‘Doctor Who’ fans rejoice – the new series will air here within a couple of week’s of its UK broadcast. Here is exactly what ABC has to say:

DOCTOR WHO AUSTRALIAN LAUNCH ON ABC IVIEW

In a first for ABC TV, the new series of Doctor Who will launch on ABC iView – the ABC’s internet broadcasting service – two days prior to its broadcast on ABC1.

Less than two weeks after the first episode airs on the BBC in the UK, Australian viewers will be able to stream it on iView from midnight on Friday 16 April at abc.net.au/iview. The episode will then be shown on ABC1 on Sunday 18 April at 7.30pm.

The new series stars Matt Smith (Party Animals) as the 11th Doctor –introduced to viewers at the end of the recent two-part special ‘The End Of Time’ – and Karen Gillan as his companion Amy Pond. Bafta-winning writer Steven Moffat (Coupling, Jekyll) is replacing Russell T Davies as lead writer and executive producer.

The first three episodes have been confirmed as ‘The Eleventh Hour’ and ‘The Beast Below’ by Steven Moffat, and ‘Victory of the Daleks’ by Mark Gatiss.

Director of Television, Kim Dalton, said: “iView is a fantastic offering, an additional way for Australian audiences to watch ABC TV’s content – generally after, but in this special case before, its television broadcast.

“We hope the lure of Doctor Who – and what a fun and exciting lure it is – will provide incentive for more viewers to discover iView, and experience how convenient and easy-to-use it is.”

Doctor Who was ABC TV’s highest rating program on iView in April to December last year – with 378,000 views during that period. The next highest program was Four Corners, with 260,600 views. In February 2010, ABC iView recorded 411,000 visitors, its highest number of visitors to date.

Ana Ortiz, America Ferrera, Becki Newton and Ashley Jensen on the set of 'Ugly Betty'.

‘Ugly Betty’ is gearing up for its series finale, which airs on April 14 in the US.

According to Entertainment Weekly, producers have already started recruiting former cast members for guest appearances before the series concludes.

Ashley Jensen — who is currently starring on the CBS comedy ‘Accidentally on Purpose’ — will reprise her role as Betty’s BFF Christina in episode 18, in which Betty heads overseas to cover London Fashion Week for Daniel.

Also set to return is Betty’s former flame Gio, played by Freddy Rodriguez. The last we saw of Gio was back in the Season 3 opener, following the love birds’ whirlwind tour of Rome. Things turned sour for the couple when Betty decided she just wanted to be friends. Could Gio perhaps be returning to rekindle his love with Betty?

Finally, Christopher Gorham, who played Betty’s former lover Henry — is also believed to be in negations to return. Nothing has been confirmed yet, so it may be a case of the unknown until an actual episode airs.

Another cast mate who we’d love to see return before the series ends is Rebecca Romijn, who played Daniel’s transgender brother Alex, turned sister Alexis. She fled the country with her long lost son DJ, following her escape from prosecution for the attempted murder of surrogate Christina/Wilhelmina’s unborn child.

Check out some more snaps from Ashley Jensen’s return on ‘Ugly Betty’ below.

In case you were wondering, the cast didn’t actually fly to London to film the episode. Instead, several New York locations were redressed to represent the British capital. The episode is currently schedule to air on March 31 in the US.

Ashley Jensen films a scene for her return to 'Ugly Betty', set to air March 31 on ABC.

Ashley Jensen on the set of 'Ugly Betty'.

Source: EW.com

Jennifer Finnigan, Patrick Flueger and Rose Rollins

Jennifer Finnigan (‘Close to Home’) is set to star opposite Joanna Garcia (‘Privileged’) in ABC’s untitled Shana Goldberg-Meehan sitcom.

The multicamera comedy, from Warner Bros. Television, revolves around two sisters who are at different stages of their relationships. Finnigan’s character, who is in a happy, long-term relationship but unwed and Garcia’s character, who gets pregnant and winds up marrying her boyfriend.

Meanwhile, Patrick Flueger (‘The 4400′) has landed a role on ABC’s ‘Scoundrels’ opposite Virginia Madsen. The project is based on the New Zealand dramedy ‘Outrageous Fortune’.

Flueger will play twin brothers Logan, the only honest member of the family who is about to graduate from law school, and Cal, the not-so-smart future criminal.

Finally, Rose Rollins (‘The L Word’) joins Warner Bros. Television’s ‘Chase’, which centers on a high-priority fugitive-apprehension team in South Texas.

The project will be produced by Jerry Bruckheimer for NBC.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

David Goyer

‘FlashForward’ is set to get yet another new showrunner.

David Goyer is stepping down from the top job to focus on feature films and directing.

“As my feature projects have started ramping up again, I felt I was being pulled in too many directions,” said Goyer in a statement. “I’m proud of the show and excited about the relaunch. It’s in great hands.”

Goyer will still remain involved with the show, but will pass his day-to-day showrunning duties on to another yet to be announced producer.

Production is currently taking place on episodes 17 and 18 of the 23-episode season order.

‘FlashForward’ returns March 18 on ABC. Seven have yet to announce a return date.

UPDATE: Dateline Hollywood reports that Goyer, who co-wrote ‘Batman Begins’, and penned the story for ‘The Dark Knight’, is working on the third ‘Batman’ installment with director Chris Nolan’s brother Jonah.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Laura Prepon, Bret Harrison and Michael Kelly

Laura Prepon (‘October Road’, ‘That ’70s Show’) is set to star opposite Danny Wallace (‘The IT Crowd’) in ABC’s ‘Awkward Situations’ pilot.

The comedy centres on Wallace, who stars as himself following his move to the States, only to discover that his everyday behaviour clashes with American values. Pepron will play his wife Meg, who works in a smoothie shop with a former fling, played by Matt Letscher.

Meanwhile, ‘Reaper’ star Bret Harrison has landed the lead in an untitled CBS pilot from Adam Goldberg (‘Aliens in America’, ‘Fanboys’).

The single-camera comedy, which will be directed by Seth Gordon, revolves around twentysomething geniuses (one played by Harrison) who crack computer security systems

Finally, ‘The Sopranos’ alum Michael Kelly has joined CBS’ upcoming ‘Criminal Minds’ spin-off.

Kelly will play a member of an outside FBI profiling team, lead by Cooper (Forest Whitaker).

The backdoor pilot will air later this season as an episode of ‘Criminal Minds’.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Ana Ortiz and America Ferrera

‘Ugly Betty’ will end this season after ABC decided to swing the axe on the struggling dramedy.

It has been a steep fall from grace for the once ratings powerhouse with ratings falling dramatically after its break through freshman season.

Despite this bad news there is some good news for those long suffering fans, with an ABC spokesman confirming that there would be some sort of closure.

“We’ve mutually come to the difficult decision to make this Ugly Betty’s final season, and are announcing now as we want to allow the show ample time to write a satisfying conclusion,” said the spokesman.

“We are extremely proud of this groundbreaking series, and felt it was important to give the fans a proper farewell.”

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Shonda Rhimes

It’s that time of year again where the networks go in search of pilots for the upcoming fall TV season.

ABC has picked up two dramas, ‘Off the Map’ and ‘Body of Evidence’ and one comedy ‘Happy Endings’

Shonda Rhimes serves as executive producer for ‘Off the Map’ and to no one’s surprise it centres on doctors, three doctors infact, who are eager for a fresh start. They leave their home country for work in an isolated tropical clinic exotic and unusual medical cases and of course personal problems. ‘Off the Map’ is from ABC Studios.

