[Televisionary]

FOX today announced their midseason plans for 2009-2010, unveiling a lineup that includes giving reincarnation drama Past Life the post- Bones slot on Thursday evenings (current occupant Fringe will be going on a prolonged hiatus for seven weeks), bringing Kitchen Nightmares back (on Friday nights this time around) and giving the post- American Idol slot to new reality series Our Little Genius . MONDAYS: The network announced that it had given a full season pickup to drama series Lie to Me , though the Shawn Ryan-produced series will take a breather on Mondays, which will be taken over by House and 24 come January. There's no return date yet for Lie to Me but the pickup ensures that the series will eventually return to the schedule at some point during the season. TUESDAYS: Which brings us to Glee . We all knew that the musical comedy would go on hiatus after its initial thirteen-episode commitment and that there would need to be some time for scripting and production and

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. Given that it's Veteran's Day, there are but a few headlines to get through this morning. Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Robert Patrick ( The Unit ) has been cast in an upcoming episode of NBC's Chuck , where he will play Col. Keller, described as "a mysterious figure from Casey's past." He's slated to appear about halfway through the series' third season in a Casey-centric episode entitled "Chuck Versus the Tic Tac." ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) TVGuide.com's Natalie Abrams talks to Glee star Chris Colfer about tonight's episode of Glee ("Wheels") and the romantic permutations coming up on the FOX musical dramedy series. "It's very incestual," Colfer told Abrams about the glee club's romantic entanglements. "There's love triangles right now, but there's soon to be love pentagons and hexag

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos is reporting that one former castmember of ABC's Lost is holding out against a return to the series for its sixth and final season. "Sources close to ABC's Lost tell me that although most of the original cast—holler!—will be seen in some capacity for the show's upcoming season, one former Lost castmember has turned down an offer to return to the series," writes Dos Santos. "So who is it? Well, you know we can't name names in such cases, but suffice it to say that this is a person you'd assume would very much want to return to the series. According to my moles, offers went out to the original castmembers several weeks ago, and this particular Lost star decided to decline. While some of the other returning Losties have already filmed scenes, this Lost holdout has not been on the set or filmed anything for the series, according to insiders." And, oh, it's

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. Following last week's Chuck -related rumor of an October launch , The Wrap's Josef Adalian is reporting that NBC's plans for action-comedy series Chuck will hinge on last night's ratings performance for medical drama Trauma , which has been tanking since its launch and is said to be on cancellation watch. Adalian cites unnamed NBC insiders who say that there's a "very small chance" that Chuck could return as early as the end of the month but goes on to say that there's one scenario in discussion at the Peacock that has Chuck returning to its Monday nights at 8 pm timeslot, with Heroes shifting back to 9 pm, should Trauma need to be pulled from the lineup. "If Trauma goes down, however, it's very likely Chuck will be back before year's end. And if Trauma really tanks, Ausiello's October surprise scenario could well transpire," writes Adalian. "But NBC insiders know r

Can Kristin Chenoweth be on Glee every week? Pretty please? Last night's episode of Glee ("The Rhodes Not Taken"), written by Ian Brennan and directed by John Scott, saw the diminutive former Pushing Daisies star guest star as former high school singing sensation April Rhodes, a woman now reduced to squatting in a bank-owned home and working her way through a box of wine on her lonesome. Three credits shy of graduating high school, the boozy and flirtatious April is lured back into the spotlight of McKinley High glee club by a desperate Will, who needs to replace Rachel now that she's skipped out on the club to focus on stardom with a leading role in a Cabaret production. But Finn has his own plot to get Rachel back in glee, though he has some less than altruistic motivations for doing so. Still with me? I thought that Chenoweth knocked it out of the park last night and fit in beautifully with the quirkiness of Glee . Was it a little unbelievable that the, uh, sli

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. CBS is said to be developing a potential spin-off from its crime drama series Criminal Minds that will be created by showrunner/executive producer Ed Bernero and executive producer Chris Mundy, the latter of which will write the script for the potential spin-off which will air as an episode of Criminal Minds later this season. No concrete details are available but the series is thought to revolve around a new team of FBI agents, rather than focusing on any of the existing Criminal Minds characters. ( Hollywood Reporter ) John Simm ( Life on Mars ), who returns to Doctor Who to reprise his role as The Master this winter, has said that David Tennant's swan song on the British sci-fi series is a "brilliant send-off" for Tennant and the Tenth Doctor. "It'll be a brilliant send-off for Mr Tennant," said Simm. "Last time I did it it was such fun to do. It was wonderful to be asked back and to be in th

