Channel Surfing: FOX Axes Lone Star, Lie to Me Moves to Mon and Human Target to Wed, Josh Schwartz/Rachel Bilson's Ghost and More

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing.

It's official: the axe has fallen on FOX's low-rated con-man drama Lone Star after just two episodes. The initial outing for the James Wolk-led ensemble drama lured only 4 million viewers or so and the second episode saw its fortunes decline further still, with only 3.2 million tuning in. Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that production on the 20th Cenutyr Fox Television-produced drama will shut down immediately. “We will have shot five completed episodes after the pilot,” a studio spokesperson told Ausiello, “and will not complete principal photography on episode 106.” No word on the fate of the four unaired episodes that have already been shot. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

[Editor: As one unnamed network insider told Variety's Michael Schneider: "The viewers have spoken." Meanwhile, AOL Television's Maureen Ryan explores her take on what the cancellation of Lone Star means for the broadcast networks, which can be read here.]

FOX meanwhile has announced its timeslot replacement for Lone Star, moving the third season of Lie to Me--which wasn't expected to return to the lineup until November--to Mondays at 9 pm ET/PT beginning next week, while Human Target, slated to air on Fridays, will now move to Wednesdays at 8 pm, where it will fill in the gap left by Lie to Me's shift to Monday beginning November 17th... though it was meant to debut this Friday. FOX will fill that timeslot with repeats of House. Whew. (via press release)

Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that NBC has ordered a pilot for the as-yet-unwritten supernatural romantic comedy Ghost Angeles, from executive producer Josh Schwartz (Chuck) and star Rachel Bilson (The O.C.). Project, from Warner Bros. Television, will also be executive produced by Henry Alonso Myers, Stephanie Savage, and Leonard Goldstein. "Schwartz and Henry Alonso Myers (Ugly Betty) co-created Ghost Angeles and will write it together," writes Andreeva. "Details on the project are being kept under wraps but, according to a concept circulated around, it centers on a young woman in Los Angeles who can talk to the dead, helping the spirits as much as they are helping her." (Deadline)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that ex-Heroes star Jack Coleman will guest star in an upcoming episode of NBC's The Office, where he is expected to play a government official with “Jon Hamm-esque wholesomeness,” according to an unnamed source. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

The Hollywood Reporter's Matthew Belloni is reporting that three of the stars of Discovery's Deadliest Catch--Capts. Johnathan and Andy Hillstrand (who were sued by the network for not appearing for work on a spinoff) and Capt. Sig Hansen--have quit the production. "We have been through a lot over the past year and unfortunately given the current situation with Discovery we are unable to continue participating in Deadliest Catch," said the fisherman in a joint statement. "It has been a fantastic ride, and we wish the best to all of the amazing and supportive 'Catch' fans we have met over the years." (Hollywood Reporter's THR, Esq.)

DirecTV's The 101 network has signed deals with BBC Worldwide to acquire US broadcast rights to three British comedies, including ITV's No Heroics (launching November 4th), short-lived BBC dramedy Mutual Friends (launching November 3rd), and How Not to Live Your Live (November 4th). (Variety)

Casting round-up: Rachel Nichols (Alias) has been cast in a multiple-episode story arc on CBS' Criminal Minds, where she will play FBI cadet Ashley Seager; she's slated to appear in three episodes. Elsewhere, Izabella Miko (Coyote Ugly) will appear in a five-episode arc on NBC's midseason superhero drama The Cape. (Deadline)

Catherine Dent (The Shield) will join the cast of CBS' NCIS for a two episode arc, according to Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello. She'll play Whitney Sharp, described as "a former NCIS agent who shares a past with Ducky" (David McCallum) who is "educated, bright, and extremely capable federal agent who had an eye for talent and a tongue for persuasion back in the day." Her episodes are slated to air in November. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Pilot orders for four projects at ABC Family: Nine Lives, Switched at Birth, Strut, and The Lying Game. (Variety)

Lifetime has ordered eight episodes of a US adaptation of British reality format The Fairy Jobmother, which will launch October 28th. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Friday Night Lights Watch: Courage and Conviction on Season Four of FNL

Earlier this week, I finished watching Season Four of Friday Night Lights and, wiping away the manly tears that fell from my eyes, I'm already anxiously awaiting the start of the fifth and final season this fall.

