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Channel Surfing: Rosenbaum and D'Agosto Experience Sibling Rivalry, ABC Announces Season Finale Sched, Moore Talks End of "Battlestar," and More

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing.

Former Smallville star Michael Rosenbaum and Heroes' Nick D'Agosto will star in NBC's untitled Justin Adler comedy pilot, where they'll play brothers in the Sony Pictures Television and Tantamount project; D'Agosto will play the family's youngest sibling who brings his girlfriend home to meet his family while Rosenbaum will play the middle sibling, a married man freaking out over his adopted baby.

Elsewhere, Noah Gray-Cabey (Heroes), Oded Fehr (Sleeper Cell), Kyle Riabko (Instant Star), and Jessy Schram (Life) will star in ABC musical drama pilot Limelight, about the teachers and students of a performing arts institute; Sam Neill (The Tudors) has joined the cast of ABC drama pilot Happy Town; and Rochelle Aytes (Drive) will star opposite Rupert Penry-Jones (Spooks) in ABC's untitled Jerry Bruckheimer drama pilot, about a team of amateur detectives, where she will play a police officer who slips cases to Penry Jones' team. (Hollywood Reporter)

HBO has announced that they are developing A Ribbon of Dreams, about the history of the Hollywood film industry, with writer/director/executive producer David Chase, creator of The Sopranos. (Televisionary)

Henry Rollins will guest star in a six-episode story arc on Season Two of FX drama Sons of Anarchy, where he will play a new antagonist for the fictional town of Charming, California. (Televisionary)

ABC has announced season finale dates for most of its series, with Scrubs to air an hour-long finale on May 6th (likely the series' last) and According to Jim on May 5th. Meanwhile, Lost will wrap up its fifth season on May 14th with a two-hour season finale; Grey's Anatomy will air a two-hour season finale on May 14th; Desperate Housewives will air a two-hour installment on May 17th; Brothers & Sisters will wrap on May 10th; Private Practice is set to end its season on April 30th; In the Motherhood and Samantha Who? will both air season finales on April 30th. Ugly Betty is set to return to the schedule on May 7th and end its season on May 21st. Freshman series Better Off Ted will wrap on April 29th, Castle on May 11th, and Cupid on May 12th, while midseason offerings Surviving Suburbia and The Unusuals haven't had end dates announced yet. On the reality side, Dancing with the Stars will wrap with a two-hour finale on May 19th, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition on May 17th, Wife Swap and Supernanny on May 1st, and America's Funniest Home Videos will end its season with a two-hour episode on May 15th. (Variety)

SCI FI Wire spoke to Battlestar Galactica executive producer Ronald D. Moore about the upcoming series finale, slated to air on Friday. "I was ready to let it go creatively," said Moore of the decision to end the series after the fourth season. "I knew that the show had entered the endgame, and I knew that we were in the third act. It was time to wrap up the story. I wasn't emotionally ready to let it go, and I'm still not. It was a very important experience for me. I love it. I loved working on it. I loved the people I got to know. I loved the end product. I liked watching the show. I was a fan of the show. So it's hard to know that there's not more Galactica coming. But as a producer and as a writer, I'm very happy that we got to end it on our own terms." (SCI FI Wire)

Runaway production is once again on the forefront of everyone's minds. This year, at least 20 of the 39 hour-long broadcast network pilots slated to shoot this season will be produced outside of California, due to stringent new rules governing incentives for new television series in the State of California, which limit tax credits to basic cable series with less than $1 million in episodic budgets. (Variety)

Andy Samberg (Saturday Night Live) will host the 2009 MTV Movie Awards, which will air life from the Gibson Ampitheatre in Universal City on May 31st. It marks his first time hosting the awards ceremony. (Hollywood Reporter)

Oxygen is said to be close to ordering reality series The Naughty Kitchen, featuring Dallas chef Blythe Beck and her employees at her restaurant, from Code Entertainment and Authentic Pictures. Also in development at Oxygen: The Girls, about three wannabe singers in Nashville, and Hogs and Heifers, about the workers and patrons of the eponymous bar. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Wouldn't they have to put Samantha Who? back on the air for it to have a season finale?

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