Channel Surfing: NBC Delays "Southland," "Chuck" Co-Creator Josh Schwartz to Pen CBS Comedy Script, "Heathers" Resurrected at FOX, and More

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing.

NBC has announced that it is delaying the second season launch of Southland by a month. The Warner Bros. Television-produced series, which premiered last spring, was slated to launch its sophomore season on Friday, September 25th but will now instead debut on Friday, October 23rd. The reason behind the late change? According to Variety's Michael Schneider, "insiders said the Peacock hopes to use the extra month to further promote the show, which they worried was getting lost in the fall marketing shuffle." Southland was meant to launch on the same evening as Medium and Dollhouse. (Variety)

Chuck co-creator Josh Schwartz and Chuck producer Matt Miller will write an untitled multi-camera comedy pilot script for CBS about a twenty-something couple who have just gotten married and return home after their honeymoon and must learn how to navigate life together. (The premise was inspired by Schwartz and Miller's own recent weddings.) Project hails from Warner Bros. Television, where Schwartz has a deal. (Hollywood Reporter)

FOX is said to be developing a contemporary update of 1989 feature film Heathers (one of my personal faves) with Mark Rizzo (Zip) on board to adapt the dark comedy as an ongoing series. Additionally, Jenny Bicks (Sex and the City) has come on board the project as a non-writing executive producer. Project, from Sony Pictures Television and Lakeshore Entertainment, will reset the film's storyline--about a group of loathsome mean girls who begin dying when one of their members, Veronica, meets J.D., a dangerous new guy at school, and the bodies start to pile up. (Variety)

TNT has ordered a third season of heist drama Leverage, with fifteen episodes of the series expected to air in Summer 2010. (via press release)

Supernatural fans have to head over to The Chicago Tribune where Maureen Ryan has a fantastic and lengthy interview with Supernatural creator/executive producer Eric Kripke, in which he teases that the next season of Supernatural will offer "the fun Apocalypse." (Chicago Tribune's The Watcher)

Melissa McCarthy (Samantha Who, Gilmore Girls) has signed on to appear in a recurring role on ABC's fall comedy series Hank, starring Kelsey Grammer. According to Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello, McCarthy will play Dawn, the wife of David Koechner's Grady, which would make her Hank's sister-in-law. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Sony Pictures Television has signed a two-year first-look deal with Sam Raimi and Josh Donen's shingle Stars Road Entertainment, under which they will develop network and cable drama series projects for the studio while staying away from the horror genre. The duo have hired former CBS executive Robert Zotnowski to oversee the push into television. Meanwhile, Robert Tapert will continue to remain involved as Raimi's producing partner. (Hollywood Reporter)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello has some scoop on what's coming up for Jane Krakwoski’s Jenna on 30 Rock, revealing that Jenna lands the lead role in a Twilight rip-off. "For tax reasons, they shoot it in Iceland and then they realize the sun doesn’t set," executive producer Robert Carlock told Ausiello. "So they’re shooting a vampire movie without having night." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

ITV1 has commissioned a seven-part period drama series Downton Abbey from writer Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park) that is set at an Edwardian-era country manor house. Series, which will consist of a 90-minute opener and then six one-hour installments, "will focus on the relationship between the Crawley family, who own the Downton estate, and their staff, who live and work at the house. While some are loyal and committed to the family, others try to improve their status, find love and follow adventure." (Broadcast)

Lennie James (Jericho) has been cast in FOX's Lie to Me, where he will play Ray Marsh, the nemesis to Tim Roth's Cal Lightman. Marsh, writes Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello, is described as "a charming Brit who ran scams with Lightman way back when and who is now on the FBI and Scotland Yard watch lists. Ray once took the fall for Lightman and spent time in prison as a result. Now, after a 20-year estrangement, Ray is back to collect what he believes he is owed." James will make his first appearance in the second season's fifth episode. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Just three weeks after its launch, Style has renewed docusoap Guiliana and Bill for a second season. (Variety)