Over the course of the summer, my wife and I have gone back and watched all four seasons of Friday Night Lights and fallen in love with this remarkable and heartfelt drama series, which in its fourth season inverted its premise to present even more complications for the central couple of Eric and Tami Taylor (Emmy Award nominees Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton), who found themselves under attack from a number of directions at once. From the school board, from the townspeople, from parents, from those who would see them fail rather than triumph.

(If you missed my earlier posts about the first three seasons, you can read my thoughts on Season One here, Season Two here, and Season Three here.)

Whereas the first three seasons presented a series of struggles both marital and professional for the Taylors, Season Four pushed the Texas couple--and the town of Dillon itself--nearly to their breaking points, as Eric was forced out of his job as the Panthers coach and handed an impossible task: to form a new football program at the decrepit East Dillon High (recently reopened after Season Three's redistricting) while Tami remained under fire as the principal of Dillon High.

While the show has always been about the invincible nature of the human spirit, Season Four of Friday Night Lights took the series in a different direction, presenting Coach Taylor with a nearly Sisyphean task to overcome. The goal wasn't the state championships anymore nor anything quite so lofty. No, this molder of men would once again have to get his hands dirty shaping a new team, transforming sullen and combative individuals into something resembling a fully functional single unit. And prove to the town at large that both he and this young men were capable of surprising everyone.

The battle lines drawn between the Dillon Panthers and the East Dillon Lions weren't arbitrary. In the hands of Jason Katims and his talented team of writers, the division became one of economics and race, as the show tackled some weighty issues and provided a portrait of a very different Dillon, one that wasn't as idealized and noble as the first few seasons.

Over the course of thirteen outstanding installments, Katims and Co. tackled hot-button issues of drug addiction, abortion, grief, and gang violence as the focus shifted from lily-white West Dillon to the mean streets of the other side of town, a place where a park wasn't an oasis but rather a crime-ridden hellhole, its lights permanently turned off, its purpose forgotten amid a sea of brutality.

Just as Eric Taylor gets the lights turned on at Carroll Park, so too does Friday Night Lights shine a spotlight on the challenges facing East Dillon's residents. Functioning as the new entrypoint to the story is Vince Howard (The Wire's sensational Michael B. Jordan), a young man at a crucial crossroads in his life, one torn between the potential that Eric is offering him and the lure of the street, a decision complicated further by the fact that his mother Regina (Angela Rawna) is a drug addict in need of saving.

While Vince is put through the ringer, there is someone who believes in him: his friend and would-be love interest Jess (Jurnee Smollett), who finds herself drawn towards nice guy Landry (Jesse Plemons), despite the obvious simmering attraction between her and Vince.

But we can't force anyone to take the path we want them to. Vince must find his own way in the world, make the right choices for himself. The same holds true for Zach Gilford's Matt Saracen, who gets one of the most intense and emotionally resonant storylines this season as Matt grapples with the unexpected death of his father, his grief pushing him to make a dramatic change in his own life.

Among a series of innately strong episodes, "The Son"--which focused on the fallout of the death of Matt's father and how it impacts everyone around Matt as he finally has an emotional breakdown at the Taylors' house--stands apart from the rest. Gilford gives a staggering performance that taps into our collective grief, a tricky turn that balances his inability to articulate his emotion with a male rage at a lack of control over the universe. Provocative and compelling, it's a sadly overlooked performance that points towards Gilford's strength as an actor and was impossible to shake after viewing.

It's Matt's story that provides the season with emotional bookends: the kid who stuck around in Dillon to care for his ailing grandmother (Louanne Stephens) and to be with girlfriend Julie (Aimee Teegarden) finally gets out for good, flying back to Chicago with his best friend by his side. Having returned to offer Julie not only an explanation for his departure but an olive branch (a plane ticket to Chicago), he's turned down by Julie but achieves an inner peace. There's an almost beatific expression on his face as he stares out of the plane windows, Dillon receding to a place in his past, not necessarily his future.

