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Channel Surfing: Team Darlton Talk Season Six of "Lost," Alan Ball Dishes on "Blood" Connection, Summit Developing "Push" Series, and More

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing.

The Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan has published the first part of a massive and fantastic Q&A with Lost showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. The best part? It's 100 percent spoiler-free, so even the spoiler-averse among us can enjoy. [Editor: Go, Mo!] "We... spent a lot of time talking about how we don’t want the last season of the show to be didactic," said Cuse, when asked whether they anticipated a harshly critical reaction to the final season. "It’s very dangerous to basically create a checklist of answers and then start trying to tick them off, because we want to make sure we’re telling engaging stories. For us really, while the mythology is important, for us it’s a story about these characters. And so most of our focus has been on, how are we going to resolve the character stories?" (Chicago Tribune's The Watcher)

SPOILER ALERT! Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello talks to True Blood creator Alan Ball about two potential, er, erotic connections next season on the vampire drama, one of which might be very surprising to fans of the show. [Editor: I can't imagine that it would go much further than some steamy dreams, to be honest.] (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Summit Entertainment, the indie studio behind the Twilight franchise, has announced that they are teaming up with E1 Entertainment to develop a series project based on the 2009 feature film Push, about a group of individuals with paranormal abilities who band together to take down a ruthless government agency. The pilot will be written by David Hayter (Watchmen), who will executive produce alongside Benedict Carter, Noreen Halpern, and John Morayniss. The companies are currently shopping the project to US networks. (Variety)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Billy Baldwin (Dirty Sexy Money) has signed on to appear in at least three episodes of the CW's Gossip Girl this season, where he will play Serena and Eric's father, William van der Woodsen. His first appearance is slated to air in April. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Pilot order alert!ABC has ordered two drama pilots and one comedy pilot; FOX and NBC each ordered a comedy, and CBS is said to be considering one drama. At ABC, the pickups were for Shonda Rhimes-executive produced medical drama Off the Map, about a group of doctors who work in a clinic in a remote area of the world, from writer Jenna Bans; Chris Murphey's crime procedural Body of Evidence, about a female medical examiner; and single-camera comedy Happy Endings, about a group of friends whose lives are thrown into chaos when two of them break up at the altar, from writer Dave Caspe, executive producer Jamie Tarses, and Sony Pictures Television. FOX has given a greenlight to pilot an untitled Ajay Sahgal comedy (a.k.a. Nevermind Nirvana) from 20th Century Fox Television, about two Indian brothers, one of whom enters a traditional arranged marriage and the other who marries a white woman. Over at NBC, the Peacock ordered a pilot for creators/stars Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant's multi-camera comedy The Strip, about an aged child star who owns a strip-mall Hooters-style restaurant on the outskirts of Las Vegas, which hails from Universal Media Studios. And CBS is said to be considering a pilot order for Joel Silver-executive produced buddy cop comedy The Odds, from writer Jeff Wadlow and Warner Bros. Television, about two cops in Las Vegas who are said to be "just as outrageous as the crimes they solve." (Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Hollywood Reporter)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Annette O'Toole will reprise her role as Martha Kent on the CW's Smallville later this season, citing unnamed sources. "Producers are still working out the exact timing of Martha’s reappearance, but a Smallville insider tells me it’ll most likely fall during May sweeps," writes Ausiello. "That same source hints that the mother-son reunion will be rocked by an 'unexpected surprise' or two." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Theresa Rebeck (Law & Order: Criminal Intent) has been hired to write the pilot script for Showtime's untitled Broadway project, from executive producers Steven Spielberg, Justin Falvey, and Daryl Frank. Project follows the development of a Broadway musical from idea to opening night and producers plan to take the musical to the real-life stage should the project get ordered to series. (Hollywood Reporter)

Twentieth Television's game show Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? will get a second round of syndication, following the conclusion of a renewal deal in the top five markets. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Comments

Cassie said…
I don't watch Gossip Girl anymore but casting Billy Baldwin as Serena's dad is a good move. It should be entertaining.

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