Channel Surfing: Chase and Cameron Back in Center of "House," Callum Keith Rennie Clocks in for "24," Will Arnett Returns to FOX, and More

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing.

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that House's Jennifer Morrison and Jesse Spencer's Cameron and Chase will move back into their old jobs on the FOX medical drama following a staffing shakeup at Princeton Plainsboro during which Foreman takes over House's role. "They are both thrown back into their old jobs," Morrison told EW. "It’s been great actually. I have been working a lot and there are things that happen to House very early in the season that have a domino effect on all of the other characters... Cameron was always very close and protective of House. And to have her mentor be away in an asylum makes her contemplate life and career and him. Having him gone affects everyone he works with, personally and professionally." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Another Battlestar Galactica actor is heading to FOX's 24 next season. Callum Keith Rennie, who played Leoben on the Sci Fi series, has signed on to appear in a multiple-episode story arc in Day Eight of 24, where he will play Vladimir Laitanan, a "Russian syndicate mobster who debuts around Episode Six or Seven," according to TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck, who said that Rennie's character will be linked to Jurgen Prochnow's mobster Bazhaev. (TV Guide Magazine)

It's not quite Arrested Development but it's a reunion of sorts. FOX has given a script order to an untitled comedy pilot to be written by Will Arnett, Mitch Hurwitz, and Jim Vallely about a "rich Beverly Hills jackass who falls in love with a charitable tree-hugging woman who can't stand his lifestyle or values." Said man will be played by none other than Arnett himself, should the script get ordered to pilot. Project, from Sony Pictures Television and Tantamount, is executive produced by Hurwitz, Eric Tannenbaum, Kim Tannenbaum, Vallely, Peter Principato, and Paul Young. (Hollywood Reporter)

FOX has slated a two-hour Octomom documentary entitled Octomom: The Incredible Unseen Footage on August 19th. Footage, culled from six months' worth of shooting by RadarOnline.com reporters living with Nadya Suleman and her brood. Pilgrim Film and Television's Craig Piligian will be executive producing the documentary special, which won't have an on-air host. (Variety)

TNT has renewed medical drama Hawthorne for a second season of ten episodes, which will launch in 2010. (via press release)

Gabrielle Union, who is set to appear in a multiple-episode story arc on ABC's FlashForward next season, has signed on to star and executive produce Lifetime telepic The Vow, based on a Denene Millner novel about three women who attend a wedding and make a pact to all get engaged within the following year. Project, from Sony Pictures Television, is being adapted by Nzingha Stewart. (Variety)

Cabler Ovation TV has secured US broadcast premiere rights to the newest episodes of UK music series Later... with Jools Holland, which will air Thursday evenings at 8 pm, beginning September 10th with an episode featuring Kaiser Chiefs, The Streets, Seasick Steve, TV on the Radio, Little Jackie, and Boy George. (via press release)

HBO has acquired US television rights to Sundance award-winning documentary Afghan Star, about the lives of four finalists competing in an American Idol-type pop music showdown in Afghanistan. Doc will premiere on the pay cabler in 2010. (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.

Continue reading full story...

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 ...

Continue reading full story...

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...

Continue reading full story...

[Televisionary]

Search This Blog