 28th. (Variety)
Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing.
Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Summer Glau (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) is set to guest star on NBC's Chuck this season, where she will turn up in the eighth episode as the latest Greta, the rotating CIA/NSA joint intelligence task force agent assigned to the Buy More. Glau, who stars in NBC's midseason action drama The Cape, follows in the footsteps of Olivia Munn, Stacy Keibler, and Isaiah Mustafa. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)
Jeff Zucker is out and Steve Burke is in. Comcast CEO Brian Roberts' right-hand man Burke, will succeed Jeff Zucker as CEO of NBC Universal once the merger deal--valued at $30 billion--is completed. Zucker announced that he would be stepping down from the position on Friday once the merger transaction is closed. "Steve Burke is an experienced, talented and visionary leader with over 25 years in the media and entertainment industry," Roberts said in a statement. "Steve is one of the most well-respectedexecutives in the industry, and I am confident that he will lead NBC U forward to a new era of growth." Burke will also continue to serve as Comcast's COO. (Variety)
Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello talks to Spartacus showrunner Steven S. DeKnight about the two options available to the production and pay cabler Starz in light of series lead Andy Whitfield's cancer relapse. “The two main options are to close up shop or recast,” DeKnight told Ausiello. “I want to talk to Andy and find out how he feels about the options. That’s obviously very important to us... We’re still absorbing what’s happened. I think it’s going to be a little while before we reach any conclusions.” (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)
[The Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd, meanwhile, is also reporting that Starz is considering recasting the role of Spartacus so that the planned second season can move along as planned.]
Hilary Duff is headed to Greendale. Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Duff will guest star on an upcoming episode of NBC's Community, where she will play "a member of a mean girl clique that goes head-to-head with the Scoobies." [Editor: news matches what I learned on the set of Community two weeks ago: the writers are planning a Mean Girls homage.] (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)
Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that Ed Decter and John Strauss have officially signed on as showrunners on USA's In Plain Sight. The duo replaces John McNamara, who departed the series due to medical issues. (Deadline)
E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos is reporting that Darren Everett Criss (Eastwick) has been cast on FOX's Glee, where he will play Blaine, described as "a gay student from a rival school glee club named the Dalton Academy Warblers." While some might leap to the judgment that Criss' character will be the love interest for Chris Colfer's Kurt, Dos Santos cites an unnamed source who says that isn't the case: "Although people might speculate that this might be the possible boyfriend for Kurt that Ryan has talked about, he is fairly sure that this particular character won't be. This friendship will be platonic." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)
Former Heroes star Zachary Quinto is bummed that there won't be a two-movie to wrap up the superhero drama's dangling storylines after NBC axed the potential wrap-up. “It’s disappointing that there was such a lack of resolution,” Quinto told Entertainment Weekly. “But unfortunately that’s just the nature of network television….Nothing really surprises me in terms of network and studio bureaucracy. It’s the way it goes... If it was in their best interest I’m sure they would have done it. And for whatever reason, they didn’t think it was. So that’s a bummer. But we have to just accept it and move on.” (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)
Meanwhile, Aimee Garcia (Trauma) has been cast in ABC midseason medical drama Off the Map, where she will play a local who falls for Zach Gilford's plastic surgeon, according to Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)
More deals coming together at Showtime, according to Deadline's Nellie Andreeva, who reports that Showtime has signed development deals with Mark Ruffalo and Anthony Edwards and with Jeff Daniels and Timothy Busfield. (Deadline)
Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing.
I'm still not entirely sure what to make of the news that Syfy has bumped the premiere of the second half of Caprica's freshman season up by several months. While the series premiere aired this past January, Syfy surprised many by announcing that it would be a year later that the back half of Caprica's first season would launch. Cut to yesterday when Syfy seemingly reversed their decision, announcing a shocking soon launch date--Tuesday, October 5th, in fact--while Sanctuary, which was to have that timeslot, will now move back to Fridays this fall, where it will share the lineup with Friday Night Smackdown. “Though we initially announced the January return of Caprica, we still had hopes of finding a way to get the series back on the air sooner,” Syfy EVP Mark Stern told Deadline's Nellie Andreeva. “We’ve been able to successfully re-work our schedule, and are thrilled to bring the show back during what is traditionally Syfy’s most-watched time of the year." I can't help but wonder whether the move is intended to capitalize on Caprica or it's an effort to bury it among the slew of new network and cable series, given that there's now less than a month to get a promotional campaign off the ground. Hmmm... Meanwhile, still no word on a second season pickup. (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed, Deadline)
File this under "hardly surprising." Entertainment Weekly's Lynette Rice is reporting that NBC is not moving forward on a Heroes telepic that would tie up the loose plot points left dangling after the series ended this spring. Despite NBC's discussion of said film, series creator Tim Kring was less than hopeful that said film--like the ones discussed at HBO for Deadwood--would ever make it to air. Which means that the series finale of Heroes will remain just that: the finale, though Kring and Co. could in future again tap into the mythology of Heroes in some other fashion. [Editor: Was anyone really clamoring for a Heroes movie anyway?] (Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider)
The Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd has a very long feature examining just how NBC will deal with the departure of Steve Carell at the end of the upcoming season of The Office and cites unnamed sources who say that "the final decision likely won’t be made until after the upcoming seventh season wraps," but "by season’s end, you will know who is getting Michael Scott’s job." According to Hibberd, the current strategy is to use the first half of the season to shine a spotlight on specific characters, giving them each a specific episode in which to be the focal point. The second half of the season will focus then on the issue of succession as Carell's Michael Scott makes his plans known for his departure, while NBC will launch online polls and the like designed to make the decision of his replacement interactive. "By season’s end, one character will have Scott’s job — but that person is not necessarily Carell’s replacement as the show’s star," writes Hibberd. "Sources say writers are tempted to have the character who becomes the Scranton branch's new boss fail in some spectacular manner, leaving the seat open again for another successor during Season 8. One radical notion being explored is the possibility of subtly shifting the show’s point of view so that a current character is the star instead of the boss." (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)
Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello has a first look at the Season Three cast photo for FOX's Fringe, which features Anna Torv, Joshua Jackson, John Noble, Lance Reddick, Jasika Nicole, and Blair Brown... and a shadowy figure lurking in an open doorway that looks suspiciously like the silhouette of an Observer to me. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)
E! Online's Megan Masters talks to Life Unexpected creator Liz Tigelaar about Julia, the mysterious character that Jamie Ray Newman (Eastwick) will be playing on the CW series this fall. "We [introduce] Julia in the premiere, and then we let Cate and Ryan go on with their lives for a little bit. But her name starts coming up again, and Cate's confused about who this person is. We'll actually see some flashbacks of who this person is, and how she knows Ryan," said Tigelaar. "Julia's a person who was an integral person in Ryan's past. He's moved on and is with Cate, but in the course of season one she reappeared and there are repercussions of that. She's definitely lightly threaded into the first 13, and if we get a back nine, she'll be back. She be a character who's going to stir some stuff up for them." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)
It's official: Jennifer Morrison (House) has joined the cast of CBS' How I Met Your Mother, where she will play Zooey, a new love interest for Ted Mosby. Morrison's Zooey, according to Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello, is "a rabble-rousing activist who’s hell-bent on saving the Arcadian, an old New York hotel that’s scheduled to be torn down to make way for the Goliath National Bank tower—which Ted just so happens to be designing." But this won't be another date-of-the-week for Ted, according to the show's producers. "This is going to be a big saga for Ted," Carter Bays told EW. "[It's] going to be a big overarching story that will take Ted on a journey that we’re really excited about." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)
HBO has confirmed the launch of Season Three of therapy drama In Treatment, which will kick off with two back-to-back half-hour episodes on Monday, October 25th, and Tuesday, October 26th at 9 pm ET/PT. Subsequent episodes will follow the same scheduling. New cast members include Irrfan Kahn, Debra Winger, Amy Ryan, and Dane DeHaan. (via press release)
American Dad producer Bob Kushell has sold two comedy pitches, animated comedy Red Roofs to FOX and an untitled multi-camera comedy to NBC about a "blended family dealing with the death of the clan's patriarch (who had been living a double life)." (Variety)
Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing.
Vulture's Josef Adalian is reporting that Starz is developing a US adaptation of Aussie crime series Underbelly, which has aired Stateside on DirecTV's Channel 101, following a deal to acquire the U.S. rights to the gritty crime drama, which some have likened to Australia's answer to The Sopranos... which Starz topper Chris Albrect himself oversaw when he headed up HBO. "Albrecht is clearly hoping Underbelly’s phenomenal success in Australia (its 2008 premiere drew more viewers there than any other non-sports broadcast, and the show won the country's equivalent of the Emmy for best drama) can be replicated here," writes Adalian. "Since the show is based on real events that took place in Australia starting in the 1970s, Starz can't simply film the original scripts using American actors. But the network is currently researching various American crime families that they can build effective story arcs around...just as long as the clans aren't from New York or New Jersey, which would invite calls of Sopranos copycatting." Should Starz be able to find the right setting and characters, a pilot script could be ready before next year and unnamed sources have indicated to Adalian that Albrecht would likely go straight to series rather than shoot a pilot. (Vulture)
Entertainment Weekly's Lynette Rice talks to Heroes creator Tim Kring about his new project--interactive content for Nokia that's "meant to inspire social change"--and about the future of the NBC superhero drama. "No decision has been made," said Kring about a potential Heroes movie. "But the Heroes brand is an extremely broad premise. It was a premise about ordinary people, an undisclosed number of people all over the world, who were waking up to these extraordinary abilities. Any number of stories could happen around that. We never posited a single ending or a single premise. It wasn’t about getting off of an island or stopping something from happening. We told stories in volumes that had a beginning, a middle, and an end. Those volumes could go on and on and on with many different characters. As a result, that Heroes universe is something that can be tapped into again in many ways. Certainly, a movie is a way to do that and clearly, there is an entire world and a number of platforms that this property could live in. Movies sometimes need a little distance from the television show." (Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider)
It's official: Charice is heading to Glee. Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that the international pop star has signed a deal that will have her recur on the FOX musical-comedy, where she will play a foreign exchange student who quickly becomes a bitter rival to Lea Michele's Rachel. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)
[Editor: meanwhile, E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos reports that there's no truth--as of yet, anyway--to those rumors that Justin Timberlake will be appearing on Glee.]
