[Televisionary]

OH. MY. GOD. I don't know about you but I didn't see that coming. We'll get to that shocker of an ending in just a bit. On last night's episode of Lost ("Two for the Road"), missing castaway Michael returned to the fold, but he wasn't quite the man he used to be, Ana-Lucia and Sawyer took a tumble, and Hurley attempted a surprise for Libby, who received one of her own. I've been waiting for weeks now to find out what sort of condition Michael was in when he stumbled out of the jungle directly into Jack and Kate's waiting arms. That's what I'd call highly suspicious, but in the land of Lost , such coincidences seem to be more fated meetings than chance encounters. Was Michael just heading in the direction of Jack's shouts? Um, no. Back at the hatch, Ana-Lucia tries interrogating the prisoner while Locke is sleeping. (And by sleeping, I mean snoring so loudly that the entire station was vibrating like that funky electromagnetic rock.) T

Okay, so no one ended up dead as a result of Lucky's rampage through the outdoor dining area of Neptune High on last night's episode of Veronica Mars ("Happy Go Lucky"). Well, no one besides Lucky himself, who was taken out in a hail of bullets (okay, one bullet), despite the fact that his gun was loaded with blanks. A rather "lucky" fact for Wallace, who tried to save a cowering Jackie from becoming Victim Number One, only to get "shot" twice in the chest. Poor Lucky. Poor dead Lucky. When he's not allegedly leaving "presents" for evil Mayor Woody Goodman (i.e. homemade bombs) or stalking Woody's daughter Gia, he's wearing a baseball catcher's mask and washing his feet with bleach. Turns out that he did know something about the Mayor--something huge--that made him scared to talk: he was molested by the Mayor several years earlier when he was one of the local baseball team's batboys. And it turns out that he wasn'

While all of the networks scurry to put the final touches on their fall lineups before the upfronts later this month, many in Hollywood continue to guess (and second guess) the fall schedule of one network in particular: the CW. While many have dismissed the idea of combining struggling netlets UPN and the WB into a single network entity, others--myself included--can't help but watch with a sick fascination, trying to make heads or tails of which shows will be saved and which shows will end up on the scrap heap. CW President Dawn Ostroff certainly has her work cut out for her, but she also has the plum position of being able to pick and choose programs from among two (defunct) network schedules... and maybe order one or two pilots to series as well. The New York Times today offered a behind-the-scenes feature on the goings-on at the CW and spoke with CBS head Les Moonves as well as CW czar Dawn Ostroff about which shows might make it onto their new network's fall lineup. CW is

Cable network Bravo has ordered a second course of its hit reality series Top Chef , according to a report in Variety . The series, which pits aspiring chefs against one another for a cash prize and the title of top chef, will return next season with a ten-episode run of more culinary catastrophes. Additionally, Bravo has scheduled a reunion special for the show's current season, which is scheduled to air on May 10th, and has expanded the season finale to two one-hour individual episodes, which will air May 17th and 24th. The finale is expected to pit the final three chefs in a culinary showdown in Las Vegas. While I am routing for Lee Anne to take home the title, my predictions for other members of the final three competitors are Harold and Tiffani. (Tough luck, Dave.) In other series renewal news, ABC has announced that they have given a full third season order to sophomore legal drama Boston Legal . The series, which stars James Spader, William Shatner, and Candice Bergen, is sc

Not every star of ABC's hit castaway drama Lost was always as famous as they are today. In fact, the actors pretty much ran the gamut from the widely-recognized TV stars to international film stars to actors of the never-seen-'em-before variety. We all know that Matthew Fox (Jack) played Charlie on FOX's series Party of Five and that wee Dominic Monaghan (Charlie) was a hobbit in the Lord of the Rings feature film franchise (before that he played Geoffrey on Brit mystery series Hetty Wainthropp Investigates ), but what about the lesser-known actors? Well, Evangeline Lilly (Kate) appeared on a Canadian dating commerical (no joke), while Jorge Garcia (Hurley) was discovered after an appearance as a drug dealer on Curb Your Enthusiasm . As for a few of the others: Terry O'Quinn (Locke) had appeared in numerous TV roles, usually as a military officer, on such shows as Alias , The West Wing , JAG , and Harsh Realm ; theatre actor Harold Perrineau (Michael) was best known

Scandal erupted on the set of Desperate Housewives on Friday when the show's executive producer and showrunner Tom Spezialy walked off the set. According to the Hollywood Reporter, sources indicated that a replacement might be found for Spezialy next season. The cause of the walkoff was undisclosed, but The Hollywood Reporter described it as "an unspecified falling out." However, behind-the-scenes movements over the weekend must have calmed down Spezialy, as he is expected to return to work today in order to wrap production this week on the dramedy's season finale. UPDATE: I pulled out my nifty Hollywood rolodex again (well, opened my contacts in Outlook anyway) and came across some rather juicy gossip emanating from the set of Desperate Housewives . According to my well-placed agency sources, there's been much in-fighting among the DH writing staff for quite a while now and that Spezialy's departure may be the first of many from Wisteria Lane. One rumor ha

Ah, May. The flowers are in bloom, temperatures are heating up, and there's even a three-day weekend on the horizon. But more importantly it's also the arrival of Sweeps season on the television calendar, that ever important time when networks pull out all the stops (in November, Feburary, and May) to lure in viewers and set their ad rates. Business aside, it's also the time where programs launch their most serpentine twists yet, dramas kill off a character or two, and every show rachets up the stakes... building to season finales that the nets hope you'll be talking about all summer long. This May Sweeps period we should also take a moment to reflect on the shows that won't be with us next season, including Alias , Arrested Development (sniff sniff), Malcolm in the Middle , The West Wing , That 70s Show , Will & Grace , Charmed , What I Like About You , and Yes, Dear . (The jury is still out on the final fate of 7th Heaven .) But what about the shows that--for