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Channel Surfing: Monaghan Gets "Lost" for Three Episodes, Joey Lauren Adams Falls for "Tara," "Ugly" Betty's New Look Focus-Grouped, and More

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing.

E! Online's Watch with Kristin is reporting that Dominic Monaghan will reprise his role as rocker Charlie Pace on ABC's Lost next season for three episodes. "Sources tell us exclusively that, yes, Dom's deal to reappear on Lost is done and that the original castmember is set to appear in three episodes in Season Six," writes Jennifer Godwin. "No word yet on the answer to the big question: Is Charlie alive? We'll have to wait until Lost returns to ABC in January 2010 to find out." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

Joey Lauren Adams (Party Down) has joined the cast of Showtime's United States of Tara for the series' second season. Adams will play Pammy, a barmaid who "has a history of picking the wrong guys," writes Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello. "Her luck changes the day she meets 'Buck' and falls head over heels in love." She'll appear in at least three episodes next season. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that ABC executives are testing scenes of Ugly Betty featuring America Ferrara's Betty rocking her new glam makeover. "Based on ABC’s questions to the panel, the suits appear most concerned about whether fans of the show will deem Betty’s transformation appropriate, given her four-year journey from flunky to editor, or whether the changes are too drastic and compromise the essence of the Everygal," writes Ausiello. "They’re also asking for opinions about Betty’s new hair, styled eyebrows, and makeup." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

TLC still has thirty episodes remaining on its deal for unscripted family series Jon and Kate Plus 8 and said that the family--whose behind-the-scenes drama has become headline news--isn't hesitating about continuing on. "It's the family's decision to be involved in the show," said TLC president Eileen O'Neill said. "We want to stay with them as long as they want to stay with us." The series, however, will change, with the emphasis placed more squarely on the children that their parents' dating lives. (Variety)

Amy Poehler is set to return to her Weekend Update anchor roots during September, when she will rejoin Seth Meyers on the Weekend Update desk for Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday on September 17th and September 24th. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Shingle Ish Entertainment has several projects in development, including Bayside Boys, from writer/director/star Ed Burns, about a group of twenty-something male friends from Bayside, Queens. Project is being shopped to cable nets. Elsewhere, the company has Comedy Central male comedy Gnarly, about two thirty-somethings who travel back in time to their high-school selves to determine what made them so unattractive to the opposite sex. Other projects include MTV pilot Bridge and Tunnel, about students on Staten Island; dramedy One if by Land from Hitch writer Kevin Bisch, about a cafe in New York where couples get married, which has been bought as a script at CBS; and a slew of others. (Hollywood Reporter)

BBC One Daytime has commissioned a second season of drama Moving On, ordering ten stand-alone episodes that will be filmed on location in and nearby Liverpool. Series, from a group of writers who were mentored by Jimmy McGovern, is a loose narrative about people each coming to grips with how best to move on in life. The original season featured such actors as Shelia Hancock, Richard Armitage, Lesley Sharp, Mark Womack, Dervla Kerwin, and Ian Hart. (BBC)

FOX has added two encore airings of its new unscripted dating series More to Love, with repeats slated to air tonight at 8 pm ET/PT and Monday, August 3rd at 9 pm. (Futon Critic)

Stay tuned.

Comments

wildhoney said…
I'm so happy that Charlie will be back on Lost! I don't think he's still alive but I think the final season will include many "ghosts" from the past and I'm looking forward to seeing some old, familiar faces.
susie que said…
Should Betty be ugly or pretty? More importantly, does anyone even care?

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