Island Dreams: Surviving a Lost-Less Tuesday

Well, I made it through the wilderness: I survived a Tuesday night without a new episode of Lost with only a modicum of shaking and withdrawal pains.

Sure, I should be looking at this as a set-run for what will likely be the rest of my life without Lost, but it didn't remove any of the sting or pain of not having a new episode to think about (and write about) today. (That said, I probably slept better last night than I have in weeks, without Lost keeping me awake for fitful sleep of island-related dreams, bizarre theories, and an appearance or three of the Smoke Monster himself.)

It wasn't easy. My Tuesday evenings have a strict schedule that's usually built around watching Lost at 9 pm: dinner is eaten way in advance, dishes washed, tea made, and the phones shut off altogether. I like my Lost silent and I watch it live so that I can discuss the previous act with my wife during the commercial breaks.

Last night threw off that routine, so I took the opportunity to catch up on some screeners, including FX's fantastic Justified ("Blind Side"), which featured the first on-screen appearance of Bo Crowder, the imprisoned father of Walton Goggins' Boyd, who was played by none other than Lost's M.C. Gainey (a.k.a. Mr. Friendly himself, Tom).

Which sort of through my whole universe back out of whack again. I didn't expect to see Gainey turn up here, much less as an incarcerated felon whose anger is the stuff of legend and who might be the key to unlocking Justified's serialized story arc this season.

It was another reminder that Lost is ending and that we should get used to seeing many of the series' familiar faces begin turning up in other series and in other roles. I've been in a little bit of denial that we have less than a handful of episodes of Lost remaining until it goes to that island in the sky.

Its legacy is undeniable but the end of Lost also arrives at a time when serialized dramas are increasingly a dying breed at the networks, with the departure of both Lost and 24 signaling an end of an era at the broadcasters, which have seen increased competition in the genre from cable, both basic and premium.

I'm going to miss Lost. I dare say that there hasn't ever been a series quite like it and there won't ever be one quite the same once it's gone. Last night was a glimpse through the looking glass into a world without Lost, and it was a far less interesting place indeed.

Next week on Lost ("The Candidate"), Jack's suspicions about Locke make his decision more difficult after he is asked to complete a difficult task.

Channel Surfing: Showtime Gets Shameless, HBO Enlightened, FX Confirms Damages Talks, Veronica Mars, Doctor Who, and More

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing.

Showtime has ordered twelve episodes of ensemble drama Shameless, based on the British Channel 4 drama series created by Paul Abbott, who co-wrote the pilot for the US adaptation with John Wells. Project, which is expected to begin production late this summer, stars William H. Macy, Emmy Rossum, Justin Chatwin, Jeremy White, Cameron Monaghan, Ethan Cutkosky, Emma Kenney, and Allison Janey, who recurs. Wells will serve as showrunner on the series, which hails from Warner Bros. Television and John Wells Productions. No launch date was announced for the series, which Showtime's Robert Greenblatt likened to "Party of Five on acid." (Variety)

HBO, meanwhile, ordered ten episodes of single-camera comedy Enlightened (including the pilot) from writer/executive producer Mike White and star/executive producer Laura Dern. Dern stars as "a self-destructive woman who has a revelatory experience at a treatment center and becomes determined to live an enlightened life, creating unexpected havoc at home and work." The cast also includes Luke Wilson, Diane Ladd, and Sarah Burns; production is slated to begin this summer. (Hollywood Reporter)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that FX president John Landgraf has confirmed that Sony Pictures Television is in talks with DirecTV to come aboard legal drama Damages in order to ensure a fourth season pickup. "Sony is talking to DirecTV," said Landgraf. "We couldn’t be happier with Damages creatively. The third season is superb. It’s a massive success from a creative standpoint. But, it’s a show that has always struggled from a ratings standpoint. I think that’s because it’s so complicated. It takes an incredible amount of devotion and an incredible attention span to watch it." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Ausiello also confirms that the feature film version of Veronica Mars isn't dead, after all, talking to the series' creator Rob Thomas about the status of the teen sleuth. "It’s not dead," Thomas told Ausiello. "I continue to want to do it. It’s funny, because the rumors go around and around. Kristen Bell had said to somebody that I had written a script, and that wasn’t correct. I did have a treatment and a pitch, with which I went to Warner Bros. and [Mars producer] Joel Silver and said, ‘Here is the fastball version of the movie, the big studio version of the movie that I think we can make.’ And I think they did one of their brand-awareness surveys and were like, ‘We don’t know if we can make money with that.’ So it’s been back-burnered. But I still want to do it. I’m still happy to do it. We’re still looking into it." [Editor: While Thomas admits there's a close-ended timeframe, I do like his idea to see Bell as a "30-year-old noir detective" in the future as well.] (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