Deadline's Nellie Andreeva reports that Mary Steenburgen (Curb Your Enthusiasm) is the first casting attachment for FX drama pilot Outlaw Country, which is being described as "a crime thriller/family drama set against the backdrop of southern organized crime and Nashville royalty 'where music and love, hope and tragedy collide.'" She'll play a country music icon who attempts to protect her daughter Annabel. Project, from Fox Television Studios and FX Prods., is created by Josh Goldin and Rachel Abramowitz, who will executive produce with Art Linson and John Linson. (Deadline)
E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos is reporting that Kristin Chenoweth (Pushing Daisies) would like to reprise her role on FOX's Glee next season after appearing twice as April Rhodes. She's also aiming to land her own series next season as well. "I'm working on my album with Sony," Chenoweth told E! Online. "So I'll be doing a tour and going back to Glee a little bit and also doing my own TV show." No details were immediately available about her in-development project. (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)
FOX has lowered the age requirement on American Idol, allowing kids as young as 15 years old to audition for the musical competition series. "A lot of young, talented people are now seeking careers and representation before they turn 16," said FremantleMedia North America's Cecile Frot-Coutaz, executive producer of Idol. "Lowering the age limit allows us to tap into this talent pool." (Hollywood Reporter)
It's official: all five of NCIS's renegotiating actors--Sean Murray, Michael Weatherly, Rock Carroll, Pauley Perrette, and David McCallum--have signed new deals that will bring them back to the CBS crime procedural next season, following the successful conclusion of Murray's deal, a new multi-year contract that will keep him aboard NCIS. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)
Jane Krakowski has teased some details about the next season of NBC's 30 Rock, telling E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos, "Will Forte will be coming back as Jenna's shman." But he's not the only love interest slated to make a return appearance next season. "I do believe Matt Damon is going to come back," Krakowski told E! Online. "He is scheduled to make some return appearances if we can work them around his schedule and availability." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)
Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that The Amazing Race host Phil Keoghan will produce and host an unscripted series about the Velux 5 Oceans 2010-11 race, which "features skippers from all over the world sailing alone for 30,000 miles around the globe on high powered racing yachts and video recording their journeys." No US network is current attached to the project. (Deadline)
Syfy's drama pilot Alphas is set to shoot in Toronto at Cinespace Film Studios. Project, which revolves around a team of individuals with exceptional abilities who work as vigilantes, is written by Zak Penn and Michael Karnow and directed by Jack Bender. (Hollywood Reporter)
Elsewhere at Syfy, the cabler is giving fans of its Saturday night movies the chance to oversee each and every aspect of the production of one of its upcoming creature features, according to The Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd. "The network is launching a production site, B Movie Mogul, where fans can vote and pitch ideas for the film, from title, creatures, wardrobe, dialogue and character deaths to promotional taglines," writes Hibberd. "The resulting 'script' will be shot as a two-hour Syfy original movie to be released next year." (Hollywood Reporter)
ABC is said to be mulling the possibility of reinstating its current programming department, according to Variety's Michael Schneider. The division had been axed last year, when programming operations at ABC and ABC Studios were merged into a single unit reporting to Steve McPherson. "With a slew of new series on the fall docket -- not to mention aging staples that might need a little more attention -- the network began to reconsider," writes Schneider. "There's nothing firm in the works yet, and no exec has been identified for the gig. But the return to a current department would come after a similar decision by NBC. The Peacock recently reinstated its current department under exec VP Vernon Sanders. CBS and Fox have maintained current programming departments." (Variety)
Warner Bros. Television has signed a blind script deal with Michael Markowitz (Becker), who will team up with executive producers Tom Werner and Mike Clements. (Hollywood Reporter)
Endemol has come on board as the international distributor for TV Land's comedy series Hot in Cleveland and will be taking the series to market at MIPCOM this fall. (Deadline)
Where did the broadcasters go wrong this season, and what did they do right? Good question.
Head over to The Daily Beast, where you can read my latest piece, "TV's Winners and Losers," as I break down the network's performance in the 2009-10 season and (via a nifty gallery) take a look at the season's winners--including Modern Family, Chuck, Vampire Diaries, Fringe, Bones, Parenthood, NCIS (and NCIS: Los Angeles), The Good Wife, and others--and the losers (such as FlashForward, Heroes, Melrose Place and medical dramas in general, as well as the draws.
Where did your favorite series end up on the list? And what's your take on the 2009-10 season? Head to the comments section to discuss.
Jeff Gaspin, Chairman, NBC Universal Television Entertainment, and Angela Bromstad, President, Primetime Entertainment, NBC and Universal Media Studios, hosted a conference call with reporter this afternoon, to discuss NBC's fall schedule, its new pickups, and other programming and scheduling issues.
While I won't recap the entire call, here are a few tidbits from that call, organized by topic, from Chuck and Law & Order to Parenthood and The Event.
Chuck:"Chuck came out of the wild card and performed very well for us," said Bromstad. "We think it will come back stronger in the fall."
"Where we felt we could be consistent this year, we felt we should, which is why Chuck stayed on Mondays at 8," said Gaspin.
Chase: "Chase is very much a straight-ahead procedural but has an adrenaline rush you don't normally see in a procedural," said Bromstad.
Parenthood: "Parenthood has worked for us. There's a reason for that... It's a broad show that is really welcoming to so many viewers," said Gaspin.
Day One: "Right now, Day One is not scheduled to air," said Bromstad of the sci-fi project, which had been cut back from a full order, to a short run... to a two-hour backdoor pilot... and now into oblivion altogether.
Law & Order Franchise: "It was time to move on," said Bromstad about the Law & Order cancellation and the order of new iteration, Law & Order: Los Angeles. "It's about the future and overall health of the franchise... it's up to us to reinvent it with Dick [Wolf] in a very modern, inventive way."
Law & Order: Los Angeles pilot is being written, according to Bromstad. But nothing is ready for an official announcement and it be a few weeks after upfronts until information is actually available.
"Yes the chung-chung will still be there," said Bromstad, but it's "too early to say whether they were be characters crossover from... the mothership."
Bromstad said that they are still in talks with Dick Wolf about a way to wrap up Law & Order via a 2-hr movie or event. So, it's possible that the series finale, scheduled to air this month, won't be the end of the original flavor Law & Order, after all.
Law & Order: Criminal Intent will now only be on USA, said Bromstad.
Rockford Files: The Rockford Files is being reworked for midseason or even next fall. "We really want to get it right," said Bromstad. #NBC
Parks and Recreation:"It's very possible that #ParksandRec will get a run at 9:30 but we have not determined that," said Gaspin.
"One of the toughest decisions we had to make," said Jeff regarding delaying Parks and Recreation until midseason. "It's not an indication that we think it's not as good" as the other Thursday comedies.
The Event: "We think The Event will appeal to [#Chuck's] young, male viewers," said Jeff. #NBC
Heroes: "NBC and Tim Kring, we felt we had fulfilled the viewers' desire [re] length of the show but we are in discussions about 2-hr movie," said Bromstad. So it's still possible that Heroes will get a series ender. But don't hold your breath as Bromstad indicated that, if it happens at all, it would be for "next year."
NBC will unveil its schedule to advertisers tomorrow.
Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing.
Hitfix's Alan Sepinwall has a fantastic (and lengthy) interview with Lost showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse about this week's divisive "Across the Sea" episode and the end of the series. "We told the story the way we wanted to. Like David Chase, we tried to make the show to entertain the audience. That was our primary goal," said Cuse about making the sixth and final season of Lost. "We kind of planned this episode to come at this period of time because we actually wanted to take a break after the deaths of these major characters. It felt like this was the perfect time to take a time out from the main narrative. And since this was the final big mythological episode that we were going to do, we felt like it was a good placement for it, and now we'll roll into the finale. We make no apologies. We planned this to be the way it is. Again, it is funny, because there are a lot of people who are very happy with the show, there's going to be a very vocal group of people who are not happy, and that just kind of comes with the territory. We're making the show the best way we know how to make it, and we stand by it, and we're excited about how it ends and how the journey's unfolded." (Hitfix)
Over at Los Angeles Times, Maria Elena Fernandez has a fantastic piece on Lost's composer Michael Giacchino, who will be conducting a full symphony orchestra at tonight's Lost Live event here in Los Angeles (I'll be attending, of course) and speaks to Lindelof and Cuse about Giacchino's impact on the series. "We've always talked about the central aspect of Lost being character, character, character, and his music is so evocative of a certain moment or person in the show," Lindelof told Fernandez. "If you close your eyes and play 30 seconds of one of Michael's themes, you'd know which character's theme that is." (Los Angeles Times)
Vulture's Josef Adalian is reporting that Heroes is very unlikely to earn a spot on NBC's fall schedule and that all indications are currently pointing towards the superhero drama being deader than a dodo. Previous reports had indicated that the Peacock was considering ordering a final chapter of thirteen episodes but that appears not to be the case any more for the Tim Kring-overseen drama after screening the pilots that they had ordered. "NBC (which declined to comment for this story) is nothing if not appreciative of the few Heroes fans who still care about the saga and doesn't want to leave them hanging," writes Adalian. "While a half-season appears to be out of the question, we hear there's a good chance the network will at least try to find a way to fund a two- or four-hour movie event in order to give some finality to the franchise." (Vulture)
Entertainment Weekly's Lynette Rice has an interview with 24's Cherry Jones about the "trippy story arc" this season for President Allison Taylor. "By the end of the season, these guys are just this side of brain dead," said Cherry about Howard Gordon and 24's writers. "They have been trying so hard. They don’t have an arc. Most TV shows would have an arc and they would figure out how to nudge everybody in the direction they wanted to go in. These guys look at the performances, look at who they’ve got and try to follow things they think will be the most shocking. The fact that my character has suddenly taken this turn was never anticipated by anyone, but they have to figure out a way to justify it. They and I have managed to do that. I’ve got to hand it to them, they live right on the edge. They don’t take the easy road." (Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider)
E! Online's Megan Masters takes an early look at Part One of season finale of FOX's Fringe (airing tonight), offering up side-by-side photos of Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) and Walter Bishop and their alternate reality counterparts. [Editor: I think that Olivia looks amazing in either reality but her "over there" counterpart has got a smoldering look.] (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)
And here's the promo for the two-part Fringe season finale:
[Editor: FOX and NBC ordered a whole slew of series yesterday afternoon, which you can read about here.]