As the title suggests, ”Body Evidence’ is be a crime procedural from executive producer Matt Grose distribured by ABC Studios, with the script provided by Chris Murphey. It follows Megan Hunt, a former neurosurgeon-turned-medical examiner, who brings a unique crime solving method which puts her at odds with the bosses.

‘Happy Endings’ is a single camera comedy from Sony TV and Tarses’ Fanfare, it focuses on a couple who break up at the altar, forcing everyone to figure out how to maintain the relationship after the break up. Jamie Tarses will serve as executive producer and is written by David Caspe.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Julia Bowen, Courtney Cox and Patricia Heaton star in ABC's Wednesday night comedy block.

ABC Entertainment Group president Steve McPherson announced on Tuesday that the network had given early second-season orders to Wednesday night comedies ‘Cougar Town’, ‘The Middle’, ‘Modern Family’.

The three shows have helped the network to establish a much needed comedy block amongst it’s strong slate of reality and drama.

Variety reports that the news was so fresh that producers on the shows hadn’t even been informed of the renewals.

Together, ‘Cougar Town’, ‘The Middle’ and ‘Modern Family’ have been outperforming the network’s timeslot average of last season, which was home to ‘Pushing Daisies’ and ‘Private Practice’.

The network have yet to decide the fate of more challenged comedies ‘Scrubs’,
‘Better Off Ted’ and ‘Ugly Betty’.

Separately, ABC also announced the pickup of ‘Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution’ — which is set to air on Network Ten later this year. The series follows Oliver as he travels to Huntington, West Virginia, in order to change the way Americans eat and depend on fast food.

McPherson also confirmed that the network is working on a spinoff for the hugely successful reality series ‘The Bachelor’. The new show, ‘Bachelor Pad’, will similarly be hosted by Chris Harrison and will feature former ‘Bachelor’ contestants living in a house together — ‘Big Brother’ style.

The series will air mid-year, between ‘The Bachelorette’ and the new fall season.

Finally, another show which could see a late season premiere is the Alyssa Milano comedy ‘Romantically Challenged’ — which co-stars Australia’s Josh Lawson. The show is expected join the Wednesday night comedy block, at 8pm, the former timeslot of cancelled comedy ‘Hank’.

‘The Middle’ airs 8pm Mondays on Nine. ‘Cougar Town’ and ‘Modern Family’ are scheduled to premiere on Seven and Ten respectively in the coming months.

Source: Variety

According to The Wall Street Journal, CBS Corporation and The Walt Disney Company are seriously considering a proposal from Apple to kill off cable TV with a subscription based TV show service through iTunes.

The report explains that under Apple’s proposed subscription model, users would have “access to some TV shows from a selection of major networks” and basic cable channels for a flat monthly fee of around $US30.

CBS Corp. could offer programs from both CBS and The CW, including ‘NCIS’, ‘The Good Wife’ and ‘90210′; while The Walt Disney Co. could offer programs from ABC, ABC Family and Disney Channel, including ‘Lost’, ‘Desperate Housewives’, ‘Greek’ and ‘Hannah Montana’.

As to how this could kill off pay TV, the WSJ notes that the networks could actually make more money per subscriber via iTunes than they do from cable TV providers, with broadcast networks receiving up to $US2-$US4 per subscriber, and basic-cable networks receiving $US1-$US2 per subscriber.

While CBS and Disney have plenty to gain from an iTunes subscription service, the two companies are also quite nervous about giving Apple more control and market-share. Apple already have a stranglehold over TV episode pricing on iTunes, with all episodes priced at a fixed $US1.99 — which lead to a brief fallout with NBC in 2007.

Even if Apple can win over CBS and Disney, the California-based company will have a tough time convincing other networks to join the bandwagon, with NBC Universal and Warner Bros. Television holding significant cable TV interests — with Comcast’s recent acquisition of NBC and Warner’s own TimeWarner Cable.

How this could affect the Australian market remains to be seen. Although it’s worth noting that all major US networks and content providers (sans CBS) currently distribute shows via the Australian iTunes Store.

Provided the local networks have no objections (though that could be a whole other can of worms), would you be interested in seeing a subscription based iTunes TV show service?

Source: The Wall Street Journal via Apple Insider

The cast of 'The Deep End'

Freshman dramas ‘V’ and ‘FlashForward’ have had their episode orders cut by one. This follows the news that ‘V’ and ‘FlashForward’ won’t be returning until March.

Other confirmed orders are:

‘The Deep End’ – 7
‘Romantically Challenged’ – 7
‘Happy Town’ – 8
‘Grey’s Anatomy’ – 24
‘Desperate Housewives’ – 23
‘Private Practice’ – 23
‘Lost’ – 18
‘The Forgotten’ – 17
‘Scrubs’ – 13
‘Better off Ted’ – 13

The remainder of ABC’s shows have 22 episode orders, ‘Brothers and Sisters,’ ‘Castle,’ ‘Cougar Town,’ ‘The Middle,’ ‘Modern Family’ and ‘Ugly Betty.’

Further, legal drama ‘The Deep End’ will take ‘FlashForward’s’ Thursday 8/7c slot after ABC announced, ‘FlashForward’ will be ‘rested’ after its fall finale last week.

David Hemingson is behind the Twentieth Century Fox drama.

Source: The Futon Critic

John Cho and Joseph Fiennes in 'FlashForward'

ABC has decided to delay the remaining episodes of freshman drama ‘FlashForward.’

Following the conclusion of the fall finale, ABC annouced ‘FlashForward’ will be returning in March as opposed to its scheduled January return.

The promo mentioned it will return on March 4 which will result in less repeats between episodes and avoids it running against the Winter Olympics.

The ratings and quality of ‘FlashForward’ has been on a downward spiral since its premiere, so this will give the writers and producers some time to work things out, the 25 episode order remains.

How ‘FlashForward’s’ delay will affect Seven’s local schedule, remains to be seen. However, following last week’s advanced episode screening in Australia and subsequent leak online — we suspect Seven will also be forced to delay the series’ return until March.

It is unclear of what will occupy ABC’s Thursday 8/7c timeslot, but the network has a number of options in ‘Happy Town’ and legal drama ‘The Deep End’.

Also, ‘V’ is set to return to ABC on March 30, Tuesday 10/9c.

Source: The Wrap

Lisa Kudrow joins Courtney Cox on ABC's 'Cougar Town'.

Here’s your first look at Lisa Kudrow’s guest appearance on Courtney Cox’s new comedy ‘Cougar Town’.

Kudrow plays Jules’ (Cox) horrible but brilliant dermatologist in the January 6 episode on ABC.

“They didn’t want to play friends,” said executive producer Bill Lawrence. “She plays a dermatologist who is a horrible, horrible person, but [Cox] goes to her because she’s the best. The [sight] of them playing people who dislike each other intensely was very funny for me to watch.”

‘Cougar Town’ premieres next year on the Seven Network.

Source: Entertainment Weekly

Nicole Richie

According to Variety, Nicole Richie is planning a return to television in a new half-hour scripted comedy for ABC.

Richie will play as a professional woman with complicated family relationships and struggling to figure out what role she’ll take as her life and her family evolve.

In addition to starring, Richie will also receive a producing credit having had the initial idea for the show.

Daisy Gardner (‘Californication’) is set to pen the pilot; with Warren Bell (”According to Jim’) and Jamie Tarses as executive producers; and Impression Entertainment’s Michael Baum as producer.

Richie recently guest starred in an episode of NBC’s ‘Chuck’, as Sarah’s high school nemesis turned super spy. Following the first series of ‘The Simple Life’ with Paris Hilton, Richie also appeared in episodes of ‘8 Simple Rules’, ‘American Dreams’ and ‘Eve’.