MTV has ordered horror telepic My Super Psycho Sweet 16, in which a serial killer hunts down teens at a high-end birthday bash at a roller rink. Telepic, executive produced by Maggie Malina, has already been shot. The cabler also ordered musical/dance telepic Turn the Beat Around from executive producers Tony Krantz and Steve Levitan and a scripted telepic version of the channel's Made. (Hollywood Reporter)

Lewis Black will star in an original comedy special Stark Raving Black for the nascent pay cable channel Epix, a joint venture between Lionsgate, MGM, and Viacom, which will air the special, filmed in Detroit, in December as well as playing in select theatres in 20 markets. (Variety)

Former Hat Trick co-founder Denise O'Donoghue has been hired as president of international television productions at NBC Universal International, where she will spearhead the studio's local production business, expand their international format licensing initiatives, and "[shorten] the format pipeline" between the US and the UK. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

TNT Extends Summer Drama Series "Leverage" for Two Additional Episodes

Cabler TNT has announced that it has extended the run of its drama series Leverage this summer.

Leverage will air two additional installments on Wednesday, September 2nd and Wednesday, September 9th. The latter episode, which features guest star Jeri Ryan (Shark) will serve as the series' so-called "summer finale." The two additional episodes are entitled "The Ice Man Job" and "The Lost Heir Job."

The full press release from TNT, announcing the two additional episodes, can be found below.

TNT Adds Two More Episodes of Hit Series LEVERAGE to Summer Lineup

Summer Finale, Guest-Starring Jeri Ryan (Star Trek: Voyager),
Scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 9, at 9 p.m. (ET/PT)

TNT has added two episodes to the summer run of its hit series LEVERAGE, starring Academy Award® winner Timothy Hutton (Ordinary People), Gina Bellman (Coupling), Christian Kane (TNT’s Into the West), Beth Riesgraf (Alvin and the Chipmunks) and Aldis Hodge (Friday Night Lights). The summer finale, guest-starring Star Trek: Voyager’s Jeri Ryan in a new recurring role as Tara, a grifter who helps the team out, will air Wednesday, Sept. 9.

The following is the schedule for the two episodes added to LEVERAGE’s summer lineup:
“The Ice Man Job” – Wednesday, Sept. 2, at 9 p.m. (ET/PT)
Summer Finale: “The Lost Heir Job” – Wednesday, Sept. 9, at 9 p.m. (ET/PT).

In LEVERAGE, Hutton stars as Nate Ford, a former insurance investigator determined to bring down the kind of corrupt bigwigs whose neglect led to the death of his son. His highly skilled team includes Sophie Devereaux (Bellman), a grifter who uses her acting skills to corner her marks; Eliot Spencer (Kane), a “retrieval specialist” with bone-crunching fighting skills; Alec Hardison (Hodge), a gadget and technology wizard who keeps the team connected and informed; and Parker (Riesgraf), a slightly off-center thief adept at rappelling off buildings or squeezing into tight places.

LEVERAGE is executive-produced by Dean Devlin (Independence Day, TNT’s The Librarian) and creators John Rogers (Transformers) and Chris Downey (The King of Queens). It comes to the network from Devlin’s Electric Entertainment.

TNT, one of cable’s top-rated networks, is television’s destination for drama and home to such original series as the acclaimed and highly popular detective drama The Closer, starring Kyra Sedgwick; Saving Grace, starring Holly Hunter; Raising the Bar, with Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Gloria Reuben and Jane Kaczmarek; Leverage, starring Timothy Hutton; HawthoRNe, with Jada Pinkett Smith; and Dark Blue, starring Dylan McDermott. TNT also presents such powerful dramas as Bones, CSI: NY, Cold Case, Law & Order, Without a Trace, ER and Charmed; broadcast premiere movies; compelling primetime specials, such as the Screen Actors Guild Awards®; and championship sports coverage, including NASCAR and the NBA. TNT is available in high-definition.

Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner company, creates and programs branded news, entertainment, animation and young adult media environments on television and other platforms for consumers around the world.