Former Sopranos star James Gandolfini has been cast opposite Diane Lane and Tim Robbins in HBO's telepic Cinema Verite, a dramatization of the seminal 1970s reality series An American Family, where he will play the series' producer Craig Gilbert. (Robbins and Lane will play Bill and Pat Loud, the married couple at the center of the series.) Project, written by David Seltzer and directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, will begin production this summer. (Variety)
BBC One has unveiled the cast of its upcoming eight-part sci-fi drama series Outcasts (created by Ben Richards), which will include Battlestar Galactica's Jamie Bamber, Ashes to Ashes's Daniel Mays, Clash of the Titans' Liam Cunningham, Spooks' Hermione Norris, Being Human's Amy Manson, Small Island's Ashley Walters, Ugly Betty's Eric Mabius, Shameless'Michael Legge, Generation Kill's Langley Kirkwood, Invictus' Patrik Lyster, and Jeanne Kietzmann. Series revolves around a group of human colonists who are attempting to build a new society on a distant planet. Here's how BBC describes the series: "They are a diverse group of individuals who left their old lives behind in extraordinary circumstances; promised a second chance at life they created a society, far away from their home, friends, family... and their pasts. Settled in the town of Forthaven on Carpathia, they are passionate about their jobs, confident of their ideals and optimistic about the future. They work hard to preserve what they've built on this planet they now call home, having embraced all the challenges that come with forging a new beginning.The planet offers the possibility for both corruption and redemption; while they try to avoid the mistakes made on Earth, inevitably our heroes cannot escape the human pitfalls of love, greed, lust, loss, and a longing for those they've left behind. As they continue to work and live together they come to realise this is no ordinary planet... is there a bigger purpose at work? Mystery lurks around them and threatens to risk the fragile peace of Forthaven." (BBC)
Entertainment Weekly's Lynette Rice is reporting that Steven Spielberg has pre-taped a "special introductory message" that will be played to advertisers at FOX's upfront presentation next week," signifying that his project--the prehistoric drama Terra Nova (which revolves around a family from the future who travels back in time)--has secured a thirteen-episode commitment and will be presented to advertisers even though a single frame of film has yet to be shot. (Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider)
Entourage's executive producers Mark Wahlberg and Stephen Levinson are developing a female-oriented comedy for HBO which will be written by Leah Rachel (with an assist by Emily Montague) that will revolve around a group of female friends in Los Angeles. (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)
Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that Warner Bros. Television is in the final negotiations of a deal with Angus T. Jones that will keep him on CBS' Two and a Half Men for two additional seasons. Still no progress, meanwhile, in the ongoing renegotiation talks between WBTV and series lead Charlie Sheen... (Deadline)
Hitfix's Alan Sepinwall has an interview with Cougar Town co-creator Bill Lawrence about how the series got beyond a thin concept and rickety title... which Lawrence would love to change. "I'd like to (change it), and the studio has been talking about it for three reasons: One, partly as a result of common sense and partly from their research, they find too many instances of testing of people saying they would never watch a show called Cougar Town - 'I don't want to see some show about a 40-year-old woman nailing younger guys' - and then they screen an episode, and people go, 'Oh, I would watch this show,'" said Lawrence. "Second point is simply what you already said, which is you would be hard-pressed to watch the last three episodes of the show and asked anyone for titles - I doubt anyone would say Cougar Town. Third, in a world where ABC and Steve are looking to promote Modern Family and capitalize on it to promote all their new shows next fall, anything you can do to create some kind of dialogue about your existing show is smart and savvy. The reasons not to do it I think solely come down to business reasons." (Hitfix)
Community's Joel McHale and Modern Family's Sofia Vergara will be announcing the primetime Emmy Award nominations on July 8th. (Hollywood Reporter)
Deadline.com's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that FOX has passed on the following projects: Breakout Kings, Breaking In, Tax Men, Strange Brew, Most Likely to Succeed and The Station, while NBC has passed on Matthew Broderick-led comedy Beach Lane. In other pilot news, FX has passed on comedy project Sweat Shop, after filming a pilot. (Deadline)
Lionsgate has acquired international distribution rights to Comedy Central's upcoming series Big Lake, from executive producers Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, and Chris Henchy. Cabler has given the comedy, which stars Chris Gethard, Chris Parnell, and Horatio Sanz, a ten-episode commitment, with an option to order an additional 90 episodes. (Broadcasting & Cable)
Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing.
Benjamin Bratt (The Cleaner) has been cast as a guest star on ABC's Modern Family, where he will play the ex-husband of Sofia Vergara's Gloria. Bratt is currently slated to appear in one episode of the ABC comedy series, where his character has been mentioned but not yet seen. Look for some friction between Bratt's character and Ed O'Neill's Jay. (Hollywood Reporter)
Great news for Gilmore Girls fans. Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino will write and executive produce an untitled dramedy project for pay cabler HBO about the "complicated relationship between three adult sisters, all writers sharing the same upper east side apartment building, and their mother, a domineering literary lioness who reserves most of her affections for their ne'er-do-well brother," according to Hollywood Reporter's Nellie Andreeva. The project marks the first time that Sherman-Palladino has worked in cable. (Editor: I am keeping my fingers crossed for this one!) (Hollywood Reporter)
The Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan is reporting that child actor Isaac Hempstead-Wright has been cast in HBO's fantasy pilot Game of Thrones, which starts production on October 24th. Ryan also notes that Jamie Campbell Bower (The Prisoner) is currently speculated to have been cast as the pilot's Waymar Royce but has not been able to confirm the rumor. (Chicago Tribune's The Watcher)
FOX has given a script order to an untitled drama pilot from writer/executive producer Ben Watkins (Burn Notice) about an undercover female investigator of mixed heritage who questions her own identity, having been adopted as a baby. "This is a character who has never truly felt like she belongs anywhere," the bi-racial Watkins told Variety. "The coping mechanism that she developed as a kid makes her able to fit in anywhere." Project, from 20th Century Fox Television, will be executive produced by Mike Tollin. (Variety)
SPOILER! E! Online's Jennifer Godwin talks to Melrose Place star Katie Cassidy about the upcoming "major character death" on the CW soap that will be a "turning point of the season so far." According to Cassidy, "Everyone's going to be surprised. [The death] is a shocker, but at the same time, it's really good." Cassidy also teases some scoop about what's coming up on Melrose. (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)
Todd Stashwick (The Riches) has been cast in a recurring role on NBC's Heroes, where he will play Eli, a member of the traveling carnival who has "close ties to the carnival's evil ringleader Samuel (Robert Knepper)." (Hollywood Reporter)
In other Heroes-related news, E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos is hinting at the possible, er, departure of one of the series' regulars. No concrete information is provided but Dos Santos writes that the character is male. Read into that whatever you will. (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)
Steve Harris (The Practice) has joined the cast of Friday Night Lights in a recurring role, according to Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello. He'll play Vernon Merriweather, "an ex-football star and the father of East Dillon newbie Jess (Jurnee Smollett)," and is slated to appear in about seven episodes. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)
TVGuide.com's Natalie Abrams has an interview with Scrubs star Sarah Chalke about the upcoming season of the medical comedy series, which is undergoing a transformation this season. Chalke is slated to appear in several episodes this season with her Elliot undergoing some transformations of her own... (TVGuide.com)
The Wrap's Josef Adalian is reporting that ABC has landed the untitled Matthew Perry/Jamie Tarses project that was announced yesterday. (The Wrap's TVMoJoe)
FOX has announced a November 8th airdate for primetime special Family Guy Presents: Seth and Alex's Almost Live Comedy Show, which will feature Seth MacFarlane and Alex Borstein stepping in front of the camera for a commercial-free half-hour special that will feature "marketing messages" for Microsoft's Windows 7. The special will feature both animated and live-action sketches. (Variety)
Bravo is getting back into the Jackie Warner business as it develops a new reality series entitled Thintervention with Jackie Warner, which will see the Warner help participants to lose weight in their "day-to-day environment rather than in a Biggest Loser-style fat camp." The cabler was originally developing a concept where Warner would help struggling gyms get back on their feet financially but the weight-loss concept has now replaced that project. Project, from Shed Media, will have Warner "kick butt and inspire drastic lifestyle changes for her overweight clients who are struggling to lose weight and get healthy for good." (The Wrap's TVMoJoe)
20th Century Fox Television has signed a two-year overall deal with Family Guy executive producer David Goodman, under which he will remain on the animated series (while no longer serving as showrunner) and will develop animated and live-action projects for the studio, including an animated comedy pilot presentation from writer Jason Ruiz entitled Fathers and Son. (Variety)
SVP Christina Davis will oversee drama development at CBS following the departure of the department's co-head Robert Zotnowski. The Eye has also promoted Yelena Chak and Bryan Seabury. (Hollywood Reporter)
Australian viewers will get the chance to see BBC's period drama series Desperate Romantics, created by Peter Bowker (Blackpool), following a deal between BBC Worldwide and ABC TV. (Broadcast)
3 Ball Entertainment has hired Brant Pinvidic as EVP of development and promoted Dan Snook to VP of development. The former will report to JD Roth and Todd Nelson. (Variety)
Warner Bros. Entertainment has hired former Yahoo executive Dave Dickman as SVP of digital media sales for Warner Bros. Television Group. (Hollywood Reporter)
Annual market and conference NATPE will move its home from Las Vegas to Miami's South Beach in January 2011. "Miami Beach is easily accessible to our attendees from the U.S., Europe and Latin America," said NATPE President/CEO Rick Feldman. "The entire hotel with its new ocean view suites and a floor marketplace will be ours alone. NATPE will be under one roof in an environment that will provide unlimited possibilities for business being done in a most efficient and enjoyable manner." (Broadcasting & Cable)
Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing.