Source: Variety

Production on 'FlashForward' has shut down for a six-day hiatus.

According to Entertainment Weekly, US network ABC has temporarily shut down production on ‘FlashForward’.

The hiatus comes just a month after the departure of co-showrunner, Marc Guggenheim, and an all-time series ratings low this past week.

An ABC spokesperson confirmed that production had ceased, however also explained that the show’s production schedule was designed to accommodate such breaks. “They started production early so that they could have the luxury to do this,” said the spokesperson. “They want to maintain the high quality of the show, and this gives the writers the opportunity to do so.”

Unlike fellow ABC drama ‘V’ — which is on a six-week long creative hiatus — ‘FlashForward’ will resume production next Monday after only six days.

The mid-season finale airs December 3 on ABC.

Source: Entertainment Weekly

A scene from last season.

The sixth and final season of ‘Lost’ will be returning February 2, 2010 on ABC.

The move sees ‘Lost’ in its sixth timeslot in as many years.

As usual, a one hour clip show will precede the two-hour season premiere, finally moving to permanently to 9/8c the following week.

Returning as series regulars are Naveen Andrews (Sayid), Nestor Carbonell (Richard), Emilie de Ravin (Claire), Michael Emerson (Ben), Jeff Fahey (Frank) Matthew Fox (Jack), Jorge Garcia (Hurley), Josh Holloway (Sawyer), Daniel Dae Kim (Jin), Yunjin Kim (Sun), Ken Leung (Miles), Evangeline Lilly (Kate), Terry O’Quinn (Locke) and Zuleikha Robinson (Ilana).

Also confirmed to be returning in recurring and guest starring roles are Elizabeth Mitchell (Juliet), Ian Somerhalder (Boone), Rebecca Mader (Charlotte), Dominic Monaghan (Charlie), Henry Ian Cusick (Desmond) and Katey Sagal (Helen).

The new season will premiere early next year on 7TWO locally.

ABC ANNOUNCES THE PREMIERE OF THE SIXTH AND FINAL SEASON OF “LOST,”

WITH A SPECIAL ALL-NIGHT EVENT ON TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 2

ABC announces the premiere of the sixth and final season of “Lost,” with a special all-night event on Tuesday, February 2. A recap special will kick off the night from 8:00-9:00 p.m., ET, followed by the much anticipated two-hour premiere from 9:00-11:00 p.m.

The series will then air in its regular time period – Tuesday nights from 9:00-10:00 p.m., ET – beginning the following week, on February 9.

“Lost” stars Naveen Andrews as Sayid, Nestor Carbonell as Richard Alpert, Emilie de Ravin as Claire, Michael Emerson as Ben, Jeff Fahey as Frank Lapidus, Matthew Fox as Jack, Jorge Garcia as Hurley, Josh Holloway as Sawyer, Daniel Dae Kim as Jin, Yunjin Kim as Sun, Ken Leung as Miles, Evangeline Lilly as Kate, Terry O’Quinn as Locke and Zuleikha Robinson as Ilana.

“Lost” was created by Jeffrey Lieber and J.J. Abrams & Damon Lindelof. Abrams, Lindelof, Bryan Burk, Jack Bender, Edward Kitsis, Adam Horowitz, Jean Higgins and Carlton Cuse serve as executive producers. “Lost,” which is filmed entirely on location in Hawaii and premiered on September 22, 2004, is from ABC Studios.

Source: ABC

Alyssa Milano

According to Entertainment Weekly, Alyssa Milano has signed on to guest on crime drama ‘Castle’.

The ‘Charmed’ star is set to play Kyra, a former love interest of Nathan Fillion’s title character.

The two reconnect on her wedding day, which triggers a bit of a love triangle with Beckett (Stana Katic).

The episode, titled “A Rose for Everafter,” begins production next week and will air in early next year on ABC.

Source: Entertainment Weekly

Minnie Driver

Academy award nominated actor, Minnie Driver, is set to make a guest-star in an upcoming episode of ABC’s ‘Modern Family’.

She will play a friend and former co-worker of Claire, who she hasn’t seen in years.

Driver, 39, previously guest starred on the NBC comedy ‘Will & Grace’, as Karen’s nemesis, Lorraine Finster.

She was most recently seen in FX’s ‘The Riches’, opposite Eddie Izzard.

Benjamin Bratt, Elizabeth Banks and Edward Norton are also set to make guest appearances in upcoming episodes of ‘Modern Family’.

Driver’s episode will air in January.

Source: TV Guide

Out of work: 'Hank' stars Melinda McGraw and Kelsey Grammer.

ABC have cancelled the Kelsey Grammer sitcom ‘Hank’, after only five episodes on the air.

Production on the comedy series will cease after filming the show’s tenth episode.

ABC’s fellow comedies ‘Modern Family’, ‘Cougar Town’ and ‘The Middle’ all received full season pick ups last month, but ‘Hank’ — the only traditional multi-camera sitcom on Wednesday nights – failed to receive an upping.

The network has no immediate plans to air the remaining five episodes of ‘Hank’.

Source: TV Guide

Cancelled: 'Eastwick'

According to Entertainment Weekly, ABC have decided not to order any additional episodes of ‘Eastwick’, while giving ‘The Forgotten’ an additional five.

The decision not to order more episode of ‘Eastwick’ effectively cancels the series, which has consistently come in last in the 10pm Wednesday night timeslot.

Meanwhile, the network have surprisingly ordered five additional episodes of ‘The Forgotten’.

The drama from Jerry Bruckheimer dropped to a 1.9/5 share in adults 18-49 this past week — 7.268 million viewers overall.

Both series are produced by Warner Bros. Television.

Source: Entertainment Weekly

Morgan Lily and John Cusack stars in Roland Emmerich's '2012', out November 12.

According to Entertainment Weekly, ‘2012’ director Roland Emmerich and Mark Gordon (‘Grey’s Anatomy’, ‘Private Practice’) are already in development on a television series based on the film ‘2012’.

[FILM SPOILERS AHEAD]

“The plan is that it is 2013 and it’s about what happens after the disaster,” said Emmerich. “It is about the resettling of Earth. That is very, very fascinating.”

Emmerich adds that he thinks the show “will focus on a group of people who survived but not on the boats — maybe they were on a piece of land that was spared or one that became an island in the process of the crust moving.”

Gordon is believed to be in talks with ABC to bring the disaster drama to television.

“After the movie, there are some people who survive and the question is how will these survivors build a new world and what will it look like. That might make an interesting TV series.”

Source: Entertainment Weekly

The cast of 'Scrubs'.

ABC has announced the return of veteran comedy series ‘Scrubs.’

‘Scrubs’ will return with a double episode at 9/8c on Tuesday December 1, moving permanently to 9/8c the following week. That week also sees the return of under-rated comedy ‘Better off Ted’ at 9:30/8:30c.

After being on ‘the bubble’ last year, ABC brought back both struggling comedies. As widely reported, ‘Scrubs’ has undergone a major facelift this season, it has ditched the hospital setting and will largely follow the new cast who joined last year.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

William Atherton, new 'Lost' recruit.

Overnight on Twitter, executive producer Carlton Cuse confirmed that William Atherton will be joining the cast of ‘Lost’ for its sixth and final season.

He tweeted:

“Damon & I are die hard fans of this impeckable actor who keeps the bar high and just signed to guest star. Life is good!” later confirming, “It is William Atherton.”

The final season of ‘Lost’ returns early next year.

Sally Field stars as Nora Walker in ABC's 'Brothers and Sisters'.

Entertainment Weekly reports some rather interesting behind-the-scenes news this morning.