It's a fate that's juxtaposed with that of Tim Riggins (Taylor Kitsch), who remains an important focal point within the series' narrative. Reeling after graduation, Tim ditches college and returns to Dillon, where he shakily attempts to find direction in his life. Is he destined to work on cars with brother Billy (Derek Phillips) at Riggins' Rigs? Is he still dreaming of owning a piece of land and achieving that dream of "Texas forever" that he and Jason had once spoken about so reverently? And just what is he willing to do to achieve those ends?

Season Four finds a very different Riggins than we've seen before. No longer a football star yet clinging to his identity as 33, Rigs finds himself aimless. That is, until he meets the precocious Becky Sproles (Madison Burge), a 16-year-old who thinks that she's the perfect thing for Tim. Rather than fall into bed together, however, Tim takes Becky under his wing, protecting her against the lies her father spews at her, supporting her dreams, and supporting her when she discovers that she's pregnant.

(It's Tim's decision to seek the counsel of Tami Taylor that leads Tami to her own personal crucible this season as she's called out for counseling a teenage girl to get an abortion--a spurious claim that nevertheless leads her to step down from her position as principal of West Dillon and head up the counseling unit at run-down East Dillon, professionally reuniting her with Eric in the process.)

While Becky would have their relationship turn romantic, it's important that Tim keeps it absolutely platonic. His decision to do so demonstrates a different side to Tim Riggins, echoes of which we saw in Season Two with Julie Taylor. A protective, gentlemanly presence mixed with something almost paternal.

Which is interesting as it's Billy who becomes a father this season, though his puts his baby and his future with Mindy (Stacey Oristano) in jeopardy when he convinces Tim to begin chopping stolen cars for profit. His intentions are good: he needs money for Mindy's difficult pregnancy and for his family but his decision to commit a series of crimes opens them up for more difficulty.

Tim, however, comes up with an elegant if selfless solution: he'll confess to the crimes and keep Billy out of it. Billy can remain with his family, become the father his family needs him to be, and Tim will do the time. Having lost the land he purchased and lost the makeshift family he created when Becky's mom Cheryl (Alicia Witt) kicks him out, Tim finds meaning and a purpose: he can sacrifice his own freedom to ensure his brother's.

It's a heartbreaking and unexpected twist of fate, one at odds with the very freedom that Saracen achieves at the end of the season. Tim opted to remain in Dillon and his decision leads almost directly to him not being able to leave, a self-created prisoner whose incarceration isn't figurative but quite painfully literal. Yet at the same time, his throwing himself on the fire is an act of courage, of self-sacrifice, and of nobility, an argument against the hateful words of Cheryl. Tim Riggins might be "nothing" in her eyes and those of the law, but he has saved the Riggins family with his gesture, given the severity of Billy's previous charges.

Becky's unwanted child, meanwhile, leads not only to her own personal crossroads but to Tami's as well. Despite her pleas to Luke Cafferty (the fantastic Matt Lauria) to keep her pregnancy a secret, he tells his religious parents that he got a girl pregnant. When his mother learns that Becky had an abortion, she turns her anger against Tami and attempts to have her fired.

While Margaret (Kathleen Griffith) believes what she is doing is right, she's blind to her own child's problems as Luke develops a dependence on prescription painkillers after injuring his hip... and keeping his injury a secret from Coach and the entire team. While she's railing against Tami for offering advice that "killed" her "grandchild," her own son is killing his own body in secret.

Tami's decision not to apologize but to make a statement about how she put the needs of a student--of a scared teenage girl--first and followed protocol reveal the strength of character and conviction that have marked Tami Taylor from the start. This season found her grappling with the political nature of her public job, juggling spiteful boosters and school board members, rather than focusing on what got her into education in the first place: the kids. Her decision to go East Dillon, where she's needed," points too to her own selfless nature.

Just what will the future hold for the Taylors? Will Julie go off to school far away? Will they have to deal with financial issues now that both of their salaries have likely been cut? Eric may not have gotten the Lions to the state championship but that was never in the cards for this scrappy team. But they proved that they had the heart to overtake their rivals, the Panthers, on their own field.

