[Televisionary]

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. The Hollywood Reporter 's James Hibberd is reporting that Showtime has renewed Billie Piper-led dark comedy Secret Diary of a Call Girl for a fourth season, which would be the series' last. The series, which airs on ITV2 in the UK, is expected to return in early 2011 and the final season would likely focus on the relationship between Piper's Belle/Hannah and her best friend Ben (Iddo Goldberg). ( Hollywood Reporter 's The Live Feed ) UPDATE: According to Showtime's press release, "Season Four, which will be comprised of eight, half-hour episodes, will follow Belle (Piper), an internationally successful author, torn between her career and her feelings for her best friend Ben (Iddo Goldberg). Additionally, Season Four will feature a storyline where the high-end London call girl visits New York City." The Wrap's Hunter Walker has details on HBO's latest pilot, Tilda , the Diane Keaton-led comedy wh

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. SPOILER! E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos is reporting that Eddie Cibrian is leaving CSI: Miami . "With original castmember—-and fan fave!—-Adam Rodriguez (Delko) returning this fall, a source close to the series confirms Eddie's departure, and tells me the Powers That Be are more interested in focusing on the core cast next season," writes Dos Santos, "which eliminates the need for the poor Cardoza character." Meanwhile, Dos Santos has the dirt on just how Cirbian's Cardoza will be written out of the crime procedural, but--beware!--it's highly spoilery. ( E! Online's Watch with Kristin ) April Lee Hernandez ( ER ) has been cast in a recurring role on Season Five of Showtime's serial killer drama Dexter . She'll play a police officer in the homicide department of Miami Metro. Hernandez's casting comes on the heels of news that Julia Stiles, Shawn Hatosy, and Maria Doyle Kennedy have

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 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

Looking to set your TiVo season pass this summer before you head out on vacation? Or sticking around and wondering just what's worth watching (or at least checking out) this summer? Head over to The Daily Beast, where you can read my piece entitled, "19 Reasons to Watch TV This Summer," where I break down 19 new and returning series airing during the sweltering season, including HBO's True Blood AMC's Rubicon and Mad Men , Bravo's Work of Art and Top Chef: DC , FOX's Masterchef , Syfy's Haven , USA's White Collar , TNT's Memphis Beat and Rizzoli & Isles , BBC America's Being Human , and a lot more. Check out the gallery to read descriptions of the series and then head to the comments section to discuss just what you're most excited about this summer.

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

I just wanted to offer a few quick words about one of my favorite series, Showtime's deliciously dark comedy Nurse Jackie , which wraps up its second season tonight. I've been a ardent viewer of Nurse Jackie since before it premiered and the second season hasn't disappointed at all. While many series suffer through a sophomore slump, Jackie has actually become more acutely pointed and shocking in its second year, deepening its characters rather than making them cartoonish, and giving everyone in the talented cast--Edie Falco, Merritt Wever, Eve Best, Paul Schulze, Dominic Fumusa, Anna Deavere Smith, Stephen Wallem, Arjun Gupta, and Peter Facinelli--moments in the spotlight in which to shine. (Deavere Smith's Akalitus has become, over the course of the second season, a personal favorite thanks to some deft shading.) What makes these characters instantly fascinating isn't that they are likeable but because their flaws and quirks are relatable. Jackie Peyton's qu

The plot deepens. Showtime has released a new trailer for Weeds , which returns in August with its sixth season. Featuring the song "Terrible Things" by April Smith & The Great Picture Show, the promo shows Mary Louise Parker's Nancy Botwin digging a hole and throwing in a whole lot of items into a pit. Those items would include a passport, a pistol, a cell phone (which happens to ring and displays a call from Esteban), a croquet mallet (recalling how Shane bludgeoned Pilar to death with one at the end of last season), a Jesus bobblehead, and a gasoline container, each items that connect back to one of the previous seasons. The trailer can be viewed in full below. Season Six of Weeds is scheduled to premiere August 16th on Showtime.

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

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

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. Starz is heading back to Spartacus , ordering six episodes of a prequel series that will be set before Season One of the gladiator drama series, which wrapped its run last month. The six-episode prequel, as yet untitled, will revolve around the House of Batiatus and its champions and will star John Hannah and Lucy Lawless, as well as Peter Mensah, Manu Bennett, Antonio Te Maihoha, Nick E. Tarabay, and Lesley-Ann Brandt, and feature a brief appearance by Andy Whitfield, who is currently undergoing treatment for Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. Production will begin this summer, with the pay cabler eying a January 2011 launch, clearly an effort to keep the franchise humming until a second season can be produced. "The prequel story maintains the excitement and entertainment value of the first season of Spartacus , giving audiences the engaging experience they've come to expect," said Starz President and CEO Chris Albrecht in a stat

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. Could it be that things are looking up for Chuck ? Deadline.com's Nellie Andreeva breaks down the current on the bubble series at the broadcast networks, including NBC's Chuck . "Last year, NBC’s Chuck got an 11th hour reprieve, clinching a partial 3rd-season order on Sunday afternoon before upfront week," writes Andreeva. "This time around, its fate will be decided earlier if the show’s producers get their way. Several days ago, creators Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak pitched NBC their vision for Season 4 and producing studio Warner Bros asked the network for a quick resolution so the series could keep its writing staff. Even with NBC brass happy with their drama development, the spy dramedy’s chances of renewal are considered very good -- and certainly a lot better than last year when a sponsorship deal with Subway sealed the renewal. With the show rising in the ratings this week and fans staging rallies tomor

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. Cast changes are afoot at Showtime's upcoming Matt LeBlanc-led comedy Episodes , with Thomas Haden Church pulling out of the project due to a scheduling conflict with a film and Claire Forlani being recast after the recent table read earlier this week. But with Forlani out, Showtime has had the luck of landing British actress Tamsin Greig ( Black Books, Green Wing, Love Soup ) to replace her. [Editor: I think Greig is a much better fit and is a comedy genius. Showtime is beyond lucky to have nabbed her. Grieg's Black Books character, Fran Katzenjammer, remains a perennial favorite.] Greig will step into Forlani's role, as the female half of a husband-and-wife writing team whose British series is adapted for American television... and ruined in the process. Showtime has ordered seven episodes of the series, which is created by David Crane and Jeffrey Klarik, who executive produce alongside Jimmy Mulville. ( Variety ) Ste

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. Deadline.com's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that ABC is said to be considering renewing nighttime soap Desperate Housewives for two more seasons, which would then wrap up the series' run on the network. "There have been indications that ABC may go for a straight two-year pickup, including making deals with key writers on the show. Creator/executive producer Marc Cherry already has a deal in place with producing studio ABC Studios for three more years," writes Andreeva. "If Desperate Housewives indeed ends its run after eight seasons, he is expected to focus on development in the final year of his deal." She also reports that Patrick Dempsey may not want to continue on Grey's Anatomy after next season... ( Deadline.com ) Good news for Brittany and Santana. Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Glee 's Heather Morris and Naya Rivera, who play Cheerios/New Directions doub