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Channel Surfing: "Better Off Ted" Returns This Summer, Mykelti Williamson Clocks in at "24," Guest Stars Galore for "Warehouse 13," and More

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing.

ABC is set to bring back Better Off Ted earlier than expected as the network has announced that it will air six unaired episodes from Ted's first season this summer before kicking off a second season of thirteen episodes in early 2010. Better Off Ted will return to ABC's schedule on June 23rd at 9 pm ET/PT, airing behind new reality competition series The Superstars. [Editor: that gleeful squealing sound you're hearing? It's me.] Meanwhile, ABC also announced that it had pulled comedy Surviving Suburbia from its lineup, instead airing back-to-back episodes of The Goode Family this week. (Variety)

Mykelti Williamson (Kidnapped) has joined the cast of Day Eight of FOX drama 24, where he will play the head of CTU New York, Brian Hastings, described as having "a razor-sharp intellect." Williamson, who will be a series regular next season, joins the recently announced Freddie Prinze Jr., Jennifer Westfeldt, John Boyd, and Chris Diamantopoulos. Also joining the 24 cast next season: Lost's Doug Hutchison (a.k.a. Horace Goodspeed), who will play a European terrorist named Davros in a recurring role. (Hollywood Reporter)

Sci Fi has confirmed guest stars for the first season of its upcoming drama series Warehouse 13, launching July 7th. Battlestar Galactica's Tricia Helfer will play FBI Agent Bonnie Belski who clashes with Myka (Joanne Kelly) and Pete (Eddie McClintock); Ivan Sergei (Crossing Jordan) will play an EMT named Ross when Myka and Pete investigate a case involving a local town expressing all of their subconscious desires; Stargate Atlantis' Joe Flanigan will play millionaire Jeff Weaver who is investigated by Myka and Pete when a sculpture he bid on at auction vanishes during a heist; Gossip Girl's James Naughton will play entrepreneur Gilbert Radburn who is investigated by Myka and Pete; Roger Rees (The West Wing) will play MacPherson, a former Warehouse colleague of Artie (Sam Rubinek) who has gone rogue and is now collecting dangerous objects for his own use; Eureka's Erica Cerra and Niall Matter will play Jillian and Gary Whitman, low-level Las Vegas thieves who discover a powerful artifact; Joe Morton (Eurkea) will play prison inmate John Hill, who has become a religious zealot; Battlestar Galactica's Michael Hogan will play Warren Bering, Myka's father, whose life is placed in danger when he receives a dangerous artifact in the mail, and Dollhouse's Mark Sheppard will play Mr. Valda, the "enigmatic representative of the Regents, the mysterious organization that controls Warehouse 13." (via press release)

David Tennant and Patrick Stewart will reunite for a television production of their recent Royal Shakespeare Company performance of "Hamlet," that will air on BBC Two later this year and in the US and Japan in 2010. (Variety)

Reports are swirling that couple Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag tried to quit NBC's reality competition series I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! the very first day they arrived in Costa Rica and allegedly refused to eat the same meals that had been prepared for the rest of the cast and complained about the caliber of their competitors. They wanted to be treated like stars," according to an unnamed source. "[Spencer] literally thought he and Heidi were staying in a Four Seasons, working out and getting a tan." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

The Octomom, a.k.a. Nadya Suleman, has signed a deal for a reality television series with production company 3 Ball Prods. The series, which has yet to be sold to an American outlet, will document key moments in the lives of Suleman and her enormous brood and will be modeled after a Danish format that followed the lives of four children from birth to adulthood. (Hollywood Reporter)

DirecTV Group CEO Chase Carey is said to be in talks about replacing Peter Chernin as Rupert Murdoch's Number Two at News Corp. (Broadcasting & Cable)

Brillstein TV has hired former BermanBraum and Warner Bros. Television executive Rachel Kaplan as EVP, where she will work closely with Peter Traugott in developing scripted and unscripted projects for broadcast and cable. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Comments

Hannah said…
More episodes of Better Off Ted this summer? I'm gleefully squealing too!!!

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