[Televisionary]

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. With the 100th episode of Lost set to air tonight on ABC, many are already looking to the series' next milestone: the all-important series finale, set for May, 2010, and viewers are bound to have high expectations when creators Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse wrap up the series. "We can't let those expectations terrify us," said Lindelof in an interview with Variety 's Shawn Malcom. "The reality is, we've known what the series finale is going to be for a while now." In fact, the real variable is how the series' characters wind up at the end point charted by Lindelof and Cuse. "The path that we take to the end still has some room for surprises and changes and discoveries along the way (in terms of) the characters' journeys and how their relationships evolve," said Cuse. While the duo wouldn't reveal any specifics about the finale, they did say that fans will be left wanting

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. Evan Rachel Wood ( The Wrestler ) has been cast on HBO's True Blood , where she will guest star in two episodes as Sophie-Anne, a 500-year-old French vampire who is the Queen of Louisiana. Woods will turn up towards the end of Season Two, which kicks off on June 14th, but is expected to reprise her role should True Blood be renewed for a third season. Her character, Sophie-Anne, is described as "who is charming, wily, ruthless and wise. She's a consummate diplomat who has (or had) many of history's most famous people on speed dial." ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) Nancy Botwin may have left Agrestic behind but Weeds ' Mary-Louise Parker isn't going anywhere. "No. That's not true," said series creator Jenji Kohan when asked whether Parker would leave Weeds now that Jennifer Jason Leigh had been cast in the series. Leigh's character will appear in just a handful of episo

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. I promise no April Fool's Day jokes here, just real TV-related headlines this morning. IFC and Lionsgate Television are developing telepic Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter , based on Hamilton's best-selling Anita Blake novels about the female vampire hunter who also works as a police consultant on supernatural crimes. The movie, which will be produced by Lionsgate and After Dark Films, was written/executive produced by Glen Morgan ( The X-Files ) and will be shot this summer. ( Variety ) SCI FI Wire has an exclusive interview with Pushing Daisies creator Bryan Fuller about his return to NBC's Heroes , what went wrong with the series, and how he intends to fix it. "After I finished watching [the "Villains" episodes the producers sent over], I wasn't sure I could do this," said Fuller. "I didn't recognize the show anymore. It had become something else entirely. My fav

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. Variety 's Michael Schneider takes a look at the current batch of network series that are on the bubble for renewal next season, including NBC's Chuck and Life and FOX's Lie to Me and Dollhouse . Chuck co-creator Josh Schwartz is pitching a "game-changing" season finale to NBC execs in the next few weeks but its chances for renewal will "mostly be up to how well those shows perform during the final weeks of the season -- and how all those pilots look once the nets head into the screening room." Complicating matters for Chuck is the reduction of primetime real estate at the network, with The Jay Leno Show taking five of its primetime hours this fall. ( Variety ) This, that, and the other: The cast of Seinfeld --Jerry Seinfeld, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jason Alexander, and Michael Richards--appear with co-creator Larry David in a multiple-episode story arc on Curb Your Enthusiasm 's seventh season,

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. NBC will likely be renewing superhero drama Heroes for a fourth season. At least, according to NBC Entertainment President Angela Bromstad, who said that the series wasn't currently on the bubble for the next season and that the network was likely going to order 18-20 episodes for next season. One of the major factors is said to be NBC's sci-fi pilot Day One, from Heroes writer Jesse Alexander, which could air on Monday evenings. " Day One is a big event and we're looking at that to come into the Heroes spot," said Bromstad. "It's right now being looked at as a 13-episode run -- something people could commit to and we could make a big splash with." And the network is also said to have been privately discussing issuing an end date for Heroes , however " even if NBC ever made such a move, Bromstad said, they wouldn't want to make next season the conclusion." ( Hollywood Reporter &

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. It's been a busy few days, between the ongoing Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour and the Golden Globes, so let's dive right into today's headlines. Pushing Daisies might (sadly) be canceled but working relationship between creator Bryan Fuller and former co-star Swoosie Kurtz looks to continue. Kurtz has signed on to appear in at least one episode of Heroes , where she will play Millie, a society friend of Cristine Rose's Angela Petrelli. Kurtz's episode, written by Fuller, is slated to air in April and there is the potential that her character could be recurring next season. ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) Buffy the Vampire Slayer 's Amber Benson will guest star on ABC's Private Practice , where she will play a young woman who "in the aftermath of being brutally attacked seeks not just medical care ... but perhaps something more ." Benson will appear in the series&#