Channel Surfing: Richardson to Reign on "Tudors," Ty Pennington on "Great British Adventure" for ABC, Jamie-Lynn Sigler Gets "Ugly," and More

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing.

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Nip/Tuck's Joely Richardson has been cast in the fourth and final season of Showtime's The Tudors, where she would play King Henry VIII's final wife, Katherine Parr. The Tudors is set to return in Spring 2010 and Showtime would not comment on the casting. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

In a first, British channel UKTV has sold lifestyle special Ty's Great British Adventure to ABC. Special, which will air Sunday, August 2nd at 8 pm on ABC, features Extreme Makeover: Home Edition's Ty Pennington transforming the rundown Cornish beach down of Portreath, including commissioning a children's park, a sports shop, and walking routes, along with other improvements. (Broadcast)

Jamie-Lynn Sigler (The Sopranos) has joined the cast of ABC's Ugly Betty, where she will recur as Natalie, Daniel Meade's new assistant who is described as "sexy, spiritual, [and] funny," according to Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello. Sigler's first appearance is set for the second episode of Season Three, which kicks off October 9th on ABC. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

ABC has ordered a third season of unscripted series Wipeout, which it will air next summer. The exact episodic order was unclear but producers say that they will be constructing a whole new course for Season Three. "We're planning a completely new course next year that's nothing like anybody has ever seen," executive producer Matt Kunitz told the Hollywood Reporter. "What keeps this show running is keeping the show's course fresh." (Hollywood Reporter)

E! Online's Watch with Kristin has an interview with Nurse Jackie's Peter Facinelli, in which the actor talks about Dr. Fitch Cooper's sexual Tourette's and what's coming up on the fantastically addictive Showtime series. (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

Also on E! Online, the Watch with Kristin crew has a new interview with Leverage's Christian Kane, in which he talks about his hair, Eliot's love life (and anger management issues), and why Kane does his own stunt work on the series. "It's gonna be fun over the course of this season" for both Eliot Parker, said Kane. "These two people don't have hearts, but Nate [Timothy Hutton] has given them a heartbeat again. It's a little uncomfortable for both of them because they are starting to care about people. But Eliot in a sense is still going to be the James Bond of the show...It's not so much about love, as it is about beautiful women." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

Actress Mischa Barton is said to be "seeking treatment but making improvements," according to her spokesman Craig Schneider. It's still unclear what Barton's future will be with the CW's new fall drama series The Beautiful Life, but Schneider says that the actress plans to return to work. (Hollywood Reporter)

E! has renewed docusoap Kendra for a second season of twelve episodes (plus a one-hour special), set to launch in 2010. (Variety)

TV Guide Network has acquired off-network rights to ABC dramedy Ugly Betty, which it will strip weekdays beginning Fall 2010. Deal covers all existing and future episodes of the series and the cabler will repurpose episodes from series' upcoming fourth season, which it will begin airing this fall, airing new episodes within two weeks of their broadcast on ABC. (Episodes will also be available on Hulu and ABC.com after transmission on ABC.) (Hollywood Reporter)

Spike has renewed Deadliest Warrior for a second season of thirteen episodes, slated to air next spring. Cabler is also said to be discussing commissioning a stand-alone special that would air before the launch of Season Two that would pit champions from the first season against one another. (Variety)

Bruce Greenwood (Star Trek), Noel Fisher (The Riches) and Linda Emond (Julie & Julia) have been cast in CBS' holiday telepic A Dog Named Christmas, based on Greg Kincaid's novel. Project will be written by Jenny Wingfield and directed by Peter Werner. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: David Tennant Talks End of "Doctor Who" Run, Jeri Ryan Finds "Leverage," Noah Wylie to Battle Aliens for Spielberg and TNT, and More

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing.

The Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan has an absolutely fantastic interview with Doctor Who star David Tennant on the eve of BBC America's airing of last Christmas' Doctor Who special "The Next Doctor." Among the topics of discussion: the end of his run on the legendary British sci-fi series, the truth behind the all-Doctors reunion rumors (false, says Tennant), and what's next for the actor (Poliakoff's Glorious 39), among other things. "I'm all finished," said Tenannt of his run on Doctor Who. "Three or four weeks ago, I filmed my last scene. So it's over. Still a long time to go before they're all broadcast, though, so I'm still clinging on for a bit. But yeah, it's done. It was very emotional, very exciting. We managed to go out with some of the best scripts I had in four years. So it was a real treat." (Chicago Tribune's The Watcher)

Jeri Ryan (Shark) has been cast in a recurring role on Season Two of TNT's drama series Leverage, where she will play "Tara, a smart-ass, street-wise con woman whom Sophie (Gina Bellman) calls on for help and who gets sucked into the Leverage family." (Hollywood Reporter)

It's official: Noah Wylie has signed on as the lead in TNT's untitled sci-fi pilot from executive producer Steven Spielberg and writer Robert Rodat. Project is set in a future where most of humanity has been wiped out by an alien incursion; Wylie will play the leader of a small human resistance force who are attempting to overthrow the occupying aliens. (Hollywood Reporter)

Former Privileged star Joanna Garcia has joined the cast of CW's Gossip Girl for a four-episode story arc next season, where she will play Bree Buckley, "an irreverent, slightly evil Miss America-type who hails from a conservative Southern family" who becomes romantically entangled with Chace Crawford's Nate Archibald. Garcia's first appearance on the series is set to air on September 14th. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Flashpoint returns to CBS will new episodes on Friday, July 17th at 9 pm. The network ordered a third season of the Canadian co-production last month. (Futon Critic)

Meanwhile, CBS has teamed up with its affiliate stations to launch a marketing plan tied around the crucial 10 pm timeslot, which has been named Project LENO (that's, ahem, Late prime Enhanced News Opportunity). The network is offering affiliates at 10 pm "tool kit" including "sponsorable broadcast spots, Web banners and radio spots, as well as behind-the-scenes vignettes" and CBS is also offering "an affiliate swap spot to promote the 10 pm hour." (Variety)

NBC announced their fall premiere dates yesterday, with most series--except 30 Rock--launching in the two week period between September 14th and September 26th. The Peacock will roll out its comedies Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday, Parks and Recreation, The Office, and Community on September 17th (30 Rock, which returns October 15th); The Biggest Loser will launch on September 15th; Heroes returns with a two-hour premiere on September 21st; Trauma kicks off on September 28th; Parenthood and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit debut on September 23rd; Southland and Law & Order will launch on September 25th, followed the next night by Saturday Night Live. (via press release)

BBC Worldwide and WGBH will co-produce a new Emma mini-series starring Atonement's Romola Garai, Michael Gambon, and Jonny Lee Miller and a sequel to Cranford that will star Judi Dench, Imelda Staunton, Francesca Annis, Eileen Atkins, Jonathan Pryce, Tim Curry, and Tom Hiddleston, both of which will air stateside on Masterpiece Classic next year. (More info on Cranford 2 can be found here.) Additionally, WGBH has partnerned with BBC on Framed, an adaptation of Frank Cottrell Boyce's children's book, and two-parter Small Island, based on Andrea Levy's novel about an ambitious Jamaican woman (Naomi Harris) in London after WWII. And the PBS affiliate also acquired three BBC productions: a remake of The 39 Steps starring Rupert Penry-Jones and Sharpe's Peril and Sharpe's Challenge, which star Sean Bean. (Variety)

The N will launch thirteen-episode original comedy series The Assistants, about four Hollywood assistants working for a high-profile producer, on July 10th at 8:30 pm. Series was ordered in November 2007 but the cable network hadn't been able to find a spot for the series on the schedule. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: J.J. Abrams Compares "Lost" to Dickens, Emily Deschanel Dishes on "Bones" Action, "Cold Case" Unearths Ratings Surge, and More

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing.

