[Televisionary]

Ending weeks of speculation (and frustration), cabler Sci Fi has officially announced that it has picked up the second season of the new Doctor Who series and plans to launch the sophomore season next month. The second season of Doctor Who , starring David Tennant (taking over the role from Christopher Eccleston) and Billie Piper, will premiere on September 28th with a two-hour episode, that will include the Doctor Who Christmas Special that introduced Tennant as the latest incarnation of the Doctor. (It had previously been rumored that Sci Fi would not be airing the special.) The following week sees the premiere of Season Three of Battlestar Galactica and parent company NBC U is producing a one-hour recap special called Battlestar Galactica: The Story So Far , which will incorporate footage from the original mini-series and the first two seasons of the drama. The recap special, narrated by cast member Mary McDonnell, will be made available on all of NBC U's platforms, including

The cast of Vanished just keeps... appearing. Variety is reporting that Eddie Cibrian has joined the cast of FOX's upcoming serialized drama Vanished , where he'll portray an FBI agent on the hunt for a missing senator's wife. The series revolves around the conspiracy surrounding her disappearance and plays out through the various perspectives of her family, the police, and the media. Cibrian, last seen on ABC's Invasion , joins a cast that included Gale Harold, John Allen Nelson, Rebecca Gayheart, Joanne Kelly, Margarita Levieva, John Patrick Amedori, Chris Egan, Ming-Na, Penelope Ann Miller, and Esai Morales. Additionally, Josh Hopkins ( Pepper Dennis ) has also signed on to Vanished in a recurring role as the former flame of the missing senator's wife. Hopkins will also recur on ABC's fall drama Brothers & Sisters , where he'll play a love interest for Calista Flockhart's character.

Every now and then on a reality TV show, there's a contestant who is so fantastic, so amazing, that you can't help but root for them, even if the judges seem to be looking the other way. One of those is Project Runway 's Michael, whose designs are consistently beautiful but never seems to get any acknowledgement from Heidi, Nina, and the other judges. Until last night, that is, when the 28-year-old, German-born designer presented a fabulously modernized look for icon Pam Grier, complete with magenta hot pants. (I kid you not, they were outrageously beautiful. Even Diane von Furstenberg thought so and she "wore a lot of hot pants" back in the day.) I've had my eye on Michael Knight as a dark horse competitor since Day One, when his model sashayed down the runway in a provocative dress made entirely out of coffee filters. It was a sight to be seen and even these jaded eyes couldn't help but take notice of Michael's skill. But still, while he was consiste

You know those amusing vanity cards at the end of each episode of My Name is Earl ? The ones that depict friends of the series' creator Greg Garcia? Well, that could very well be you looking ridiculous in that sombrero. According to Variety , NBC and 20 Century Fox Television have pacted with MySpace to select photos of the social networking site's uses to appear in the vanity cards at the end of the first three episodes of Earl next season. MySpace users can get into the competition by submitting their pics to a special My Name is Earl profile page until September 5th. Five specially selected photos will run each week on the page before the show's creators randomly select three winners' pics to appear under a banner reading, "Friends of Earl," on the episodes slated to air September 21st, September 28th, and October 5th. So, if you're into this kind of thing or want your mug plastered on a production vanity card, enter now...

It looks like Ugly Betty just got prettier... at least to its network. According to Variety , ABC has shifted its upcoming telenovela adaptation Ugly Betty to the more high-profile timeslot of Thursdays at 8 pm. (Series was originally slated for Friday nights.) The move comes as Ugly Betty , which stars Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants ' America Ferrara as a, well, ugly girl in the fashion industry, drew positive buzz last month at the TCA. The series will premiere on September 28th. With Betty moving to Thursdays, ABC has decided to delay the launch of freshmen comedies Big Day and Notes from the Underbelly until "later in the fall." Those series will air on Tuesday or Wednesday evenings, once the next season of Dancing with the Stars has wrapped. But will Ugly Betty be match for NBC's newly relocated comedy duo, My Name is Earl and The Office ? Something tells me this Betty is no match for the combined forces of Camden County, Karma, and a little paper ma

It looks like Larry David has come up with a few more reasons to get bent out of shape. Pay cabler HBO has reached a deal with Larry David and has officially ordered a sixth season of Curb Your Enthusiasm , according to Variety . Production on the semi-improvised comedy series will begin in October and all of Curb 's cast members, including Larry David, Cheryl Hines, Jeff Garlin and the potty-mouthed Susie Essman are expected to return. No scheduled premiere for the sixth season was announced, but it is expected to return to HBO sometime next year. A total of ten episodes will be produced. Seinfeld creator Larry David had been unsure about whether or not he wanted to go ahead with Curb Your Enthusiasm after its most recent 2005 season, but was inspired to revive the series. HBO has not said that the upcoming season of Curb will be its last, but that the decision is in Larry David's hands. Something tells me not to count David out. After all, there are still many, many annoyi

How shall I love thee? Let me count the ways... Longtime readers of this blog are intimately familiar with my love of British television. Those readers with a more than casual interest in British telly know then of my admiration for veteran TV writer David Renwick ( Jonathan Creek ) and my love for Black Books actress Tamsin Greig. (Yes, Fran Katzenjammer herself.) Imagine my surprise then when I discovered a new drama that manages to combine writer David Renwick, Tamsin Greig, and the quirkiness of Peep Show , all into one gleefully rich ball of neuroses called, rather appropriately, Love Soup . What if there was that one true love meant for you out there and you never met them? David Renwick's Love Soup attempts to answer that question by focusing on the story of Alice and Gil, two would-be lovers who are just perfect for one another. The only problem is that they don't know each other yet, each existing in a separate little pocket of space. Alice Chenery (Greig) works in L