[Televisionary]

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. Judy Greer ( Miss/Guided ) is heading to CBS. The actress--whose voice appeared this season on FX's animated comedy Archer --has signed on to star in CBS ensemble comedy Mad Love , which has been picked up for thirteen episodes and will launch in midseason. Greer replaces Lizzy Caplan, who had only signed on to appear as a guest star in the pilot, and will star opposite Sarah Chalke (who herself replaced Minka Kelly), Jason Biggs, and Tyler Labine (who replaced Dan Fogler). Project, from writer/executive producer Matt Tarses, revolves around a group of Manhattan friends looking for love. ( Variety , Deadline ) Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that David Strathairn ( Matadors ) is in talks to topline Syfy's action-adventure pilot Alphas , which revolves around a team of people with extraordinary abilities. Strathairn would play the "the overseer/team leader/prescribing doctor and all around mother hen to the tea

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. Showtime's Dexter is on a casting role. Variety 's Stuart Levine is reporting that Jonny Lee Miller ( Eli Stone ) is the latest to board the serial killer drama, signing on to appear in a multiple-episode story arc on Season Five of Dexter . Miller will play "a mysterious man who ends up tangled in a storyline with Julia Stiles, who is beginning her first season on the skein." ( Variety ) Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Jordana Spiro has exited NBC's midseason romantic anthology series Love Bites . Spiro's participation in the series was always in second position to her role on TBS comedy My Boys , which returns for its fourth season next month. "Although the odds appear slim that TBS will renew the show for a fifth season (season 4 premieres July 25), it was a risk NBC apparently wasn’t willing to take," writes Ausiello. "It’s unclear if her role will be recast.

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. Cynthia Nixon ( Sex and the City ) has signed on to appear in four episodes of Showtime's upcoming dark comedy The Big C , which stars Laura Linney as Cathy, a suburban teacher whose life is thrown off track by a terminal cancer diagnosis. Nixon will play Rebecca, Cathy's "flaky, long-lost college roommate who re-enters her life and shakes things up in a wild way," according to the official press release from Showtime. Nixon's casting follows on the heels of that of ex- Wire co-star Idris Elba. The series, created by Darlene Hunt, stars Linney, Oliver Platt, and Gabourey Sidibe. (via press release) Wondering why none of the main cast members of FOX's Glee will be heading to Comic-Con next month despite 20th Century Fox Television's announcement that there will be a Glee panel at San Diego Comic-Con? Entertainment Weekly 's Andy Patrick is reporting that half of the Glee cast wasn't asked to

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Jennifer Jason Leigh and Alanis Morissette will return to Weeds for the Showtime dark comedy's sixth season, set to launch August 16th. Leigh will reprise her role as Nancy's sister Jill in one episode, with Morissette due to appear in two episodes as Andy's girlfriend Audra Kitson, who also happened to be Nancy's doctor. ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that Jamie Foxx has shot a trailer for a potential television project entitled Tommy's Little Girl , which features Paul Sorvino, Selma Blair, James Russo, and Tony Sirico. Project would revolve around the relationship between a mobster (Sorvino) and his daughter (Blair) and will be pitched to cable networks. ( Deadline ) Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello has an interview with newly promoted Grey's Anatomy series regular Sarah

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. Vulture's Josef Adalian is reporting that Starz is developing a US adaptation of Aussie crime series Underbelly , which has aired Stateside on DirecTV's Channel 101, following a deal to acquire the U.S. rights to the gritty crime drama, which some have likened to Australia's answer to The Sopranos ... which Starz topper Chris Albrect himself oversaw when he headed up HBO. "Albrecht is clearly hoping Underbelly ’s phenomenal success in Australia (its 2008 premiere drew more viewers there than any other non-sports broadcast, and the show won the country's equivalent of the Emmy for best drama) can be replicated here," writes Adalian. "Since the show is based on real events that took place in Australia starting in the 1970s, Starz can't simply film the original scripts using American actors. But the network is currently researching various American crime families that they can build effective story arc

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. It's official: former Life on Mars star Jason O'Mara has signed on to topline FOX's new action-adventure series Terra Nova , following the successful close of his deal, according to Deadline's Nellie Andreeva. Series revolves around a family from the future who travels back in time to the Earth's prehistoric past in order to save mankind. O'Mara will play Jim Shannon, described as "a devoted father with a checkered past who guides his family through this new land of limitless beauty, mystery and terror." (The role was reportedly offered to Friday Night Lights star Kyle Chandler prior to O'Mara.) Alex Graves ( Fringe will direct the pilot. ( Deadline ) Back Stage's Jessica Jardine has an interview with True Blood 's Mariana Klaveno, who plays Bill's maker, the devious vampire Lorena. "That's one of the really brilliant things about the show," said Klaveno. "[The wr

