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: BubbleWatch for "Chuck," Potter Replaces Farr on "Parenthood," Sci Fi Tackles "Unfinished Business," and More

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing.

With May Upfronts only a few weeks away, there are an awful lot of series that are on the bubble for renewal next season. Chuck, which airs its penultimate episode of the season tonight, is definitely on the bubble, with its return hindered by the lack of real estate now that NBC will use the 10 pm hour next fall for a nightly Jay Leno talk show and by the numbers for midseason replacement Southland. There's a slightly better chance for Medium to return, however. (Life is expected to be cancelled, as is Kath & Kim.) FOX's Dollhouse is said to have a 50/50 shot at coming back. CBS' Without a Trace and Cold Case are said to have a 50/50 shot at a renewal, things are looking brighter for The Unit after the network asked Shawn Ryan for a fifth season bible, while Eleventh Hour is thought unlikely to return. At ABC, Better Off Ted, Castle, and The Unusuals could get a second go-around as the network is said to be happy with all three series, while Cupid is dead in the water. Privileged could return to the CW in midseason, now that Reaper has been axed. (Hollywood Reporter)

Monica Potter (Trust Me) will replace Diane Farr (Rescue Me) on NBC drama pilot Parenthood after Farr had to drop out of the project due to to scheduling conflicts with her upcoming role on Showtime's Californication. Potter will now play the wife of Peter Krause on the Universal Media Studios pilot. Sam Jaeger (Eli Stone) has also been cast in Parenthood, where he will play the stay-at-home husband of Erika Christensen's character, while Bonnia Bedelia is in talks to play the family matriarch. Elsewhere, Josh Lawson (Chandon Pictures) has been cast in CBS comedy pilot Waiting to Die. (Hollywood Reporter)

Sci Fi has ordered a pilot for supernatural police drama Unfinished Business, about a former police officer who sees "flashes of memories from the recently deceased," which propel him to help restless souls resolve the titular unfinished business. Project, from writer Sally Robinson, director Mikael Salomon (Band of Brothers), and executive producers Will Smith, James Lassiter, and Ken Stovitz, will air as a two-hour backdoor pilot. (Hollywood Reporter)

FOX has now announced that new series Mental will launch on Tuesday, May 26th before it moves to Fridays on July 3rd, while the network will be bringing back reality series The Moment of Truth on Wednesday, July 29th. (Futon Critic)

Hollywood Reporter has taken a look at the pilot projects gathering steam at the networks, offering a rundown of which projects have the best buzz so far at each individual network:

ABC: Flash Forward is a lock for a series pickup, while Happy Town, Inside the Box, Limelight, V, and the untitled Dave Hemingson dramedy are also looking good and last year's Captain Cook's Extraordinary Atlas is in contention again; chances for comedies An American Family, untitled Ricky Blitt, Cedric, and Cougar Town are all high.
FOX: High on dramas Human Target and Maggie Hill, as well as comedies Cop House and Sons of Tucson.
NBC: Slate could be joined by dramas Trauma, Parenthood, Legally Mad, or Lost & Found or comedies Community, Off Duty, or 100 Questions for Charlotte Payne, all of which the network is said to be strong on.
CBS: Likely going ahead with the untitled NCIS spin-off, while pilots Three Rivers, The Good Wife, Washington Field, US Attorney, Happiness Isn't Everything, and Accidentally on Purpose are all gathering steam.
CW: Melrose Place looks to be certain and the network is said to be happy with the Gossip Girl backdoor pilot, while Light Years, Vampire Diaries, A Beautiful Life, and Body Politic are all in contention as well. (Hollywood Reporter)

ABC is giving a chance to new drama series The Unusuals this Tuesday, replacing this week's planned installment of Cupid with a new episode of The Unusuals at 10 pm ET/PT. (The Unusuals, meanwhile, will also air a new episode on Wednesday as well, while Cupid will be back next week.) "Alphabet net has high hopes for The Unusuals, which hasn't made much noise behind Lost," writes Variety's Michael Schneider. "ABC execs would like to see how it does with an entirely different lead-in, the results edition of Dancing with the Stars." (Variety)

The New York Times' Alessandra Stanley takes a look at why FOX's 24 continues to lure audiences in and couples it with that ubiquitous sign of the times: the YouTube video of Susan Boyle from Britain's Got Talent. "That’s why 24 still works after so many seasons (or days, in the now slightly tiresome real-time conceit) and so many repetitive and preposterous red herrings," writes Stanley. "Viewers cannot be fooled the same way twice, but they can be sucked in all over again if the formula is tweaked a little. If nothing else, Britain’s Got Talent and 24, now in its seventh season, prove how quickly memory fades and how willingly audiences suspend disbelief. [...] the whole point of 24 is that we kind of know what’s coming but watch because we want to be surprised all over again." (New York Times)

Michaela McManus, who plays Assistant District Attorney Kim Greylek on NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, will not be returning to the series next season. Stephanie March, who reprised her role as ADA Alexandra Cabot, is slated to appear in four additional episodes this season. (TV Guide.com)

Variety's Michael Schneider takes a look at the way the networks are rewriting previously sacrosanct scheduling rules this year: offering 90-minute or two-hour reality series, lowering their ratings expectations, giving up on programming certain difficult nights like Fridays, offering edgier fare on NBC in an earlier timeslot, and exploring low-cost programming, such as international co-productions. (Variety)

Nielsen has some new competition: from TiVo itself, which is launching Stop Watch, a local TV ratings service, this summer. "We'll launch in no more than 10 markets and build it from there," said TiVo VP/general manager of audience research Todd Juenger. "We're in discussions with all sorts of people [...] I would say that our product addresses a whole bunch of deficiencies in the current system." Those deficiencies include being able to offer a larger sample size than Nielsen and offering second-by-second ratings, which would allow for commercial measurements on a local market level, as well as live and time-shifted measurements. Still, TiVo isn't looking to replace Nielsen outright. "This will work well side-by-side with Nielsen," said Juenger. "We'll produce a much more stable, reliable household rating number. If you have a data source from Nielsen, there's no reason you can't overlay the two." (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: FOX Terminates "Sarah Connor," Amanda Tapping Reprises "Stargate" Role, "24" Moves to Manhattan, and More

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing.

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that FOX will not be renewing sophomore drama series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles for a third season. While the network has declined to comment on a cancellation, saying that they won't be announcing their fall schedule until May 18th, Ausiello has several unnamed insiders stating that the series is dead. "It's done," said one source. "Everyone has pretty much known for a couple of weeks." Ausiello was told by one network insider, "Consider it canceled." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

As previously reported, Richard Dean Anderson, Michael Shanks, and Gary Jones will reprise their roles from various Stargate franchise series in Sci Fi's upcoming series SGU: Stargate Universe. Also joining them in providing a guest starring role on the first season of the spin-off series is Amanda Tapping, who will reprise her role as astrophysicist Samantha Carter. Also on board for SGU are Christopher McDonald (The House Bunny) who will play Senator Alan Armstrong, the head of the International Oversight Committee and father of Chloe (Elyse Levesque); singer Janelle Monae will play herself and perform two songs; and Carlo Rota (24) will play Carl Strom, the head of the International Oversight Advisory. (Hollywood Reporter)

24's Day Eight will relocate its plot to New York City, after six seasons in Los Angeles and one based in Washington D.C. Day Eight also sees the return of CTU to the mix, with Mary Lynn Rajskub returning as Chloe and three new characters, as yet uncast, including CTU head Brian Hastings. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

HBO is developing comedy pilot Women's Studies, about a famous author who, after a turn as a feminist "it" girl, becomes a professor at a small liberal arts college. Project, which will be written by Theresa Rebeck (NYPD Blue), is being viewed as a potential vehicle for actress Julie White, who will co-write the story with Rebeck and Ben Karlin (The Daily Show). (Hollywood Reporter)

Nicolette Sheridan has lashed out at Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry following the demise of her character, Edie Blitt. "I think that whoever Edie represented in Marc’s life was somebody he didn’t like," Sheridan told TV Guide magazine. "And he had a very difficult time distinguishing between fact and fiction." To his defense, Cherry says that the decision to kill off Edie was story-based as well as financial. "There has been tremendous pressure put on me to find ways to cut costs," said Cherry. "The network is saying to all the shows: 'The company is really hurting financially. You must find a way to produce these shows more cheaply.'" (TV Guide)

Bravo is developing two scripted original series, a first for the network, entitled Blueprint and 30 Under 30. Blueprint, from writer Laurence Andries (Six Feet Under) and Alloy Entertainment, is a serialized dramedy that follows the lives of two best friends--one straight, the other gay--who run an architecture and interior design firm in Manhattan. 30 Under 30, from executive producers Jonathan Prince (American Dreams) and Alana Sanko, follows twenty-something power players in Manhattan, including a gossip blogger, a real estate agent, and an artist. The cabler also unveiled a slew of new reality projects, including American Artist, Design Sixx, Kell on Earth, Launch My Line, and The Fashion Show. (Hollywood Reporter)