It's official: Doctor Who is heading to PC and Mac in a new episodic computer game entitled Doctor Who: The Adventure Games that will be offered for free from the BBC website. Featuring the voices of Matt Smith and Karen Gillan, the four-episode interactive game will be written by Phil Ford (Doctor Who: The Waters of Mars) and James Moran (Torchwood: Children Of Earth). The first episode is expected to be released in June. "There aren’t 13 episodes of Doctor Who this year," said executive producer Piers Wenger. "There are 17 - four of which are interactive. Everything you see and experience within the game is part of the Doctor Who universe: we’ll be taking you to places you’ve only ever dreamed about seeing - including locations impossible to create on television." (Broadcast)

Oprah Winfrey is set to announce an hour-long evening series Oprah's Next Chapter, which will air on the nascent cabler OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, according to the Wall Street Journal's Sam Schechner. Series, which could air as many as twice or thrice during the week, will follow Winfrey as she travels the world for a series of interviews. "I'm going to take viewers with me, going to take celebrities I want to interview with me" around the world," said Winfrey. (Wall Street Journal)

Jason Gedrick (Boomtown) has been cast in HBO's horseracing drama pilot Luck, from executive producers David Milch and Michael Mann. Gredick will play "a racetrack gambling degenerate" and will star opposite Dustin Hoffman, Dennis Farina, Nick Nolte, and Gary Stevens. (Variety)

ABC has announced its summer schedule, which includes the launch of two new drama series on Sunday nights--The Gates and Scoundrels--which will air back-to-back beginning at 9 pm ET/PT on June 20th. The Bachelorette returns Monday, May 24th, True Beauty on May 31st, Wipeout on June 1st, and the launch of new reality competition series Downfall on June 29th. Late summer brings The Bachelor: Bachelor Pad, Dating in the Dark, and Shaq Vs. (Variety)

SPOILER! Orla Brady will reprise her role as Elizabeth Bishop in Fringe's two-part season finale ("Over There, Part 1" and "Over There, Part 2,"), which are set to air May 13th and May 20th. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Francois Arnaud (I Killed My Mother) has been cast in Showtime period drama series The Borgias, where he will play Cesare, the son of Rodrigo Borgia (Jeremy Irons) in the thirteen-episode series. (Hollywood Reporter)

Broadcasting & Cable's Alex Weprin has a rundown on the announcements made at yesterday's FX upfront presentation in New York. "I think it is important to talk about the originals in basic cable as a continuum, from the edgy, adult side of it, which we cornered the market with The Shield and Nip/Tuck, to the other end of the spectrum, which would include The Closer or White Collar," said Bruce Lefkowitz, executive VP of Fox Cable ad sales. "We are never going to be all the way to the right side, we are never going to do The Closer, because that is not what audiences come to FX for, but we have earned the right to move a little bit more to the right."(Broadcasting & Cable)

ITV has announced that Ciarán McMenamin, Alexander Siddig, and Ruth Kearney will join the cast of Primeval, which is being co-produced by ITV, UKTV, and BBC America. Hannah Spearritt, Andrew-Lee Potts, Ben Miller, and Ben Mansfield will reprise their roles on the sci-fi drama, which is set to launch in early 2011. (Digital Spy)

The Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd offers a suggestion about why the ratings for FX's fantastic drama series Justified continue to slide each week: "My take is that the show was promoted with a serious dramatic tone, which matched its pilot, plus it felt like a serialized show. Subsequent episodes have felt lighter, more comedic, more procedural -- less FX and more USA." (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)

Maura Tierney is set to return to television following her battle against breast cancer. The actress--who was originally part of the cast of NBC's Parenthood before having to drop out to seek medical treatment--will reprise her role as Kelly McPhee on FX's Rescue Me and is slated to film four episodes for the series' seventh season, set to air in 2011. (Variety)

Could Jane Alexander (Tell Me You Love Me) have played the mother of Joseph Fiennes' Mark Benford on ABC's FlashForward? TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck teases that Alexander would have played Granny Benford, according to Fiennes' co-star Sonya Walger, and that Alexander had been featured "in a doctored-up family portrait hung in the Benford home at the start of the season." (TV Guide Magazine)