CBS has given full season orders to freshman dramas NCIS: Los Angeles and The Good Wife, which are respectively the first and second best-rated new series of the season and have assisted in CBS winning the last three Tuesday ratings matches. (via press release)
Ellen Page, Alia Shawkat, and Sean Tillmann will write and executive produce a single-camera comedy pilot script entitled Stitch N' Bitch for HBO. The project will follow "two painfully cool hipster girls as they relocate from Brooklyn's Williamsburge neighborhood to Los Angeles' Silver Lake enclave in hopes of become artists -- of any kind," according to Hollywood Reporter's Nellie Andreeva and Matthew Belloni. The trio might also star in the project if it's picked up to pilot but any decision of that kind will be made at a later date. (Hollywood Reporter)
SPOILER! E! Online's Jennifer Godwin has details about Hayden Panettiere's upcoming lesbian kiss on Monday night's episode of NBC's Heroes and reports that there's a twist to the lip-lock that features a third party, also played by a woman. As for who she is, Godwin writes, "You hated her guts on another series we love, and you rejoiced mightily when she was written off at the end of the season." Hmmm... (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)
Former Desperate Housewives scribe Kevin Murphy has joined the writing staff of Syfy's Caprica as co-executive producer. "As a rabid Battlestar Galactica fan, it's hard not to go in that writers room and not just grin ridiculously," Murphy told Variety. "These are the people who made the best TV show ever. To be able to be a part of the legacy of that show, I'd be willing to pay them for that." The writer also has several other projects in development, including an adaptation of Kate Torgovnick's nonfiction book "Cheer: Inside the Secret World of College Cheerleaders" at CW with studio Warner Bros. Television and Tom Welling's production company Tom Welling Prods and USA's Velvet Hammer, a drama about a female FBI agent with CBS Studios. (Variety)
CBS has signed a talent holding deal with Jason Clarke, under which the Australian actor will star in a drama pilot for next season. Move comes on the heels of Clarke's performance in the network's untitled U.S. Attorney drama project. (Hollywood Reporter)
Showtime has ordered six half-hour episodes of reality series Behind the Green Room Door, a series of "no-holds-barred chat sessions" between prominent comics and host Paul Provenza. Series, which will air in the second quarter of 2010, will feature such comedians as Jonathan Winters, Eddie Izzard, Robert Klein, and Penn Jillette. (Variety)
Syfy announced on Tuesday at their press junket in Vancouver that the network will air its four-hour miniseries Alice on December 6th and December 7th. Written and directed by Nick Willing (Tin Man), the RHI-produced mini stars Caterina Scorsone, Kathy Bates, Matt Frewer, Tim Curry, Colm Meaney, Harry Dean Stanton, and Phillip Winchester.
TVGuide.com's Kate Stanhope talks with Law & Order executive producer Rene Balcer about the series' upcoming Jon & Kate Plus Eight-inspired episode, "Reality Bites," set to air on October 16th, which follows the star of the fictional Larry Plus 10, a reality series about a father looking after his ten adopted special needs children after his wife is killed. "It seems to be coming at a good time," said Balcer. "Aside from people being amused, bemused, disgusted and shocked at their exploits, [people] are probably looking for some other perspective on it." (TVGuide.com)
FX has opted to double the episodic order for its upcoming animated comedy series Archer before the series has even debuted. (The Wrap)
Planet Green has ordered ten episodes of unscripted series Beekman Farm, which revolves around two Manhattanites, a doctor and his ad exec/drag queen lover, who leave behind the city for an upstate New York farm. Project from World of Wonder, will launch in the spring. (Variety)
The Los Angeles Times has details on BET's eight-episode docudrama The Michael Vick Project. (Los Angeles Times)
Sony Pictures Entertainment will sell off its 21 percent stake in Liz Murdoch's Shine after growing concerns of conflict of interest now that the company is actually a major competitor with the studio. (Variety)
Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing.
Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that NBC will today begin streaming already aired episodes of Chuck on its website. For now, the installments include the original pilot episode and the entire second season of Chuck, which is being released in batches of five episodes at a time. Chuck is currently slated to return to the airwaves in March. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)
TVGuide.com's Natalie Abrams is reporting that Desmond Harrington (Dexter) will reprise his role as Jack Bass on the CW's Gossip Girl later this season. "I will be back this year," Harrington told Abrams. "I think it's episode 15 or 16 where I show back up. It's fun playing Uncle Jack... I think, if anything, I am there to screw that kid's life up basically," Harrington says. "I think he might be, out of all the most evil characters the show has ever had on it, the most evil character. He's evil." (TVGuide.com)
Andrew Connolly (Lost) has been cast in a multiple-episode story arc on Heroes this fall. He'll play the older brother to Robert Knepper's Samuel Sullivan, "the charismatic but evil Earth-moving ringleader of a traveling carnival who recruits people with special powers for a mysterious purpose." (Hollywood Reporter)
Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Ugly Betty will shoot an upcoming episode on location at the Atlantis Resort and Casino in the Bahamas next month. "I’m told most of the cast will be making the trek for the special episode, which will air in November and revolve around a big Mode photo shoot," writes Ausiello. He also quotes an unnamed Ugly Betty insider who reveals, "Location shoots can make or break you as an editor, so it’s a big deal for Betty... there’s also some drama with a certain love triangle." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)
Variety's Michael Schneider investigates the surge in animated development at the networks, with several animated projects--from FX's Archer to Nick at Nite, TBS, HBO, and Comedy Central--planned for the next few studios. "It's the engine that allows us to have all sorts of ancillary revenues of distribution -- syndication, home entertainment, licensing and merchandising," 20th Century Fox Television chairman Gary Newman told Schneider. (Variety)
The third season of Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures will air twice a week in the UK on BBC One. "We've been planning this for a very long time now," executive producer Russell T. Davies told Doctor Who Magazine. "The whole of Children's BBC is excited by this transmission pattern. It feels like the old days, when Doctor Who would transmit twice a week!" The spin-off series, which stars Elisabeth Sladen, aired its first season Stateside on Sci Fi; no plans have been announced yet for the second or third seasons. (Digital Spy)
TVGuide.com talks to House star Lisa Edelstein about what's coming up on the fifth season of the medical mystery series. Edelstein addressed the bait-and-switch love scene in the season finale. "The thing that I thought was good news about it is that there's only so far we can take it on the show before you change the dynamic, so the fact is, we kind of got a freebie in, because ultimately it can't really be that successful because that's not what House is about," she told TVGuide.com's Natalie Abrams. "The more time you eke out of the opportunity to just explore two people who have no relationship skills, the more we can play around. I get to be a virgin another time." (TVGuide.com)
Broadcast has a fantastic interview with British comedian Katy Brand, whose eponymous sketch comedy series Katy Brand's Big Ass Show is set to launch in States on BBC America later this year. (Broadcast)
Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing.
Japanese actor Hiroyuki Sanada (Rush Hour 3) has joined the cast of ABC's Lost in a recurring role for its sixth and final season. Details of Sanada's character are being kept firmly under wraps as is the number of episodes that he'll ultimately appear in. Sanada's casting comes on the heels of the announcement that Deadwood's John Hawkes had signed on to the drama series as Lennon, the spokesperson and translator for a foreign conglomerate. Could these two roles be connected in any way, given Sanada's Japanese background? Hmmm.... (Hollywood Reporter)
Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Jayma Mays (Glee) will return to NBC's Heroes, where she will reprise her role as Hiro's former love interest Charlie in one episode of the superpowered drama series. But didn't Charlie die? Yep. "As the dying time-traveler zips back and forth through the ages to accomplish his bucket list," writes Ausiello, "well, isn’t it safe to assume that saving his almost-sweetheart would be pretty high on the list?" (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)
NBC has given a pilot order to legal dramedy Rex Is Not Your Lawyer, about a lawyer with crippling panic attacks who begins coaching clients on how to represent themselves in court. Project, from writer/executive producer Andrew Leeds and David Lampson, BermanBraun, and Universal Media Studios, was originally pitched and sold to NBC in 2007 and then shut down by the writers strike. Barry Schindle (Law & Order) will server as showrunner on the project, which will be executive produced by Gail Berman and Lloyd Braun. (Hollywood Reporter)
Keith Carradine (Dexter) will guest star in two episodes of FOX's Dollhouse, where he will play Matthew Harding, described by Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello as "a powerful businessman." No other details about Carradine's character are available and it's unclear whether he'll be a client of the Dollhouse or someone looking to take it down. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)
TVGuide.com's Mickey O'Connor is reporting that Amalia Zinser (Cold Case) has been cast in the CW's 90210, where she will play tomboy surfer Ivy who serve as a potential love interest for both Dixon and Liam. Zinser's first appearance is slated for October. (TVGuide.com)
BET is said to be in talks with CBS Television Studios about ordering a new season of comedy series The Game, which was canceled in the spring by the CW. Should a deal be reached, however, new deals with the actors would have to be made as their options have now already lapsed. (Hollywood Reporter)
Cabler TLC has ordered a second season of docusoap The Little Couple, which follows married couple Bill Klein and Jen Arnold, who are both under four feet tall. Project, from LMNO Prods., will return this fall with eighteen new episodes. (Variety)
VH1 has cancelled reality dating series Megan Wants a Millionaire, after one contestant was charged with murdering a former model. (Hollywood Reporter)
UK satellite network Sky1 has commissioned a six-part mini-series adaptation of Chris Ryan's hostage crisis novel "Strike Back," which will star Richard Armitage, Andrew Lincoln, Jodhi May, Orla Brady, Nicola Stephenson, and Laura Greenwood. Project, written by Jed Mercurio and directed by Daniel Percival, will launch in Spring 2010. (Variety)
Sony Pictures Television has signed a two-year deal with Big Brother executive producers Allison Grodner and Rich Meehan, under which they will form a joint production company, Fly on the Wall Entertainment. Their shingle will develop and produce reality-based programming for the studio. (Variety)
Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing.
