[Televisionary]

Oh. My. God. Now why did they have to go and do a thing like that for? Just when I had fallen completely in love with Dr. Juliet Burke over the course of last night's brilliant episode of Lost ("One of Us"), Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse had to go and pull the rug out from underneath me again. One of the joys of watching this series is that nothing is ever, ever what it seems and, thanks to that magical narrative device known as the flashback, the audience's perceptions of past events on the show can be changed over and over again as little pieces of the truth are revealed. Is Juliet evil as that final scene between her and Ben would seem to indicate? I don't think so. Nothing on this series is ever quite as black or white as it initially appears to be. Throughout last night's episode Juliet showed us that her main characteristic is that of self-preservation. She wants off of this island and she's willing to do whatever it takes to do that, even if it m

Wowsers. What a difference a day can make. Just a day after attending the audience run through on FOX's comedy pilot Action News (now being renamed with the less on-the-nose title of Back to You ), I was shocked to learn that not one, but two actors had been replaced in the days leading up to Friday's scheduled taping of the Action News / Back to You pilot. (The series itself already has a 13-episode commitment on FOX for the fall.) Paul Campbell (of Battlestar Galactica and Nobody's Watching ) and Aimee Garcia ( George Lopez ), who played station news director Nate and weatherwoman Montana respectively, are both off the series and are being replaced by Josh Gad and Ayda Field. Gad ( 21 ) will replace Paul Campbell as the young corporate news director; Field ( Studio 60 ), who also appears in the untitled Gabe Sachs/Jeff Judah comedy pilot at ABC this season, will replace Aimee Garcia as the former child beauty pageant winner turned meteorologist. Both Gad and Field wil

Kelsey Grammer. Patricia Heaton. Two actors on two of the biggest sitcoms from the last ten years. Push them together and you could have a clash of temperaments. Or the expert sparks that come from a perfect pairing of disparate personalities. FOX's new comedy series, Action News , fortunately has the latter effect, pairing the erudite Grammer with the down-to-earth Heaton as two local newscasters with some unresolved history who are forced, once again, to work together delivering some, er, gripping local stories. I had the opportunity to attend the audience run-through on Action News ' pilot yesterday on the FOX lot (though the fate of said pilot is a foregone conclusion, as the comedy has already been ordered to series for the fall ) and am happy to report that the series has more than met my expectations, based on the phenomenal script by series creators Steve Levitan ( Just Shoot Me ) and Christopher Lloyd ( Frasier ) and the always witty direction by legendary comedy direc

While it not might be the renewal they were hoping for, fans of NBC's critically praised (if ratings-starved) drama Friday Night Lights might have something to hope for. NBC has ordered six additional scripts of the football-themed drama from Imagine and NBC Universal. The news comes on the heels of an additional six script order for fellow NBC on-the-bubble drama Medium , which received a script order earlier this week. While fans shouldn't stop their petitions to save the series quite yet, the script order does potentially bode well for a second season order on Friday Night Lights . Stay tuned.

It's no mystery why Andy Barker P.I. has disappeared from NBC's Thursday night lineup. After airing four episodes of the Conan O'Brien-produced single camera comedy--which starred Andy Richter and Arrested Development 's Tony Hale--NBC has decided to pull the struggling comedy from the lineup, effective immediately. NBC will therefore return Scrubs to the Thursday night "comedy done right" lineup sooner than anticipated, while shunting Andy Barker to the death knell of Saturday night burnoff. Sure, the series only had one episode left to air--scheduled for this Thursday night--and a "bonus" unaired episode available for streaming at NBC.com or for download at iTunes, but apparently even one or two episodes of a turkey like this (not to mention a poisoned chicken of a series) is too many for NBC. The remaining two episodes of Andy Barker P.I. will be quickly burned off between 8-9 pm this Saturday. Sorry, Andy, you may have once saved the universe,

Wow. I never thought that Eric was the epitome of refined wit, but it blew my mind watching last night's episode of The Amazing Race just how misogynistic and repulsive this guy truly is. Sure, I should have had an inkling of that fact from his advice to his bleached blonde girlfriend Danielle to "use your boobs" during a Roadblock, but last night definitely summed up his entire persona, idiotic t-shirts and all. I'd like to point out first of all that the Yield is part of the Race itself and has been for quite some time. It's as much a part of the game as the Detours and Roadblocks (and, yes, the dreaded Intersection); that said, I never understand why people get so angry at being Yielded. Frustrating? You bet, especially when there's a possibility that you could be in last place. I get it. But to become so irate that you refer to the people who yielded you (that would be Beauty Queens Dustin and Kandice) on national television as "dirty, dirty hookers

True Blood has found its leading man in British actor Stephen Moyer. Moyer will play the 166-year-old enigmatic vampire Bill Compton, opposite Anna Paquin , who plays telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse in the drama created by Six Feet Under 's Alan Ball, who wrote and will direct the HBO pilot, which is based on Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire book series. Moyer, of course, was cast earlier this season in FOX drama pilot NSA Innocent , which has since be refashioned as Company Man . Moyer's role was recently rewritten and the part recast, with Jason Behr now starring . It was only a matter of time before some other production snatched Moyer ( NY-LON ) in a season where British actors seem to be all the rage. The casting isn't Moyer's first US casting gig; he recently starred in USA's limited series The Starter Wife . Also cast: Brook Kerr ( Passions ), who will play Sookie's best friend, the outspoken Tara Thornton.