ABC has announced that Canadian cop drama Rookie Blue (formerly known as Copper)--which stars Missy Peregrym, Gregory Smith, Enuka Okuma and Travis Milne--will launch on Thursday, June 24th day and date with its Candian debut. (Hollywood Reporter)

HBO has acquired the US rights to Adrian Grenier's documentary Teenage Paparazzo, which focuses on 14-year-old paparazzo Austin Visschedyk. (Variety)

Cartoon Network has ordered thirteen additional episodes of animated series Adventure Time. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: Knepper to "SGU," Schwartz and Savage Set up Shop, "Chuck," Knighton FlashForwards to "Happy Endings," Spacek to CBS, and More

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing.

Robert Knepper (Heroes, Prison Break) has reportedly been cast in a villainous recurring role on Season Two of Syfy's Stargate Universe. Citing internet reports, several sites are reporting that Knepper will play Simeon, a mysterious member of the Lucian Alliance, and will appear in a multiple-episode story arc to last between six to seven episodes. (via TV Squad)

Producing partners Josh Schwartz (Chuck) and Stephanie Savage (Gossip Girl) have signed a multi-year deal with Warner Bros. Television and have set up their own shingle, Fake Empire, which will be based at the studio. Pod will develop projects for television, film, digital, videogames, music, and publishing. (Variety)

The Wrap's Josef Adalian, meanwhile, has an interview with Schwartz and Savage, who jointly answered Adalian's questions via email. [Editor: The duo answered the question I had, which was whether Chuck would fall under the Fake Empire umbrella. Answer: it won't.] (The Wrap's TVMoJoe)

SPOILER! Speaking of Chuck, Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello has some major spoilers for the third season finale of NBC's Chuck. You can read them but I am keeping my eyes and ears pure as I don't want to be spoiled about any of the plot twists ahead. Don't say I didn't warn you! (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

FlashForward's Zachary Knighton has been cast opposite Elisha Cuthbert in ABC comedy pilot Happy Endings, where he will play Dave, half of a couple that split up at the altar and must decide how to maintain their friendships afterwards. Project, from ABC Studios and Sony Pictures Television, is written by David Caspe and directed by Anthony and Joe Russo. Knighton's participation is said to be in second position to FlashForward, but Hollywood Reporter's Nellie Andreeva states that the latter's "chances for renewal are slim." (Hollywood Reporter)

Academy Award winner Sissy Spacek--who just completed a story arc on HBO's Big Love--has been cast in CBS' untitled Hannah Shakespeare medical drama from executive producer John Wells. Spacek will play Adrianne, a driven visionary who heads up a mobile medical team that travels the country providing care for the less fortunate and who grapples with her own cancer diagnosis and regular chemotherapy. (She's also the mother to Rachelle Lefevre's character, also a doctor.) Spacek's role was, like several others this season, originally written as a man. (Hollywood Reporter)

Jaime Pressly (My Name is Earl) has been cast as one of the leads in CBS' untitled Carter Bays/Craig Thomas multi-camera comedy pilot (also known as Livin' on a Prayer) from writers Kourtney Kang and Joe Kelly. Pressly will play a veterinarian who works with her best friend Tommy (Kyle Bornheimer) at the local zoo. (Hollywood Reporter)

Pilot casting update: Michael Rapaport (The War at Home) will star opposite Dylan Walsh in ABC cop drama pilot The Line (also known as ATF); Will Estes (Reunion) and Bridget Moynahan (Six Degrees) have been cast opposite Tom Selleck, Donny Wahlberg, and Len Cariou in CBS' untitled Burgess/Green drama pilot (a.k.a. Reagan's Law); Amy Landecker (A Serious Man) has landed the female lead opposite Paul Reiser in NBC comedy pilot Next; Kurt Fuller (Supernatural) has been cast in ABC's untitled Shana Goldberg-Meehan comedy pilot; and Kevin Rahm (Desperate Housewives) has come aboard CBS comedy pilot Open Books. (Hollywood Reporter)

TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck is reporting that Scott Porter will likely be heading back to Friday Night Lights for the series' fifth and final season, following a conversation Porter had with the series' producers, in which they indicated that they would like him to reprise his role as paraplegic Jason Street. "I’m hoping it turns into a definite because I’d love to go back," Porter told Keck. "I’m hoping he could repay his debts – particularly to Riggins for everything he did for Street." (TV Guide Magazine)

