[Televisionary]

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. Entertainment Weekly 's PopWatch has an interview with Elizabeth Mitchell and Lost executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse about the ultimate fate of Mitchell's Juliet, last seen detonating the hydrogen bomb that may or may not have caused The Incident at the end of Season Five. While Mitchell is set to reprise her role as Juliet Burke on Season Six of Lost , it's been confirmed that Juliet is definitely dead. Still, there are still some mysteries about the good (or not so good?) doctor that still need to be resolved. "There’s still something very significant that we have not yet learned about the character," according to Cuse. ( Entertainment Weekly 's PopWatch ) Gregory Itzin ( The Mentalist ) will return to FOX's 24 in a multiple-episode story arc that finds him reprising his role as villainous former President Charles Logan, who was last seen being stabbed by his wife Martha (Jean Smart)

FOX has unveiled their first official promo for Day Eight of 24 , which launches in January. The 45-second promo clip for Day Eight, which can be viewed below, doesn't focus on the new characters played by Katee Sackhoff and Freddie Prinze Jr. next season, instead placing the emphasis squarely on Kiefer Sutherland's Jack Bauer and Elisha Cuthbert's Kim (sans cougar, natch). Will Jack ever get a chance to settle into the quiet comfort of grandparenthood and time with his family? Not this day, anyway, as Jack is once again called upon to save the nation. Are you excited about Day Eight? Curious about the new characters? And wondering whether Jack will make it through the season alive? Discuss. Day Eight of 24 is scheduled to launch on Monday, January 17th on FOX.

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. The Hollywood Reporter 's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that TNT is very close to a deal with Warner Bros. Television to acquire cancelled NBC cop drama Southland . The deal, which is now said to appear "likely," would save the series--which produced six new installments for a second season at NBC--from cancellation, after NBC axed the series before launching the series' second season. ( Hollywood Reporter ) Bravo has ordered a spinoff of its culinary competition series Top Chef entitled Top Chef: Just Desserts , which will air next year and focus on a showdown between pastry chefs in a weekly competition. Top Chef producers Magical Elves are on board for the spinoff, which will begin casting this week. No host or judges have been determined yet for the series, which will air in between cycles of Top Chef and Top Chef Masters . ( Variety ) The Wrap's Josef Adalian takes a look at what appear to be the first two

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. Former Dirty Sexy Money star Natalie Zea, who most recently recurred on HBO's Hung , has signed on a series regular on FX's drama Lawman , starring Timothy Olyphant. Zea, who appeared in Lawman 's pilot, will reprise her role as the ex-wife of Olyphant's US Marshall Givens in the series. Project hails from Sony Pictures Television and FX Productions. ( Hollywood Reporter ) Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Emmy winner Armand Assante has been cast as a guest star on NBC's Chuck , where he will play "a Castro-esque dictator who Casey has unsuccessfully tried to assassinate multiple times." ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) The CW has given a full season order to veteran drama series One Tree Hill , which is currently in its seventh season. Initially, the netlet had only ordered 13 installments for this season but the order bumps the episode total to a full 22. El

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing, on this the first day back to work after the Labor Day three-day weekend. Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Angie Harmon ( Women's Murder Club ) has been cast as a guest star on NBC's Chuck . She'll appear in the third season's fourth episode--slated to air sometime around late March/early April--where she will play Sydney, a covert agent for the enigmatic organization The Ring who wants to eliminate Captain Awesome (Ryan McPartlin). ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) Former Middleman star Natalie Morales has been promoted to a series regular on USA's upcoming crime dramedy White Collar , where she will play Lauren Cruz, described as "a smart junior FBI agent in the white-collar division who holds her own with her superiors and the master thieves she's investigating." Morales was originally meant to guest star in two episodes. Elsewhere at USA, Eric Lively (

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. It seems like the stars are finally aligning. Producers on FOX's Bones are in talks with Zooey Deschanel to guest star on the procedural crime drama in December as the cousin of real-life sister Emily Deschanel's Brennan, according to Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello. "We’ve been looking for an opportunity to get the Deschanel girls together," said Bones creator/executive producer Hart Hanson, "but Zooey’s rockin’ career kept getting in the way... We alluded to [her] having a cousin in Minnesota two seasons ago. I’d very much like to meet her in the Christmas episode." ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) As previously reported on this site, 20th Century Fox Television is teaming up with Columbia Records on a series of soundtracks for FOX's upcoming series Glee . The first release, "Glee: The Music, Volume 1," will contain seventeen tracks from the series' first seas

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. David Anders ( Alias, Heroes ) has been cast in a recurring role on Day Eight of FOX's 24 and Zap2It's Rick Porter has managed to obtain some further information about Anders' villainous character. Anders, who is slated to appear in a handful of episodes next season, will play Josef Bazhaev, the son of an Eastern European mobster, who is described in casting breakdowns as being the "heir apparent to an Eastern Promises -style godfather. Josef is a dangerous man but is cautious and worries about things more than his father." ( Zap2It ) Just a few days after the opening of feature film The Time Traveler's Wife , ABC has announced that it is teaming up with Friends creator Marta Kaufman and Warner Bros. Television to develop a drama series based around the film (itself an adaptation of Audrey Niffenegger's novel). Kaufman will write the pilot script and executive produce. "ABC executives believe the