A&E has yet to renew drama series The Beast, which stars Patrick Swayze and Travis Fimmel, for a second season. While the cabler is waiting to see how the final two segments of the freshman season perform, A&E president Bob DeBitetto said much of the decision rests on Swayze's shoulders and if he is willing to reprise his role for another season. "As has been the case from day one, it is all about Patrick — in a lot of ways," said DeBitetto. "It is about his condition, and when and whether he would be up for another grueling production schedule." (USA Today)

BBC One has cast Leonora Crichlow (Being Human), Dervla Kirwan (Doctor Who), and Michael Landes (Love Soup) in new six-part romantic comedy series Material Girl, about "a young fashion designer battling an evil ex-boss, a sexy but devilish business partner and snobby fashionistas to get her break in work and love." Series, produced by Carnival Film and Television, is set to air on BBC One later this year. (BBC)

TBS has ordered ten episodes of animated comedy Neighbors From Hell, about a family from Hell who moves into a suburban neighborhood in order to prevent people from spending eternity among fire and brimstone. Project, written by Pam Brady (South Park) and executive produced by Brady, Mireille Soria, and Jeffrey Katzenberg, will be produced by 20th Century Fox Television and DreamWorks Animation. (Variety)

Sony Pictures Television has signed a blind script deal with Nick Bakay (Paul Blart: Mall Cop), under which he will develop and write a comedy pilot script that will be produced through Happy Madison. (Hollywood Reporter)

The Los Angeles Times' Scott Collins wonders if things have finally turned around for NBC, which last week saw successful launches for new series Parks and Recreation and John Wells' Southland. Collins says that the network has remained flat in terms of audience retention year to year (while other nets have all decreased) and the audience for NBC has gotten younger: to a median age of 47.2 this year. (Los Angeles Times' Show Tracker)

Disgraced former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich will participate on NBC's upcoming reality competition series I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!, though the network was waiting for the judge overseeing Blagojevich's case to loosen travel restrictions as the series will be shot in Costa Rica. (TV Week)

Jailed former NFL player Michael Vicks, serving time for dogfighting conspiracy, is said to be in talks with producers for a reality series that would follow him after his release from prison in July and show him "make amends for his past." As for where such a series could end up, the article points to several unnamed insiders who point towards A&E and Spike as logical first pitches. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: Showtime Renews "Tudors" One Last Time, No Cougar But Kim Bauer Returns to "24," "True Blood," and More

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing.

Showtime has renewed period drama The Tudors for a fourth and final season. The series, which stars Jonathan Rhys Meyers as England's King Henry VIII, will air ten episodes--all penned by series creator Michael Hirst--in spring 2010. (Variety)

24 executive producer Howard Gordon talks to Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider about the return of Kim Bauer (Elisha Cuthbert) to the FOX series. "Kim has been easily targeted and lampooned by fans, so we had to do it very carefully," said Gordon of Cuthbert's return. "Elisha was as sensitive to this as we were." Gordon, meanwhile, offers a few tidbits about the reason behind her return and about her relationship with Kiefer Sutherland's Jack Bauer. (Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider)

E! Online's Jennifer Godwin was on hand last night at the Paley Festival's panel for HBO's True Blood and has some answers about the Sookie/Bill/Eric love triangle and what to expect for Season Two of the vampire drama, set to return in June. About what to expect for Anna Paquin's Sookie, executive producer Alan Ball said: "She spends the first half of the season focusing on vampires and vampire politics in Dallas, as sort of a favor to Eric, and she spends the last half of the season cleaning up the mess that some new supernatural creatures have created in her town—and she is pissed. She is not going to take it anymore." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

Pilot casting alert: Diane Farr has signed on to star opposite Peter Krause in NBC comedy pilot Parenthood, where she will play the wife of Krause's character. Meanwhile, Better Off Ted's Andrea Anders has landed one of the female leads on CBS comedy pilot Big D (pilot is in second position to ABC's Better Off Ted, which has yet to be renewed); Jill Clayburgh (Dirty Sexy Money) and Henry Winkler (Arrested Development) have been cast in NBC's untitled Justin Adler comedy pilot; Joanna Garcia (Privileged) will guest star on two comedy pilots: NBC's untitled Justin Adler pilot and FOX comedy pilot Cop House (it's worth noting that both roles were originally intended to be regulars); and Lyndsy Fonseca (Desperate Housewives) and Faith Ford (Carpoolers) will star in CBS comedy pilot The Fish Tank. (Hollywood Reporter)

Josh Gad (Back to You), most recently seen on Starz's Party Down, has signed on to star in two comedy pilots and will also act as a guest correspondent on Comedy Central's The Daily Show. He has joined the cast of CBS comeyd pilot Waiting to Die, where he he will play the best friend to T.J. Miller and Nick Thune's characters who is far to eager to please his wife. Gad has also signed on in a recurring capacity in the ABC comedy pilot No Heroics (a US remake of the British series of the same name), where he will play Horce Force, a superhero and former classmate of the gang at Superhero College who has the ability to summon horses at will. (Hollywood Reporter)

Sundance Channel announced several new series, including half-hour docuseries Be Good Johnny Weir, following U.S. figure skater Johnny Weir from Endemol/Original Media, and The Day Before, which looks at the lives of fashion models during the 36 hours before a runway show from Story Box Press and Deralf. The cabler also renewed Spectacle: Elvis Costello With... for a second season and announced that it had acquired two seasons of Aussie comedy Chandon Pictures. (Variety)

Bravo has ordered fashion competition series Launch My Line (formerly known as Celebrity Sew Off), which pits celebrities against one another as they attempt to launch their own clothing lines with the help of a fashion expert, and Jackie's Gym Takeover, a Kitchen Nightmares-style series from Shed Media that will follow Jackie Warner (Work Out) as she uses her experience to help struggling gyms. The cabler is also readying The Fashion Show, launching May 7th, and Top Chef Masters, which will launch June 10th. (Hollywood Reporter)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello reports that 90210 star Dustin Milligan, who will be written out of the series at the end of the season, was conspicuously absent from Saturday evening's Paley Festival event. "I'm going to miss him terribly," said 90210 star Shenae Grimes. "He is an amazing guy and an amazing actor. We would bounce ideas off each other and we could be straight up with each other. We could be like, 'Chill with the mouth thing.' It was nice to have that on-set camaraderie. But we will keep in touch." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Singer Adele will guest star as herself in an upcoming episode of ABC's Ugly Betty, slated to air in May. The episode finds Betty, Marc, and Matt supervising a photo shoot for a YETI assignment that improbably becomes a wedding. (TV Guide)

HBO Films has optioned Mark Halperin and John Heilemann's upcoming book "Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime," about the 2008 presidential race. Charles Leavitt (Blood Diamond) will adapt the book, which is due to be published next year. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: ABC Slates "Pushing Daisies" End, Sydney Andrews Returns from Dead for "Melrose Place," John Simm Returns to "Doctor Who," and More

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing.

The Pie Maker returns to ABC! Pushing Daisies fans will finally be able to catch the final three episodes of the prematurely canceled series. ABC is expected to officially announce that it will air the final three episodes of Pushing Daisies on Saturday evenings at 10 pm ET/PT beginning May 30th. (Sadly, still no news for when or if Dirty Sexy Money or Eli Stone will return to the lineup to burn off their remaining installments.)