The Los Angeles Times' Maria Elena Fernandez has an profile of Justified co-star Walton Goggins (The Shield), who plays the sadistic white supremacist Boyd Crowder on the FX drama series... and whose character was meant to be killed off at the end of the pilot episode. "The greatest part about it," Goggins told Fernandez about Boyd's alleged religious epiphany in tonight's episode, "is that you will think you know by the end of the first season if the change is real, but no one knows. This is Boyd seeing God for the first time. What's so interesting about it is that while his actions may not be different, his motivations are different. And that's really important at the conclusion of the first season. What happens to this guy and this friendship when many things are called into question?"(Los Angeles Times)

Nikki Blonsky (Hairspray), Hayley Hasselhoff, Andrew Caldwell, and Zander Eckhouse have been cast in ABC Family's upcoming ten-episode drama series Huge, which revolves around the teenagers and staffers of Wellness Canyon, a weight-loss camp. (Hollywood Reporter)

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has named January 16th as the date for the 68th Annual Golden Globe Awards, which will once again air live coast to coast on NBC. (Variety)

Those tears that Peter Facinelli's Dr. Fitch Cooper let flow in last night's season premiere of Showtime's Nurse Jackie? Absolutely real and completely not pre-meditated, according to Facinelli. "I started venting, and all of a sudden, tears sprung from my eyes and I couldn't stop crying. Basically, I had a physical meltdown," Facinelli told E! Online. "I was traveling back and forth from Vancouver to New York, and I was shooting Nurse Jackie and Eclipse at the same time. I think I was emotionally exhausted. The writers loved it! They thought I planned it, and I really didn't. Just know that those are real tears." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

HBO has given a greenlight to telepic Cinema Verite, a dramatization of the behind-the-scenes events during the making of the landmark reality television series An American Family, which premiered in 1973 and focused on the Loud family. Telepic, executive produced by Gavin Polone, will be written by David Seltzer and directed by Shari Springer Berman and Bob Pulcini. (Hollywood Reporter)

TLC has ordered twelve episodes of spinoff reality series Say Yes to the Dress: Atlanta, which will launch in July. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Talk Back: Series Premiere of FX's "Justified"

Just curious to see how many of you tuned in last night to watch the series premiere of FX's drama Justified.

While you read my advance review of the series premiere ("Fire in the Hole") and subsequent episodes, now that the first episode has aired, I'm curious what you thought of the episode. Did it live up to the hype? Did you enjoy the typically Elmore Leonard blend of action, comedy, and Western tropes?

What did you think of Timothy Olyphant's performance as U.S. Marshall Raylan Givens? And of the cast as a whole? (I ask thinking specifically of Walton Goggins' amazing turn as Boyd Crowder.) Surprised by the ending? What do you make of Raylan's anger issues and his relationships with ex-wife Winona and possible love interest Ava?

And, most importantly, will you be tuning in again next week?

Talk back here.

Next week on Justified ("Riverbrook"), Raylan tracks an escaped prisoner desperate to reunite with his former wife and a hidden fortune.

Justice Unleashed: An Advance Review of FX's "Justified"

The Wild West represents the untamed heart of darkness within every man, a place whose lawlessness was inimical to the spirit of possibility that existed in its great expanse.

A place where anyone could reinvent themselves if they had the grit to do so. But the line between maintaining the law and executing justice and falling prey to the violence and depravity of the untamed wilderness wasn't an easy one to walk. To keep the criminals at bay, a lawman often had to use the villain's tools of the trade: he had to be every bit as deadly and cunning as the men he was after.

In FX's sensational new drama series Justified, based on Elmore Leonard's Raylan Givens character (first seen in the novella "Fire in the Hole"), the figurative embodiment of that 19th century Western lawman is U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant), a man who lives by a strict moral code that finds him meting out punishment that's every bit as savage as the fugitives, neo-Nazis, and lowlifes he's tasked with bringing to justice.

He's a soft-spoken man of his word, a marshal who asks nicely the first time and then follows up with a shot to the heart. Raylan Givens is clearly a man out of time, whose ethos is more at home in a fictional version of the Wild West than in modern policing methods.

An incident in Miami involving a fugitive, a lunchtime meal, and a "justified" gunshot in a very public place result in Givens being reassigned from Florida to a sleepy coal mining town in Harlan County, Kentucky. The very same town that Raylan was raised in, in fact, and one where there aren't too many people who are happy to see him return. Ghosts from his past, including his former friend turned career criminal Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins), his ex-wife Winona (Natalie Zea), now remarried to another man, his criminal father (Raymond Barry), and an old flame, Ava (Joelle Carter), who just happens to be Boyd's girl.

