[Televisionary]

No couch-lock here: NBC has picked up action-comedy Chuck for a full season. Yes, it's official: the Peacock has indicated that Chuck 's current fourth season will get its back nine episodes plus an additional two, bringing this season's total to 24 installments. The series had initially been renewed this season for just 13 episodes. The news comes significantly earlier than last season, when the show's writers had completed a 13-episode arc (it launched in January rather than September) before receiving word of a back-nine pickup, leading to a mini-season in which Chuck and Sarah became a full-blown couple. “ Chase has introduced an appealing new star to television audiences in Kelli Giddish and we think it has potential to grow,” said Angela Bromstad, President, Primetime Entertainment, NBC and Universal Media Studios, in a statement. “We also are glad that Chuck will be with us for a full season delivering its loyal, passionate audience.” [Editor: Bromstad seems t...

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. SPOILER! E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos is reporting that Eddie Cibrian is leaving CSI: Miami . "With original castmember—-and fan fave!—-Adam Rodriguez (Delko) returning this fall, a source close to the series confirms Eddie's departure, and tells me the Powers That Be are more interested in focusing on the core cast next season," writes Dos Santos, "which eliminates the need for the poor Cardoza character." Meanwhile, Dos Santos has the dirt on just how Cirbian's Cardoza will be written out of the crime procedural, but--beware!--it's highly spoilery. ( E! Online's Watch with Kristin ) April Lee Hernandez ( ER ) has been cast in a recurring role on Season Five of Showtime's serial killer drama Dexter . She'll play a police officer in the homicide department of Miami Metro. Hernandez's casting comes on the heels of news that Julia Stiles, Shawn Hatosy, and Maria Doyle Kennedy have...

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. Sci-fi drama series Primeval has been saved from extinction thanks to an unprecedented international co-production deal between Impossible Pictures Limited (IPL), ProSieben, BBC Worldwide (BBCW), ITV, and UKTV. Under the terms of the deal, thirteen new installments of Primeval will be produced for 2011 (the thirteen episodes will comprise two seasons). BBC America will step in to take on a full co-production credit and UKTV will become a first-time investor. Adrian Hodges will again oversee the creative direction of the series, which will feature the return of stars including Hannah Spearritt, Andrew Lee Potts, and Jason Flemyng. " Primeval is one of BBC AMERICA's all time top ten shows and we're thrilled to be co-producing the new season," said BBC America SVP of Programming Richard de Croce. "It’s an innovative deal securing the future of an innovative show - and we can’t wait to bring it back to U.S. fans...

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. Former Dirty Sexy Money star Natalie Zea, who most recently recurred on HBO's Hung , has signed on a series regular on FX's drama Lawman , starring Timothy Olyphant. Zea, who appeared in Lawman 's pilot, will reprise her role as the ex-wife of Olyphant's US Marshall Givens in the series. Project hails from Sony Pictures Television and FX Productions. ( Hollywood Reporter ) Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Emmy winner Armand Assante has been cast as a guest star on NBC's Chuck , where he will play "a Castro-esque dictator who Casey has unsuccessfully tried to assassinate multiple times." ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) The CW has given a full season order to veteran drama series One Tree Hill , which is currently in its seventh season. Initially, the netlet had only ordered 13 installments for this season but the order bumps the episode total to a full 22. El...

Cabler TNT has announced that it has extended the run of its drama series Leverage this summer. Leverage will air two additional installments on Wednesday, September 2nd and Wednesday, September 9th. The latter episode, which features guest star Jeri Ryan ( Shark ) will serve as the series' so-called "summer finale." The two additional episodes are entitled "The Ice Man Job" and "The Lost Heir Job." The full press release from TNT, announcing the two additional episodes, can be found below. TNT Adds Two More Episodes of Hit Series LEVERAGE to Summer Lineup Summer Finale, Guest-Starring Jeri Ryan ( Star Trek: Voyager ), Scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 9, at 9 p.m. (ET/PT) TNT has added two episodes to the summer run of its hit series LEVERAGE , starring Academy Award® winner Timothy Hutton ( Ordinary People ), Gina Bellman ( Coupling ), Christian Kane (TNT’s Into the West ), Beth Riesgraf ( Alvin and the Chipmunks ) and Aldis Hodge ( Friday Night Li...