It was a victory not just for Eric and for the team but for the underdogs everywhere, in every battle. It was a reminder of the unbreakable bond between teammates and of the the truth of Eric's early words in the series: clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose.

And in reminding us of such, neither it seems can Friday Night Lights itself.

Season Five of Friday Night Lights begins October 27th on DirecTV's The 101 Network.

The Daily Beast: "Give Friday Night Lights An Emmy Already"

Could Friday Night Lights finally win an Emmy Award? Or, more importantly, isn't about time that the Academy recognized the amazing quality of this fantastic series and its lead actors?

That's the question that I'm asking in a new feature over at The Daily Beast entitled "Give Friday Night Lights An Emmy Already" where I talk to stars--and current Emmy underdogs--Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton.

In the piece, which went live this morning, I talk to Chandler and Britton about their nominations, saying goodbye to one another, the end of Friday Night Lights, and what the fifth and final season of FNL holds for Coach Eric and Tami Taylor.

Head to the comments section to discuss why you think this series has been criminally overlooked by the Television Academy and whether you think Chandler and Britton are more than deserving to take home a statuette or two this weekend at the Primetime Emmy Awards.

Season Five of Friday Night Lights begins October 27th on DirecTV's The 101 Network.

Damages Report: Televisionary Talks to Rose Byrne and Executive Producer Daniel Zelman About Season Four

I'm already getting excited about the fourth season of serpentine legal thriller Damages, which moves from FX to DirecTV next year, following a landmark deal that brought the series back from the brink of cancellation and guaranteed a fourth and fifth season.

Quite a lot has changed since I spoke to creators Daniel Zelman, Glenn Kessler, and Todd A. Kessler for my Season Three postmortem over at The Daily Beast, not least of which is that surprising (and very welcome) two-season pickup and the series' move to the satcaster's The 101 Network.

At last night's Sony Pictures Television party at the Beverly Hilton's Bar 210, I caught up with executive producer/co-creator Daniel Zelman and series lead (and Emmy Award nominee) Rose Byrne to discuss Season Four of Damages, why things always come back to the dock outside Patty's beach house, where we might find Ellen Parsons, whether we'll see Tom Shayes (Tate Donovan) again, why Ellen seems to have forgiven Patty for trying to kill her and much more.

What follows is a Q&A-style transcript of my conversation with Zelman and Byrne (sporting her natural Aussie accent) amid last night's revelry, held at the end of a full day of FX sessions at the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour.

Televisionary: Congratulations to both of you on the pickup of Seasons Four and Five of Damages. What was your initial reaction after became clear that the deal between Sony Pictures Television and DirecTV would take?

Daniel Zelman: Well, to be honest, I was a little bit shocked. It's always such a longshot when these things happen. For a show to be moved from network to network is such a rare thing, as you know. But at the same time, we knew it was a possibility for a long time so we were very pleased that we would have the opportunity to tell more stories and write more for Rose... and Glenn.

[Byrne laughs.]

Televisionary: And Glenn too, of course. Ellen Parsons is an amazing character and you've done an incredible amount of work with her over the past three seasons and it seemed like she had finally made a decision about her future at the end of last season. Now that you're committed to two more seasons as Ellen, where are you hoping that KZK can take the character? Here's your chance to tell Daniel.

Rose Byrne: [Laughs.] My initial feeling was that they had wrapped all the stories up [at the end of Season Three], so I was wondering what's going to happen and what they would do next. But they were all so relaxed about that! [Laughs.] It was not any worry for them at all.

But I'm excited. I love working with Glenn. She always raises the bar in every scene and she's so much fun to work with. I've really grown to love being on a series. There's something very intimate about it. It's like a family. I'm a big television-watcher myself so I love being part of that world. [As for Ellen], I think they're up for the challenge.

Zelman: She's leaving it in our hands.

Byrne: [Laughs.] I have no ideas! No ideas!

Televisionary: Can you give us any hints then about where you might take Ellen in Season Four?