Also on tap for May on ABC: four-hour mini-series Diamonds, starring Judy Davis and James Purefoy, on May 24th and 26th; the launch of The Bachelorette on May 18th; the return of reality competition series Opportunity Knocks on May 26th; Wipeout returns on May 27th; and comedy The Goode Family will kick off on May 27th. (Futon Critic)

Despite her character seemingly dying in the fifth season finale of Melrose Place (where she was run over on her wedding day), Laura Leighton will reprise her role as the manipulative Sydney Andrews in the CW's revival of soap Melrose Place. (Look for the series' writers to say that she managed to survive the near-fatal car accident.) Leighton's Sydney, who will be recurring, will be the landlord of the famed apartment complex, where a new crop of LA wannabes will be living. So far, Leighton's casting marks the first deal for a cast member from the original Melrose Place to reprise their role on the new project. (Hollywood Reporter)

Meanwhile, Shark's Shaun Sipos has also been cast in Melrose Place, where he will play David Patterson, the son of original series' Jake Hansen (Grant Show), described as a "bad boy with smoldering good looks who grew up as a rich kid but has been cut off from his family money." (Hollywood Reporter)

Confirming an earlier story that John Simm would reprise his role as The Master in the series of David Tennant's farewell specials of Doctor Who, Simm has been spotted on the set of the series' Christmas special, which--along with another installment slated to air a week later on New Year's Day--mark the end of Tennant's tenure on the series as the time-traveling Doctor. Matt Smith will take over the role with Season Five of Doctor Who, slated to air next year. (Wired)

Jason Katims (Friday Night Lights) has been hired by NBC as a non-writing executive producer on drama pilot Dorothy Gale, a modern-day retelling of "The Wizard of Oz," about Kansas native Dorothy who moves to Manhattan and deals with her wickedly witchy boss in the art world. Project, written by Bridget Carpenter (Bionic Woman), will be executive produced by Carpenter, Katims, and Meryl Poster. Katims, meanwhile, is attached this season to NBC drama pilot Parenthood, in addition to duties on Friday Night Lights. (Variety)

NBC has renewed Law & Order: Special Victims Unit for an eleventh season but while the deal covers the majority of the cast, it doesn't cover series leads Mariska Hargitay and Chris Meloni. The network is said to have already begun contract negotiations with both actors. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Doctor Who's Freema Agyeman, who played Martha Jones on the series, has offered her support for inbound series lead Matt Smith taking over as the Doctor. "He's great. I can imagine there must have been a fair few people up for that role and for the producers to have such confidence in him, he must clearly have blown them away," Agyeman told Digital Spy. "He looks absolutely fantastic. He's a really good actor in all the other things he's done. I think he's going to be outstanding." (Digital Spy)

Anil Kapoor (Slumdog Millionaire) has joined the day of FOX's 24, where he will play a Middle Eastern leader who arrives in the US on a peacekeeping mission in Day Eight of the series, which is expected to bow in January 2010 on the network. (Hollywood Reporter)

Sky One has acquired UK rights to Sci Fi's new Stargate series SGU: Stargate Universe, which it plans to launch this fall. (Variety)

Reaper creators/executive producers Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters have signed a two-year overall deal with studio 20th Century Fox Television, under which they will develop series for the studio and join the writing staff of a 20th Century Fox Television series. Their exclusive deal all but makes a cancellation for CW's Reaper, produced by ABC Studios, a certainty. (Hollywood Reporter)

Creator/showrunner Mara Brock Akil is hoping to save her single-camera half-hour comedy series The Game from cancellation at the the CW by pitching the series to network executives as a reformatted one-hour dramedy. (Hollywood Reporter)

FOX has announced that it will launch overweight dating series More to Love on Tuesday, July 28th at 9 pm and delay the launch of scripted drama Mental by a week; the latter series will now debut on May 29th. (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)

SAG and the AMPTP are said to be moving towards a tentative agreement on the feature-primetime contract, which would expire in 2011, and the SAG netotiating committee is set to meet on Tuesday following several recent informal talks between the two sides, brokered by Peter Chernin and Bob Iger. But there's no deal just yet. "Any report of a tentative agreement on any aspect of our TV/Theatrical negotiations is premature," said SAG spokesperson Pamela Greenwalt. "SAG's leadership remains engaged in ongoing efforts to secure a fair deal for SAG members." (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: Charlotte's "Lost" Timeline; Krause and Tierney Find "Parenthood," Silverman Talks "Parks and Recreation" Testing, and More

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing.

Still scratching your head about the apparent confusion surrounding the age of Lost's Charlotte Staples Church, played by Rebecca Mader, who was allegedly born in 1979 but then turned up as a kid on the island in 1974? You're not the only one. In executive producer Damon Lindelof and Carlton's Cuse's latest podcast, they placed the blame for the mixup about Charlotte's age squarely on Mader, saying that she changed her character's age from 37 to 28. Mader then shot back on her Facebook page, blaming Team Darlton for the error.

Now Darlton have cleared up the confusion and apologized to Mader. "Rebecca is absolutely right and we apologize to both her and the entire fan community for screwing up the story," said the duo in an email to Michael Ausiello (click through to read the full statement). "Our first mistake was the timeline gaffe, but the much more significant one was wrapping Rebecca up in this when she had nothing to do with it. Not her fault on any level. It was our bad. One hundred percent. We will say as much in a very special "Eating Crow" edition of our Podcast tomorrow. Speaking of which, what a wonderful world we live in where we can make a comment in a Podcast that triggers a response on someone's Facebook page and that triggers a mea culpa on someone else's blog. Ah, technology." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Peter Krause (Dirty Sexy Money) and Maura Tierney (ER) have signed on to star in NBC drama pilot Parenthood, based on the 1989 feature film. Krause will play Adam Braverman, a married man with two kids who seems normal but is a raving madman underneath his calm exterior, while Tierney will play his sister Sarah, a single mother to a rebellious 16-year-old daughter (Mae Whitman). Craig T. Nelson and Dax Shepard are also in talks to join the cast of the Unviersal Media Studios/Imagine TV project. (Hollywood Reporter)

NBC's Ben Silverman has hit back after news of the poor testing for the Peacock's new comedy series Parks and Recreation, launching April 9th, were made public yesterday. Silverman claims that such findings aren't unusual for a new series. "All of the research we do around initial rough cuts is negative," Silverman told Entertainment Weekly's Tim Stack. "If you had seen the initial research on all of ours and our competitors' successful shows, it tends to be like that."(Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider)

John C. McGinley (Scrubs) has been cast in CBS drama pilot Back, opposite Skeet Ulrich and Sherry Stringfield. In the project, about a man thought missing after 9/11 who comes home and must reconnect with his family, McGinley will play Tom, a firefighter who is now married to the former wife (Stringfield) of the missing man (Ulrich). (Hollywood Reporter)

Amanda Bynes (What I Like About You) has landed the lead in ABC comedy pilot Canned, about a group of friends who all lose their jobs on the same day. Bynes will play Sarabeth, a "naive Midwesterner who's being exploited by her boss and doesn't realize it." Project, from ABC Studios and Brillstein Entertainment Partners, is written/executive produced by Kevin Etten and executive produced by David Rosenthal and Peter Traugott. Already cast in the project: Tim Peper, Stephanie Lemelin, and Baron Vaughn. (Variety)

Elsewhere, a whole string of pilot casting alerts: Jacqueline Bisset (Nip/Tuck) will play one of the leads in CBS drama pilot The Eastmans, about a family of doctors, where she will play the family matriarch, an ER nurse; Steve Howey (Reba) has been cast as the male lead in NBC comedy pilot State of Romance (also cast: Zoe Lister Jones and Grace Rex); Andrea Parker (Less Than Perfect) will star in ABC comedy pilot presentation This Little Piggy; and Lourdes Benedicto (Cashmere Mafia) has been cast in ABC drama pilot V. (Hollywood Reporter)

Kiefer Sutherland said that he is committed to FOX drama 24 and likened his relationship to the drama series to a romantic one. "If I was going to liken 24 to a girlfriend, 24 has been really good to me. And I need to be really good back," said Sutherland said. "There are plays I want to do. There are so many different things I would like to do, but I was so fortunate to be part of something like 24 that my focus is still on that right now. [...] The real pressure is placed on the writers. It's a real question about how much they feel they can give and what they can do." (Associated Press)

Jennifer Beals (The L Word) has been cast in a multiple-episode story arc on FOX drama Lie to Me, where she will play Zoe Landau, the ex-wife of Cal Lightman (Tim Roth) and mother of their daughter, Emily (Hayley McFarland). Zoe, an assistant U.S. Attorney, will hire Cal to investigate an arson case though it will become clear that these two have unresolved feelings for one another. Beals' first episode is slated to air April 29th. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

E! Online's Jennifer Godwin is reporting that some fans of One Tree Hill have caught star Chad Michael Murray talking about the future on the CW series... or, more specifically, his future on the series. "I won't be back," he told stunned onlookers who captured the disclosure on video. It's not yet known if Murray was kidding in his remarks about One Tree Hill, which has already been renewed for a seventh season on the CW. "They don't want me," said Murray, speaking about the series' producers. "I'm not joking." CW has yet to issue an official comment denying or supporting Murray's comments. (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

Chelsea Handler has signed a three-year deal that will keep her as the host and executive producer of E!'s latenight talk show Chelsea Lately through 2012 and also have her produce new series for Comcast's portfolio of channels, which includes G4, Style, and Fearnet through her production company, Borderline Amazing Prods, with Comcast getting a first look at any projects emanating from the shingle. (Variety)

Robert Wuhl (Arli$$) is developing an untitled comedy series for HBO about a father and son who run a New York sports arena. Wuhl will co-write the pilot script with Seth Greenland as well as direct and executive produce. (Hollywood Reporter)

Nikke Finke has confirmed that Laurence Fishburne is being paid more than $14 million for his role on CBS' CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. (Deadline Hollywood Daily)

Spike has acquired rerun rights to HBO's period drama Band of Brothers, which the cabler will launch in third quarter 2009. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: Jason Dohring and Minka Kelly Lead "Body Politic," Ashley Jensen Lands Pilot, Skeet Ulrich Goes "Back" to CBS, and More

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing.