An ABC spokesperson is confirming that Monica Breen and Alison Schapker are stepping down as showrunners of ABC’s ‘Brothers and Sisters’ and will be replaced David Marshall Grant, who joined the show during its second season, serving as a writer and co-executive producer on the popular drama series.

Breen and Schapker will continue to serve as executive producers/writers on the show, but are now “concentrating more on development,” said the ABC rep.

This isn’t first time ‘Brothers and Sisters’ has seen its showrunner position change hands. In fact, this is just the latest in a long string of behind-the-scenes upsets.

Soon after the pilot, the series saw executive producer/appointed showrunner Marti Noxon (‘Grey’s Anatomy’) leave the show, following conflict with the series’ creator Jon Robin Baitz.

In stepped consultant Greg Berlanti (‘Everwood’, ‘Jack & Bobby’), who guided the show through its first season, given Baitz’ limited television experience. Berlanti stepped down as showrunner the following season to develop new projects for the network, though he continues to serve as an executive producer.

Baitz was ousted from the series soon after, following conflict with the network over the direction of the show.

Mark B. Perry (‘The Wonder Years’, ‘One Tree Hill’) stepped in to run ‘Brothers and Sisters’ up until the 2007-2008 writers strike, after which he was replaced by the series’ most recent showrunners, Breen and Schapker.

The reason behind this latest showrunner switch is pretty unclear, but with so much drama behind-the-scenes, it’s seemingly becoming the norm. No wonder the writers do drama so well.

Source: Entertainment Weekly

Lisa Kudrow

Lisa Kudrow is set to guest star on ABC’s ‘Cougar Town’ during November sweeps.

Her appearance will reunite her with former ‘Friends’ co-star Courtney Cox, who leads the single-camera comedy.

“[Kudrow will] play a dermatologist that my character can’t stop going to even though the doctor is mean to me,” Cox told TV Guide.

Kudrow isn’t the only ‘Friends’ co-star who Cox has tried recruiting. The actress and producer on the show also hopes to snag Jennifer Aniston for a guest appearance further down the track.

“I’d love for her to be on the show,” said Cox. “Obviously we can’t cast her so close to Lisa’s appearance but if there’s a great part for her, I’d send it right away. She’s younger than me so she can’t play my contemporary even though she did on Friends, but I think we can find something great for her to play.”

Which other ‘Friends’ stars would you like to see appear on ‘Cougar Town’? Sound off in the comments.

Source: TV Guide Magazine

The cast of UK comedy 'Gavin and Stacey'.

It’s seemingly become the norm for each television season to see yet another show being remade Stateside.

This season saw an American take on the UK comedy ‘Absolutely Fabulous’. Thankfully it wasn’t picked up for series by FOX.

Next season, America is set to try and remake another UK comedy, ‘Gavin and Stacey’, which revolves around a boy from England and a woman from Wales, who fall in love over the phone.

A pilot has been green-lit by ABC, though BBC’s commercial arm, BBC Worldwide.

Unlike the upcoming MTV remake of ‘Skins’, the British creators of ‘Gavin and Stacey’, James Corden and Ruth Jones, won’t be penning the US adaptation.

Stacy Traub (‘Notes From the Underbelly’) and Hayes Jackson (‘According to Jim’) will take on writing duties for the ABC pilot.

‘Gavin and Stacey’ joins other ABC pilot orders ‘18 Years’, from ‘The King of Queens’ writers Cathy Yuspa and Josh Goldsmith; and a sitcom from ‘Samantha Who?’ exec producer Donald Todd.

Source: Guardian

Joseph Fiennes

ABC has given a full-season order to ‘FlashForward’ and extended the season from 22 episodes to 25.

The news comes after just three strong weeks on the air, with the series averaging 10.7 millions viewers in the US.

‘FlashForward’ is one of the top new dramas of the season in adults 18-34, with a 3.6 rating/11 share.

Locally, the show debuted to a nice 1.7 million viewers. It was down to 1.5 million last night, though up from previous week.

‘FlashForward’ is the seventh new series to receive a full-season pickup, following the ABC comedies ‘Cougar Town’, ‘The Middle’, ‘Modern Family’; CBS dramas ‘NCIS: Los Angeles’ and ‘The Good Wife’; and FOX’s musical comedy ‘Glee’.

Source: Variety

Marc Cherry

‘Desperate Housewives’ helped turn around ABC’s ratings hell, along with ‘Lost’ and ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ back in 2004.

Now the ‘Housewives’ creator, Marc Cherry, is developing a new series for the network which is being targeted for next season.

The project, originally thought to be a spin-off of ‘Desperate Housewives’, has now been confirmed as a stand alone show — though is expected to have a similar tone.

The premise for the new series is still being developed, but will written by Cherry and fellow ‘Housewives’ executive producer Alexandra Cunningham.

Cherry will continue to serve as an executive producer on ‘Desperate Housewives’ should the new series be picked up for series.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

The full-season pickups are rolling in and ABC have decided to give some love to their

Courtney Cox

Wednesday night comedy block — which includes ‘Cougar Town’, ‘Modern Family’ and ‘The Middle’.

The comedy block make quite a splash during their respective debuts, but like most shows, ratings have dropped slightly as audiences re-evaluate their watching habits.

The dysfunctional family comedy, ‘Modern Family’, premiered to 12.7 million viewers, falling to 8.46 million this past week — though consistently strong in 18-49 demographic.

Meanwhile, the Courteney Cox comedy ‘Cougar Town’, from ‘Scrub’s creator Bill Lawrence, premiered to 11.4 million viewers, dropping down to 7.80 million.

‘The Middle’, which stars Patricia Heaton, premiered to 8.7 million viewers, dropping to 6.78 million.

Conspicuously, ‘Hank’ is the only Wednesday night show missing from the pickup list, though not surprising based on the early reviews for the Kelsey Grammer comedy.

Overall, it’s great news for the Seven Network, who will no doubt run with at least a couple of these comedies. ‘Cougar Town’ probably a shoe in.

Great news for all three commercial networks — Seven with ‘Cougar Town’, Nine with ‘The Middle’ and Ten with ‘Modern Family’.

Source: TV Guide

Jennifer Garner starred as super spy Sydney Bristow in J.J. Abrams' spy series, 'Alias'.

UPDATE: It now looks like NBC secured the project.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, a new spec script from J.J. Abrams has sparked a bidding war between three major US networks.

NBC, ABC and CBS are all said to be vying for the spy genre project, with NBC said to be out in front.

The spec script, written by Abrams and fellow long time collaborator Josh Reims, revolves around two spies working together, who are also husband and wife.

The duo previously collaborated on The WB college drama ‘Felicity’ and ABC’s short lived series ‘What About Brian’.

The new project would also mark Abrams’ return to the spy genre, following the conclusion of his hit spy series ‘Alias’, on ABC back in 2006.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

In a recent submission to the federal government, the ABC have proposed that the national broadband network (NBN) should be exempt from including download charges for ABC and other publicly funded content.

“This principle of free carriage of publicly funded content should be included in the public interest objectives of the NBN company and the company should be legislatively obliged to devise an effective mechanism for implementing it,” said ABC’s managing director Mark Scott.

By removing the download charges for streaming content, the ABC would be able to serve their catch-up TV and iView services to a much larger market, particularly those restricted by small download quotas.

Under the new NBN, internet service providers would utilise government funded infrastructure for providing internet access. Should the government agree to pass the ABC’s proposal, all ISPs utilising the NBN would be required to instate unmetered access for publicly funded content.

Currently, only a small number of second tier internet service providers have opted to provided the ABC’s content unmetered, while Australia’s two largest ISPs Telstra and Optus, have refused to provided free access to these services.