Lost co-creator J.J. Abrams tells The Guardian that the writing staff on the ABC series, which airs its fifth season finale next week, approach the series a bit like Charles Dickens approached his own serialized storytelling. "It's a leap of faith doing any serialized storytelling," said Abrams in a new interview. "We had an idea early on, but certain things we thought would work well didn't. We couldn't have told you which characters would be in which seasons. We couldn't tell you who would even survive. You feel that electricity. It's almost like live TV. We don't quite know what might happen. I'm sure when Charles Dickens was writing, he had a sense of where he was going - but he would make adjustments as he went along. You jump into it, knowing there's something great out there to find." (Guardian)

(SPOILER) Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello talks with Bones star Emily Deschanel about next week's Brennan and Booth-based plot twist on netx week's episode of the FOX drama. "It definitely changes the dynamic between the characters," said Deschanel of the hook-up between Booth and Brennan. "But it's done in a very clever way. [Series creator] Hart Hanson wrote the episode in a way that gets these two characters together -- which a lot of the audience was waiting for -- but doesn't dissipate the sexual tension between them and, therefore, ruin the show... Let's just say there's definitely a twist. It's not a dream, but there are twists. And there are [other] twists at the end of the episode that will be shocking as well. [...] It's not a matter of life or death, but it's kind of huge. There's a cliffhanger and it has to do with Booth and Brennan's relationship. It puts their relationship in jeopardy." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Things are looking up for CBS' Cold Case, currently on the bubble for a renewal for next season. Sunday night's episode showed a 38 percent uptick in the ratings with 12.9 million viewers overall, the series' best performance in six weeks. No decision has yet been made about Cold Case's ultimate fate but the ratings surge does point strongly in its favor and rumors are swirling that the crime procedural will get another shot next season. (Hollywood Reporter)

Adult Swim has given a nine-episode order to stop-motion animated comedy Titan Maximum from executive producers Tom Root, Matthew Seinreich, and Seth Green, creators of the network's Robot Chicken. Titan Maximum, which will feature the voices of Green, Breckin Meyer, Rachael Leigh Cook, Dan Milano, and Eden Espinosa, will parody 1980s Japanese animated series such as Voltron as it follows a group of fighter pilots whose spaceships combine to form a gigantic robot named... Titan Maximum. Additionally, "because of budget cuts, the team has been disbanded but must hastily reassemble when a former team member turns rogue and tries to conquer the solar system." The writing staff is said to include comic book writers Geoff Johns and Zeb Wells. (Hollywood Reporter)

Dominic West (The Wire) will star opposite Joe Armstrong (Robin Hood), Denis Lawson (Jekyll), and John Sessions (Oliver Twist) in BBC Four drama Breaking the Mould, which recounts the true story of Professor Howard Florey who, along with his team of researchers at Oxford University, were behind the discovery of penicillin during WWII. (BBC)

Kiefer Sutherland's latest brush with the law could find him in violation of his parole... and delay production on Day Eight of FOX's 24, set to begin filming at the end of the month. The latest charges stem from an altercation on Monday evening in which Sutherland allegely head-butted a fashion designer while Sutherland was talking with actress Brooke Shields at an event. Whether Sutherland was intoxicated at the time of the altercation may effect any parole violation discussions and could land the actor back in jail or performing community service. (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)

Nicktoons has ordered 26 additional episodes of animated series Wolverine and the X-Men from Marvel Animation, bringing the series' episodic total to 52 installments. New episodes of the series will kick off on Nicktoons on May 22nd. (Hollywood Reporter)

Tribune Broadcasting stations have purchased off-network syndication rights to HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm and Entourage from HBO and will begin airing episodes of both series in fall 2010, when it will be able to broadcast repeats between 4:30 pm and 12:30 am Monday to Friday, along with one weekend slot. Content will be edited for language and content. (Variety)

TNT has confirmed earlier reports about its summer lineup, with Mondays playing host to The Closer and Raising the Bar beginning June 8th, Tuesdays the home of Wedding Day, Hawthorne, and Saving Grace beginning June 16th, and Wednesdays the berth for Leverage and Dark Blue starting July 15th. (via press release)