Jason Dohring (Veronica Mars) and Minka Kelly (Friday Night Lights) have signed on to star in CW drama pilot Body Politic, from CBS Paramount Network Television. Dohring will play a Washington Post reporter while Kelly will play Hope, a young woman who leaves Michigan after the death of her mother to take a position in Washington in as a staffer for a senator (Tim Matheson), who has just been named Attorney General. Fans of Friday Night Lights shouldn't worry, however: Kelly's casting here doesn't signal the end of FNL as she was not set to return as a series regular next season but will instead turn up in Season Four in a multiple-episode story arc should the series be renewed. (Hollywood Reporter)

ABC has confirmed that Ashley Jensen will leave Ugly Betty at the end of the season; it's no secret that the actress was "less than thrilled" when Betty moved production from Los Angeles to New York last year. Jensen, meanwhile, has been cast in CBS comedy pilot Accidentally on Purpose, where she will play the best friend of Jenna Elfman's character, a San Francisco movie critic who finds herself pregnant after a one-night stand. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files, Hollywood Reporter)

Skeet Ulrich (Jericho) has landed the lead in CBS drama pilot Back, from CBS Paramount Network Television, writer/executive producer Dean Widenmann (CSI: Miami) and director Mark Pellington. Project follows a man (Ulrich) who returns home only to learn that he's was reported missing after 9/11 and has to reconnect with his family. (Hollywood Reporter)

CBS has ordered four additional scripts for comedy series How I Met Your Mother, which has seen a 33 percent ratings increase this season. The script order, while not quite an early renewal, is seen as a sign that the comedy will be returning next season and will allow showrunners to begin to break next season's stories. (TV Week)

Pilot casting alert: Bruce Greenwood (John from Cincinnati), Miranda Otto (Cashmere Mafia), Kay Panabaker (CSI), and Nick Eversman will play the four leads in CBS drama pilot A Marriage; Billy Zane (Charmed) has been cast in ABC's untitled Dave Hemingson drama pilot; Zoe McLellan (Dirty Sexy Money) will play the lead in ABC drama pilot House Rules (also cast: Anna Chulmsky); Coupling's Richard Coyle will co-star in medical drama pilot Miami Trauma; Julie Gonzalo (Veronica Mars, Eli Stone) has been cast as the female lead on NBC sci-fi pilot Day One (also cast: Derek Mio and Addison Timlin); and Whitney Cummings (Made of Honor) will star in FOX comedy pilot The Station. (Hollywood Reporter)

Balthazar Getty (Brothers & Sisters) will guest star on an upcoming episode of NBC's Medium, where he will play a wealthy real estate investor whose wife is missing. [Editor: The episode will also feature Anjelica Huston and Rumer Willis, who will play a missing young woman whom Allison (Patricia Arquette) had rescued years before.] Elsewhere, Amy Madigan will return to Grey's Anatomy as Seattle Grace's on-call psychiatrist and will treat Kevin McKidd's Owen and Hector Elizondo will reprise his role as Callie's father in April. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Valerie Cruz (Hidden Palms) has been cast in HBO's True Blood in a recurring role; she'll play Isabel, an elegant Latino vampire. Elsewhere, Tim Guinee (Iron Man) will recur on FOX's 24 as reporter Ken Dellao, who has a connection to First Daughter Olivia Taylor (Sprague Grayden), and Clifton Powell (Rush Hour) has been cast as a psychologist on Lifetime's Army Wives. (Hollywood Reporter)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello has learned that CBS has told the producers of Warner Bros. Television-produced drama series Cold Case and Without a Trace that their series may be facing possible cancellation. "They no longer have the type of ratings that justify the massive overhead," an unnamed CBS source tells Ausiello. However, even if the studio is able to reduce budgetary costs on the series, "it's not a given that either show will be back."(Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

USA Today speaks to Australian actor Chris Egan, the lead in NBC's new drama series Kings. "In the time where the world is right now, people need to be brave," said Egan of NBC's Kings. "That's what this story is. It's about a young soldier who makes a brave decision to go against orders and follow his heart. God described him as a man after his own heart. He was just this young kid who went out and faced this giant when all the odds are against him, when no one thought he could do it, and if anything, people were mocking him. I think there's such a great message behind that." (USA Today)

Comedy Central has not renewed David Alan Grier's Chocolate News, which aired ten episodes last year. (New York Times)

Sara Foster (The Big Bounce) has landed a recurring role on CW's 90210, where she will play the older sister of AnnaLynne McCord's Naomi who arrives in Beverly Hills to cause some chaos. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: "Hex" Star Lands FOX Pilot, First "Melrose Place" Casting, Seinfeld Sells Reality Series to NBC, Cassar Quits "24," and More

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing.

Former Hex star Christina Cole has been cast as the lead in FOX's untitled Ian Biederman drama, where she will play a female surgeon who suffers from adult-onset schizophrenia; Cole Hauser (K-Ville) will star in CBS drama pilot Washington Field, where he will play the squad's supervisor; Michael Nouri (Damages) has been cast in ABC drama pilot Empire State, where he'll play the wealthy father of a girl involved in a star-crossed romance with a blue-collar worker; and Anthony Carrigan, Michelle Borth, Bob Stephenson, and Rochelle Aytes have been cast in ABC's untitled Jerry Bruckheimer drama pilot (formerly known as The Unknown). (Hollywood Reporter)

NBC has ordered reality/comedy hybrid series The Marriage Ref, from executive producers Jerry Seinfeld and Ellen Rakieten, in which celebrities offer advice to real-life couples battling "classic marital disputes." So far there is no launch date for the series, nor has a timeslot been announced. "Jerry called us up and told us he had an idea," said NBC's Ben Silverman. "He flew in to sit down with us, and he and Ellen pitched the show. We were laughing the whole time as they went through the concept. As Jerry noted, some of the greatest comedies in history have been about marriage." (Variety)

Michael Rady (Swingtown) is the first actor to be cast in the CW's remake of Melrose Place; he'll play Jonah Miller, an aspiring filmmaker who pays the rent by working as an event videographer after relocating to LA with his fiancée a year ago. Comparisons are already being made between the character of Jonah and Andrew Shue's Billy Campbell from the original FOX series. (Hollywood Reporter)

In other casting news, Derek Luke (Notorious) has landed the lead in NBC drama pilot Trauma, where he will play a trauma doctor who struggles to be a devoted husband and father. Also set to join the cast: Kevin Rankin (Friday Night Lights), Cliff Curtis (Live Free or Die Hard), and Jamey Sheridan (Law & Order: Criminal Intent). (Hollywood Reporter)

Executive producer Jon Cassar has left FOX series 24 after six seasons after he and the studio failed to come to terms on a new contract. "I will not be involved with the upcoming eighth season," Cassar told Michael Ausiello. "Although that's sad for me to leave after six years, it's also very exciting to be back in the marketplace working with different people and facing different challenges." Next up for Cassar: directing CBS drama pilot Washington Field. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

FOX has renewed animated comedy The Simpsons for two additional seasons. Under the terms of the deal, The Simpsons will reach its 22nd season, making it the longest-running primetime series. (Variety)

CBS is said to be close to ordering two additional cycles of long-running reality series Survivor, the series' 19th and 20th, for the 2009-10 season. The CBS reality staple has seen a ratings upsurge this season and could be on course to celebrate its 10th anniversary next year. (TV Week)

BBC Three has renewed supernatural drama Being Human for a second season of eight episodes. The current season, which is set to air Stateside on BBC America later this year, concludes this Sunday. (BBC)

FOX has rolled comedy pilot Walorsky, about a former cop turned security guard at a Buffalo, NY mall, to next season after the network faced problems casting the lead role. Move marks the fourth pilot, after Confessions of a Contractor, Funny in Farsi, and Planet Lucy, to be rolled over. (Hollywood Reporter)

Lauren Conrad has told Seventeen magazine that the next season of MTV's The Hills will be her last. "My biggest thing with the show was that I wanted to walk away from it while it’s still a great thing," she explains. "I always want to remember it that way. I gave MTV a deadline and said, 'This is as long as I can do it and stay sane.'" (via People)

The cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation, including Patrick Stewart, Levar Burton, Gates McFadden, Michael Dorn, Wil Wheaton, Denise Crosby, Marina Sirtis, Brent Spiner, and Jonathan Frakes, will lend their voices to an upcoming episode of FOX's Family Guy, slated to air next month. The episode, entitled "Not All Dogs Go to Heaven," follows the Griffins as they head to the annual Trek convention. (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)

FOX has brought on former My Wife and Kids co-creator/executive producer Don Reo as showrunner on the fourth season of 'Til Death; he'll work alongside series creators Cathy Yuspa and Josh Goldsmith. (Hollywood Reporter)

ABC Family has acquired rights to the final season of the WB/CW series Gilmore Girls, which it will air beginning in June. The cabler now owns rights to all 153 episodes of the series. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: "Mad Men" to Return This Summer, "Gossip Girl" Looking for Archibald Cousin, "Heroes" Producer Speaks Out, and More

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing.

