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Channel Surfing: Dexter News Round-Up, FOX Locks Up Cleveland for Third Season, Whalley and Cox to The Big C, Borgias, and More

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. SPOILER! E! Online's Megan Masters and Kristin Dos Santos talk to Dexter 's Julie Benz and Jennifer Carpenter about what's coming up on the Showtime serial killer drama. "Rita is not going to be a ghost!" Benz revealed about her planned appearance on Season Five of Dexter . "The writers would never do something so cheesy. I am not going to confirm or deny anything, but if she does come back, it would be to move things along." Meanwhile, viewers shouldn't expect that Dexter will lose its humor, even in the face of unspeakable horror. "What's funny is that even in the face of tragedy [of Rita's death], there's still room to laugh with our show," Carpenter told E! Online. "That's why people can stomach it, because as bloody as it gets, they make you laugh two seconds later." ( E! Online's Watch with Kristin ) Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello is repo

Channel Surfing: Julia Stiles Heads to Dexter, Doctor Who Writer Wants Lady Gaga, All Clear Given to Spartacus Star Whitfield, and More

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television update. It's official: Julia Stiles ( The Bourne Ultimatum ) has signed on to appear in ten episodes of Showtime's serial killer drama Dexter next season. Stiles will play "a mysterious young woman who forms a unique relationship with Dexter (Michael C. Hall) in the wake of the death of his wife," according to Showtime. Production on Season Five of Dexter gets underway this month and is expected to premiere this fall. [Editor: any guesses on just who Stiles will be playing and just what her relationship is to Dexter? Let the speculation begin.] (via press release) Could pop superstar Lady Gaga be heading to Doctor Who ? If writer Gareth Roberts has his way, she would be. While Gaga hasn't signed on to appear in an episode of Who , Gareth maintains in an interview with OK! Magazine that he has already thought out a plotline for the "Bad Romance" singer to appear in. "She is no stranger to dressing up and

Channel Surfing: Lost DVD Epilogue, Diane Keaton and Ellen Page Land Tilda, Julia Stiles in Talks to Join Dexter, Skins, and More

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. (Is it just me or does it feel like this week will never end?) E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos is reporting that there's still more Lost to come, including an epilogue that depicts the time that Hurley (Jorge Garcia) and Ben (Michael Emerson) spent on the island after the events of the series finale. Emerson spilled the dirt on the sequence on G4's Attack of the Show , where told Kevin Pereira about the bonus footage on the complete series DVD. "For those people that want to pony up and buy the complete Lost series, there is a bonus feature," said Emerson. "Which is um, you could call it an epilogue. A lost scene. It's a lot; it's 12 or 14 minutes that opens a window onto that gap of unknown time between Hurley (Jorge Garcia) becoming number one and the end of the series... It's self-contained. Although, it's a rich period in the show's mythology that‘s never been explored, so who know

Channel Surfing: ABC Clarifies Lost Wreckage Shots, Julie Benz to Return to Dexter, Friday Night Lights Heads to ABC Family and More

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. The Los Angeles Times 's Maria Elena Fernandez is reporting that the final shots of the Oceanic Flight 815 wreckage that accompanied the closing credits of the series finale of Lost were not placed there by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, but rather by ABC executives who wanted to "soften the transition from the moving ending of the series to the 11 p.m. news and never considered that it would confuse viewers about the actual ending of the show," according to Fernandez. ABC went on to release a statement to confirm this fact. "The images shown during the end credits of the Lost finale, which included shots of Oceanic 815 on a deserted beach, were not part of the final story but were a visual aid to allow the viewer to decompress before heading into the news," said an ABC spokesperson in a statement. [Editor: I am hoping this finally puts an end to the misread of the series' ending, as some have taken