Lauren Holly and Rob Lowe will star in Lifetime Movie Network telepic Too Late to Say Goodbye, based on Ann Rule's novel about a woman who discovers her husband's infidelity and has an affair with a man she meets online and then turns up dead, the victim of an apparent suicide. Holly will play the woman's sister, who believes that she was murdered and that her husband (Lowe) is the prime suspect. (Hollywood Reporter)

Zoo Prods. is developing an untitled docusoap based on the live of Larry Ramos Gomez, a 31-year-old man who suffers from "wolfman syndrome" (hypertrichosis) as he looks for love. Executive producers Amy Rosenblum, Barry Poznick, and Charles Steenveld will pitch the project to networks next week. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: "Chuck" Tops Save Our Shows Poll, Adult Swim Hires UK "Office," Shonda Rhimes Talks Denny, "Grey's Anatomy," and More

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing.

Not unsurprisingly, NBC's Chuck has topped USA Today's Save Our Show poll, scoring 54 percent of the 43,000 viewers who cast their votes in the ten-day online poll. The Warner Bros Television-produced series scored the top spot overall as well and was the most favored choice among men, teens and twenty-somethings, thirty-somethings, forty-somethings, whites, Asians, Hispanics, Westerners, Southerners, Northeasterners, and Midwesterners and the fourth favored choice among women as well. (If that's not cross-cultural appeal, I don't know what is.) (USA Today)

Adult Swim has acquired rights to the original UK series The Office, starring Ricky Gervais, from BBC Worldwide and will air both seasons as well as the Christmas special (which marked the series finale) this summer. Move marks the second deal between Adult Swim and BBC Worldwide, which previously sold rights to comedy The Mighty Boosh to the cabler, which launched the series on March 29th. (via press release)

As production on ABC's Grey's Anatomy approaches the 100th episode, creator Shonda Rhimes talks to USA Today's Bill Keveney about the ABC drama, Denny, spin-off Private Practice, and her new pilot Inside the Box. "We're heading on a journey," said Rhimes about Grey's Anatomy's use of Izzie's dead lover Denny. "[Viewers] are in the middle and don't have a map, so they can feel lost. But I know where we're going. For me, it's about looking at the larger picture. [...] What I thought was interesting was that anybody who knew anything about our show would think we had a ghost on our show. In the world in which our show operates, there is a way things happen, and clearly we don't do ghosts." (USA Today)

Disney has announced that it has joined NBC Universal and News Corp as a joint venture partner and equity owner of Hulu. Under the deal, Hulu will now be able to offer full-length episodes of current and library titles from Disney such as Lost, Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, Ugly Betty, Private Practice, and Scrubs, among many others. "From our landmark iTunes deal to our pioneering decision to stream ad-supported shows on our ABC.com player, Disney has sought to meet the constantly evolving viewing habits of our consumers, and today's Hulu announcement is the next important step in that ongoing journey," said Robert Iger, President/CEO of The Walt Disney Co. (Hollywood Reporter)

Jon Gosselin, star of TLC's reality series Jon & Kate Plus 8 has issued a statement to Entertainment Weekly after US Weekly published a photo of him leaving a club at 2 am with a female friend. "Like most people, I have male and female friends and I'm not going to end my friendships just because I'm on TV," said Gosselin in an exclusive statement. "However, being out...late at night showed poor judgment on my part. What makes me sick is that my careless behavior has put my family in this uncomfortable position. My family is the most important thing in my life and it kills me that these allegations have hurt them." (Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider)

ABC Family has officially cancelled freshman comedy Roommates. The writing was on the wall when the basic cabler opted to burn off the final eight episodes of the series over two consecutive Monday evenings, with the final four episodes to air in a two-hour block this coming Monday night. (Hollywood Reporter)