AMC president Charlie Collier was very optimistic that period drama Mad Men will return for its third season this summer as scheduled, despite the protracted contract renegotiation between series creator/executive producer Matthew Weiner and studio Lionsgate Television. "As long as we get the writers' room up and running over the next few months, we're fine [for a summer launch]," said Collier, speaking at yesterday's Television Critics Association panel. Also on tap for later this year a the cabler, the six-part series remake of classic British drama The Prisoner, starring James Caviezel and Ian McKellan. (Variety)

Gossip Girl is currently casting a new character for its sophomore season named Kip Vanderbilt, who will be the 20-something married cousin of Chace Crawford's Nate Archibald. Kip has been described as "wealthy, confident, politically-minded and — all together now — extremely good-looking." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Heroes producer Mark Verheiden has spoken out about what to expect for the series' upcoming "Fugitives" arc and has said that writers are trying to fix the creatively flagging series. "hat we tried to do with the show as a group, people will notice that we’re not doing as many stories per show and lingering a bit on the stories we’re doing... I think in going forward what we’re probably doing is leaving some of the stuff of 'Villains’ behind. You’ll see that Primatech and Pinehurst aren’t viable anymore. So those entities will be dissolved and a couple of characters have decided to, one in particular, taken a dramatic new turn that will set off where we’re going with “Fugitives’ very clearly. The Nathan character played by Adrian Pasdar, a great actor, he has some really fun and emotional turns coming in the 'Fugitives' arc. There’s also a great arc with Sylar coming up. Very fun." (io9)

After rumors to the contrary, it seems as though John Wells' cop drama Police (formerly known as LAPD) will air on NBC, after all. The Peacock and Warner Bros. Television are said to be close to handing out a series order for six episodes of the John Wells-produced drama.... as well as quietly extending the fifteenth season run of Wells' ER by an additional three episodes. (ER was meant to air its series finale on March 12th.) Should ER be extended, it could put a snag in NBC's original plans to roll out new drama Kings on March 19th; launch of that series could be delayed as a result. As for Police (which needs a new name, stat), which stars Kevin Alejandro, Arija Bareikis, Michael Cudlitz, Shawn Hatosy, Regina King, Michael McGrady, Benjamin McKenzie, and Tom Everett Scott, there's no news yet on where NBC would slot the series. (Variety)

The cast of CBS' comedy How I Met Your Mother received some substantial holiday presents following months of contract renegotiations as each of them managed to double or treble their salaries. Series stars Josh Radnor, Jason Segel, Cobie Smulders, Neil Patrick Harris, and Alyson Hannigan signed new deals with studio 20th Century Fox Television raises their salaries to $90,000-$120,000 per episode and locks them into an extra year on top of their original seven-year contracts. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stephanie March will reprise her role as Assistant District Attorney Alexandra Cabot on NBC's Law and Order: Special Victims Unit in six episodes, beginning February 17th. (via press release)


Omar Benson Miller (Miracle at St. Anna) has been cast in CBS drama Eleventh Hour, where he will play Felix, an FBI trainee who is keen to join Agent Young's team, in at least three episodes. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

E! has ordered eight half-hour episodes of docusoap Candy Girls, which will follow the lives of actresses seen in hip-hop videos from acts like Kanye West, Jay-Z, and Three 6 Mafia. Series, from Good Clean Fun, will launch March 8th. (Variety)

The clock is ticking down to the launch of Day Seven for FOX's 24 and the reviews continue to pour in. "The novelty of the hour-by-hour conceit wore off long ago, and the various plot devices and characters are all familiar," writes the New York Times' Alessandra Stanley. "The fun, at least at the beginning of a new season, is in seeing how the creators will rejigger the pieces this time around. The premiere has a promising car crash but not many surprises. If the previous 144 hours (146 including “Redemption”) count for anything, it is that they prove that action alone isn’t enough to hold attention and that plot twists work best when the characters caught up in them are a little twisted as well." (New York Times)

The Style Network has signed a first look deal with fashion doyenne Finola Hughes (Running in Heels) to produce programming for the channel and host various series. She is currently producing, with Berman/Braun Prods., a pilot for docusoap Cool Girl Hate Club, which will be shot later this month. (Variety)

Tom Welling, according to sources, is said to be close to signing on for a ninth season of CW's Smallville. Also expected to return: Erica Durance's Lois Lane and Justin Hartley's Green Arrow, though there is no news on whether Allison Mack or Aaron Ashmore will reprise their roles. (Radar)

Stay tuned.

FOX Announces Midseason Schedule, Sticks "Dollhouse" in Friday Attic

After weeks of anticipation, FOX has announced its midseason schedule for winter 2008/09.

Among the winners? Fringe, which gets the highly prized post-American Idol timeslot on Tuesdays, and new drama Lie to Me, which gets a Wednesday night timeslot also following American Idol. Among the losers? Genre series Dollhouse--from creator Joss Whedon--and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which get shipped out to timeslot Siberia, namely Friday nights. (Ouch.)

While many Whedon fans are already up in arms about what they perceive as a slight against Dollhouse, I can say that I am not at all surprised that FOX has chosen to ship the creatively struggling Dollhouse and ratings-starved Sarah Connor to Friday nights. Having seen the first two episodes of Dollhouse (and failing to be very impressed despite being a die-hard Whedon-ite), it makes sense that FOX would try to minimize any expectations and put Dollhouse on an evening where ratings are slim to begin with.

However, one can't help but be reminded of the decision to move Dollhouse to Friday evenings of FOX's programming decision a few years back when it placed Whedon's own Firefly in the very same timeslot. A self-fulfilling prophecy? That remains to be seen. But fans shouldn't get too comfortable when Dollhouse kicks off on February 13th.

FOX's full midseason schedule can be found after the jump.

FOX MIDSEASON SCHEDULE

MONDAY

Monday, Jan. 5th:
7:30 pm-CC ET: TOSTITOS FIESTA BOWL (LIVE)

Monday, Jan. 12th:
8-10 pm: 24 (Season Seven Premiere, Part 2)

Mondays, beginning Jan. 19th:
8-9 pm: House (Time Period Premiere)
9-10 pm: 24 (Time Period Premiere)

TUESDAY

Tuesday, Jan. 13th:
8-10 pm: American Idol (Season Premiere, Part 1)

Tuesdays, beginning Jan. 20th:
8-9 pm: American Idol (Time Period Premiere)
9-10 pm: Fringe

WEDNESDAY

Wednesday, Jan. 14th:
8-10 pm: American Idol (Season Premiere, Part 2)

Wednesdays, beginning Jan. 21st:
8-9 pm: American Idol (Time Period Premiere)
9-10 pm: Lie to Me (Series Premiere)

THURSDAY

Thursday, Jan. 1st:
7:30 pm-CC ET: FEDEX ORANGE BOWL (LIVE)

Thursday, Jan. 8th:
7:30 pm-CC ET: FEDEX BCS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME (LIVE)

Thursdays, beginning Jan. 15th:
8-9 pm: Bones (Time Period Premiere)
9-10 pm: Kitchen Nightmares

Thursdays, beginning Jan. 29th:
8-9 pm: Bones
9-10 pm: Hell's Kitchen (Season Premiere)

FRIDAY

Friday, Jan. 2nd:
7:30 pm-CC ET: ALLSTATE SUGAR BOWL (LIVE)

Friday, Jan. 9th:
8-10 pm: FOX MOVIE SPECIAL: BRUCE ALMIGHTY

Fridays, beginning Jan. 16th (no change to lineup):

8-9 pm: Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?
9-10 pm: Don't Forget the Lyrics!

Fridays, beginning Feb. 13th:
8-9 pm: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (Time Period Premiere)
9-10 pm: Dollhouse (Series Premiere)

SATURDAY

Saturdays, beginning Jan. 3rd (no change to lineup):
8-8:30 pm: COPS
8:30-9 pm: COPS
9-10 pm: America's Most Wanted: America Fights Back
11-Midnight: MADtv
Midnight-12:30 am: Talkshow with Spike Feresten

SUNDAY

Sunday, Jan. 11th:
8-10 pm: 24 (Season Premiere, Part 1)

Sundays, beginning Jan. 18th:
7-7:30 pm: Hole in the Wall (Time Period Premiere)
7:30-8 pm: Hole in the Wall (Time Period Premiere)
8-10 pm: ANIMATION DOMINATION (The Simpsons, King of the Hill, Family Guy, and American Dad)

[N.B.: Prison Break and 'Til Death will return to the schedule at a later date.]