Telstra refused to comment on the new proposal, while Optus said it was too early to comment on whether they deemed it reasonable.

Source: The Australian

The ABC are teaming up with Sony to deliver their iView service to the PlayStation 3. The announcement was made overnight at the Games Convention in Cologne, Germany.

PS3 owners will soon have access over 300 on demand programs delivered via iView’s trial PS3 service. The announcement comes just weeks after iView’s 12-month anniversary.

ABC’s Director of Television, Kim Dalton, says the trial is the first in a series of developments to extend ABC iView to a wider audience. “We want to make our content as accessible as possible to our audience. Increasingly, that means extending our online reach so Australians can watch what they want, when they want it.”

The agreement is also non-exclusive which means iView could potentially make an appearance on other set-top boxes and game consoles including TiVo, Xbox 360 and the new breed of web-connected televisions.

In it’s current web-browser only format, iView averages around 764,000 visits per month. With the shift to a set-top environment, the service will likely become exposed to a whole new range of on-demand viewers, who’ll have the added benefit of watching iView programs directly from their couch.

Source: Gizmodo Australia, Digital Media

The cast of the original 1985 film 'St. Elmo's Fire'.

‘St. Elmo’s Fire’ appears to be the latest 80’s property to get a new lease on life. The project has received a script commitment from US net ABC.

Following strong interest from multiple networks, the alphabet eventually landed the dramedy series project.

The original film, which was co-written and directed by Schumacher, followed a group of friends who had just graduated from Georgetown University as they adjusted to adulthood. It starred Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy and Mare Winningham.

‘St. Elmo’s Fire’ has been hailed as one of the defining films in the 80’s Brat Pack genre, which also includes films such as ‘The Outsiders’, “The Breakfast Club’, ‘Pretty In Pink’ and ‘Sixteen Candles’.

The series will use the movie for inspiration as it introduces six new friends – three boys and three girls, who’ll hang out in the same Georgetown setting at the St. Elmo’s Bar & Restaurant, now called St. Elmo’s Bar & Grill.

“More than anything, the movie evokes a feeling that doesn’t go away,” said writer Dan Bucatinsky, “the feeling of bonding with your friends who become your surrogate family.”

“It’s the feeling of that time in your life when everything is possible but you can’t figure out how to make it possible”, added executive producer Topher Grace.

The project is being developed for ABC by executive producers Joel Schumacher, Topher Grace, Jamie Tarses and Dan Bucatinsky at Sony Pictures Television.

Other 80’s properties which are receiving a contemporary overhaul are ‘V’ and ‘The Witches of Eastwick’ for ABC; and ‘Parenthood’ for NBC.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

'The Vampire Diaries' coming soon to The CW and GO!

The season will kick-off with The CW’s sophomore drama ‘90210’. You might remember that ‘90210’ premiered to The CW’s biggest numbers in history (4.65M, A18-49: 2.6/7) but those viewers abandoned it in droves with the finale only mustering a little more than half that audience (2.49M, A18-49: 1.3/3). This is a make or break season for the remake and if it continues to shed viewers it will not only damage The CW’s brand but will have a detrimental effect on the heavily promoted freshman drama ‘Melrose Place’ 2.0. The CW is pinning their hopes on ‘Melrose Place’ and their other fall freshman ‘The Vampire Diaries’, which was inexplicably added to their Thursday line-up at the expense of The CW’s highest rating drama ‘Smallville,’ which has now been bumped to Fridays. If both ‘Melrose’ and ‘Vampire’ fail, it may well be the final year for the struggling network as CBS and WB cannot continue to run a network at a loss in this sort of climate. Elsewhere, Tuesdays will be a little dull with procedurals occupying CBS and reality on ABC, NBC and Fox. However, recently the alphabet made a late change noticing a chance to pounce in that timeslot, by pushing mid season sci-fi drama ‘V’ forward for a November 3 start.

The following night sees the fall premiere of summer reality show, ‘So You Think You Can Dance.’  Fox’s decision to air a second cycle of ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ was quite bizarre, the show captures a solid but not spectacular audience during the summer and who’s to say airing it twice a year won’t damage the franchise? Fall has always been the achilles heel for the News Corp. Network and no doubt ‘Dance’ will improve on past year offerings, but will viewers return for future seasons? The decision to move ‘Dance’ to fall was to provide some lead-in support for freshman drama ‘Glee,’ which squandered its ‘Idol’ lead in when Fox aired a sample episode behind one of Idol’s final 2009 episodes, in the ended it averaged only 9.62M, A18-49: 4.4/11.

The aforementioned ‘The Vampire Diaries’ has its series premiere on Thursday, September 10 and it will be partnered with The CW’s other sci-fi drama ‘Supernatural’. The CW greenlighting ‘Diaries’ was no surprise as they wanted to capitalise on the ‘Twilight’ and ‘True Blood’ hype. Even though ‘Diaries’ has generated a lot of negative press, initial sampling will be large but the million dollar question is how long will the audience give it? The following Thursday sees the return of JJ Abram’s latest demo hit ‘Fringe’. ‘Fringe’ will have its work cut out going up against heavyweights, ‘CSI’ and ‘Grey’s Anatomy,’ which both return on September 24. ‘Fringe’s’ departure from a solid lead in indicates the confidence Fox has in the sophomore drama, however in comparison to Abram’s previous projects, ‘Fringe’ focuses less on mythology and more on individual episodes which should make it easier to follow but less intriguing to the dedicated fans. Another huge Thursday development is the movement of last year’s freshman hit ‘The Mentalist’ to 10/9c following CSI. CBS is grooming it as the next CSI, which I might add has lost a lot of steam since the departure of William Petersen, however the timeslot is somewhat of a bogey one for CBS as nothing has remained there for more than one year.

Thursdays also see the return of ‘Survivor’ for its 19th season, the 6th season of the Office, the 2nd season of ‘Parks and Recreation’ and the debut of critical darling ‘Community’ which all premiere on September 17. For those waiting for ’30 Rock’ it returns on October 15. The biggest premiere to Thursdays is ‘Flash Forward’, which is being promoted by ABC as the new ‘Lost.’  ‘Flash Forward’ looks to be the biggest show to come out of the states since ‘Lost’ and ‘Desperate Housewives’ and it comes with a lot of buzz. Just recently, the directors noted, they will need at least three seasons to complete the arc they have planned. In a nutshell, ‘Flash Forward’ follows the life of an FBI agent who investigates the reason for a mysterious event, which sees everyone blackout for two minutes and seventeen seconds, travelling six months into the future.

The following two Mondays see the return of ‘WTF’ (No, not What The Beep, but Watch This Fall) drama ‘Gossip Girl’ and veteran ‘One Tree Hill’. This fall, Dawn has decided to do a switcheroo with the two, moving her baby ‘Gossip’ to a higher household viewing time and avoiding direction competition with ‘House’. The aforementioned ‘House’ and the trouble ridden ‘Heroes’ both return with two hour premieres on September 21. It has been quite a steep fall for ‘Heroes’, if Kring can’t stop the bleeding, this might be the end of the one season wonder. The following Monday sees NBC launch their new high-octane medical drama ‘Trauma,’ a number of photos/clips for this show have being doing the rounds on the internet, so expect a large initial sampling. ‘Lie to Me’ will occupate the post ‘House’ slot as Fox tries to groom this as a replacement for ‘House’. Over at CBS, ‘How I Met Your Mother’ has been moved to 8/7c providing some lead in support for the dead on arrival ‘Accidently on Purpose’. ‘Two and a Half Men’ remains, but ‘The Big Bang Theory’ moves to the post ‘Men’ slot. ‘Bang’ was trialled in the slot late last year or early this year and maintained close to 100% retention, so look for ‘Bang’ to reach series highs again.

