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Channel Surfing: CBS Picks Up "Wife" and "NCIS: LA," Ellen Page and Alia Shawkat to Script HBO Comedy, Panettiere's "Heroes" Clinch, and More

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing.

CBS has given full season orders to freshman dramas NCIS: Los Angeles and The Good Wife, which are respectively the first and second best-rated new series of the season and have assisted in CBS winning the last three Tuesday ratings matches. (via press release)

Ellen Page, Alia Shawkat, and Sean Tillmann will write and executive produce a single-camera comedy pilot script entitled Stitch N' Bitch for HBO. The project will follow "two painfully cool hipster girls as they relocate from Brooklyn's Williamsburge neighborhood to Los Angeles' Silver Lake enclave in hopes of become artists -- of any kind," according to Hollywood Reporter's Nellie Andreeva and Matthew Belloni. The trio might also star in the project if it's picked up to pilot but any decision of that kind will be made at a later date. (Hollywood Reporter)

SPOILER! E! Online's Jennifer Godwin has details about Hayden Panettiere's upcoming lesbian kiss on Monday night's episode of NBC's Heroes and reports that there's a twist to the lip-lock that features a third party, also played by a woman. As for who she is, Godwin writes, "You hated her guts on another series we love, and you rejoiced mightily when she was written off at the end of the season." Hmmm... (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

Former Desperate Housewives scribe Kevin Murphy has joined the writing staff of Syfy's Caprica as co-executive producer. "As a rabid Battlestar Galactica fan, it's hard not to go in that writers room and not just grin ridiculously," Murphy told Variety. "These are the people who made the best TV show ever. To be able to be a part of the legacy of that show, I'd be willing to pay them for that." The writer also has several other projects in development, including an adaptation of Kate Torgovnick's nonfiction book "Cheer: Inside the Secret World of College Cheerleaders" at CW with studio Warner Bros. Television and Tom Welling's production company Tom Welling Prods and USA's Velvet Hammer, a drama about a female FBI agent with CBS Studios. (Variety)

CBS has signed a talent holding deal with Jason Clarke, under which the Australian actor will star in a drama pilot for next season. Move comes on the heels of Clarke's performance in the network's untitled U.S. Attorney drama project. (Hollywood Reporter)

Showtime has ordered six half-hour episodes of reality series Behind the Green Room Door, a series of "no-holds-barred chat sessions" between prominent comics and host Paul Provenza. Series, which will air in the second quarter of 2010, will feature such comedians as Jonathan Winters, Eddie Izzard, Robert Klein, and Penn Jillette. (Variety)

Syfy announced on Tuesday at their press junket in Vancouver that the network will air its four-hour miniseries Alice on December 6th and December 7th. Written and directed by Nick Willing (Tin Man), the RHI-produced mini stars Caterina Scorsone, Kathy Bates, Matt Frewer, Tim Curry, Colm Meaney, Harry Dean Stanton, and Phillip Winchester.

TVGuide.com's Kate Stanhope talks with Law & Order executive producer Rene Balcer about the series' upcoming Jon & Kate Plus Eight-inspired episode, "Reality Bites," set to air on October 16th, which follows the star of the fictional Larry Plus 10, a reality series about a father looking after his ten adopted special needs children after his wife is killed. "It seems to be coming at a good time," said Balcer. "Aside from people being amused, bemused, disgusted and shocked at their exploits, [people] are probably looking for some other perspective on it." (TVGuide.com)

FX has opted to double the episodic order for its upcoming animated comedy series Archer before the series has even debuted. (The Wrap)

Planet Green has ordered ten episodes of unscripted series Beekman Farm, which revolves around two Manhattanites, a doctor and his ad exec/drag queen lover, who leave behind the city for an upstate New York farm. Project from World of Wonder, will launch in the spring. (Variety)

The Los Angeles Times has details on BET's eight-episode docudrama The Michael Vick Project. (Los Angeles Times)

Sony Pictures Entertainment will sell off its 21 percent stake in Liz Murdoch's Shine after growing concerns of conflict of interest now that the company is actually a major competitor with the studio. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Comments

Heatherette said…
Not sure about the title but a comedy from the minds of Ellen Page and Alia Shawkat has loads of potential...especially if they starred in it too.
Beckacheck said…
Is "Stitch N' Bitch" based on the book about knitting?
In that case, I believe 'bitch' is a verb not a noun, Heatherette, so maybe not quite as iffy. I think the idea is sisterhood and a group of hipsters - who get together because they like knitting - supporting and, you know, bitching to one another.
. . . That is, if the TV show has any relevance to the book.

If so, yay! Knitting and HBO - a marriage of two of my favorite things.

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