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. AMC president Charlie Collier was very optimistic that period drama Mad Men will return for its third season this summer as scheduled, despite the protracted contract renegotiation between series creator/executive producer Matthew Weiner and studio Lionsgate Television. "As long as we get the writers' room up and running over the next few months, we're fine [for a summer launch]," said Collier, speaking at yesterday's Television Critics Association panel. Also on tap for later this year a the cabler, the six-part series remake of classic British drama The Prisoner , starring James Caviezel and Ian McKellan. ( Variety ) Gossip Girl is currently casting a new character for its sophomore season named Kip Vanderbilt, who will be the 20-something married cousin of Chace Crawford's Nate Archibald. Kip has been described as "wealthy, confident, politically-minded and — all together now — extremely good-lookin

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. Mark Cherry announced that he would like to continue ABC's Desperate Housewives through 2013. While Cherry is signed on to executive produce the ABC drama through its seventh season and ABC has only committed so far to the current fifth season, there is currently no deal in place for any additional seasons beyond that. Cherry announced his intentions to keep Desperate Housewives on the air for nine seasons (rather than the seven he previously discussed) during a cast and crew celebration yesterday. "We've been talking with the studio and the network about the conceptual possibilities of additional seasons," said a source close to the situation, "but it's still dependent on a lot of things like cast willingness, ratings, etc... It sure seems like it could happen!" Yes, but four more seasons? ( E! Online ) "I think the goal for everybody is to put a face back on the drama. " Pushing Daisies

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. I'm still behind on telly so I haven't seen the latest episode of Dirty Sexy Money yet... That sound you hear? It would be the final nail in the coffin for Pushing Daisies ... Daisies creator Bryan Fuller has signed a two-year overall deal with Universal Media Studios, under which he will rejoin the staff of NBC's Heroes and develop new series projects for the studio. Fuller, who is completing post-production on WBTV's Daisies , will rejoin Heroes starting with episode 320 though it is unknown what his official position will be, other than that he will be working closely alongside showrunner/executive producer Tim Kring. ( Hollywood Reporter ) In other Pushing Daisies news, Kristin Chenoweth has joined the cast of FOX's animated midseason comedy Sit Down, Shut Up , where she will replace Maria Bamford as Florida high school science teacher Miracle Grohe, opposite Arrested Development 's Jason Bateman,

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. I'm still smarting from the reveal in last night's episode of Gossip Girl just who was involved in that oh-so-predictable accident rather than the, uh, party I'd rather get axed from the series. Sigh. Better news then for fans of Sci-Fi's Battlestar Galactica . The cabler has given a series order to spin-off Caprica , which is set fifty years before the action of BSG . Sci-Fi had earlier this year shot a two-hour backdoor pilot for Caprica , which stars Eric Stoltz, Esai Morales, Paula Malcomson, and Polly Walker, from director Jeffrey Reiner and plans to launch the series in early 2010. Production on twenty additional episodes is slated to begin in mid-2009 in Vancouver. "We want people to come to this who have never heard of Battlestar Galactica ," said Sci-Fi president Dave Howe. "I think, because [ Galactica 's] backdrop was space and spaceships, there was a barrier to entry for some viewers. Ca

Cherish the episodes of Chuck that may be left before Christmas because the series sadly won't be returning to NBC until sometime in February. (Same holds true for Heroes and Life .) NBC today announced their midseason schedule which features series launches of reality series Superstars of Dance (debuting January 4th) and Howie Do It (January 9) and the returns of The Biggest Loser: Couples (January 6th) and Friday Night Lights (January 16th), the latter of which will have already aired its season on DirecTV. I can't say that I am too impressed with the offering especially the reality fare and the lack of scripted dramas like Chuck, Life , and Heroes . Yes, they'll be back come February sweeps but their replacements are less than thrilling. At least, we've got 30 Rock . Sigh. The full schedule can be found after the jump. MONDAYS (beginning January 5th) 8-10 pm: Superstars of Dance ; premieres Sunday, January 4th (9-11 pm); season finale Monday, January 26th (8-9

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. I am still laughing after last night's episode of 30 Rock and, while I did love the interaction between Andy and Oscar in Canada, was less than impressed once again with The Office . (Sorry, Brent!) The TV-related headlines are pretty sparse today, so I'll be brief. Everyone is, of course, talking about whether or not Pushing Daisies will get canceled today. I've heard from numerous sources that ABC is going to opt not to renew the series past its initial 13-episode commitment. Having the Sword of Damocles hanging over Daisies ' head like this for so long is making me a bit woozy, if I'm honest. I also wish that ABC had decided to air Pushing Daisies during the first two weeks of sweeps before making a decision about its fate, but that's just me. Production wrapped last night on the thirteen episodes currently slated for Daisies ' second season and THR reports that no decision has yet been made (or for