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: "24" Returns, Wallace and Gromit, Brooke Smith, and More

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. I can't believe that today is Election Day and I hope that all of you out there, before reading this, have done your civic duty and exercised your democratic right to vote today. I know I won't be resting easily until after this election is called, one way or the other, though naturally there's a specific winner I have in mind.

Following Sunday's news that Jeph Loeb and Jesse Alexander had been fired from NBC's Heroes, series creator Tim Kring announced that he will "focus on simplifying what's been criticized, even by ardent fans, as an overly complex storytelling structure to get back to the show's comicbookish good vs. evil themes and to emphasize character development more than plot twists." Execs seem to believe that Kring has focused more on post-production than on breaking stories; he'll have to switch gears and spend more time in the writers' room fixing the series' wavering tone. (Variety)

24 will return to FOX with Day Seven in a two-night event to kick off on January 11th and 12th. (You can, however, get your Jack Bauer fix this fall with two-hour feature-length outing 24: Redemption on November 23rd.) In other FOX programming news, the network has announced a December 3rd start date for unscripted series Secret Millionaire from RDF, which will air twice weekly on Wednesdays and Thursdays during December. No word on whether Joss Whedon's Dollhouse is still scheduled to launch on January 19th. Sit tight on that one. (Variety)

Brooke Smith has been fired from her role as Erica Hahn on ABC's Grey's Anatomy, in a decision that was clearly not made by series creator Shonda Rhimes but rather by network executives said to have "issues" with the rather explicit direction that Callie and Erica's relationship was going. Given the positive fan reaction to this pairing, it seems rather odd that ABC would go this route and rather sad. "I don't know for sure, but it definitely seemed like [Shonda's] hands were tied," said Smith. "That was just my gut." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Everyone's favorite stop-motion duo, Wallace and Gromit, will return to BBC One this Christmas with a new half-hour outing entitled Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death, in which our cheese-loving pair open up a bakery and encounter success, because a serial killer known as the Cereal Killer is targeting their competition. No news on when this new adventure will air Stateside, but I cannot wait! (BBC)

ABC is said to be interesting in picking up King of the Hill, which will not be renewed past the 14th season by FOX. Animated series is said to be make a good companion to ABC's midseason animated offer, The Goode Family, which is created by King creator Mike Judge. (Variety)

Ron Livingston and Florentine Lahme will star in Fox Television Studio's new series Defying Gravity, a co-production between the News Corp division and BBC, Canada's CTV, and Germany's ProSieben. Project, from creator/executive producer James Parriott (Grey's Anatomy) and executive producer Michael Edelstein (Desperate Housewives), follows a group of international astronauts who sign up for a mysterious six-year mission through the solar system. David Straiton (House) will direct the 13-episode series' first installment, which begins production in Vancouver on January 19th. (Personally, I much prefer Ronald D. Moore's far-more-interesting Virtuality that's up for midseason contention at FOX.) (Hollywood Reporter)

David Sutcliffe, Lauren Holly, and Jennifer Westfeldt will star in Hallmark Channel film Then Again, slated to air on Valentine's Day; film follows a man, heartbroken when his fiancee refuses to marry him, who travels back in time to save his future fiancee from her own broken heart. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: "24" Shutdown, "BSG" Cast Revealed for Prequel Movie, "Project Runway" Delayed, "Doctor Who," and More

Good morning and welcome to your Monday morning television briefing.

Production will shut down on 24, whose seventh season has been delayed since last January due to the writers strike, for more than two weeks beginning September 15th. The reason behind the enforced break? 24 executive producer Howard Gordon was reportedly displeased with the direction of the last six episodes of the season. During their time off, scripts will be written in order to change the season's direction, with production set to resume by October 9th. (Variety)

More on that 24 shut down: ""We had a couple of scripts that we weren't happy with," said Howard Gordon in an interview. "We just couldn't get this direction to work, and we found another one that we liked better, so we wound up retooling it [...] The only, only, only concern at all is getting it right. Our feeling was this: We're so happy with what we've done so far, and to the extent that we had that luxury [of time], we said, 'Why not make it as good as we could?'" (Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider)

SCI FI has revealed the cast of its Cylon-centric two-hour untitled Battlestar Galactica event. Suiting up for the prequel feature-length special are Edward James Olmos, Michael Trucco, Aaron Douglas, Dean Stockwell, Tricia Helfer, Grace Park, Callum Keith Rennie, Rick Worthy, and Michael Hogan. Project is written by series co-executive producer Jane Espenson and will be directed by Edward James Olmos. Battlestar Galactica's final season, meanwhile, will resume in January. (TV Guide)

Jamie Bamber (BSG), Freema Agyeman (Doctor Who), Bradley Walsh (Coronation Street), and Harriet Walter (Doctors) will star in the British version of Law & Order for ITV, which is being overseen by Torchwood writer Chris Chibnall. (Digital Spy)

CBS has ordered a pilot for multi-camera family comedy The Karenskys, about a woman's return to her large, eccentric, and very ethnic family after her husband takes a gig in her hometown. Project, from writer/executive producer Linwood Boomer (Malcolm in the Middle) was originally set up at CBS ten years ago. Boomer will executive produce the pilot, from Universal Media Studios, along with Gail Berman and Lloyd Braun. (Variety)

ABC has given a thirteen-episode order to comedy In the Motherhood, based on the online series starring Chelsea Handler, Leah Remini, and Jenny McCarthy about three women whose trials and travails are based on the stories of real mothers from across the country. Handler will return to star in the linear comedy, with Megan Mullally (Will & Grace) and Cheryl Hines (Curb Your Enthusiasm) in talks to join her. (Hollywood Reporter)

Season Six of reality competition series Project Runway, which jumps networks from Bravo to Lifetime after the current season ends, has been delayed until January 2009. Season Six was originally meant to launch on Lifetime this November. "With this move, the series will resume its traditional cycle of two seasons per year," said a Lifetime spokeperson. "We look forward to ringing in the New Year by giving Project Runway loyal fans a superlative season six with Heidi, Tim, Nina, and Michael. The new date and time will be announced soon.” (Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider)

NBC has ordered a Muppets Christmas special entitled Letters to Santa: A Muppets Christmas, which will feature guest stars Whoopi Goldberg, Tony Sirico (The Sopranos), Richard Griffiths (Harry Potter) and Madison Pettis (Cory in the House), as well as the entire Muppet gang. (Hollywood Reporter)

Wondering what the hell The CW's head honcho Dawn Ostroff is thinking? Look no further than this interview, in which she answers ten questions about 90210, low ratings, and, well, the netlet's failures. (TV Week)

Little Britain USA, which launches on HBO on September 28th, will air this autumn on BBC One. I've seen the first three episodes and they definitely pack a comedic punch, BTW. (BBC)

Catherine Tate, John Simm, and Bernard Cribbins are allegedly returning to Doctor Who next season as part of the casts for the four specials planned for 2009. According to The Sun (so take it with a huge ball of salt), Tate will reprise her role as former companion Donna Noble, Simm will return as The Master, and Cribbins will again play Wilf, Donna's grandfather. (Digital Spy)

Tom Sizemore has been cast in Starz's drama series Crash (based on the feature film) in the recurring role of Detective Adrian Cooper, an unorthodox cop who is investigating a police-involved shooting. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

Damn It, Jack: "24" Teases What's to Come for Day Seven, "Exile"

It seems like it's been about five years since we last caught up with 24's Jack Bauer. When last we saw him, he was staring off into the distance at the very edge of a cliff... and has remained doing so since last winter's writers strike delayed the start of 24's Day Seven by a year.

However, fans of 24 will get a glimpse into the life of Jack Bauer this fall when FOX airs the two-hour 24 prequel telefilm, 24: Exile, which follows Jack in Africa as he takes on the ripped-from-the-headlines issue of child soldiers.

Fans at the 24 panel at Comic-Con were treated not only to 24: Exile's trailer--which features lots of familiar faces including Kiefer Sutherland, Peter MacNicol, and Powers Boothe, but also first female president Cherry Jones, Jon Voight, Robert Carlisle, and Gil Bellows--but also to a look at a full scene from the prequel movie, in which Jack shepherds a group of African children to the US embassy but finds himself caught in a full-blown gunfight on a crowded street. In addition to the gunfire, it's also a deeply emotional scene, in which Jack is forced to tell a sobbing African child that his beloved teacher, Mr. Benton, sacrificed himself in order to ensure their safety.