AMC is reportedly close to signing a deal with Frank Darabont (The Green Mile) to write and direct an adaptation of Robert Kirkman's comic series "The Walking Dead" for the cabler. Potential series, about a group of people who have survived a zombie apocalypse who search for a safe place to call their home, will be executive produced by Gale Anne Hurd and David Alpert. No studio is currently attached. "This is not about zombies popping out of closets," said AMC's SVP of programming Joel Stillerman. "This is a story about survival, and the dynamics of what happens when a group is forced to survive under these circumstances. The world is portrayed in a smart, sophisticated way." (Variety)
The Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan has a fantastic, insightful, and lengthy interview with Mad Men star Jon Hamm, in which he talks about Season Three of the AMC period drama. "What I think is important to understand about Don is that this guy is pretty significantly damaged goods," said Hamm about his character, Don Draper. "You know, [he had] an unbelievably bad family upbringing, very little education. Completely surviving on his wiles, his street smarts, whatever, and kind of manipulating people -- that’s the bad spin... So he’s kind of, in blunt terms, he’s [expletived] up. And that comes out in his dealings with people that try to get close to him. So this is not a guy who’s big on being vulnerable. And that is a big part of loving relationships -- being comfortable enough to be vulnerable. And I think that this guy might not have the capacity for that. He might. But it’s going to take a lot more work than he seems to be willing to give and I think that’s where he keeps running up against the wall with Betty.'I’m going to give you this much, and if you want more than that, I’m not going to do it.' And that’s where a lot of his bad behavior, comes out. Because the new girl doesn’t ask for that. They just want [Don] to be handsome, charming and exciting and new. So, when all that comes back on top of him, at the end of Season 2, he realizes that, as he says in his letter, 'I know that if I lose you, you’ll find somebody else, but I’ll be alone.'" (The Chicago Tribune's The Watcher)
Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that former American Idol judge Paula Abdul is in discussions to guest star on ABC's Ugly Betty, where she would play a new temp at Mode magazine who forms a friendship with Becki Newton's Amanda. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)
CBS has given a pilot script order to a US version of British crime drama series Wire in the Blood and has brought on board Ildy Modrovich (CSI: Miami) to write the pilot script and Terry McDonough (Breaking Bad) to direct. Original series starred Robson Green as a clinical psychologist who teamed up with a female police detective to solve brutal murders. Project will be produced via CBS Television Studios and DreamWorks. (The Wrap)
Ernie Hudson (Oz) has joined the cast of NBC's Heroes in a recurring role next season, where he will play Baltimore detective Captain Lubbock who is attempting to track down his quarry, as yet unrevealed. (Hollywood Reporter)
Scott Foley (The Unit) will guest star in an upcoming episode of NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit this fall, where he will appear in the season's fourth episode as a real estate agent enmeshed in a murder investigation. “I’ve been a fan of the show for a long time,” Foley told Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello. “And the character was fully developed with addictions and problems both personally and professionally. Plus... it’s SVU, come on!” (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)
MTV has ordered five new series for 2010: live-action comedy Hard Times, reality competition series American Idiots, docusoap Downtown Girls, reality series Megadrive, and an untitled reality/comedy/dance series featuring Robert Hoffman. Additionally, the cabler picked up additional seasons of Silent Library, Teen Cribs, and Is She Really Going Out with Him? (Variety)
America's Next Top Model runner-up Yaya Dacosta has been cast on ABC's Ugly Betty, where she will play Wilhelmina's unruly daughter Nico next season. Dacosta replaces Jowharah Jones, who originated the character in Season One of the ABC dramedy. According to Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello, Nico "resurfaces in the Oct. 9 season premiere and promptly gets caught up in one of the show’s new mysteries." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)
The Paley Center for Media has announced the lineup for its Fall TV Preview Parties, which kick off on September 9th with FOX (Glee, The Cleveland Show, Brothers). Subsequent evenings feature NBC on September 10th (Community, Trauma, Mercy), CBS on September 11th (Accidentally on Purpose, The Good Wife, NCIS: Los Angeles, Three Rivers), CW on September 12th (Melrose Place, Vampire Diaries, The Beautiful Life), and ABC on September 15th (FlashForward, Hank, The Middle, Modern Family, Cougar Town). (Variety)
Courtesy of co-creator Sam Bain, Broadcast has an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the upcoming sixth season of British comedy Peep Show via a series of candid photographs taken on the set by Bain. (Broadcast)
Eric Close (Without a Trace), Dreama Walker (Gossip Girl), Rachel Melvin (Days of Our Lives), Jared Keeso (The Guard), Emma Lahana (The Guard), Greyston Holt (Durham County) and Steven Grayhm (Taken) have been cast in Lifetime Movie Network's four-hour mini-series Seven Deadly Sins, based on the mystery novel series by Robin Wasserman. Project, from SDS Films and executive producer Barbara Lieberman, is slated to air in 2010. (Hollywood Reporter)
Kath & Kim creators/stars Gina Riley and Jane Turner are said to be in talks with Australia's Channel 7 about a fifth season of their series Kath & Kim... or a spin-off starring their characters Prue and Trude, described as "toffy-nosed shop assistants" as they live a life of luxury among the world's best hotels "while battling the harsh economic climate." (Broadcast)
Jay Leno has been cleared of a charges of violating WGA's strike regulations during the 100-day writers strike. (Variety)
Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. I had an amazing time at the Mighty Boosh's secret show at the Roxy last night and found myself singing "Nanageddon" as I tried to go to sleep.
E! Online's Watch with Kristin has an exclusive interview with Lost star Elizabeth Mitchell, who toplines the upcoming remake of V on ABC. Describing her character on V, Mitchell said: "Erica is a federal agent doing counter-terrorism. She deals with finding sleeper cells and basically eradicating them as much as possible. She's smart and intelligent and all the things that you would want someone who is protecting our country to be. I must have a hero complex—I keep gravitating toward these roles. She has a son, and she's in love with her son, and her son is in love with the Visitors. She has to deal with the fact that she has to save him for the most part. Her husband just left her, so she's a brokenhearted counterterrorist detective." Mitchell also discusses the final season of Lost, Juliet's relationship with Sawyer, and what her V role means for Juliet's presence on Lost's sixth season. (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)
Gabrielle Union (Ugly Betty) has been cast on ABC's fall drama series FlashForward in the recurring role of Zoey, described in press materials as "a criminal defense attorney who will have a romantic arc" on the series' freshman season. "We're thrilled that Gabrielle is joining our cast," said FlashForward executive producer David S. Goyer. "When we met with her, we immediately knew she was our Zoey. She's witty, soulful and beautiful. I've been wanting to work with her for a long time." (via press release)
In a move that will surprise no one, USA has renewed summer drama series Burn Notice and Royal Pains, with Burn Notice getting a fourth season order and Royal Pains getting a sophomore season. Both series landed in the top 20 programs on ad-supported cable for the month of July. (Hollywood Reporter)
Alfre Woodard (Desperate Housewives) has joined the cast of CBS' medical drama Three Rivers, where she will play female lead Sophia Jordan, the head of surgery at Three Rivers Hospital, a role originally played by Julia Ormond in the original pilot. In other recasting news, Heather Stephens (Saved) has replaced Reiko Aylesworth in ABC drama series The Forgotten, where she will play Lindsay, an amateur sleuth whose husband is jailed for unknown crimes and who must care for her baby on her own. (Hollywood Reporter)
FX has given a thirteen-episode series order to Lawman, starring Timothy Olyphant. Series, from Sony Pictures Television and FX, is based on an Elmore Leonard short story and is written and executive produced by Graham Yost (Boomtown). Series is expected to launch in spring 2010. (Televisionary)
Robert Knepper (Prison Break) has been promoted to series regular on NBC's Heroes, where next season he plays Samuel, the "charismatic but evil Earth-moving ringleader of a traveling carnival who recruits people with special powers for a mysterious purpose." (Hollywood Reporter)
Starz has ordered ten episodes of half-hour dark comedy Failure to Fly from Eric Schaeffer (Starved) and Jill Franklyn (Seinfeld) about a support group for people who once tried to kill themselves but are now relishing their second chance at life. Schaeffer will star and executive produce in the series, which is expected to launch in spring 2010. Also on tap at Starz: one-hour coming-of-age drama Waterloo from writer/executive producer Rob Thomas (Veronica Mars) about a rock band; Jonah and the Whale, from executive producers Matthew McConaughey, Mark Gustawes, and Chad Mountain, about a man's efforts to find his own life outside the shadow of his famous and disapproving father; an untitled interracial romance from executive producer Martin Lawrence and writer Michael Scoccio; and an untitled drama about a female fashion photographer from executive producers Chris Albrect and Rob Lee. (Variety)
Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello talks with CSI executive producers Carol Mendelsohn and Naren Shankar about the previously reported return of Jorja Fox to the seires for five episodes next season. "We had several major characters departing over the last year and a half, and it felt like the family had disintegrated a little bit," said Shankar. "We had people off in their own bubbles, and that suggested a theme for this season, which is really about family. We wanted to restore that balance of the family. And that initial creative impulse led to the notion of Jorja coming back and helping to assist with that." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)
TBS has announced that George Lopez' latenight talk show Lopez Tonight will launch on November 9th at 11 pm ET/PT. (Variety)
The Beautiful Life's Elle Macpherson and Corbin Bleu have been upped to series regulars on the CW fall drama after they guest starred in the pilot episode in recurring roles; Macpherson played a former supermodel who now owns a top agency in Manhattan while Bleu played a male model. (Hollywood Reporter)
Animal Planet is launching a series of quarterly-scheduled investigative documentaries that explore controversial animal-related issues. First up is Dogfighting: An Animal Investigates Special that will launch in January; future installments will explore animal testing, exotic pets, gang dogs, cloning, and slaughterhouses. (Variety)
TV Guide Network has hired Carrie Ann Inaba (Dancing with the Stars) and Chris Harrison (The Bachelor) as their on-air red-carpet correspondents, replacing Lisa Rinna and Joey Fatone. Their first appearance is set for the Primetime Emmy Awards on September 20th. (Variety)
Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing.
