Channel Surfing: Anne Dudek Gets "Covert," Aaron Paul to Return to "Big Love," Emmy Reversal, and More

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing.

Ubiquitous actor (and Televisionary fave) Anne Dudek (House, Big Love, Mad Men) will star opposite Piper Perabo and Christopher Gorham in USA's drama pilot Covert Affairs, where she will play the siter of Perabo's Annie Walker, a polyglot CIA trainee. (Hollywood Reporter)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Emmy nominated Breaking Bad actor Aaron Paul will appear in Season Four of HBO's Big Love next year, though Paul doesn't know quite what's in store for Scott next season now that he and Sarah (Amanda Seyfried) are engaged. "The only thing they’ve told me," Paul told Ausiello, "is that something big will happen to my character this season." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Variety's Cynthia Littleton is reporting that the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences has bowed to public outrage over its decision to time-shift eight awards of the September 20th Emmy telecast and has announced that it will instead present all 28 categories live on the air. "This decision was made to mend relationships within the television community and to allow executive producer Don Mischer to focus his full attention on producing the creative elements in the telecast," said Academy of Television Arts and Sciences chairman-CEO John Shaffner in a prepared statement. "Our goal is to celebrate the year in television, honor excellence and this year's great achievements with the support of our industry colleagues and our telecast partner, CBS."(Variety's Emmy Central)

Add executive producer to his growing list of credits. Denzel Washington is in talks to come on board FOX cop drama pilot Billy Stiles, about a "genius gang member-turned-cop." Washington would serve as an executive producer on the 20th Century Fox Television-based project alongside Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal, and Steve Tisch. Project was written by Virgil Williams (24) and was originally pitched as a cable series before landing at FOX. (Hollywood Reporter)

Lifetime has announced that its twelve-episode comedy series Sherri, which stars Sherri Shepherd (The View) as a single mom who begins dating after a divorce, will launch on October 5th at 10 pm. Series will be paired in the Tuesdays at 10 pm timeslot with the second season of Rita Rocks. (Variety)

Joe Morton (Eureka) has signed on for a recurring role on ABC's Brothers and Sisters, where he will play a Justin's "tough but nurturing anatomy professor," according to Hollywood Reporter's Nellie Andreeva, in roughly seven to ten episodes next season. (Hollywood Reporter)

Comedy Central has ordered six mores installments of Tosh.0, which will return with new episodes on October 8th. (via press release)

BBC One has ordered a third season of sketch comedy series The Armstrong and Miller Show, despite the fact that the second season--already on order--has yet to launch. Season Two is expected to premiere this fall, with the third season likely to debut in 2010. (Broadcast)

Apatow Productions' Nicholas Weinstock has been hired by Peter Chernin to oversee comedy development at his nascent shingle. Weinstock will report to Katherine Pope and Dylan Clark. (Hollywood Reporter)

Notorious reality star Katie Price (a.k.a. Jordan) is starting her own production company. Pricey Media, which Price will run with Mark Wagman, will co-produce reality series What Katie Did Next with ITV Studios. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

Have a Burning Question for Team Darlton, Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, or Michael Emerson?

Lost fans: you don't have to make your way to the island via Ajira Airways in order to ask a question of the creative team or the series' stars. Televisionary is taking questions from fans to put to Lost 's executive producers/showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse and stars Matthew Fox ("Jack Shephard"), Evangeline Lilly ("Kate Austen"), and Michael Emerson ("Benjamin Linus") for a series of on-camera interviews taking place this weekend. If you have a specific question for any of the above producers or actors from Lost , please leave it in the comments section below . I'll be accepting questions until midnight PT tonight and, while I can't promise I'll be able to ask any specific inquiry due to the brevity of these on-camera interviews, I am looking for some insightful and thought-provoking questions to add to the mix. So who knows: your burning question might get asked after all.

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What's Done is Done: The Eternal Struggle Between Good and Evil on the Season Finale of "Lost"

Every story begins with thread. It's up to the storyteller to determine just how much they need to parcel out, what pattern they're making, and when to cut it short and tie it off. With last night's penultimate season finale of Lost ("The Incident, Parts One and Two"), written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, we began to see the pattern that Lindelof and Cuse have been designing towards the last five seasons of this serpentine series. And it was only fitting that the two-hour finale, which pushes us on the road to the final season of Lost , should begin with thread, a loom, and a tapestry. Would Jack follow through on his plan to detonate the island and therefore reset their lives aboard Oceanic Flight 815 ? Why did Locke want to kill Jacob? What caused The Incident? What was in the box and just what lies in the shadow of the statue? We got the answers to these in a two-hour season finale that didn't quite pack the same emotional wallop of previous season ...

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In Defense of Downton Abbey (Or, Don't Believe Everything You Read)

The proof of the pudding, as they say, is in the eating. Which means, if I can get on my soapbox for a minute, that in order to judge something, one ought to experience it first hand. One can't know how the pudding has turned out until one actually tastes it. I was asked last week--while I was on vacation with my wife--for an interview by a journalist from The Daily Mail, who got in touch to talk to me about PBS' upcoming launch of ITV's period drama Downton Abbey , which stars Hugh Bonneville, Dame Maggie Smith, Dan Stevens, Elizabeth McGovern, and a host of others. (It launches on Sunday evening as part of PBS' Masterpiece Classic ; my advance review of the first season can be read here , while my interview with Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes and stars Dan Stevens and Hugh Bonneville can be read here .) Normally, I would have refused, just based on the fact that I was traveling and wasn't working, but I love Downton Abbey and am so enchanted with the proj...

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