Kiefer Sutherland and Carlos Bernard, who returns as presumed dead Tony Alameida for Day Seven, were on hand, along with executive producers Jon Cassar, Howard Gordon, David Fury, Manny Coto, and new writing staff additions Brandon Braga (Star Trek) and Carlos Coto. Gordon explained that the "genesis" of 24: Exile originally came about when they were exploring doing some webisodes or mobisodes for 24 and he and Sutherland began riffing about an African storyline that had been discarded from a previous season; those discussions ended up informing what would become 24: Exile. "It turned out to be a very good idea," said Gordon. "Day Six ended with Jack at the edge of the cliff, a very existential moment... but an emotional bridge was missing [from the season finale]."

Cassar said that the studio originally intended to shoot for three days in South Africa and then shoot the rest of the two-hour Exile in Simi Valley, California, which would have been a "hard cheat." FOX ended up telling them to shoot the entire thing in South Africa, which was "tough," as they had to get a new crew and new actors, but Cassar admitted that the process was "pretty exciting... being there gave it a whole new feeling."

For Sutherland, 24: Exile was definitely exciting. "It was arguably one of the best scripts we've ever had," said Sutherland. "We weren't racing against some clock to get it to air."

As for the issue of the strike, Manny Coto said that it was a mixed blessing but it "allowed us the freedom and creativity to make the season even deeper."

As for the depth of Day Seven, we do know that it involves the first female president of the United States, who will be played by celebrated Broadway actress Cherry Jones, and the return of fan favorite character Tony Alameida (Carlos Bernard).

For his part, Bernard says he jumped at the opportunity to work with the 24 again, due to the "amazing mixture of talented people who make this show" and said he had the "funnest year yet working on the show."

So what does it mean that Tony has seemingly returned from the dead? Gordon joked that it "very well could be a measure of our desperation that he's back," and noted that on paper at least Tony had been killed four times over the series' run. Producers David Fury and Manny Coto, however, refused to accept Tony's final death (which seemed to be sticking), saying that they didn't believe that Tony was dead; even Gordon admitted that he didn't love the way that Tony had died.

For Sutherland, Tony's death was a reminder that none of the characters is safe. "The most difficult thing during the run of the show," said Sutherland, "is working with talented actors who leave the show. Everything has to service the story. When Howard Gordon brought up that Tony was coming back again, I asked, 'How?'"

The secret behind Tony's return will be a major component of Day Seven. Sutherland says the method by which he's returned to the series is "so clever" and "very 24." The backstory will be a function of how Tony didn't actually die and what was done behind people's backs in order to secretly keep him alive and fake his death.. "I think the writers did an amazing job," said Sutherland.

As for what to expect from Day Seven, launching in January, Sutherland joked that Tony will die. But more honestly, Sutherland said, "We're not trying to reinvent the show... [but] make it better, tighter, and smarter and that's hopefully what you'll see in the seventh season."

As for Jack, "he's trying to be better," said Sutherland. New cast additions include Cherry Jones, Jon Voight, Annie Wersching (who will play Jack's new partner, a tough-as-nails FBI agent who could be perceived as a "female Jack Bauer"), Rhys Coiro, and Janeane Garofalo.

Audiences will see Jack Bauer have to answer for the torture he's inflicted on several characters throughout the series' run. David Fury says that they are never "endorsing torture" but are showing that Jack's use of torture will have consequences. "It's kind of necessary for people to get hurt," said Fury about the series.

What we won't be seeing in Day Seven, however, is Jack pausing to grab a cup of coffee, use the toilet, or grab a sandwich. In fact, Sutherland and Gordon revealed that they had shot a scene in a previous season in which Jack was seen coming out of the restroom before a raid and the network cut the scene. "Whenever they cut to the White House," joked Sutherland, "Jack is in the bathroom. And not only is he peeing, he's having a drink and getting something to eat."

As for favorite episodes, Sutherland diplomatically says that he's "optimistic about that future" and therefore they haven't made his favorite yet but that 24: Exile is "certainly up there." He's also extremely proud of episodes 8-11 of Day Seven. (His coolest moment on the series to date, however was when he "chopped off that guy's head off in Season Two.")

Bernard seconded the notion, saying that his favorite was definitely from Day Seven. As for Tony being evil, Bernard said that the transformation for Tony from hero to villain is "very organic from where his story has gone since the beginning." Sutherland says that the first scene he shot with Bernard this season, "I got to shoot at him and tackle him. I loved it."

So what's going on with those rumors of a 24 feature film? Gordon says that the basic consensus is that "while the series is on the air, I don't want to mess with a good thing," but that a 24 feature will happen when the series wraps.

Clock Ticking for "24" This Fall, After All?

Don't get too excited. 24 won't launch this autumn (FOX is sticking to its plans to launch Day Seven in full, come January 2009), but fans might just get a brief Jack Bauer fix before Season Seven kicks off this winter.

The Hollywood Reporter has reported that FOX is developing a two-hour 24 prequel that will bridge the gap between Day Six (remember back all the way to the 2006-07 season?) and Day Seven, which finds Jack Bauer dealing with the first female president (Cherry Jones) and the return of a familiar face from his past.

While FOX and studio 20th Century Fox Television had no comment about the story, The Hollywood Reporter claims that the network plans to air the 24 prequel sometime this fall and producers are hard at work to secure talent deals for the prequel's cast members.

Let's just hope those cast members don't include that damned cougar.

Warden Pope: FOX Locks Actress for "24"

Is it just me or is Carly Pope suddenly everywhere these days?

The former Popular actress has been turning up everywhere lately (new agent?), from a co-starring role on FX's Dirt (where she played Garbo) to a random one-episode guest starring spot on this past season of The 4400 (remember the girl who randomly slept with Shawn and then promptly vanished after going to the press?).

Pope has turned up again, this time on Day Seven of FOX's real-time thriller 24.

While next to no information has been released about who most actors will play in 24's seventh season, here's what we do know about Pope's character. She'll play Samantha Roth, the girlfriend of the son of the US president (Cherry Jones), who may be involved with his disappearance.

Intriguing. I'll all for a little family disappearance on 24, so long as it doesn't involve (A) Kim Bauer, (B) cougars, or (C) animal traps.

* * *

Paging Patty Hewes...

In other casting news, Firefly's Alan Tudyk (oh, Wash, we miss ye) and British actor Andrew Lincoln (Afterlife, Teachers) have been cast in NBC's untitled legal drama pilot from writer Luke Reitner and director Barry Sonnenfeld (Pushing Daisies) about slick shysters at a high-stakes Manhattan civil firm who will do whatever it takes to win their cases.

Tudyk, currently on the big screen in Death at a Funeral, will play Charlie, a loquacious lawyer desperate to get to the top of the dogpile, while Lincoln--perhaps best known for his work in Love Actually and This Life--will play Joe, a justice-driven lawyer with a mysterious past.

If it weren't enough that Charlie and Joe were diametrically oppoised in their moral outlooks, both men are in love with the same woman.

Production on the pilot, from Universal Media Studios, begins October 22nd in New York.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: NCIS (CBS); Singing Bee/Biggest Loser (NBC; 8:30-10 pm); Beauty and the Geek (CW); Cavemen/Carpoolers (ABC); Bones (FOX)

9 pm: The Unit (CBS); Reaper (CW); Dancing with the Stars (ABC); House (FOX)

10 pm: Cane (CBS); Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (NBC); Boston Legal (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

8 pm: Beauty & the Geek.

I'm a sucker for the CW's "social experiment" Beauty & the Geek. On tonight's episode ("It's Not Rocket Science"), the geeks give their partners massages while the beauties learn about rocket science. All this AND a certain romance turns intense.

10 pm: Damages on FX.

FX's brilliant legal drama continues with an-all new episode tonight ("I Hate These People"), Patty and Frobisher both ramp up their war against each other with the stakes higher than ever, Ellen's new information about George Moore could help Patty but what is it worth to Ellen?

Casting Couch: Paging Kari Matchett to the "ER"

Veteran drama ER, returning this fall for what is possibly its very last outing, has landed yet another doctor.

Kari Matchett, late of 24 (in a role termed by one Televisionary reader as "Slutty Blonde Girl"), Invasion, Shark, and TNT's short-lived medical drama Heartland, has been cast on NBC's ER.

It's hardly surprising that Matchett will play a doctor, a role a role not unfamiliar to this actress, who has played a member of the medical profession twice in the last two seasons. (She also played a nurse a few years back on Canadian series Plague City.) On ER, she'll play Skye Wexler, the new attending in the County General Hospital emergency room.