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. I'm back in the land of the living after recovering from a truly extraordinary Emmy evening the other night. Let's get to the headlines. FOX has given a full season order to musical comedy Glee , picking up the back nine episodes to bring this season's total to 22 segments. While the cast had already filmed the thirteen initial episodes, there had been no word if FOX would be going ahead with the production until yesterday. Meanwhile, E! Online's Jennifer Godwin has the scoop on some upcoming plot points for the ten remaining unaired episodes from Glee 's initial order, including some potential romantic complications for, well, everyone. ( E! Online's Watch with Kristin ) The CW has announced that Heather Locklear will reprise her role as conniving Amanda Woodward on the resurrected Melrose Place later this season. Locklear is set to first appear in the November 17th episode though the reasons behind her retu

Just curious to see how many of you tuned in last night to watch the series premiere of FOX's musical dramedy Glee . While you read my advance review of the series premiere ("Showmance") , now that the episode has aired, I'm curious what you thought of the episode. Did it live up to the hype? Did you enjoy the mix of music, comedy, and soapy shenanigans? Was it tonally balanced with a good mix of light and dark or did you find it inconsistent? What did you think of the three big musical numbers: "Gold Digger," "Push It," and "Take a Bow"? (Were you as amazed as I was that Matthew Morrison could pull off Kanye West's "Gold Digger" with such aplomb?) Did you find the show endearingly cheerful and optimistic or frustratingly peppy? And, most importantly, will you be tuning in again next week? Talk back here. Next week on Glee ("Acafellas"), Will forms the Acafellas, an all-male acapella singing group and gets a visit

Just a quick reminder to be sure to tune in to tonight's fantastic series premiere of Glee on FOX. If you enjoyed the pilot episode when it aired back in May (or a few times last week as well), you'll fall head over heels in love with tonight's installment ("Showmance"), which features a fantastic rendition of "Gold Digger" by Matthew Morrison that had me in awe. I had the opportunity to watch tonight's episode a few months back (you can read my spoiler-light advance review here ) and I don't think any of you rabid Gleeks out there will be disappointed. Here's how FOX is describing tonight's series premiere: the Glee Club has their first performance in front of the whole school; Quinn realizes Rachel has feelings for Finn; Will's wife reveals some unexpected news that forces him to make some changes in his life; Will learns he must recruit more people for New Directions in order to qualify to compete at Regionals. Glee premieres ton

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. NBC has given a put pilot order to an untitled drama that follows the employees of a unit whose task is to apprehend fugitives. Project, from Warner Bros. Television and Bruckheimer Television, will be written/executive produced by Jennifer Johnson ( Cold Case ) and executive produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and Jonathan Littman. Deal marks first sale for Bruckheimer at NBC since 2005's E-Ring . ( Variety ) FOX has given a script commitment with a penalty to an untitled western from Chuck writer/executive producer Scott Rosenbaum and executive producers McG and Peter Johnson. Project, from Warner Bros. Television and Wonderland Sound and Vision, is said to have a sci-fi twist that is a tip of the hat to Planet of the Apes and will focus on a "a gunslinger caught between worlds," according to Rosenbaum. "What I'm really interested in is the revamping of the Western genre where you still have all of the iconic W

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 Friday morning television briefing. Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Campbell Scott ( Royal Pains, Six Degrees ) has signed on as a series regular for Season Three of FX's serpentine legal thriller Damages . No details were immediately available about just who Scott will be playing next season on the Sony Pictures Television-produced drama series, which will return to production next month for a January 2010 premiere. ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) ABC's sci-fi drama V is set to take a two-week creative break, with filming to temporarily shut down for a two week period beginning next Wednesday. However, the move won't impact the November 3rd launch date, involve any staff changes, or, writes The Wrap's Josef Adalian, affect "the six episodes its planning for the fourth quarter." For its part, studio Warner Bros. Television wouldn't give any details about the exact reason behind the decision to