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello is reporting that House 's Jennifer Morrison and Jesse Spencer's Cameron and Chase will move back into their old jobs on the FOX medical drama following a staffing shakeup at Princeton Plainsboro during which Foreman takes over House's role. "They are both thrown back into their old jobs," Morrison told EW . "It’s been great actually. I have been working a lot and there are things that happen to House very early in the season that have a domino effect on all of the other characters... Cameron was always very close and protective of House. And to have her mentor be away in an asylum makes her contemplate life and career and him. Having him gone affects everyone he works with, personally and professionally." ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) Another Battlestar Galactica actor is heading to FOX's 24 next season. Callum Keith Rennie, who playe

In the press room after the 24 panel at San Diego Comic-Con this weekend, David Fury tried to explain comments that fellow executive producer Howard Gordon made on the panel about the lack of female writers on the FOX series. Gordon had likened the dearth of women behind the scenes on 24 to the fact that the Rolling Stones didn't have any female members either. "They call me the woman on staff because I've written female roles for several other shows," Fury told members of the press. "Do I miss having women on staff? I do. The women who have come on have not quite captured the show, I don't know why. There is a mentality that it's a men's show. I don't think it's a problem for the show not having female writers, the show has been through many different writers, very successful very good writers who have succeeded on other shows could not quite get through the mindset and for some reason a lot of writers have fallen by the wayside. There'

The big news coming out of the 24 panel at Comic-Con 2009: CTU is back in a major way, Jack is happy, and Katee Sackhoff slides into the action-adventure series like a glove. Just don't expect her character, Dana Walsh, to be anything like Starbuck. Three of the series' newest cast members--Sackhoff, Freddie Prinze Jr., and Anil Kapoor--were on hand along with what seemed like a zillion writer/producer types on the series and Kiefer Sutherland and Mary Lynn Rajskub, of course. Last season was about "getting Jack to a place where living mattered," said executive producer Howard Gordon. "Day Seven and Day Eight are probably, more than others, really connected together." So where do we start on Day Eight? Manny Coto joked that Day Eight takes place "30 years later." But really it starts with "Jack happy" with his daughter and granddaughter. But don't expect Jack to get all mushy. "It won't last," promised executive produce

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. Mark Pellegrino ( Lost ) has been cast in CW's Supernatural next season, where he will play none other than Lucifer himself. Pellegrino, who will recur on Supernatural next season, is expected to first appear on the series' September 10th season premiere. Meanwhile, don't look for him to give up his other role: that of Jacob on ABC's Lost , which he could easily do as well given his recurring status on Supernatural . ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) Missy Peregrym ( Reaper ) has been cast as the lead in Canadian police drama Copper , which will air Stateside on ABC. Peregrym will play Andy McNally, "a newly minted cop fresh from the academy and the daughter of a homicide detective" who "is anxious about her first day on the job, which doesn't go as well as she had wished." Series is described as " Grey's Anatomy set in the world of rookie cops." ABC closed a deal t

After weeks of anticipation (and speculation), 20th Century Fox has finally announced which series they will be bringing down to San Diego Comic-Con next month. The unusual suspects-- 24, Bones, Dollhouse, The Simpsons --are all going to be on hand to present cast and producer panels throughout the weekend but the studio has also announced panels for Glee, Cleveland Show, American Dad , and Futurama to boot. Meanwhile, such boldface names as Kiefer Sutherland, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Anil Kapoor, Freddie Prinze, Jr. Katee Sackhoff, Joss Whedon, Eliza Dushku, David Boreanaz, Emily Deschanel, Matt Groening, Seth MacFarlane, Seth Green, Mila Kunis, and the cast of Glee will be on hand as well. The full press release from 20th Century Fox Television can be be found below, along with dates and times (and descriptions) of each of their panels. TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX TELEVISION BRINGS NINE SHOWS TO COMIC-CON Kiefer Sutherland, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Anil Kapoor, Freddie Prinze, Jr. Katee Sackhoff, Jo

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. I'm back from vacation so there's loads of television-related headlines to catch up on. Buckle your seatbelts; it's going to be a bumpy ride! Weeds star Mary-Louise Parker has put those rumors that she's leaving the Showtime comedy series to bed, stating that she's sticking around for quite some time. "Sometimes when I think about the show ending I get sad. I just can't imagine what it's going to be like," Parker told E! Online's Watch with Kristin. "We for sure have one more year, so I don't have to be sad yet. I can smile a little bit longer. I would stay on, but at a certain point it would get a little bit tired. It'd be like, we don't need to see Nancy and Andy running around in their 60s. I think it will depend on how this season goes, as to whether or not it will have a little velocity for staying around a little longer." ( E! Online's Watch with Kristin ) When