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. Battlestar Galactica 's Jamie Bamber will guest star in the season premiere installment of FOX's Dollhouse next season. According to E! Online's Watch with Kristin, Bamber will play a character who is "heavily involved in an engagement Echo (Eliza Dushku) and her new handler Paul Ballard (Tahmoh Penikett) have been assigned to." ( E! Online's Watch with Kristin ) In other Dollhouse -related news, Joss Whedon has confirmed that Season Two of the FOX drama will feature some familiar faces from the Whedonverse including Dr. Horrible 's Felicia Day (who appeared in the unaired "Epitaph One" episode), Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles ' Summer Glau, and Angel 's Alexis Denisof. ( TVGuide.com ) Syfy has announced that Battlestar Galactica spin-off Caprica will debut on Friday, January 22nd at 10 pm. Of course, if you read my coverage of the Caprica/BSG: The Plan panel at Comic-Con ,...

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello has an interview with Torchwood creator/executive producer Russell T. Davies, in which Davies defends the latest plot twist in Torchwood: Children of Earth (MAJOR SPOILER alert if you haven't yet seen "Day Four"), which has resulted in some angry fans. "It's not particularly a backlash," Davies corrected Ausiello. "What's actually happening is, well, nothing really to be honest. It's a few people posting online and getting fans upset. Which is marvelous. It just goes to prove how much they love the character and the actor. People often say, 'Fans have got their knives out!' They haven't got any knives. I haven't been stabbed. Nothing's happened. It's simply a few people typing. I'm glad they're typing because they’re that involved. But if you can’t handle drama you shouldn’t watch it. Find something else. Go look at...

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. I'm currently drowning in pilot scripts and hoping to use this weekend to get through a bunch of must-read scripts. Fingers crossed. ABC handed out a pilot order to comedy Let It Go , starring Lauren Graham ( Gilmore Girls ), about a self-help guru whose teaching mantra to women is to let it go, but she can't quite follow her own advice when her seemingly perfect boyfriend dumps her. Project, written by Alex Herschlag ( Will & Grace ) and executive produced by Hersclag, Mitch Hurwitz, Eric Tannenbaum, and Kim Tannenbaum, will be produced by Sony Pictures Television and Tantamount. Also on order at the Alphabet: an untitled multi-camera comedy from writer/executive producer Tad Quiller ( Scrubs ) about two forty-something friends who face different challenges when one has a baby and the other deals with a suddenly empty nest. ( Hollywood Reporter ) CBS finally announced some pilot orders, handing out pilot pickups to three ...

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. I'm still smarting from the reveal in last night's episode of Gossip Girl just who was involved in that oh-so-predictable accident rather than the, uh, party I'd rather get axed from the series. Sigh. Better news then for fans of Sci-Fi's Battlestar Galactica . The cabler has given a series order to spin-off Caprica , which is set fifty years before the action of BSG . Sci-Fi had earlier this year shot a two-hour backdoor pilot for Caprica , which stars Eric Stoltz, Esai Morales, Paula Malcomson, and Polly Walker, from director Jeffrey Reiner and plans to launch the series in early 2010. Production on twenty additional episodes is slated to begin in mid-2009 in Vancouver. "We want people to come to this who have never heard of Battlestar Galactica ," said Sci-Fi president Dave Howe. "I think, because [ Galactica 's] backdrop was space and spaceships, there was a barrier to entry for some viewers. Ca...

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. I'm still depressed from yesterday's news about Pushing Daisies but another fantastic episode of 30 Rock (and the hilarious Nightman-laden season finale of It's Always Sunny ) helped remove some of the sting. One piece of good news: it seems like that Arrested Development feature film might actually be happening. After a host of rumors, there's finally some solid intelligence on the big screen adaptation moving forward. Series creator Mitch Hurwitz and executive producer Ron Howard have signed deals for the project, which would be released by Imagine and Fox Searchlight. Hurwitz will write the script and co-direct the feature with Howard. Me, I'm pleased as punch about this news. If there's one series that I feel could work on the big screen, it's Arrested Development . Hell, just think of the DVD sales alone. ( Hollywood Reporter ) Looking for a fix of Lost ? ABC has released a new promo for Season Five...