Wednesdays will be interesting for a number of reasons, ABC has a completely new line up with critical darlings ‘Modern Family’ and ‘Cougar Town’ occupying the key 9/8c and 9:30/8:30c timeslots. ‘Cougar Town’ follows Jules (Courtney Cox), a recently divorced single mother exploring honest truths about dating and aging in our beauty and youth obsessed culture, while ‘Modern Family’ explores the complications that come with being in a family in this day and age. The entrees ‘Hank’ and ‘The Middle’ debut the following week. ‘Eastwick’ a cross between ‘Valentine’ and ‘Sex and the City’ also debuts in the same week as ‘Modern Family’ and ‘Cougar Town’, but things don’t look good for the romantic drama.

The landscape for Fridays has completely changed; networks are finally getting aggressive with their programming. There is less reality from the other three networks which might finally give CBS’ combo of Ghost Whisperer, Cold Case and Numb3rs some headaches. Fox kicks off with a comedy hour with waiting to be cancelled ‘’Til Death’ and ‘Brothers’ followed by the ever improving and surprise renewal ‘Dollhouse’ which all premiere on September 25. The CW veteran ‘Smallville’ has been yanked to Thursdays along with the ever fading ‘Ugly Betty’.

Nothing much has changed on Sundays, with ABC’s ‘Desperate Housewives’ and ‘Brothers and Sisters’ starting on September 27. Fox has shuffled their line up knocking out the every reliable – ‘King of the Hill’, for Seth McFarland’s new, albeit belated project ‘The Cleveland Show’. ‘The Simpsons’, ‘Family Guy’ and ‘American Dad’ all return for their 21st, 8th and 5th season respectively. ‘The Cleveland Show’s’ pilot has been leaked for a while and it doesn’t look too different to ‘Family Guy’ or ‘American Dad’.

Finally, the biggest news this fall is Jay Leno moving to primetime, which begins daily from September 14, 10/9c. All eyes will be on the ratings for ‘The Jay Leno Show,’ but NBC isn’t expecting much, as long as it remains profitable, NBC will be satisfied. Jay Leno recently said he doesn’t expect his show to beat first run CSI, but hopes to push CSI repeats to the limit. The format of the show is: Leno will begin with a 10 second opening sequence which leads into a monologue. He will have at least one special guest a night and music will come from multiple acts. Jaywalking and newspaper headlines will be held until the end of the show to give News affiliates a strong lead in. Leno also gave us a snippet of the ‘Green Car Challenge’ where you can see, as Leno puts it, “who is faster, Shaquille O’Neal or Cameron Diaz.” There will be pre-recorded segments from D.L Hughley and Rachel Harris.As always, this is will be an interesting fall, with networks trying something different.

I hope everyone enjoys the fall TV season and wish for everyone’s favourite TV show to survive.

Premiere Dates

• ‘90210’ 2nd Season Premiere September 8
• ‘Melrose Place’ Series Premiere September 8
• ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ Fall Premiere September 9
• ‘Glee’ Series Premiere September 9
• ‘The Vampire Diaries’ Series Premiere September 10
• ‘Supernatural’ 5th Season Premiere September 10
• ‘One Tree Hill’ 7th Season Premiere September 14
• ‘Gossip Girl’ 3rd Season Premiere September 14
• ‘The Jay Leno Show’ Series Premiere September 14
• ‘The Beautiful Life’ Series Premiere September 16
• ‘Bones’ 5th Season Premiere September 17
• ‘Survivor’ 19th Season Premiere September 17
• ‘Parks and Recreation’ 2nd Season Premiere September 17
• ‘Fringe’ 2nd Season Premiere September 17
• ‘The Office’ 6th Season Premiere September 17
• ‘Community’ Series Premiere September 17
• ‘Heroes’ 4th Season Premiere September 21
• ‘House’ 6th Season Premiere September 21
• ‘How I Met Your Mother’ 5th Season Premiere September 21
• ‘Accidently on Purpose’ Series Premiere September 21
• ‘Two and a Half Men’ 7th Season Premiere September 21
• ‘The Big Bang Theory’ 3rd Season Premiere September 21
• ‘Castle’ 2nd Season Premiere September 21
• ‘CSI: Miami’ 8th Season Premiere September 21
• ‘NCIS’ 7th Season Premiere September 22
• ‘The Goode Wife’ Series Premiere September 22
• ‘The Forgotten Series’ Premiere September 22
• ‘Mercy’ Series Premiere September 23
• ‘Criminal Minds’ 5th Season Premiere September 23
• ‘Modern Family’ Series Premiere September 23
• ‘Cougar Town’ Series Premiere September 23
• ‘Eastwick’ Series Premiere September 23
• ‘Flash Forward’ Series Premiere September 24
• ‘The Mentalist’ 2nd Season Premiere September 24
• ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ 6th Season Premiere September 24
• ‘Brothers’ Series Premiere September 25
• ‘Smallville’ 9th Season Premiere September 25
• ‘Dollhouse’ 2nd Season Premiere September 25
• ‘The Amazing Race’ 15th Season Premiere September 27
• ‘The Simpsons’ 21st Season Premiere September 27
• ‘The Cleveland Show’ Series Premiere September 27
• ‘Desperate Housewives’ 6th Season Premiere September 27
• ‘Brothers and Sisters’ 4th Season Premiere September 27
• ‘Family Guy’ 8th Season Premiere September 27
• ‘American Dad’ 5th Season Premiere September 27
• ‘Lie to Me’ 2nd Season Premiere September 28
• ‘Trauma’ Series Premiere September 28
• ‘Hank’ Series Premiere September 30
• ‘The Middle’ Series Premiere September 30
• ‘Private Practice’ 3rd Season Premiere October 1
• ‘Ugly Betty’ 4th Season Premiere October 9
• ‘30 Rock’ 4th Season Premiere October 15
• ‘V’ Series Premiere November 3
• Cable Premiere Dates
• ‘Dexter’ 4th Season Premiere September 27
• ‘Californication’ 3rd Season Premiere September 27
• ‘Stargate Universe’ Series Premiere October 2
• ‘Sanctuary’ 2nd Season Premiere October 9

ABC's iView service is currently unmetered for iiNet, Internode, iPrimus, Westnet and Adam Internet users.

Matt Costain, SBS’s online technical director, said the broadcaster is currently working with a number of internet service providers to find ways to make their online content available to their customers without eating into their monthly download caps.

“We’re in discussion with a number of ISPs regarding unmetering of content. We factored that into the design of the new infrastructure to ensure it would be possible (to do) once we decided to go down that path,” Costain said.

Unmetered access to their content is expected to occur within six months.

SBS’ current serve approximately 2.5 million video and audio streams a month. Long-form programs including ‘Mad Men’, ‘Shameless’, ‘Skins’, ‘RocKwiz’ and ‘Myth Busters’, special edition sports, news and current affairs programming and all of their radio content.

With the introduction of unmetered content, the SBS also plan to increase their online offerings to include all of their broadcast content.

They also plan to stream their entire ‘Tour de France’ series online for the first time and to run highlights of the 2010 soccer World Cup.

“Our overall ambition is to make all of our content available to Australian consumers however they want to consume it,” SBS’ online chief Marshall Heald said.

“So all our commissioned content is now contracted on a cross-platform basis and the large majority of our acquired content is licensed for online distribution as well so that as an organisation we’re platform agnostic.”

However, despite the amount of content being pushed online by the ABC and SBS, audience pick up has been slow, mostly due to the the fact that this content is counted in monthly bandwidth caps.