So what is a trigger-happy lawman to do? Tipping his trademark Stetson, Raylan sets out to clean up this outlaw town but he's hampered by the fact that while his past actions may have been justified, that doesn't mean that they'll be tolerated by the U.S. Marshal Service and that this town is filled with far too many memories.

Timothy Olyphant is absolutely perfect in this role and every word he utters crackles with energy. Olyphant has excelled at playing complicated good guys and amoral bad guys but never with the same amount of restraint and passion as he does here. Raylan Givens is charismatic and charming but never overtly so. He's a complex man with an even more complex moral code that might involve breaking a man's nose for poor manners but he's always deadly honest and doesn't issue idle threats. The result is an engaging and compelling anachronism of a man, one whose affectations--that swagger, that hat--belie a connection to a time long past and a simmering anger inside him.

Olyphant is ably assisted by a top-notch cast that includes Zea and Carter, as well as the sublimely magnetic Goggins, as well as a trio of actors who play Raylan's fellow marshals: Nick Searcy (Chief Deputy Art Muller), Erica Tazel (Deputy U.S. Marshal Rachel Brooks), and Jacob Pitts (sniper Tim Gutterson). There's history between Raylan and Art as well as a wary camaraderie while Raylan's less familiar with the other two. Subsequent episodes peel back some of the layers in Tazel and Pitts' characters and we begin to learn more about Raylan's colleagues. There's an especially great scene between Olyphant and Tazel where we learn just why Raylan wears a cowboy hat.

But hovering over the action is Goggins' Boyd Crowder and he provides an ideal adversary for Raylan Givens, a man who has taken a very different path than Raylan, despite their shared backgrounds. Their scenes together are palpably tense, elegantly choreographed dances of gunfire and banter. The pilot episode's climax, set at Ava's house, is a masterclass of confident and refined acting as the two square off over the dinner table.

I don't want to give away more of the plot because the three episodes provided to press were absolutely exquisite gems of rough justice, unique characters, and an original setting that's not typically seen on television. In the gifted hands of novelist Elmore Leonard and writer/executive producer Graham Yost, the two vividly bring to life a world of good and evil enacting a daily battle in a small coal mining town that's the farthest thing from Los Angeles or New York City. (Though, rest assured, Raylan does hit the road as well, as seen in the fourth episode, where he heads to Los Angles on the hunt for a fugitive that escaped him once before.)

The result is an original and compelling series that offers a throwback to classic Westerns, crackling dialogue (in many cases, courtesy of Leonard), and compelling characters that you'll want to spend your days and nights with. It doesn't take a quick draw to see that FX's electric new series Justified might just be the most original thing to blow through town in a while.

Justified premieres tonight at 10 pm ET/PT on FX.

The Daily Beast: "The Gritty New Elmore Leonard Crime Drama"

Looking to delve deeper into the world of FX's new drama series Justified?

Head over to The Daily Beast, where you can read my feature on FX's Justified, entitled "The Gritty New Elmore Leonard Crime Drama."

In the piece, I talk with executive producer Graham Yost, series lead Timothy Olyphant, and legendary novelist Elmore Leonard about the series, its genre roots, and the enduring power of the Western.

Justified premieres tongiht at 10 pm ET/PT on FX.

Channel Surfing: FOX Developing US "Torchwood," "Veronica Mars" Movie Dead, O'Loughlin Eyed for "Five-O," Whedon and Neil Patrick Harris, and More

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing.

The Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed is reporting that FOX is developing a US version of British sci-fi series Torchwood that will hail from BBC Worldwide. Remake will be written by creator Russell T. Davies. and will feature the production team of the original series, including Julie Gardner and Jane Tranter. But that's not all. According to THR, it's possible that Torchwood's UK cast--including John Barrowman and Eve Myles--could star in the project, should it be ordered to pilot. "As for the new show’s plot," writes James Hibberd, "the U.S. version will contain a global story line compared to the more localized sensibility of the first two BBC seasons." Good news for the Torchwood team... or a disaster waiting to happen? (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)

