[Televisionary]

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. NBC is developing a US version of British crime drama series Prime Suspect , which starred Helen Mirren as the dogged and damaged Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison. The US version, which will be developed and written by Without a Trace 's Hank Steinberg, will be shot as a two-hour presentation and is the first effort of a multi-year deal between NBC and ITV Studios, the production arm of British terrestrial network ITV. "We want to carefully choose a couple of iconic titles this year to reinvent, and our intention is to create another classic television show from this brilliant original format," said NBC Primetime Entertainment president Angela Bromstad. "Hank Steinberg was key in helping us secure this project, and we are incredibly excited about this modern vision for the show." ( Variety ) Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello is reporting that former Smallville star Kristin Kreuk has been ca

Welcome to your Wednesday television briefing. E! Online's Jennifer Godwin has a look at what lies ahead for FOX's Dollhouse as she catches up with the Joss Whedon-created series' stars to get some dirt on what's going on inside the Dollhouse next season. "They have a connection," said Tahmoh Penikett of Echo and Paul Ballard next season. "It's not a physical attraction, but I hope it's something that we explore a lot more this season. You're not quite sure what it is. There's a past, there's a history, there's an understanding between them that's very different. I think the audience is really going to like it and be really curious about where we're going in the first few episodes." As for that other would-be couple, Sierra and Victor, Enver Gjokah said, "Sierra and Victor are definitely still involved. They're going to explore that relationship more. They explore the Sierra-and-Victor love as dolls, but then

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. Daphne Zuniga ( One Tree Hill ) will reprise her role as photographer Jo Reynolds in the CW's relaunch of soap Melrose Place in at least two episodes. Zuniga will join several other cast members from the original Melrose Place on the CW series this fall, including Thomas Calabro, Josie Bissett, and Laura Leighton. ( Entertainment Weekly 's Hollywood Insider ) Martha Plimpton ( ER ) has been cast in a multiple-episode story arc next season on ABC's Grey's Anatomy , where she will play the mother of a young patient at Seattle Grace. Her first appearance is set for the sixth season premiere, slated to air September 24th. In other Grey's casting news, Mitch Pileggi ( Stargate: Atlantis ) will reprise his role as Larry Jennings, the chairman of Seattle Grace's board of directors, in the sixth season premiere. ( Hollywood Reporter , TVGuide.com ) Eliza Coupe has been upgraded to series regular on Scrubs next s

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. Just a few headlines to go over on the first day back after a long holiday weekend. Lost showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have promised viewers a definitive ending for Lost when the series wraps its run next year. "We won’t be vague and ambiguous – there will be a lot of answers," promised Lindelof, speaking at a BAFTA event in London. "We feel that if we hold anything back in the final season, it would be bad. Everyone’s come this far and they want a conclusion to the story. We’ve no plans to continue the story of Lost beyond series six. My wife says 'never say never.' I say 'never.'" That final season won't feature time travel elements but will instead feel more like the first season. "There’s a circularity to the show," said Cuse. Just don't look for a happy ending. "Bittersweet comes with the territory," said Lindelof. "The ending we’re aspiring to

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

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. Still reeling from last night's season finale of ABC's Grey's Anatomy ? Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello has an exclusive interview with series creator Shonda Rhimes about some of the shocking plot twists in last night's season ender. Responding to rumors about whether Katherine Heigl and T.R. Knight wanted off of Grey's Anatomy and how this impacted their characters' fates, Rhimes said simply, "I don't think there are any coincidences. I think Katherine's stated publicly that she's happy to stay. I think that there have been lots of rumors about TR, but TR's never said anything. Take from it what you will." Rhimes also discusses the fates of Izzie and George, Mer and Der's wedding day, Jessica Capshaw, and a host of other Grey's related issues. ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) FOX has given a series order to supernatural drama Past Life (formerly kn

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. All eyes are on NBC today as the net plans to unveil to advertisers a slew of new and returning series at its "infront" in New York. Loads of rumors are flying around about the fate of several projects so please take any reports with a grain of salt until they are officially confirmed by NBC. NBC has renewed freshman drama Southland for a second season of thirteen episodes, despite the fact that the series came in third place on Thursday. However, execs are said to be high on the John Wells-executive produced drama from Warner Bros. Television and believe it has the potential to become a hit... though it will have to do so in a timeslot other than the 10 pm hour as NBC will be handing over that timeslot to Jay Leno this fall. Freshman comedy Parks and Recreation is also expected to get a second season order today as well, though it's thought that NBC may delay decisions on such series as Chuck and such pilots as David

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. Not unsurprisingly, NBC's Chuck has topped USA Today 's Save Our Show poll, scoring 54 percent of the 43,000 viewers who cast their votes in the ten-day online poll. The Warner Bros Television-produced series scored the top spot overall as well and was the most favored choice among men, teens and twenty-somethings, thirty-somethings, forty-somethings, whites, Asians, Hispanics, Westerners, Southerners, Northeasterners, and Midwesterners and the fourth favored choice among women as well. (If that's not cross-cultural appeal, I don't know what is.) ( USA Today ) Adult Swim has acquired rights to the original UK series The Office , starring Ricky Gervais, from BBC Worldwide and will air both seasons as well as the Christmas special (which marked the series finale) this summer. Move marks the second deal between Adult Swim and BBC Worldwide, which previously sold rights to comedy The Mighty Boosh to the cabler, which

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. Former X-Files star Gillian Anderson is said to be in talks to guest star in an episode of Doctor Who , set to air on BBC One next year, opposite the Eleventh Doctor, played by Matt Smith. Anderson would play "the renegade Time Lady, The Rani, a glamorous but evil scientific genius previously played in the series by Kate O'Mara in the 80s," who is an archenemy of the Doctor. "Gillian obviously has a massive sci-fi following following and it's felt it would be a major coup to have her appear in Doctor Who ," an anonymous source told The Daily Express . "The team behind the show are keen for the next Doctor to have lots of new enemies and Gillian would be a glamorous and impressive addition to the list. The Rani would be a perfect role for her as the character used to be regarded as one of the Doctor's most deadly opponents." ( Daily Telegraph ) USA has ordered drama White Collar , starring Mat

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. Pushing Daisies creator Bryan Fuller has said that a comic book spin-off of the sadly demised series could be on sale via Marvel as early as this fall, should a deal with Warner Bros for the rights be closed in the next month or so. What should fans expect from the comic, which Fuller describes as Season Three of Pushing Daisies ? "We're going to see a lot of exploration with Ned and his father, which we teased but were never able to make good on," Fuller told SCI FI Wire. "We had [Ned's father, played by] George Hamilton save Ned and Chuck, and by having Emerson and Dwight Dixon clean up the whole mess we're going to understand who Dwight was to Chuck and Ned's dad. Dwight will be making a return, and we'll be seeing the adult Eugene Mulchandani and Danny that involves helium smuggling. There's a lot of fun stuff woven into the series that we were intending to pay off that we can now do in the