Australia’s largest ISP, Telstra, currently have a firm policy against unmetered access to the public broadcasters’ sites, while Optus are said to be considering their options. Smaller second-tier ISP’s iiNet, iPrimus, Westnet and Internode are all working with the ABC and the SBS to provide unmetered access.

“I think the broader issue is there’s been a lot of focus on the speed of the network but there’s never been a clear focus on the bandwidth costs and I don’t think that’s been properly addressed by regulation yet,” Heald said.

“We’re certainly operating in one of the most bandwidth expensive countries in the world where there’s also effective double-dipping, as both suppliers and consumers of content are paying for bandwidth. Obviously as the network gets faster, more people can consume more bandwidth, but our preference is to offer what we do on television, which is free content, on a truly free basis.

“And obviously as part of the public sector we’d like the Government to get more proactive in that.”

Both public broadcasters are said to be turning to the Government to take regulatory action against ISP’s who refuse to open up unmetered access to audiences.

Source: The Australian

New Series Include “Cougar Town,” “The Deep End,” “Eastwick,” “FlashForward,” “The Forgotten,” “Hank,” “Happy Town,” “The Middle,” “Modern Family,” “Shark Tank” and “V”

“Better Off Ted,” “Castle,” “Scrubs” and “True Beauty” Join Previously Announced Returning Series “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” “The Bachelor,” “Brothers & Sisters,” “Dancing with the Stars,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Lost,” “Private Practice,” “Supernanny,” “Ugly Betty,” “Wife Swap” and “20/20″

Stephen McPherson, president, ABC Entertainment Group, today outlined ABC’s plans for next season and unveiled the network’s 2009-10 fall schedule before the advertising and media communities at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall.

New fall and midseason series include “Cougar Town,” “The Deep End,” “Eastwick,” “Flash Forward,” “The Forgotten,” “Hank,” “Happy Town,” “The Middle,” “Modern Family,” “Shark Tank” and “V.”

“Better Off Ted,” “Castle,” “Scrubs” and “True Beauty” join previously announced returning series “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” “The Bachelor,” “Brothers & Sisters,” “Dancing with the Stars,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Lost,” “Private Practice,” “Supernanny,” “Ugly Betty,” “Wife Swap” and “20/20.” “Saturday Night College Football” will also return.

“Our focus is always on delivering the best stories with the most memorable characters on TV, whether that’s established audience favorites or innovative new shows,” said McPherson. “This year we’ve got the best of both. We’re headed into the season with a strong slate of returning series as well as great new shows from one of our best development seasons ever.”

For the 2008-09 TV season, ABC claims four of the top 10 highest-rated TV series in Adults 18-49, including the top two scripted shows with “Desperate Housewives” and “Grey’s Anatomy.” For the fourth straight season, the Network remains a top destination for upscale viewers, delivering five of the top 15 highest-rated TV series and three of the top four scripted shows among Adults 18-49 in homes w/$100K+ annual income. During the fall, the Net finished No. 1 in the November Sweep among Adults 18-49 for the fourth year in a row. ABC’s audience is growing in 2009, delivering across-the-board gains over the same point last year: Total Viewers +2%, Adults 18-34 +14%, Adults 18-49 +4% and Adults 25-54 +3%.

Fall premiere dates will be announced at a later time. However “Shark Tank” will premiere over the summer following the special 10th anniversary primetime return of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire,” and will then move to Tuesday nights at 8:00 p.m. Please note shows picked up but not listed on the schedule will debut later in the 2009-10 season.

ABC’s fall primetime schedule is as follows (all times listed are Eastern):

DAY TIME SERIES

MONDAY:
8:00 p.m. “Dancing with the Stars” (two-hours)
10:00 p.m. “Castle”

TUESDAY:
8:00 p.m.”Shark Tank”
9:00 p.m. “Dancing with the Stars the Results Show”
10:00 p.m. “The Forgotten”

WEDNESDAY:
8:00 p.m. “Hank”
8:30 p.m. “The Middle”
9:00 p.m. “Modern Family”
9:30 p.m. “Cougar Town”
10:00 p.m. “Eastwick”

THURSDAY:
8:00 p.m. “FlashForward”
9:00 p.m. “Grey’s Anatomy”
10:00 p.m. “Private Practice”

FRIDAY:
8:00 p.m. “Supernanny”
9:00 p.m. “Ugly Betty”
10:00 p.m. “20/20″

SATURDAY:
8:00 p.m. “Saturday Night College Football”

SUNDAY:
7:00 p.m. “America’s Funniest Home Videos”
8:00 p.m. “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”
9:00 p.m. “Desperate Housewives”
10:00 p.m. “Brothers & Sisters”

“The Bachelor” will air Monday nights from 8:00-10:00 p.m. following the run of “Dancing with the Stars,” and “Scrubs” and “Better Off Ted” will air at 9:00 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., respectively, following the run of “Dancing with the Stars The Results Show.”

Christina Applegate stars in the ABC comedy series 'Samantha Who?'

In this tough economic climate, networks are having to scale back on production costs. Not exempt from this category is ABC’s comedy series ‘Samantha Who?’, which will have a few conditions imposed upon it next season.

Sources say that the network are asking for producers to slash $500,000 off the budget for each episode, in addition to switching to a multi-camera format.*

The shift to a three-camera set up would allow for short production time on the ABC comedy series.

Despite the change of format, the network have no plans to move filming of the series to a stage. They intend to keep it’s current sets and single-camera look.

‘Samantha Who?’ returned after a four month hiatus in March, while Christina Applegate undertook treatment for breast cancer. The comedy series has since struggled to secure the strong audience reception as it did during it’s first season.

Australia's Rachel Griffiths stars on ABC's hit drama series 'Brothers and Sisters'.

Staple series ‘Brothers and Sisters’, ‘Desperate Housewives’, ‘Grey’s Anatomy’, ‘Private Practice’ and ‘Ugly Betty’ have all been renewed for the 2009/2010 season by ABC.

The five series join the final season of ‘Lost’ which was given a three season pick-up back in 2007.

Conspicuously, all of ABC’s current midseason programs have yet to receive a pick-up from the alphabet, including ‘Scrubs’, ‘In the Motherhood’, ‘Samantha Who?’, ‘The Unusuals’, ‘Better Off Ted’ and ‘Castle’.

Also on the pick-up list are gangbuster reality series ‘Dancing with the Stars’ and ‘The Bachelor’; as well as ’Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’, ‘Wife Swap’, ‘Supernanny’ and ‘America’s Funniest Home Videos’.

Anna Friel stars in Warner Bros. 'Pushing Daisies', currently airing on the W Channel.

The alphabet are finally scheduling the remaining episodes of cancelled series ‘Pushing Daisies’, ‘Eli Stone’ and ‘Dirty Sexy Money’.

The remaining episodes will be burned off over consecutive Saturday nights beginning May 30 at 10pm/ET.

• The final three episodes of ’Pushing Daisies’ will air May 30 to June 13.
• The final four episodes of ’Eli Stone’ will air June 20 to July 11.
• The final four episodes of ‘Dirty Sexy Money’ will air July 18 to Aug 8.

These final three episodes of ‘Money’ have already screened in Australia; and the final episodes of ‘Stone’ will go to air over the next three weeks on Seven.

‘Daisies’ made its Australian debut on the W Channel this week.

Source: EW.com

‘Star Trek’ may not even be out yet, but that’s not stopping Paramount Pictures from moving forward with a sequel.

Variety reports that J.J. Abrams, who directed and produced the new film, will be back to produce the follow-up alongside fellow Bad Robot producer Bryan Burk. No decision has been made yet on whether Abrams will direct the sequel.