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. Vulture's Josef Adalian is reporting that Kevin Spacey is in attached to star in Rod Lurie's drama pilot The Crux , about a charismatic cult leader, which is currently being pitched to various networks. (Should the project go forward, Spacey would executive produce with Lurie, Dana Brunetti, and Marc Frydman.) While Adalian reports that talks have begun between Spacey's camp and Showtime (as well as possibly HBO), Deadline's Nellie Adreeva adds that the project is currently being pitched to Showtime, HBO, FX, and Starz, with all four said to be in the running to land the much buzzed project from Lurie ( Commander In Chief ), who will write the script. Timing, however, may be a key factor. "One stumbling block could be Spacey's schedule," writes Adalian. "In addition to various film roles, a big chunk of Spacey's day planner is filled fulfilling (and tweeting about) his obligations as artistic

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos caught up with Glee 's Jane Lynch, co-creator Brad Falchuk, and executive producer Dante Di Loreto to discuss five secrets from the Glee season finale, including the fact that the smooch between Will (Matthew Morrison) and Emma (Jayma Mays) wasn't scripted ("Her reaction is totally real," he said), no tear enhancers were used, Jonathan Groff and Idina Menzel may return next season, the writers deserve an Emmy (according to Lynch), and Sue Sylvester won't be turning all mushy next season. [Editor: personally, I thought the Glee season finale was pretty weak, coasting by on sentimentality rather than genuine--or earned--emotion. But I've found that to be true throughout the first season.] ( E! Online's Watch with Kristin ) USA has given a cast-contingent pilot order to buddy/cop comedy Common Law , which revolves around two LAPD officers--Wes and Travis--whose once-str

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. There is major recasting underway at CBS' comedy Mad Love , which is allegedly thisclose to scoring a thirteen-episode midseason order from the network. According to Deadline's Nellie Andreeva, Sarah Chalke ( Scrubs ) is said to be in talks to come aboard the comedy, where she would replace Minka Kelly ( Friday Night Lights ) as Kate on the Sony Pictures Television and CBS Studios-produced project. Meanwhile, Lizzy Caplan ( Party Down ) has backed out of the project after she couldn't commit to the series and her role, Connie, will also be recast. (It's the second wave of recastings on the pilot as Dan Fogler and Ashley Austin Morris were previously replaced by Tyler Labine and Lizzy Caplan respectively.) ( Deadline ) Hollywood Reporter 's Carita Rizzo offers an insightful behind-the-scenes look at NBC's critically acclaimed comedy Parks and Recreation , which recently wrapped its second season, by spending the

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that Amy Ryan ( The Office, The Wire ) has landed a role on Season Three of HBO's psychiatric drama In Treatment , where she will play the new therapist for Gabriel Byrne's Paul. That role was formerly supplied by Dianne Wiest's Gina, who was Paul's mentor/psychotherapist for the first two seasons. (Wiest has departed the series.) [Editor: it's about high time that Ryan had a regular gig on a series. She's been a favorite since her turn on The Wire as Beadie, so it's only fitting that she returns to HBO for In Treatnment .] ( Deadline ) E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos has an interview with Glee 's Jessalyn Gilsig, who plays Will's scheming ex-wife Terri. So will Terri be returning for Season Two of Glee ? And just what was up with her potentially inappropriate interest in Finn (Cory Monteith)? While Gilsig admits that she hasn't yet received her

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. Hugh Laurie's contract on FOX's medical drama House will expire at the end of next season, according to Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello, who talks to Laurie about the crossroads coming up. He claims that he's "open" to working past Season Seven but also feels that there's an ideal time to end a series and he hopes that moment becomes clear ahead of time. "I only hope we’ll know when the time is right [to close up shop]," said Laurie. "When people blunder on for five years after [they should have called it quits]… it gets taken out of your hands. Someone will say, 'That’s it.' But for now, I’m immensely proud of the things we did this season." ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) Loads of casting on HBO's upcoming comedy pilot Tilda , which may or may not be based on the life of infamous Hollywood blogger Nikki Finke. (Ahem.) Jason Patric ( The Losers

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. Could ABC be dipping its toes back in the Alias well? According to a story by E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos, ABC Studios is said to be considering a reboot of J.J. Abrams' Alias , which starred Jennifer Garner as superspy Sydney Bristow. "It's only very initial talk at this point, but I'm told that the development folks over at the Alphabet network are considering doing a new version of Alias that would borrow some elements of the original series," writes Dos Santos. "But the series would most likely not include any sort of complex mythological throughline such as the Rambaldi prophecy (a storyline that lost some of the fans). According to this source, ABC is hoping to hold onto its lost Lost audience with a re-envisioned J.J. Abrams series, in light of FlashForward not working out so well. (It was canceled last week.)" [Editor: Interestingly, ABC seems slow to get back into the superspy game,