Pushing Daisies creator Bryan Fuller has left his position as consulting producer on NBC's Heroes, just a few months after he rejoined the writing staff of the NBC drama. The reason behind the departure: to focus on developing new series for the network (he has an overall deal with Universal Media Studios), rather than creative differences with Heroes creator Tim Kring. "I'm crafting two pilots right now and it's a lot of work," Fuller told Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello. "It was just too hard to [juggle] Heroes and my development; something had to give." Meanwhile, Fuller told Ain't It Cool News' Herc, ""Development was really starting to heat up, And it appears like I may be writing multiple pilots for NBC so that wasn't leaving a ton of room for Heroes, unfortunately. We crafted some really great arcs for the season that I'm excited to see come to fruition. I love that cast dearly and am sad to go, but the plate -- she was over-flowing." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files, Ain't It Cool News)
Holy comedy legends: David Cross has written a comedy pilot entitled The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret for UK's Channel 4 with Extras' Shaun Pye that will star Arrested Development's Will Arnett, Being Human's Russell Tovey, and director Spike Jonze (who appeared on-screen in feature film Three Kings). The pilot, produced by RDF Media, is slated to air this winter. "I shot a pilot for Channel 4," Cross told The Los Angeles Times. And it’ll air, I believe, in December. When we picture-lock on Friday, it will be almost two years to the day that I was first approached by those guys. The cast is a crazy dream team." As for the plot, here's the official description from the RDF Media site: "American Todd Margaret (David Cross) bluffs his way into an apparently great job opportunity, heading up the sales team in his employer’s London office. All he has to do is sell several thousand energy drinks before his boss visits him in a week. Simple. Apart from the fact that he knows nothing about British culture and nothing about sales. This is further complicated when he lies continuously to cover his ignorance and spectacularly fails to impress Alice the first beautiful girl he meets. Dave his British co-worker, soon takes full advantage of Todd’s situation and chaos ensues." (Los Angeles Times, via /Film)
BBC has denied reports made by British paper The Mirror, which claimed that the channel would air an "all-Doctors reunion" installment of Doctor Who during this year's Children in Need charity campaign. According to The Mirror, David Tennant would reprise his role as the Doctor and call upon every other incarnation of his character (including Matt Smith's upcoming Eleventh Doctor) in order to help him retrieve a missing piece of Time Lord paraphernalia... and that William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, and Jon Pertwee would also appear on the series via archival footage. (All three, who played the Doctor's first three incarnations are all deceased.) "Nothing has been finalised yet, although there is discussion of a Children in Need Doctor Who special," said a BBC spokesperson. "It is too early to say what." (Digital Spy)
Weeds' Justin Kirk dishes about Alanis Morrisette, Kate del Castillo, Andy's relationship with Nancy, and Jennifer Jason Leigh's Jill. And, oh, a familiar face from the past is set to return this season. (Hmmm.) "I don't know what's going to happen," said Kirk of Andy's relationship with Nancy (Mary-Louise Parker). "But I like exploring that world. I would like that relationship to go on. I think their relationship, whether it's consummated or not, remains to be seen. But it's one that is a lot of fun to do, and I like working with Mary-Louise, so I hope it goes on. Sometimes it's heartbreaking and sometimes it's funny." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)
USA's Burn Notice will definitely be having a presence at this year's Comic-Con next month, according to The Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan. Executive producer Mikkel Bondesen announced that Burn Notice would be hosting a panel next month via Twitter that will include creator Matt Nix, though Ryan says that the network has confirmed the panel but hasn't yet confirmed the date. (Chicago Tribune's The Watcher)
VH1 has given a series order to RDF USA's docuseries The Price of Beauty, which will feature Jessica Simpson traveling the world "to meet every day women as well as some local pop culture icons" and "study local fashions, dietary fads and beauty regimes and even participate in some of the extreme practices she discovers." The series, which will begin shooting next month, is executive produced by Jessica Simpson, Joe Simpson, Chris Coelen, Claire O'Donohoe, Greg Goldman, Jeff Olde, Jill Holmes, Alex Demyanenko, and Sean Boyle. (Hollywood Reporter)
Bravo's weekly topical, interactive series Watch What Happens: Live, hosted by Andy Cohen, will launch on Thursday, July 16th at midnight ET/PT. The series will feature Cohen talking to guests from Bravo's stable of series as well as celebrities from other areas of entertainment to "chat about what has transpired on-air and in pop culture that week for a live half-hour full of viewer interaction." The network also promises that viewers will be able to interact "via email, phone, video, Twitter and Facebook." Series is produced by Embassy Row and executive producer Michael Davies. (via press release)
NBC's launch of British acquisition Merlin reached an average of five million viewers on Sunday, less than that for the US Open golfing championship but more than those who tuned in for ABC's mini-series Impact, which only garnered 4.7 million viewers. (New York Times)
Despite the announcement that series stars Jon and Kate Gosselin will be divorcing, TLC has confirmed that docusoap Jon & Kate Plus 8 will continue. "The show must go on," said Kate Gosselin on camera. (Variety)
Actress Kathryn Hahn is said to be developing a pilot script at Sony Pictures Television with her husband, writer Ethan Sandler, which will be a potential starring vehicle for Hahn. Details about the script's plot are being kept firmly under wraps. (Hollywood Reporter)
Robbie Coltrane, Helena Bonham Carter, Rob Brydon, James Corden, John Hurt, and Tom Wilkinson will lend their voices to one-off animated Christmas special The Gruffalo, based on Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler's children's book, which BBC One will air this winter. (BBC)
Former Dominant Pictures executive Ben Spector has been hired by Tollin Prods, as EVP of television, where he will develop scripted projects for the shingle, overseen by produced Mike Tollin. (Variety)
FOX has hired Ron Taylor as VP of diverse programming and content, where he will identify and develop scripts that contain diversity-based themes or are written by minorities, as well as advise producers of scripted projects at the network about how to "expand a diversity presence to those comedies and dramas." Taylor will report to Matt Cherniss. (Variety)
Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. I'm back from vacation so there's loads of television-related headlines to catch up on. Buckle your seatbelts; it's going to be a bumpy ride!
Weeds star Mary-Louise Parker has put those rumors that she's leaving the Showtime comedy series to bed, stating that she's sticking around for quite some time. "Sometimes when I think about the show ending I get sad. I just can't imagine what it's going to be like," Parker told E! Online's Watch with Kristin. "We for sure have one more year, so I don't have to be sad yet. I can smile a little bit longer. I would stay on, but at a certain point it would get a little bit tired. It'd be like, we don't need to see Nancy and Andy running around in their 60s. I think it will depend on how this season goes, as to whether or not it will have a little velocity for staying around a little longer." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)
When Scrubs returns for a ninth season this fall, there will be more change than just some of the regular cast, with the focus of the series shifting from Sacred Heart Hospital to the classroom. "It'll be a lot like Paper Chase as a comedy," series creator Bill Lawrence told Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello. "It's going to be a different show. It'll still be life-and-death stakes, but if the show is just Scrubs again in the hospital with a different person's voiceover, it would be a disaster and people would be mad." But there will be some familiar faces, with Donald Faison and John C. McGinley on board as series regulars and Zach Braff, Sarah Chalke, Judy Reyes, and Ken Jenkins slated to make guest appearances when the medical students are working at Sacred Heart. "Med students in their first three years have to spend anywhere from 10 to 50 percent of their time at a hospital," said Lawrence. "And that's when you'll see some of the [original cast members]. Continuity-wise, Sacred Heart will still exist with those people still working there." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)
I'll have what she's having: Meg Ryan will guest star on an upcoming episode of HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm. The former When Harry Met Sally star will appear early on in the series' seventh season, which returns to HBO in September. The season will also feature an ongoing storyline that will reunite Larry David with his Seinfeld cast. (Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider)
Confirmed: T.R. Knight won't be returning to ABC's Grey's Anatomy this fall following his request to be let out of his multi-year contract. "Leaving Grey's Anatomy was not an easy decision for me to make," said Knight in a statement. "I am extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to play this character and will miss my fellow cast and crew very much." Series creator/executive producer Shonda Rhimes, meanwhile, wished Knight "the best in his future endeavors" and said of the actor: ""He is an incredibly talented actor and a person whose strength of character is admired by all of us." (Variety)
Katherine Heigl, meanwhile, WILL be back next season on Grey's Anatomy, reprising her role as Izzie Stevens, despite a cliffhanger ending that made it seem as though Heigl was off the series for good. Sources close to the production have indicated that Heigl's option has been picked up and she will continue as a regular on the ABC medical drama series. (Hollywood Reporter, Entertainment Weekly)
Linda Hunt (The Year of Living Dangerously) has joined the cast of CBS' NCIS: Los Angeles as a series regular; she'll play "an efficient and hard-nosed former film industry technician who now oversees the 'backroom' support staff -- the folks tasked with providing everything from micro surveillance cameras to cars for the team," according to Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)
Clayne Crawford (Jericho) has joined the cast of Day Eight of FOX's 24, where he will play "a bad boy from Dana Walsh's (Katee Sackhoff) past." (Hollywood Reporter)
Showtime has renewed comedy series Tracey Ullman's State of the Union for a third season, with seven new installments set to debut in 2010. (Variety)
Battlestar Galactica's Rick Worthy is reportedly in talks to join the cast of NBC's Heroes, entering its fourth season this fall. If a deal is reached, Worthy will allegedly be playing a Los Angeles cop and the new partner for Greg Grunberg's Matt Parkman. (Digital Spy)
Musical chairs: The Primetime Emmy Awards telecast is back on September 20th, its original ceremony date. The move comes after CBS and the TV Academy moved the telecast to September 13th in order to avoid starting late due to NFL double-header overrun... but failed to take into account that the date clashed with MTV's Video Music Awards. So it's back to September 20th, after all. (Variety's Emmy Central)
Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane will recur on ABC's Flash Forward this fall, as will ER's Alex Kingston. MacFarlane plays an FBI agent in the David S. Goyer and Marc Guggenheim-overseen drama series. (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)
Reville has signed a talent holding deal with actor Bobb'e J. Thompson (30 Rock, Role Models) under which the company will develop a sitcom for the 13-year-old actor. (Variety)
The CW will begin rolling out its fall premieres on September 8th, which will see the second season premiere of 90210 and the series premiere of Melrose Place. Gossip Girl, meanwhile, will swap timeslots with One Tree Hill next season, with the former moving to the 9 pm timeslot; both series will launch their new seasons on September 14th. America's Next Top Model kicks off on September 9th, Vampire Diaries and Supernatural on September 10th, Beautiful Life on September 16th, and Smallville on September 25th. (Hollywood Reporter)
TLC has given a series order to Stager Invasion, which depicts professional stager Lisa Lynch giving frustrated home sellers tips on how to get their houses sold in difficult times. The twelve-episode series will launch June 30th at 8 pm ET/PT. (Variety)
Travel Channel has ordered reality competition series The Streets of America: The Search for America's Worst Driver, in which awful drivers are placed in a series of challenges in order to determine which is really the worst driver. Series, based on an international format and from A. Smith and Co. and Mentorn, will launch in the first quarter of 2010. (Variety)
USA Network has hired Spike executive Bill McGoldrick as SVP of original scripted programming; it's a return for McGoldrick who previously worked at USA. He will report to Jeff Wachtel. (Variety)
Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing.