The studio has also brought back Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof to pen the screenplay.

The story is still in early stages, but the trio are aiming to deliver their script to Paramount by Christmas for a likely June-July 2011 release.

“Obviously we discussed ideas, but we are waiting to see how audiences respond next month,” Kurtzman said. “With a franchise rebirth, the first movie has to be about origin. But with a second, you have the opportunity to explore incredibly exciting things. We’ll be ambitious about what we’ll do.”

Orci and Kurtzman have worked closely with J.J. Abrams ever since their writing stint on ‘Alias’, the three penned the Abrams’ directed ‘Mission Impossible III’ and co-created FOX’s ‘Fringe’.

Abrams and Lindelof co-created ‘Lost’ with fellow show-runner Carlton Cuse, all three currently server as executive producers on the ABC drama.

The world premiere for ‘Star Trek’ will be held April 7 at the Sydney Opera House, with the theatrical release set for a month later on May 7 in Australia.

If you thought things couldn’t get any worse for Lindsay Lohan, think again.

Lohan’s latest comedy flick ‘Labor Pains’ will make its debut on cable TV over the (US) summer with a DVD release planned shortly after in August.

The comedy film, set to air on ABC Family, has so far been unable to secure a domestic theatrical release. A source close to the project has said that one of the producers is currently looking to raise prints and advertising funds for a small theatrical window.

‘Labor Pains’ stars Lohan as a woman who fakes a pregnancy to keep her job, only to find she must keep up the ruse for the full three trimesters. The film also stars Chris Parnell, Cheryl Hines and Janeane Garofalo.

The film was was produced by Nu Image/Millennium Films in association with Overnight Productions and Plum Pictures.

Lohan was last seen on ABC’s ‘Ugly Betty’, where her role in the comedy series was cut short due to Lohan’s on-set antics.

Donald Sutherland at Disney's 'Dirty Sexy Money: The Complete 1st Season' launch in Los Angeles.

Donald Sutherland has joined Warner Bros. TV’s ‘Eastmans’, as the rogue and wealthy patriarch of a dysfunctional family of doctors.

Amanda Bynes is returning to series television as naive Midwestern girl Sarabeth, in ABC’s comedy pilot ‘Canned’, about a group of friends who are fired in a corporate shake-up.

Scott Caan will lead ‘Cop House’, as a champion marksman who suffered a nervous breakdown after his wife left him for his sister, in the Fox’s Brett Ratner-directed comedy pilot set in a halfway house for troubled cops.

Michelle Trachtenberg will co-star as an inexperienced newby nurse in NBC’s drama pilot ‘Mercy’, which centres on the friendship of three nurses.

Josh Charles will star opposite Julianna Margulies in has the CBS’ drama pilot ‘The Good Wife’, which centers on a politician’s wife (Margulies) who gets a job as a junior associate at a top law firm. Charles will play a fellow partner at the firm.

Tom Riley has landed the fourth lead on ABC’s comedy ‘No Heroics’.

Catherine Dent has joined NBC’s apocalyptic drama ‘Day One’.

Rebecca Romijn has been tapped to star as the third witch in ABC’s drama pilot ‘Eastwick’.

The Warner Bros. TV pilot revolves around three young witches who come into their powers. Romijn will play Roxie, a Bohemian and sharp-tongued single mother. She joins Lindsay Price and Jaime Ray Newman who have already been cast in the project.

Romijn starred on ABC’s ‘Ugly Betty’ before going on maternity leave to give birth to twins with husband Jerry O’Connell.

The alphabet have green-lit yet another pilot, this time from ‘Mad TV’ writers Steven Cragg and Brian Bradley.

The comedy project, titled ‘This Little Piggy’, revolves around a family man who’s forced to take in his younger siblings when times get tough.

ABC Studios will produce the pilot presentation (usually shorter than a full pilot) with Cragg as executive producer and Bradley as co-exec.

The cast of 'Chuck' at WonderCon. From left: Yvonne Strahovski, Joshua Gomez, Zachary Levi and Adam Baldwin.

Everyone’s favourite spy might be back for another season claims executive producer and co-creator of ‘Chuck’, Josh Schwartz.

During an interview at WonderCon he revealed, the season two finale “will end in a way that’s going to launch the show into season three with a real—it’s a game-changer. I think that it’ll be immensely satisfying in its own right, but it also really, really launches the show in a way that, you know, we’re already breaking season three stories and can’t wait to start telling them.”

Schwartz is optimistic about another season for the series, which has won critical praise despite lackluster ratings.

“The network has been incredibly supportive of the show, and there’s a lot of internal support for the show,” Schwartz said. “Creatively, they’re really happy with the show. They recognize the challenges of the time period we’re in and all of the sort of hiatus impediments that have been thrown in our way. So I think, you know, on that level it’s very positive. But, you know, we still have several more months to go, and … it’s very competitive, (up against ABC’s) ‘Dancing With the Stars’ this year. Will Jewel out-dance Denise Richards? I know that I can’t wait. And Jewel’s husband also, go with the soft shoe, he’s in there. Yeah, yeah. So, um, so you know, I think we feel very, very optimistic, and we feel really, really good about the show creatively, and I think you know, everything that we can control, we feel very good about.”

Quizzed on if NBC has set a benchmark for renewal, Schwartz replied “If there is a threshold number, we have not heard it yet,” further adding “NBC’s been very good about (renewing) the shows that they love based on creativity alone.”

As for the show’s season finale, Schwartz said “This is our finale. This would be our finale whether we knew we were picked up, whether…we were picked up for next year or five years. This is what we’ve been wanting to do for a while, and we’ve had this planned since the beginning of season one.”

Alyssa Milano and Eric Christian Olsen.

Alyssa Milano (‘Charmed’, ‘My Name Is Earl’) and Eric Christian Olsen (‘Brothers and Sisters’, ‘The Loop’) have joined  the cast of ‘Threesome’, an ABC comedy pilot from ‘Family Guy’ writer/producer Ricky Blitt.

The Warner Bros. TV produced multi-camera comedy, centers on a telemarketer/struggling writer (Olsen) who is torn between his needy slacker best friend and the newfound love of his life (Milano), a successful lawyer and single mother of two.

Blitt penned the project and will serve as executive producer.

The comedy pilot was given the go ahead back in January, after a put-pilot commitment deal from ABC.

Last week we reported that ‘Lipstick Jungle’ star Lindsay Price had landed a lead in ABC’s new ‘Eastwick’ pilot. Well it looks like fellow ‘Jungle’ co-star Kim Raver has been cast in another ABC pilot, ‘Inside The Box’.

‘Box’ comes from ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ producers Shonda Rhimes and Betsy Beers and is set at a network news bureau in Washington. Raver, will play a reporter who once was considered the next Diane Sawyer.

Like Price’s role in the ‘Eastwick’ pilot, Raver’s role in ‘Box’ is formally in second position to ‘Jungle’.

Popular Prison Break character Paul Kellerman (played by Paul Adelstein, currently  starring in ABC’s Private Practice) is set to return in the final episodes of the series.

Season 1 he was the enemy, however Season 2 he developed an alliance with brothers Lincoln Burrows and Michael Schofield.  The boys need a fair bit of help on their hands to get themselves out of trouble and he should be the one to help them.  However who knows, he could be set to his evil ways, although I certainly hope not.

Other Characters including LJ, C-note and Surce also look to return.  There are currently 6 episodes scheduled to conclude the series however there is a small possibility they could add a couple of extras to wrap things up.

Prison Break returns April 17th, on the FOX network.

Source: prisonbreakmanhunt.com