Entertainment Weekly's Marc Bernardin wonders why viewers seemingly don't want science fiction on television anymore, with most recent sci fi series--Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Dollhouse, Chuck, Life on Mars, and Pushing Daisies--either canceled or on the bubble for next year. "Have we, as a society," writes Bernardin, "just become too -- gulp -- stupid for science fiction?" (Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch)

NBC has renewed reality series Celebrity Apprentice for another season and plans to air the next cycle in spring 2010. "It's a valuable franchise and proven competitor," said NBC Universal's alternative topper Paul Telegdy. [Editor: meanwhile, there's still no news of a possible Chuck renewal. Sigh.] (Variety)

TNT will expand its original programming to three nights a week this summer, with Mondays playing host to The Closer and Raising the Bar beginning June 8th, Tuesdays the home of Wedding Day, HawthoRNe, and Saving Grace beginning June 16th, and Wednesdays the berth for Leverage and Dark Blue starting July 15th. (Futon Critic)

IFC has announced a slew of new programming for the 2009-10 season, including Chris Kattan-led three-part comedy Bollywood Hero, airing August 6-8th, Food Party, launching June 9th, which features a "surreal mixture of puppets, weird special effects and cooking hosted by [Tru] Tran," six-part series Monty Python: Almost the Truth (The Lawyer's Cut), which features interviews with the surviving members of the comedy troupe, telefilm Laurel K. Hamilton's Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter, which will debut in 2010, and Dinner with the Band. The cabler also announced that it has acquired BBC comedy series Ideal and Wrong Door and Canadian series The Jon Dore Television Show and renewed Z-Roc and The Whitest Kids U Know. (Hollywood Reporter)

Discovery and Hasbo have closed a deal for a joint venture that will encompass a television network and a website which are dedicated to family-based entertainment. Discovery will receive $300 million for the entertainment assets of its Discovery Kids Network in the US which will be rebranded next year and will feature series from Discovery's library of educational programming as well as series based on Hasbro properties including G.I. Joe, Transformers, Romper Room, Trival Pursuit, Cranium, and My Little Pony. (Hollywood Reporter)

Reveille has announced that it has teamed up with publisher Rodale to develop a reality series based on David Zinczenko and Matt Goulding's best-selling non-fiction book "Eat This, Not That!" (via press release)

Nikki Finke is reporting that, in light of the recent approved merger between William Morris Agency and Endeavor, that the majority of the TV reality department, including Mark Itkin, John Ferriter, and Colin Reno, have decided to leave and set up camp at CAA while talent agent Dana Simms asked to be released from her contract. (Deadline Hollywood Daily)

CMT has picked up musical series The Singing Bee, which aired its first season on NBC last year, and will launch the series' second season on June 16th. So far the series, which is produced by Gurin Co. and Juma Entertainment, has no host but the producers say that they are close to closing a deal on that front. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

Applying Pressure: TNT Renews "Leverage" for Second Season

TNT has renewed freshman drama Leverage for a second season.

The cabler announced today that it will launch Season Two of action drama Leverage, which stars Timothy Hutton (Nero Wolfe), Gina Bellman (Coupling), Christian Kane (Into the West), Beth Riesgraf (Without a Trace), and Aldis Hodge (Friday Night Lights), later this year.

TNT has ordered fifteen new installments of the series for its sophomore season.

“We’re thrilled that audiences and critics have responded so positively to Leverage and made the show a solid hit,” said Michael Wright, executive vice president of TNT, in a statement. “We look forward to another great season of fun and exciting storylines brought to life by the outstanding cast, led by Timothy Hutton, and the incredible production team, headed up by executive producers Dean Devlin and John Rogers.”

“We had an amazing experience shooting the first season of Leverage with such a talented cast and crew and with the full support of TNT behind us,” said executive producer Dean Devlin. “We can’t wait to get to work on season two and take viewers on another adventure with Nate and his team.”

Stay tuned.

The Application of Force: An Early Look at TNT's "Leverage"

TNT's new drama Leverage has a winning premise: a good guy, betrayed by the company that employed him to capture criminals, puts together a team of baddies to rob from the rich and give to the poor, providing, as we're told in the epilogue, "leverage."