Wondering what Joss Whedon has in store for Season Two of Dollhouse, which returns to FOX this fall? Entertainment Weekly's Mandi Bierly caught up with the Dollhouse creator to find out what to expect. "About two hours after starting to talk to the writers about story, I was back with such a vengeance, and so energized and so pumped because we really understand the show now," said Whedon. "We understand what works, and what didn't work so well or what we weren't so thrilled about. We don't have the onus of trying to be a big hit sitting on our shoulders. We can just be ourselves. And so the stories we're breaking are pure, and exciting, and everybody's on-board in the room, and it's never flowed better." Look for Echo to use that final word of Season One as a springboard for her second season mission. ""Echo wants to find not just Caroline, but what's going on behind everything," said Whedon. "She doesn't have all of the skills. [Laughs] But she does have this weird super power of becoming a different person all the time, so she might start using that more specifically to find out who Caroline was and what happened to her and why this place exists." (Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch)
My Name is Earl has officially been killed, following talks between studio 20th Century Fox Television and cabler TBS about picking up new installments of the comedy series. The studio released a statement yesterday that talks between the two sides had broken off after they were unable to reach an agreement. "While we had hoped to find a way to produce additional episodes for TBS, in the final analysis we simply could not make the economics work without seriously undermining the artistic integrity of the series," said the studio in a statement. "As none of us, [creator Greg Garcia] included, want the show to go out on anything but a high note, we regret that we must put to rest any speculation that Earl will continue." (Variety)
SCI FI Wire catches up with James Middleton, the executive producer of FOX's canceled Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles to find out what would have happened in the series' third season, had it continued. "By jumping into this future, [John] has erased his existence in a certain way, and we see that. We see that nobody recognizes him," said Middleton. "We would have to have explored that if we did get a third season. If we had gotten a third season, I should say, we definitely would have explored what it all meant, but I think there's a great moment where we see Allison [Summer Glau], and John's look to her is very meaningful. I think that also would have been a great thing in terms of dramatic potential. Like I said, the show has ended, and it would all be speculation, and I really don't want to raise anybody's expectations." (SCI FI Wire)
Eric Roberts has joined the cast of Starz drama Crash, where he will play "an entrepreneur hoping to bring a professional football team to L.A." Other new cast members for Season Two, which launches on September 18th, include Dana Ashbrook (yes, Twin Peaks' Bobby Briggs himself!), Linda Park, Jake McLaughlin, Tess Harper, and Julie Warner. (Variety)
The Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan is reporting that Comic-Con's Dollhouse panel next month will be two-hours long and will feature a screening of the unaired thirteenth episode, entitled "Epitaph One" and a discussion with Joss Whedon and series star Eliza Dushku. The two-hour session, according to a 20th Century Fox Television source, will take place on Friday, July 24th. (Chicago Tribune's The Watcher)
Meanwhile, Ryan is also reporting that there won't be a Heroes panel this year at Comic-Con. "According to a representative from Universal Media Studios, which makes the show," writes Ryan, "Heroes will "have a presence" at Comic-Con in various ways, but that presence will not involve the typical panel discussion that is a staple of Comic-Con." What that presence is remains to be seen but Ryan implies that it will involve a Season Four sneak peek in some form. (Chicago Tribune's The Watcher)
Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Stephanie March will be staying put on NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and will appear in at least ten episodes next season. "The show is expected to introduce one or possibly two new characters to fill the ADA void when Cabot isn't around," writes Ausiello. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)
CBS Television Studios has signed a two-year overall deal with CSI: NY executive producer Peter Lenkov. Under the terms of the deal, Lenkov will remain on board CSI: NY next season, where he teases fans will see ""Much more character. The mystery and the science are important, but people are just as important." (Hollywood Reporter)
Discovery has given a ten-episode series order to Garage Wars, in which mechanics will be pitted against each other to determine the best garage in America; two teams will be given a box with the same parts and must build the best vehicle from them in just four days. Series, from A. Smith and Co., is currently on the lookout for two car experts to serve as hosts. (Variety)
Outbound News Corp. president/COO Peter Chernin and Katherine Pope are said to have already begun taking meetings at the town's top talent agencies and inviting them to begin pitching projects. The duo are launching a new production company as part of Chenin's exit from News Corp that is said to operate under a similar deal as David E. Kelley's former arrangement. (Hollywood Reporter)
Chuck's Sarah Lancaster will guest star in an upcoming episode of TNT's medical drama Hawthorne, where she will play the girlfriend of a horrific motorcycle accident victim (My Boys' Reid Scott). (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)
Reveille has picked up US remake rights for Icelandic workplace comedy The Nightshift, about three graveyard shift workers at a gas station who try to remain motivated after dealings with eccentric customers. "The Nightshift is that rare international format that has American sensibility, and we're eager to tackle another workplace comedy after the success of The Office," said Reveille's managing director Howard Owens. "The show has a smart, ironic point of view, which we know will translate well in the U.S." (Hollywood Reporter)
Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing.
Ashes to Ashes has been recommissioned for a third and final series by BBC One. Series, which airs in the US on BBC America, will return next year with its final season, which will offer "intriguing twists and turns to keep viewers guessing about the final outcome," said co-creator/writer Ashley Pharoah, and will complete the journey of Alex Drake (Keeley Hawes) as well as reveal just who Gene Hunt (Phillip Glenister) really is. (BBC News)
Catch this interview with Glenister speaking to BBC Breakfast this morning about the third and final season of Ashes to Ashes:
Dancing with the Stars' Gilles Marini will be sticking around on ABC. The Dancing runner-up has signed on to a multiple-episode story arc on Brothers and Sisters, where he will play a potential love interest for Rachel Griffith's Sarah Walker. (Variety)
Kathy Bates (The Day the Earth Stood Still) will co-star in Sci Fi's upcoming mini-series Alice, Nick Willing's reimagining of Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking-Glass," which will provide the basis for a dark journey into a strange realm, much like Willing did with Sci Fi's Tin Man. Joining Bates will be Crash's Caterina Scorsone, Colm Meaney (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), Tim Curry (The Colour of Magic), Alessandro Juliani (Battlestar Galactica), Philip Winchester (Crusoe), Matt Frewer (Watchmen), and Primeval's Andrew Lee Potts. (Chicago Tribune's The Watcher)
Matt Letscher (Eli Stone), William Fichtner (Prison Break), and Scott Caan (Ocean's Eleven) have been cast in multiple-episode story arcs on Season Six of HBO's Entourage. Letscher will play arrogant studio executive Dan Coakley who is assigned to Johnny Drama's TV series, Fichtner will play Phil Yagoda, "a slick TV producer who had a hit teen series in the 1990s and is trying to remake it with Drama," and Caan will play Scotty Lavin, a "cocky and highly competitive manager who acts tough and trash talks to cover up how insecure he is and sees E (Kevin Connolly) as a threat." (Hollywood Reporter)
Wondering why Dominic Monaghan popped up in those new ABC promos and if it's in any way related to a possible return to Lost? Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello has the scoop: "The real reason Monaghan is featured in that cheeky spot is because he's actually joining the cast of another hour-long ABC drama series as a full-time series regular. And the net's brass want it to be a surprise." So what series could it be? Grey's Anatomy? Flash Forward? Hmmm... (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)
Producers of drama series In Treatment will meet with HBO executives this week to discuss the possibility of a third season, though HBO Programming Group president Michael Lombardo stressed that no decision has been made about renewal. Meanwhile the pay cabler will begin shooting new series Treme in New Orleans this fall, production begins on the pilot for Martin Scorsese-produced period drama Boardwalk Empire this week, and HBO is developing a series based on Steve Bogira's non-fiction book "Courtroom 302" with executive producers Tom Fontana and James Yoshimura. This summer the channel will feature the launch of Hung and the return of True Blood and Entourage. “We had unwittingly maneuvered ourselves into a little bit of a box,” said Lombardo about HBO's post-Sex and the City years. “Our programming started to skew a little ponderous. We are as excited about a show like Treme as we are about Hung, and they're very different shows.”(Broadcasting and Cable)
ABC will be launching reality competition series Shark Tank (the US version of British format Dragons Den) on Sunday, August 9th at 9 pm ET/PT, in order to use the return of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire as a lead-in. Series will then run on Sundays through August 23rd, after which it will move to its regular timeslot of Tuesdays at 8 pm on August 25th. (Futon Critic)
Days of Our Lives' Rachel Melvin will guest star (with the option to recur) on Season Four of NBC's Heroes, where she will play Annie, another college roommate of Claire Bennett (Hayden Panettiere), along with Californication's Madeline Zima. (Hollywood Reporter)
Nick at Nite has acquired rights to all 151 episodes of FOX's Malcolm in the Middle from 20th Century Fox Television, which it will air Sundays through Thursdays at 8 pm ET/PT beginning July 5th. (Variety)
The CW has opted not to launch its unscripted series Blonde Charity Mafia on July 7th as planned but will instead hold off on the series launch until later next season. (Futon Critic)
Picture This Television has signed a production deal with 14-year-old chef Greg Grossman to develop an unscripted series based around the life of the professional teenage chef. (Hollywood Reporter)
Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing.