2010 William S. Paley Television Festival Lineup Announced

The Paley Center for Media has announced the lineup for the the 27th Annual William S. Paley Television Festival (known affectionately to its attendees as PaleyFest). Critical darling Modern Family will kick off the festival on February 26th. Other series getting individual sessions include ABC's Lost , CW's The Vampire Diaries , FOX's Glee , NBC's Community , ABC's Cougar Town ABC's FlashForward , TNT's Men of a Certain Age , CBS' NCIS , Showtime's Dexter , AMC's Breaking Bad , and HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm , the latter of which will be the festival's final offering this year. Additionally, keep your eyes peeled for Seth MacFarlane and Friends, an evening celebrating McFarlane's animated comedies Family Guy, American Dad , and The Cleveland Show . The day-by-day breakdown of the festival can be found below. (All panels begin at 7 pm.) Feb. 26th: Modern Family Feb. 27th : Lost March 1st: NCIS March 3rd: Community March 4th: Dexte

Wet, Wet, Wet: The 67th Golden Globe Awards

Just a few quick words about last night's Golden Globes. I spent the evening watching the (thankfully) live telecast from home and then went over to the Beverly Hilton for HBO's Golden Globes after-party at Circa 55. As usual, HBO did an incredible job transforming the outdoor space (right at the poolside)... but, rather sadly, the network's handiwork was undone by the weather, rendering the glass-enclosed firepits and open-air seating unusable. But the party must go on and it was moved under the tents and inside Circa 55 itself, where executives, celebrities, and bon vivants sipped Copper-tinis and Moet et Chandon champagne. Those celebrities included Mad Men 's January Jones and Entourage 's Jeremy Piven, Modern Family 's Eric Stonestreet, Big Love 's Chloe Sevigny (Golden Globe-winner Chloe Sevigny, I should say), Ginnifer Goodwin, and Mary Kay Place, True Blood 's Anna Camp, Hung 's Natalie Zea (with whom I chatted about her role in FX's upco

HFPA Announces 2010 Golden Globes Nominations: "Glee," "Big Love," "Damages," "Dexter," "Mad Men," "30 Rock" Get Love

Another December, another batch of Golden Globe nominations. I got up very early on this very brisk Los Angeles morning to watch the nominations live as they were announced on-air by John Krasinski, Diane Kruger, and Justin Timberlake. (The latter of whom stole the show a little bit with his comment to Krasinski, "Someone's gonna have a good night tonight," after Emily Blunt earned a nomination for her role in The Young Victoria .) But onto the nominations themselves. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association this morning announced its nominees for the 2010 Golden Globes, which will be handed out at a live telecast on NBC on January 17th. Glee was the clear favorite this year, walking away with four nominations this morning, followed closely by 30 Rock, Big Love, Damages, Mad Men, and Dexter , each of which garnered three nominations in their respective categories, along with telepics Georgia O'Keeffe and Grey Gardens . I'm thrilled, first off, that so many fanta

Channel Surfing: Clyde Phillips Leaves "Dexter," "True Blood" Casting Roundup, Julian Fellowes Mines "Vanderbilts" for Showtime, and More

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. Just a day after the record-breaking season finale of Showtime's Dexter , executive producer/showrunner Clyde Phillips announced yesterday that he is leaving the series. He'll be replaced at the helm by Chip Johannessen ( 24 ). According to the Hollywood Reporter , Phillips made the "hugely difficult decision" to leave in order "to spend more time with his family in Connecticut." "Clyde Phillips has made an enormous contribution to the phenomenal success of Dexter for the past four years, but we know he needs to spend more time with his family on the East Coast than he spends with the Dexter family in L.A.," said Showtime entertainment president Robert Greenblatt. "We reluctantly say good-bye to him at a turning point in the series, but fellow Dexter executive producers Sara Colleton and John Goldwyn have chosen a great successor -- Chip Johannessen, who has been a key producer of '24

Channel Surfing: "Dexter" Season Finale Postmortem, Syfy Renews "Stargate Universe" and "Sanctuary," "Lost" Season Six Photos, and More

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello has an interview with Dexter executive producer Clyde Phillips about last night's season finale of the Showtime serial killer drama. One very interesting tidbit: when asked about when the decision was made about pulling the trigger on the episode's final scene, Phillips said, "I would say we made the decision pretty late in the season. We didn’t quite know what we were going to do [in the finale]." As for when Deb (Jennifer Carpenter) will find out about Dexter's true nature, don't hold your breath. "We’ve bounced that around the [writers] room," Phillips told Ausiello. "But once we do that... want to talk about game-changers? Once we do that, the game is changed in a way that we just don’t know how to anticipate just yet." ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) Syfy has given series renewals to Stargate Universe and Sanctuary , pickin