However, the series--from creators John Rogers and Dean Devlin--fails to live up to the promise of its premise, due to some muddying of its tone, a general flatness, and a lack of compelling humor and action. When faced with a series like NBC's Chuck, which does both well and in abundance on a weekly basis, Leverage seems like a tired rehash of action elements from the 1980s and lacks an overall freshness.

I had seen an early cut of the pilot back in the spring and little had changed between that rough cut and the finished product, one of two episodes supplied for review. In fact, the pilot ("The Nigerian Job")--which I only moderately liked at best--is far superior to the series' second episode ("The Homecoming Job"), which manages to be both predictable, ludicrous, and overly sentimental, none of which is particularly good for an action dramedy such as this.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Leverage seems to take a page from the book of 1971 action series The Persuaders, which featured two baddies (played by Roger Moore and Tony Curtis) forced to walk on the side of the angels. In this case, the criminals-turned-heroes are all thieves and con men assembled by former insurance investigator Nate Ford (Kidnapped's Timothy Hutton), who at one time or another worked to catch each of these operators. After Ford's son dies because the insurance company won't pony up the cash for an experimental treatment, Ford is hired by an aviation executive (guest star Saul Rubinek) to steal back designs that he claims were stolen from him by a rival firm... and placed on a team with those aforementioned crooks as the only honest man on a team of cheaters and liars.

Those thieves are, of course, a motley bunch. There's expert thief Parker (My Name is Earl's Beth Riesgraf), whose daring is exceeded only by her insanity; tech genius and geek king Alec Hardison (Friday Night Lights' Aldis Hodge); "retrieval specialist" Eliot Spencer (Angel's Christian Kane) who moves like the wind and can name a bullet caliber by the sound it makes; and con artist extraordinaire Sophie Devereaux (Coupling's Gina Bellman). None of them are particularly pleased to be working with Ford and none of them function well as a team, to say the least. But when they're double-crossed, they are forced to work together to get even.

The problems I had with Leverage weren't so much from the actors. In particular, I thought that Hutton and Bellman were fantastic and had a palpable chemistry together. Personally, I'd watch Bellman--who co-starred last year in BBC's Jekyll--read the phone book. (Hell, I even went so far as to nominate Bellman as one possible replacement for David Tennant on Doctor Who.) Her Sophie Devereaux is one of the more interesting characters on the series, a grifter with a shared past with Hutton's Nate Ford who dreams of becoming a legitmate actress but finds that the legit stage can't compete with the roles she plays in pursuit of crime. And Hutton's Ford seems like a man pushed over the brink into a neverending cycle of despair. After a lifetime of doing the right thing, he's lost his wife and son and any semblance of a normal life; he's turning to a life of crime in order to enact his own brand of justice for the little guy.

No, the problems I had (besides for Christian Kane's lanky, greasy hair, which irked to no end), were in the script stage. The series should be a hell of a lot smarter and far wittier than it is. While there's an obvious attempt to include humor here (rather than just make it an action-adventure yarn), most of the laughs fall flat and are far too telegraphed to make any real impact. Alec getting ribbed for living with his mother? Yawn. Sophie takes an audition for a soap commercial far too seriously? Double yawn. (Besides, David Cross' Tobias Funke did that far better with a fire sale audition years ago on Arrested Development.)

As for the plots of the first two episodes of Leverage, there's the expected number of double-crosses, betrayals, bizarro plot points (how does a military hospital accept stacks of stolen cash without attacting suspicion?), and bait-and-switches but without the energy or excitement of the aforementioned The Persuaders. While Danny Wilde and Lord Brett Sinclair lived the good life like high-flying playboys, the hero of Leverage seems destined to remain drinking alone in the dark. While death and divorce might make for a better backstory, it doesn't make us want to spend much time with Nate Ford, much less want to be him. And at the end of the day, isn't that usually the beauty of such escapist fare such as this?

Leverage premieres Sunday, December 7th at 10 pm ET/PT on TNT.