Channel Surfing: Patton Oswalt Lands on "Caprica," NBC to Attend "Midnight, Mass," January Jones Talks "Mad" Betty Draper, and More

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing.

Patton Oswalt (United States of Tara) has been cast in a recurring role on Syfy's upcoming Battlestar Galactica prequel series Caprica, where he will play Baxter Sarno, the comedian talk show host of a Caprican-based television series on which Eric Stoltz's Daniel Greystone and Paula Malcomson's Amanda Greystone appear. Oswalt is no stranger to genre-based series; he did a memorable guest turn on FOX's Dollhouse last season in the game-changing episode "Man on the Street" (pictured here). Caprica is slated to launch in January 2010 on Syfy. (Hollywood Reporter)

NBC has ordered a pilot script for Midnight, Mass, a series adaptation of DC Comics/Vertigo title about Adam and Julia Kadmons, a married couple who travel the world solving mysteries and tackling bizarre supernatural crimes. Pilot script will be written by Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts, who will executive produce along with Pushing Daisies producers Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen. Project hails from Warner Bros. Television and Jinks/Cohen. Berg and Harberts, meanwhile, are showrunners on NBC's upcoming medical drama Mercy. (Hollywood Reporter)

E! Online's Watch with Kristin has a new video interview with Mad Men star January Jones, in which the actor--who plays the frustrated Betty Draper on the AMC drama series--reveals that Betty's affair at the end of Season Two has been deeply divisive among the audience, with many male viewers feeling betrayed by her one-night stand with the handsome stranger (Ryan McPartlin) while women felt that Betty was "finally getting hers." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

Looks like Paula Abdul won't be turning up on Ugly Betty, after all. The Los Angeles Times' Denise Martin is reporting that talks between Abdul and the network have "fallen apart" and she "will not be guest starring on Ugly Betty." Abdul, as previously reported last week, had been in talks to guest star on Betty as a Mode magazine temp who develops a friendship with Amanda (Becki Newton). (Los Angeles Times' Show Tracker)

ABC has announced the sixteen new celebrities participating in Season Nine of Dancing with the Stars, which include: Aaron Carter, Olympian Natalie Coughlin, actor/martial artist Mark Dacascos, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Macy Gray, actor/songwriter Ashley Hamilton, Melissa Joan Hart, Kathy Ireland, former Dallas Cowboy Michael Irwin, actress Joanna Krupa, mixed martial arts icon Chuck Liddell, Debi Mazar, Mya, Kelly Osbourne, Donny Osmond, and pro snowboarder Louie Vito. (via press release)

Jay Leno has revealed that his first guest on his new 10 pm nightly talk show The Jay Leno Show will be Jerry Seinfeld, who is expected to "do standup on Leno and possibly race cars in the NBC parking lot -- a bit the show will probably go to often," writes Variety's Stuart Levine. (Variety)

Dave Franco (Superbad) has been cast in ABC's Scrubs as a series regular next season. Franco will play Cole, "a charming, conservative, confidently stupid and incredibly entitled medical student whose family donated a wing to the school. With his arrogance and erroneous medical decisions he becomes an enormous irritant to Dr. Cox (John C. McGinley)," according to the Hollywood Reporter's Nellie Andreeva. Scrubs is seeing the focus shift from Sacred Heart Hospital to a medical school next season; Franco will be among the new cast members helping to carry this new direction. (Hollywood Reporter)

HBO has optioned two volumes of Andrew Loog Oldham's biography "Stoned" and "2Stones," about his experiences as the producer and manager of the Rolling Stones. Pay cabler is developing a comedy series that will be loosely based on Oldham's life set in 1960s London. Wesley Strick will write the pilot script and will executive produce with Oldham and Lou Adler. (Variety)

UK audiences will finally get to see HBO's psychotherapy drama In Treatment: digital channel Sky Arts has acquired rights to the 43-episode series and plans to air episodes weeknights at 10 pm beginning in October. Sky Arts will also air an omnibus edition of In Treatment on Sunday evenings as well. (Broadcast)

Former NBC drama executive Lauren Stein has been hired at Peter Chernin's nascent production shingle, where she will oversee television drama development, a move that reunites her with her former boss at NBC, Katherine Pope. (Variety)

Stay tuned.