Bad news for Veronica Mars fans: the feature film adaptation of the much-missed UPN/CW drama series has stalled, according to creator Rob Thomas. "No," Thomas told Futon Critic's Brian Ford Sullivan, who asked if the big-screen version of Veronica Mars would happen. "I would write it if anyone would finance it. If anyone's interested in making that movie I am available, Kristen's [Bell] available. I would love to do it. I think the closest we came was Joel [Silver] pushing it at Warner Bros. and they didn't bite. It has sort of gone away." (Futon Critic)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Alex O'Loughlin (Moonlight, Three Rivers) is being offered the lead role in CBS' pilot remake of long-running crime drama Hawaii Five-O, according to unnamed sources. "Talks are ongoing," and undisclosed insider told Ausiello. "CBS really wants to do another series with him." The remake is being overseen by Fringe co-creators Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci and Peter Lenkov (CSI: New York). (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Is a reunion between Joss Whedon and Neil Patrick Harris in the cards? Looks like it though it's not Dr. Horrible 2, unfortunately. (Not yet, anyway.) According to Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello, Harris is said to be in talks to appear on FOX's Glee in the May episode that will be directed by Whedon and which would feature the How I Met Your Mother star in a singing/dancing role. "The one possible snag — and there’s always one, isn’t there? CBS has to OK its MVP’s appearance on Fox’s breakout hit," writes Ausiello. "But at least since HIMYM and Glee are both produced by 20th Century Fox, there’s no conflict on their end." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Joss Whedon, meanwhile, is set to meet with FX president John Landgraf in the next few weeks. (Televisionary)

E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos is reporting that Jennifer Lopez is in talks to join Glee as a cafeteria worker in at least one episode. "Discussions are ongoing and we haven't gotten into the episode(s) she'd be appearing in," Glee executive producer Brad Falchuk told Dos Santos. (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

And in other Glee-related news, Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello spoke to Glee co-creator Ryan Murphy on Sunday evening (right before Glee took home the top musical or comedy TV prize) about what's coming up for the gleeful teens. Hint: it involves Puck and Rachel, a boyfriend for Kurt, the songs of Madonna, and some guest stars. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Jay Leno has addressed the controversy surrounding his eponymous 10 pm show, The Tonight Show, Conan O'Brien, and NBC, addressing his audience last night directly about the behind-the-scenes goings-on at the Peacock. "This is all business," said Leno. "If you don't get the ratings, they take you off the air." (Variety)

A must-read for everyone interested in television, not just those closely following the NBC/Jay Leno/Conan O'Brien fiasco: James Hibberd's insightful "Eight Ways NBC Has Damaged Itself" over at The Hollywood Reporter. (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)

FOX has given pilot orders to two projects, including drama Midland, from writer Kyle Killen (The Beaver), and an untitled multi-camera comedy from writer Adam Goldberg and director Seth Gordon. Midland, which hails from 20th Century Fox Television, revolves around a polygamist with a double life who works in the oil industry. The untitled Adam Goldberg/Seth Gordon comedy, meanwhile, will follow a group of twenty-somethings who hack computer security systems. (Hollywood Reporter)

FX has announced a Tuesday, March 16th launch date for its Elmore Leonard crime series Justified, starring Timothy Olyphant. (Futon Critic)

AMC is developing historical miniseres Black Gold: The Teapot Dome Scandal, from writer Kirk Ellis (John Adams) and executive producers Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank. Project, based on a nonfiction book by Laton McCartney, is set in the 1920s and depicts a major political scandal involving the election of President Warren G. Harding and big-time oil companies. (Hollywood Reporter)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello has some additional information about the return of Jennifer Morrison's Cameron to FOX drama House later this season. "The audience is going to get the information they were looking for," Morrison told Ausiello. But don't expect Cameron to stick around permanently. "I don’t believe that they have plans to pick up my option," she told Ausiello. "That does not mean I won’t be back for a handful of episodes, but it does mean I probably will not be a series regular next season." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Undercovers casting alert! Another actor has come aboard J.J. Abrams' NBC espionage drama pilot Undercovers. Jessica Parker Kennedy (Smallville) will play the younger sister of Gugu Mbatha-Raw's Samantha, a caterer. (Hollywood Reporter)

BBC America announced a spring start for its new musical reality series The Choir, in which choirmaster Gareth Malone travels to blue collar areas to create musical choirs. "The 13 episodes that BBC America will show are a compilation of short multi-seg bursts and specials that have aired across the Pond since the show launched on BBC Two in 2006," writes Variety's Jon Weisman. (Variety)

E! has given a series order to docudrama Pretty Wild, which follows three socialite sisters--Taylor, Alexis, and Gabrielle Neiers--in Hollywood. Project, from Borderline Amazing Prods., New Wave Entertainment, and Five Five Prods., will launch in March. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.