[Televisionary]

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. And it's over... Conan O'Brien and NBC have reached a deal that is said to be worth roughly $44 million and which will enable O'Brien to leave NBC and Jay Leno to take over hosting duties on the 11:35 pm Tonight Show . Citing a Wall Street Journal report, The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that O'Brien will receive $32 million from NBC and his staff will receive $12 million in severance from the network. O'Brien's final Tonight Show telecast will air tomorrow night. Under the terms of his deal, NBC will retain ownership of characters O'Brien and staffers created while at the network while O'Brien will be able to return to television in September, likely to launch a new latenight franchise at a rival network. Let the speculation about just where he'll end up (cough, FOX, cough) begin... now. ( The Hollywood Reporter , The Wrap's TVMoJoe , The Hollywood Reporter 's The Live Feed ) With t

AMC today announced that it has given pilot orders to two projects in development. Both zombie drama The Walking Dead , based on the comic book by Robert Kirkman, and crime drama The Killing , a US adaptation of Danish television series Forbrydelsen have received pilot orders and will begin production in the second quarter of 2010. " The Walking Dead and The Killing are alone in their class in terms of the quality of the storytelling," said Joel Stillerman, AMC’s senior vice president of original programming, production and digital content, in a statement. "Both have remarkable talent behind them, and present that rare opportunity to raise the bar significantly within a genre. It is a very exciting next step in our continuing commitment to presenting smart, sophisticated storytelling with broad appeal." Robert Kirkman will serve as an executive producer on The Walking Dead and while Frank Darabont ( The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile ) will write, direct

Missed my radio appearance earlier today on NPR's Colin McEnroe Show ? No worries as you can stream or download today's episode here or download today's show from the iTunes store here . Listen as I discuss television with host Colin McEnroe and USA Today 's Whitney Matheson and segments with Royal Holloway University of London Lecturer of Media Arts Adam Ganz, Fordham University's Brian McFadden, and Fionn Murtagh, Professor of Computer Science at the University of London. Among my topics: what to watch this winter, including Syfy's Caprica , ABC's Lost , FX's Archer, Justified , and Damages , and HBO's Big Love . Give it a listen!

I've long been a fan of FX's serpentine legal drama Damages , a taut, serialized journey down the rabbit hole of legal briefs, cutthroat business dealings, and vengeful murders. The first season of the award-winning drama series, created by Daniel Zelman and Glenn and Todd A. Kessler, offered up a deeply layered narrative that blended together a nonlinear structure infused with the tension of a first-rate thriller. Multiple mysteries, deeply conflicted characters, and a morally grey area kept the pacing moving at a breakneck speed while offering a battle between two indomitable wills: seemingly innocent young lawyer Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne) and ruthless crusader Patty Hewes (Glenn Close). Over the course of the first season of Damages , these two women shared secrets, engaged in conspiracies, and became enmeshed in a case that lead them to do some Very Bad Things to one another. The second season, while still gripping television, lacked some of the killer instinct of the fres

Not everything is what it appears to be, even on White Collar . You had the chance to read my advance review of last night's winter premiere , but now that the episode has aired, I'm curious to hear what you thought. Did you think that Jeff Eastin and the writing staff managed to keep the tension throughout the hour while also keeping Neal and Peter's partnership intact? Did the episode live up to the fall finale cliffhanger? Is Kate playing Neal and secretly working with Fowler or does she really love Neal? Just where is this mysterious amber music box and what will Neal have to do to obtain it? And, most importantly, are you hooked once more on White Collar ? Talk back here. Next week on White Collar ("Bad Judgment"), Peter and Neal discover a connection between Fowler and an estate judge who's committing mortgage fraud and set out to take them both down.

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

I'm not quite sure what to make of the couples assembled for this season of BBC America's Last Restaurant Standing (which airs in the UK under the title The Restaurant ). As always, they are a motley lot comprised of people who believe that they can open a restaurant because they give good dinner party and those who seemingly have no knowledge of food, no culinary training, and no common sense. Last night's episode of Last Restaurant Standing ("Opening Night"), the season's third, finally had the couples getting the keys to their very own restaurant spaces, picked at random and representing a number of diverse locations all around the city of Bristol, from quayside eateries to balconied high-traffic spaces. To me, this is where any season of Last Restaurant Standing should really begin. I appreciated what Raymond Blanc and the producers attempted with the first week auditions and the second week's trial by fire on the line of three high street restauran