Channel Surfing: Russell T. Davies Defends "Torchwood" Twist, "Dexter" Animated Prequel for Fall, T.R. Knight Dishes on "Grey's" Departure, and More

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello has an interview with Torchwood creator/executive producer Russell T. Davies, in which Davies defends the latest plot twist in Torchwood: Children of Earth (MAJOR SPOILER alert if you haven't yet seen "Day Four"), which has resulted in some angry fans. "It's not particularly a backlash," Davies corrected Ausiello. "What's actually happening is, well, nothing really to be honest. It's a few people posting online and getting fans upset. Which is marvelous. It just goes to prove how much they love the character and the actor. People often say, 'Fans have got their knives out!' They haven't got any knives. I haven't been stabbed. Nothing's happened. It's simply a few people typing. I'm glad they're typing because they’re that involved. But if you can’t handle drama you shouldn’t watch it. Find something else. Go look at

Channel Surfing: Stephen Moyer Talks "True Blood," Madeline Zima Suits Up for "Heroes," Rehearsals to Begin on Final "Gavin & Stacey" Season, and More

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. E! Online's Watch with Kristin caught up with True Blood star Stephen Moyer, who plays vampire Bill Compton on the HBO supernatural drama, to talk about Season Two, which kicks off on June 14th. "There's no getting away from the fact that Bill is a vampire. He can't wish to be anything else, because he's a vampire, but he's a vampire who wants to live a human life," said Moyer about his character. "Actually, in fact, he wishes not for a human life, but for a moral life. It's not that he doesn't want to feed on blood, it's that he doesn't want it to involve killing—but in his first season he kills as many people as the murderer. That was something that was very present in our minds. He has that blood lust, he has that very strong sense of right and wrong. If somebody f--s him off, he's going to take them out. He's torn. He's not going to do it just for the sake of it. B

Serial Boxes: John Lithgow to Play Killer on Season Four of Showtime's "Dexter"

In a rather surprising twist, John Lithgow ( Confessions of a Shopaholic ) has been cast in Season Four of Showtime drama Dexter . Lithgow will appear in all twelve episodes of Dexter 's fourth season, which launches September 27th, and will play serial killer Walter Simmons, known by his sobriquet The Trinity Killer, one of America's deadliest murderers who kills in threes and masquerades as an "unassuming mild-mannered suburbanite." Having relocated to Miami, Simmons will cross paths with Michael C. Hall's Dexter Morgan as Dexter assists F.B.I. Special Agent Frank Lundy (Keith Carradine) investigate the three-decades long crime spree of The Trinity Killer. (Lithgow is no stranger to playing characters with psychotic tendencies; remember his turn as multiple characters in the 1992 Brian De Palma film Raising Cain ?) The full press release from Showtime, announcing John Lithgow's casting, can be found below. JOHN LITHGOW TAKES ON A KILLER ROLE AWARD-WINNING A

Channel Surfing: Lindelof on "Lost" Finale, Olyphant Not Leaving "Damages," "Southland" Cast Feeling Positive About Renewal, and More

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. Just shortly after the airing of Lost 's 100th episode, The New York Times ' Dave Itzkoff recalls a recent interview with showrunner Damon Lindelof about he and the writing staff are preparing for the end of Lost in May 2010. "I think one of our biggest concerns is reaching the climax of the story too soon – you have to time it right, you have to walk that line between giving a steady supply of story and character pathos and mysteries being answered along the way, so that the audience doesn’t feel like it all comes in one big chunk," said Lindelof. "But then if you do it too soon, they kind of feel like, 'I got everything that I cared about halfway through the season, so why am I still watching?' And it’s terrifying. Finally, we’re going to do it. There’s no excuses, we don’t get to say, 'We didn’t get to end the show on our own terms. They kept us on the air three years longer than we wanted to be.