Tony Award-winning actor Lin-Manuel Miranda (In the Heights) will appear in at least two episodes of FOX's House next season, where he will play the roommate of Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) at the psychiatric facility where House is currently living. Miranda's first appearance is slated for House's sixth season premiere, which kicks off this fall. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)
Zoe Green (Book of Shadows) has been hired to write the script for mini-series The Diamond Age, an adaptation of Neal Stephenson's 1995 novel "The Diamond Age: Or a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer," for Sci Fi and executive producers George Clooney and Grant Heslov. Mini-series tells the story about a father and daughter who live in a futuristic society that stifles all creativity; the man creates an interactive book for his daughter, who uses it "as a guide through a surreal alternative world." (Variety)
NBC's Heroes has landed two additional actors, with Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace's Ray Park to join the cast of the drama series in a multiple-episode story arc playing one of the characters at the four season's carnival. Additionally, Deanne Bray (The L Word) will play a hearing-impaired love interest for one of the main characters. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)
FOX has ordered a pilot for marriage-themed reality series I Married A Stranger from production company A. Smith a Co. Each week, a marriage-minded woman in her late 30s has her friends and family wheedle down five prospective grooms until one is left; as each man is eliminated, the bride-to-be gets a look at who she won't be marrying... and will finally get to meet her betrothed, right before the on-air wedding ceremony. Project will be executive produced by Arthur Smith, Kent Weed, and Scott Jeffress. (Variety)
BBC America has acquired rights to long-running UK talkshow Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, which it will launch on June 12th at 8 pm ET/PT. The digital cabler plans to pick up airing the series with the 18th episode of the current season, which features actors Dustin Hoffman and Hugh Laurie and British band Gossip. Future installments will feature such luminaries as Ben Stiller, Eminem, Hugh Jackman, William Shatner, Glenn Close, and Lionel Richie. “The wit and wry humor of Jonathan Ross is the perfect addition to the BBC America schedule," said Richard De Croce, SVP Programming for BBC America. "His interviews with A list guests – from Tom Hanks to John Travolta to Nicole Kidman – are always candid and frequently unpredictable. Best of all he fosters an atmosphere which allows guests to relax, open up and allow the viewers in.” (via press release)
The Television Critics Association announced the nominees for its annual TCA Awards, with such The Shield, Battlestar Galactica, Lost, Mad Men, and Saturday Night Live vying for program of the year while Fringe, The Mentalist, No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, and United States of Tara are competing for best new program; comedies 30 Rock, The Big Bang Theory, The Daily Show, How I Met Your Mother, and The Office are in the running for outstanding achievement in comedy while Breaking Bad, Friday Night Lights, Lost, Mad Men, and The Shield are competing for outstanding achievement in drama. (Hollywood Reporter)
A&E's Abbe Raven will oversee the new joint venture that is being formed between Disney, Hearst Corporation, and NBC Universal which will act as an umbrella for their cable channels Lifetime, A&E, and History. New company will encompass 10 channels in 145 countries and 15 websites. Lifetime's Andrea Wong will now report to Raven, according to reports, while other management restructuring has yet to be decided. (Variety)
ABC has opted to shift the second season premiere of I Survived a Japanese Game Show up by several weeks, from July 8th to Wednesday, June 17th at 9 pm ET/PT, while the network will shift comedies Surviving Suburbia and The Goode Family to Friday nights beginning June 12th. (Futon Critic)
BET has picked up talk show The Wendy Williams Show, which it will launch on July 13th in syndication and on BET, which will be running the series day-and-date with the syndicated telecasts. (Variety)
Sony Pictures Television has signed a new two-year overall deal with writer/producer team Cathy Yuspa and Josh Goldsmith, who created 'Til Death. Under terms of the deal, they will develop new projects for the studio while receiving executive producer credits on the FOX series they created. (Hollywood Reporter)
Former NBC executive Jamila Hunter has landed a position as head of programming at OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network. She will replace Robin Schwartz, who left the channel earlier this year. (Variety)
Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing.
Emilie de Ravin is set to return to ABC's Lost next season as a series regular after her character Claire Littleton was absent for most of Season Five, leaving her character's fate tantalizingly ambiguous. (It's still not clear, in fact, whether Claire is dead or alive after disappearing and then being spotted in Jacob's cabin with Christian.) "Damon and I are very excited to bring Claire back to the show," said showrunner Carlton Cuse, "and even more excited for people to experience just how she will return." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)
WBTV has signed an two-year overall deal with writer/producer Jeff Bell (Angel), under which he will come on board ABC's midseason sci-fi series V as showrunner/executive producer. He'll also develop new series projects for the studio later on as well. "Like many people, I have fond memories of whatching the original miniseries, And to see how they did it now, it's epic. (Exec producer/scribe) Scott Peters did a fantastic job relaunching it. It seems like there are so many ways that you could go with this story," said Bell. "Especially when you look at our current times, with the economy, wars and social strife, it's the perfect time for a force like this to come along. In many ways this is a very American show, about the individual vs. society. It's about how America can appreciate and question things that seem to be too good to be true." (Variety)
Prison Break's Robert Knepper has joined the cast of NBC's Heroes next season, where he will appear in at least six episodes of the series as the season's putative villain Samuel, described as "a Jim Jones type -- charismatic but evil, with a twisted sense of humor -- who will veer into the lives of all heroes." The character had previously been referred to as Carnival Barker in casting breakdowns. Production on Season Four of Heroes is set to begin this week. (Hollywood Reporter)
Disney, NBC Universal, and Hearst Corporation are said to be in talks about creating a joint venture that would encompass cable channels A&E, History, and Lifetime. "The partnership would appear to fit well with NBC U's strategy of targeting female consumers via a cross-the-board corporate effort dubbed Women@NBCU," writes Variety's Clarie Atkinson. "Owning a piece of Lifetime could also help the Peacock goose traffic for its femme-centric iVillage website." (Variety, Hollywood Reporter)
Bravo has announced its summer plans, which include the launch of Season Three of docusoap Flipping Out on Monday, August 17th at 10 pm ET/PT and the return of The Real Housewives of Atlanta on Thursday, July 30th at 10 pm ET/PT. The two series will replace Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List and The Fashion Show, which will wrap their runs in August and July respectively. Additionally, the cabler will air a Top Chef special on August 26th at 10 pm, a week after Top Chef: Masters wraps its run. (Futon Critic)
Variety is reporting that A&E has canceled drama series The Beast, starring Patrick Swayze and Travis Fimmel, and will not bring the series back for a second season. (Variety)
Former Dawson's Creek showrunner and current Californication writer/executive producer Tom Kapinos lashed out at the stars of the WB hit series. "The experience was miserable," said Kapinos. "But it was a four-year boot camp. It was like going to TV grad school and learning how to run a television show. Anybody on that show who could make a decision was allowed to run it at some point. I inherited the very awkward college years, and I almost ran the show into the ground. But I learned everything that I needed to know about how to run a show." When asked what made his experiences so difficult on Dawson's Creek, he replied: "It was the four monstrous actors at the core of it." Ouch. (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)
Entertainment Weekly's Kate Ward checks in with Top Chef contestants Fabio Viviani, Carla Hall, and Jeff McInnis to find out what they're up to a few months after the end of the fifth season of the Bravo culinary competition series. Viviani is opening two more restaurants, has a cookbook coming out in the next month or so, and is embarking on a 16-city book tour... and possibly a television series. McInnis has completed a memoir of sorts and is shopping it to publishers. (Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider)
Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing.
E! Online's Watch with Kristin caught up with True Blood star Stephen Moyer, who plays vampire Bill Compton on the HBO supernatural drama, to talk about Season Two, which kicks off on June 14th. "There's no getting away from the fact that Bill is a vampire. He can't wish to be anything else, because he's a vampire, but he's a vampire who wants to live a human life," said Moyer about his character. "Actually, in fact, he wishes not for a human life, but for a moral life. It's not that he doesn't want to feed on blood, it's that he doesn't want it to involve killing—but in his first season he kills as many people as the murderer. That was something that was very present in our minds. He has that blood lust, he has that very strong sense of right and wrong. If somebody f--s him off, he's going to take them out. He's torn. He's not going to do it just for the sake of it. But if somebody hurts him or hurts his family or hurts his loved one... they're history. [Chuckles]. I like that." As for Bill's relationship to telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), Moyer said, "I think that they love each other more than they have loved anything ever. Speaking from Bill's point of view, she's given him reason to live again." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)
Californication's Madeline Zima has been cast in a recurring role on Season Four of NBC's Heroes, where she will play Gretchen, described as "an edgy outsider and college roommate to Claire (Hayden Panettiere)," who is heading to college next season. (Hollywood Reporter)
Rehearsals are set to start next Monday on the final season of British comedy series Gavin and Stacey, which will start shooting on June 15th. James Corden, who co-created the series with Ruth Jones and co-stars alongside her, didn't rule out further writing collaboration with Jones after wrapping the third and final season of Gavin and Stacey. "It's an emotional time because we're saying goodbye to these characters that we love. So the whole thing is very sad and I just hope it can be as good as possible," said Corden. "You know, when we wrote the words, 'This really is the end, the end', we were both a bit welled up and we looked at each other and we were sure that's it. I just hope it's good enough. Ruth and I, we'd like to write something else again but we're inevitably not going to spend as much time locked in a room together." (BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat)
USA is said to be close to handing out a pilot order for espionage thriller Covert Affairs, from writers Matt Corman and Chris Ord. Project, from Universal Cable Prods, executive producers Doug Liman and Dave Bartis, and Dutch Oven, focuses on Annie Walker, a linguist and CIA trainee who is "summoned to headquarters and given assignments assisted by blind tech expert [Auggie] Anderson. While she believes she'd been recruited for her language skills, it might be an elusive former boyfriend her CIA bosses are after." USA has very quietly engaged the services of a casting director and is beginning to reach out to agents about potential candidates for the roles of Annie Walker and Auggie Anderson. (Hollywood Reporter)
Comedy Central has ordered a second season of Important Things With Demetri Martin, with ten new episodes expected to launch early next year. (Variety)
Gregg Henry (The Riches) has joined the cast of HBO comedy series Hung in a recurring role, where he will play Mike, an assistant coach at the high school where Thomas Jane's character coaches basketball. Elsewhere, Courtney Ford (Cold Case) has joined the cast of Showtime's Dexter in a multiple-episode story arc where she will play a reporter. (Hollywood Reporter)
NBC will launch primetime talk show The Jay Leno Show on Monday, September 14th at 10 pm ET/PT. The network will use the season finale of America's Got Talent to help launch the series, which takes over the 10 pm hour across the week. It's also thought possible that the network could launch its Thursday night comedy series that week as well but the network hasn't confirmed any plans to that effect. (Variety)
FOX has quietly moved the air date for its two-hour sci-fi telepic Virtuality (originally a two-hour backdoor pilot) from the Fourth of July to Friday, June 26th at 8 pm ET/PT. (Televisionary)
BBC One controller Jay Hunt has said that she will seek out innovative home-grown drama series rather than hand over primetime slots to acquired American series. The network currently airs FX's Damages in a latenight slot. "It is very unlikely that we will show U.S. series in primetime. It is nice to have Damages in the mix. The show is hugely valued by a very small audience, but it is a very small audience," said Hunt speaking at the Broadcasting Press Guild on Tuesday. "Part of what the charter (the BBC’s constitution) commits us to is to find the best of world television and showcase it ... but my main job in drama is to spearhead real innovation and creativity in original British production." (Variety)
Bravo has announced that Las Vegas will be the setting for Season Six of culinary competition series Top Chef. Host Padma Lakshmi and head judge chef Tom Colicchio, along with judges Gail Simmons and Toby Young, are all set to return for Season Six. There's no official launch date for Season Six but it's widely believed that Top Chef will return this fall. (via press release)
TLC will offer a sneak peek at new docusoap Masters of Reception, from executive producers Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos, Charlie Corwin, and Milojo Prods., on June 12th. The series, which follows a New Jersey family-owned catering business and its clients and events, will return this fall with five one-hour installments. (Variety)
Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing.