Matchett, who played the traitorous Lisa Miller last season on 24, will have some company from that real-time thriller as Reiko Aylesworth (a.k.a. Michelle Dessler) joins the cast of the long-running medical drama on October 25th.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: Big Brother 8 (CBS); 30 Rock (NBC; 8:30-9 pm); Smallville (CW); Ugly Betty (ABC); Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (FOX)

9 pm: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (CBS); The Office/Scrubs (NBC); Grey's Anatomy (ABC); Don't Forget the Lyrics (FOX)

10 pm: Without a Trace (CBS); Dateline (NBC); Men in Trees (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

8:30 pm: 30 Rock.

On season finale of 30 Rock ("Hiatus"), Liz and Floyd try to work out the kinks in their long-distance relationship, Jack's impending wedding brings his mother (guest star Elaine Stritch) to New York, and Kenneth searches for the missing Tracy.

9 pm: The Office.

On tonight's repeat episode of The Office ("Beach Games"), Michael is up for a promotion at Dunder-Mifflin Corporate and decides to hold a day of Survivor-inspired challenges at the beach as a means of choosing his successor, leading a jealous Pam to watch Jim and Karen from the sidelines.

10-11 pm: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia on FX.

It's the season premiere of FX's hilariously subversive comedy It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, here with two back-to-back episodes. On the first ("The Gang Finds a Dumpster Baby"), Dennis, Dee, and Mac find a baby in a Dumpster and Dee and Mac decide to raise him and use him to raise some cash as a baby actor. One problem: white babies aren't in style right now. On the second ("The Gang Gets Invincible"), Mac, Dennis, and Dee try out for the Philadelphia Eagles but really try to outdo one another, only to run afoul of the dreaded McPoyle family. Watch it; you'll thank me in the morning.

10 pm: Tim Gunn's Guide to Style on Bravo.

See the style maven make it work on his own fashion series, where he and supermodel Veronica Webb take on one hapless fashion victim and make them over into a sartorial superstar. On tonight's episode, Tim and Veronica deal with a woman who recently lost a lot of weight.

Casting Couch: "24" Lands its Female Lead

The seventh season of 24 has finally found its female lead: Annie Wersching (General Hospital).

Wersching will star in Day Seven of 24, opposite Kiefer Sutherland, where she will play an FBI agent who finds herself in a rather adversarial relationship with Jack. (Hmmm, adversarial? How many hours will it take our erstwhile ex-CTU agent to bed this federal hottie?)

Wersching most recently appeared in the drama pilot Company Man for FOX.

Also joining the cast of 24 next season is Bob Gunton (Desperate Housewives), who guest-starred in three episodes last season as Secretary of Defense Ethan Kanin. He's currently in negotiations to come on board the real-time thriller as a regular next season; he will now play the chief of staff for the new president (Cherry Jones).

Wersching and Gunton join a now burgeoning 24 cast that includes Kiefer Sutherland, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Janeane Garofalo, Colm Feore, Cherry Jones, Jeffrey Nordling, and John Billlingsley, as the series moves its focus from Los Angeles to Washington D.C.

Casting Couch: Two Caught for "24"

Finally, some additional casting information for Day Seven of FOX's real-time thriller 24.

The network has revealed that it has snagged two actors--Jeffrey Nordling and John Billlingsley--for the seventh season of 24, set this time in Washington D.C. (rather than the ubiquitous Los Angeles setting), joining Kiefer Sutherland, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Janeane Garofalo, Colm Feore, and Cherry Jones.

Dirt's Jeffrey Nordling has been cast as a regular on the series, where he will play an FBI agent named Larry. (Yes, Larry.) Meanwhile, FOX hasn't released any details about the character that John Billingsley (The Nine) will be portraying, except for a name: Latham. (Let's just hope he doesn't intend to rob a bank and pretend to be a hero on 24.)

But, Dirt fans, rest assured, Nordling will continue on as Courtney Cox's publisher on Season Two of the FX drama next season.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: Ghost Whisperer (CBS); 1 vs. 100 (NBC); Friday Night SmackDown (CW; 8-10 pm); Set for Life (ABC); 13 Going on 30 (FOX; 8-10 pm)

9 pm: Jericho (CBS); Las Vegas (NBC); George Lopez/George Lopez (ABC)

10 pm: NUMB3RS (CBS); Law & Order: Criminal Intent (NBC); 20/20 (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

8 pm: The Office on BBC America.

It's the original UK version of The Office, back on BBC America. On tonight's installment ("Training"), a consultant attempts to conduct a training seminar at Wernham-Hogg with disastrous results, David sings, and Dawn encounters some relationship problems with Lee.

8:40 pm: Little Britain on BBC America.

Catch up with Daffyd, Emily Howard, and Sebastian on the weekly repeats of BBC's cult sketch comedy favorite Little Britain. You'll thank me in the morning.

9:20 pm: Absolutely Fabulous on BBC America.

Reflect back to when Edina and Patsy first started spewing hatred and poor, suffering Saffy. On tonight's vintage episode ("Iso Tank"), Edina receives a new isolation tank while Saffron prepares for a class project on DNA.

10 pm: Coupling on BBC America.

On tonight's repeat episode ("Bed Time"), Patrick tries to escape from his girlfriend's apartment after they've spent the night together. Classy guy, that Patrick.

Casting Couch: "24," "Lost," and "Bones" Add Players

A whole slew of casting notices on this chilly early morning in Los Angeles.

John Francis Daley, best known for playing adorable moppet Sam on the still-much-missed Freaks and Geeks, has signed on in a recurring capacity on procedural drama Bones, where he'll play a therapist. (Really, has our little pygmy geek Sam grown up that much?) Daley most recently appeared in the comedy pilot The Call and FOX's short-lived Kitchen Confidential.

Elsewhere, Cherry Jones has landed herself a husband on 24: Colm Feore (Slings and Arrows) will play the First Husband. (Wonder if that means that early plans to give the series' first female president both a husband and a child living at the White House will prove to still be valid.)

Flipping channels over to ABC, Season Four of Lost has gained three new actors. Rebecca Mader (Justice), Jeremy Davies (Band of Brothers), and Lance Reddick (HBO's The Wire) have joined the cast of the drama series, which returns in February 2008. Details on their respective characters are being kept under even tighter wraps than the mystery of Jacob.

Reddick is allegedly playing Arthur Stevens, a corporate recruiter (for Hanso, perhaps?), while it's possible that Mader has been cast as Charlotte, an attractive and loquacious academic. While there is no information about who he'll be playing, Davies will appear in eight episodes of the series next season.

With Kristen Bell no longer available to join the cast of Lost next season, can I make one teensy suggestion to the producers as to a possible replacement, if Mader won't be playing "Charlotte" (the character Bell was meant to play)? Keri Russell?

Casting Couch: Janeane Garofalo to Count Down for "24"

Maybe reality doesn't bite, after all.

Following on the heels of the suggestion that there would be no CTU mole this year on 24, rather largely due to the fact that there would be no CTU at all, FOX has finally announced another piece of the casting puzzle that is Season Seven of 24.

Sure, we already knew that Cherry Jones had been locked as 24's first female president, but who will producers bring in as potential allies and/or enemies to BFFs Jack and Chloe next season?

Surprising answer: former Generation X poster girl Janeane Garofalo, that's who. Garofalo will a government agent tasked with investigating what The Hollywood Reporter calls "the crisis befalling Jack Bauer and company."

Just what the crisis of Day Seven is remains a mystery but perhaps it's just a subtle dig at 24's woeful production delays?

What's On Tonight

8 pm: NCIS (CBS); America's Got Talent (NBC; 8-10 pm); Gilmore Girls (CW); Just for Laughs/Just for Laughs (ABC); On the Lot (FOX)

9 pm: Big Brother 8 (CBS); Beauty and the Geek (CW); Primetime (FOX); House (FOX)

10 pm: The Unit (CBS); Singing Bee (NBC); I-Caught (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

9 pm: Eureka on Sci Fi.

Season Two of Eureka continues tonight with "Family Reunion," in which Fargo's granfather, cryogenically frozen 50 years ago, is awakened with no memory of just how he got there. Curious.

9 pm: As You Like It on HBO.

Director Kenneth Branagh tackles his fifth Shakespeare adaptation with tonight's lavish retelling of comedy As You Like It, set in 19th century Japan. It's got assumed identities, disguises, exile, and forest natives. You know you can't resist.

10 pm: Damages on FX.

FX's addictive legal drama Damages continues. On tonight's episode ("A Regular Earl Anthony"), Fiske is spurred by Frobisher to take a more aggressive tack with Patty, who finds herself on rather insubstantial ground with her clients, while Tom meets with an old friend (Donal Logue) and someone gets beat up.

10 pm: Flipping Out on Bravo.

Okay, I know this is unexpected but I can't help but watch the crazy people in this topsy-turvey world. In this week's episode, Jeff begins to burn some bridges as he pits potential buyers against one another and pushes his contractors a little too far.