Byrne [to Zelman]: What are you going to do? Have you thought about it yet?

Zelman: We've thought about it. As soon as we got the news, we started to get into the season. It's so hard with our show to give things away as the surprises are so much a part of it. The best I can say is that Patty and Ellen are a part of each other's lives for better or for worse, but their history will always come back. Wherever they go together, they will never outrun their pasts.

For us, that's what's interesting about their relationship: it's developed its own mythology. There are certain things that have happened between the two women...

Televisionary: I know whenever any one tries to kill me, I keep them in my life. You want to keep them close.

[Byrne laughs.]

Zelman: We get that question a lot. All we can say is that that will never go away and that the past is always present in their relationship. We will continue to explore that theme.

Televisionary: In Season Three, we saw an amazing transformation in that relationship, in that we saw Ellen go off to the D.A.'s office and try to live a life that was separate from Patty Hewes before she gets pulled back into Patty's orbit. You've been the student in that relationship, you've been the adversary, but in Season Three, it seemed like we reached a plateau of friendship or equality between them.

Byrne: Absolutely. She needs her help by the end and she needs someone on her side. Ellen chooses to help her for her own reasons. That final scene on the dock, it certainly felt like they were equals by the end.

Televisionary: It always comes back to that dock, though. There have been some amazing showdowns over the years at the dock at Patty's beach house.

Zelman: The dock is a symbol for something and, when I figure it out, I'll tell you what it is.

[Byrne and I laugh.]

Zelman: Sometimes things just happen. We found that location and it just has taken on a meaning of its own and a life of its own within the show. There is a certain gravity to the dock. Before every season begins, we always know what scene is going to take place at the dock. I'm sure we'll be back at the dock for one reason or another.

Televisionary: We've seen throughout the seasons that people tend to come and go and return, even when they're dead. Is there any chance that Tate Donovan could show up in some form as Tom Shayes next season?

Zelman: There's a very good chance that Tate will be back. There's a very good chance.

Byrne: Really? Oh, I'm excited about that!

Zelman: Yes, there's a very good chance. We love him and we love the character and we love the person. He really is part of the soul of the show; there's no question of that. We always want to bring the soul of the show back to the show if at all possible. Same goes for Zeljko Ivanek [who plays Ray Fiske]. He always tends to come back and it's not always the plan going in but there's a gravity he has when he comes back.

In terms of Patty of Ellen's relationship, a lot of people have asked us last season, how does Ellen get past the fact that she tried to kill her. In our minds, part of how Ellen takes control of that and lives with that is by saying, I'm going to move past and I'm going to have control over Patty precisely because I'm not going to show her that I'm affected by it. There's a certain amount of denial that comes into that as well. Listen to this, Rose. [Laughs.]

Byrne: She's very pathological! I don't think she's very healthy. It's not a healthy thing to do, is it?

Zelman: So it might be that Ellen's behavior last season is something she can hold together for a while but not forever. Her anger and resentment about that always threatens to bubble up. The question is what will she do, especially now that she has all of Patty's skills at the ready?

Televisionary: Well, we've all seen Ellen's shotgun fantasy dreams.

Zelman: Yes! Also Wes [Timothy Olyphant] taught her how to shoot. She knows how to shoot.

Byrne: She does. She's got a lot of skills, Ellen. And she's just as duplicitous as Patty, really.

Televisionary: Where might we find Ellen in a career sense when we pick up with her again? Have you decided that yet?

Zelman: We actually have decided that. Well, we have a very strong idea about that, but we always like to improvise, so that could change. I just don't want to give it away because tuning into the first episode, there's always that question of where we will find these characters. Are they going to be together? Is Ellen going to be living in the same country? It's part of the fabric of the show. Where did she go after she left the dock and didn't get an answer to her question?

Byrne: She didn't get an answer.

Televisionary: Well, she sort of got an answer by not getting an answer.

Byrne: I guess that's the answer.

Televisionary: When do you go back into production? And is there a launch date yet?

Zelman: January. [As for the launch date], that is still being figured out.

Season Four of Damages will air next year on DirecTV's 101 Network.