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. I hope everyone remembered to tune in to HBO's Ricky Gervais: Out of England special on Saturday, which was absolutely hysterical (if not, it repeats about a zillion times throughout the week) and to a rather odd and dream-like episode of Skins last night and another brilliant episode of Summer Heights High . CBS has given a seven-episode pickup to freshman comedy Gary Unmarried , bumping its season total to a surprising twenty episode order, and also ordered two additional scripts beyond that. Additionally, the Eye also gave some good news to the producers of comedy Worst Week , giving the comedy an additional three episode order, despite sagging ratings. ( Variety ) Over at NBC, Medium (which returns to the lineup in January) received a six episode pickup. The news comes as NBC is in desperate need of some schedule hole-filling, with the recent cancellations of My Own Worst Enemy and Lipstick Jungle . Medium was originally ...

It looks like there's still life left in, well, Life . The NBC crime drama--which stars Damien Lewis, Sarah Shahi, Adam Arkin, Brent Sexton, and Donal Logue--was granted a stay of execution today as the Peacock opted to order a full season of Life with an additional order of the back nine episodes. Created by Rand Ravitch, Life (now in its second season) was believed by many insiders to be on the bubble despite positive critical traction. "This unique crime drama continues to offer consistent and compelling stories each week," said Teri Weinberg, Executive Vice President, NBC Entertainment, in a press release. "We love Life and are thrilled that we get to see more of these characters and amazing new cases." Stay tuned.

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. I hope you all tuned in to watch the third episode of Chuck last night as well as a pretty soggy installment of Gossip Girl in which the laws of college applications, logic, and, well, sense of any kind sort of went out the window. But at least the kids looked fabulous, right? Rob Thomas is proving himself to be quite prolific, in the post- Veronica Mars universe. Pay cabler Starz has ordered ten episodes of half-hour comedy series Party Down , written by the Veronica Mars creator, who is set to executive produce with John Enbom, Paul Rudd, and Dan Etheridge. (Enbom will act as the series' showrunner.) Series follows the lives of six Hollywood wannabes as they attempt to pursue their dreams while trying to get by day by day with their shared catering company. Party Down will likely launch in March 2009. ( Variety ) Brenda will be returning to 90210 . Yep, Shannen Doherty has agreed to appear in two additional episodes of the...

Yet another guest star for 30 Rock . Salma Hayek ( Ugly Betty ) has signed on to guest on the upcoming season of NBC's 30 Rock , where she will recur in several episodes as Elisa, a new love interest for Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin). "Salma is truly a gifted talent and an incredible force in our industry," said Teri Weinberg, Executive Vice President, NBC Entertainment in a statement. "I've had the privilege of working with her and I can't wait to see what comedic sparks fly with our brilliant 30 Rock cast." "I have been a fan of Tina's talent, both as an actress and a writer, since working with her years ago on SNL ," said Hayek in a statement. "I am so excited to be part of such an intelligent, funny show, as well as working with the brilliant Alec Baldwin and the rest of the cast of 30 Rock ," said Hayek. 30 Rock kicks off its third season on October 30th at 9:30 pm on NBC. In other NBC-related news, the Peacock has ordered f...

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. I hope you all watched the second episode of Chuck last night; we need to try to get those numbers up ASAP! Don't break open the Bolly just yet. FOX has ordered a script for an American remake of hit British series Absolutely Fabulous from executive producers Mitch Hurwitz ( Arrested Development ), Eric and Kim Tannenbaum, and writer/executive producer Christine Zander ( Saturday Night Live ). Project, from Sony Pictures TV, Tantamount, and BBC Worldwide America, is the latest attempt to remake Jennifer Saunder's AbFab . (Previous attempts have included a Roseanne Barr adaptation with Carrie Fisher, CBS' Cybill and High Society , both of which were thinly veiled attempts to cash in on AbFab .) This version will shift the action to Los Angeles, where two boozy over-the-hill BFFs attempt to stay hip while earning a disapproving eye from Edina's straitlaced teenaged daugher Saffron. I would have thought that, post- Ar...

Good morning and welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. Thanks to all for the birthday wishes both via email and Facebook (I had a wonderful birthday dinner at Comme Ca and saw Ali Larter and Amy Smart); it was definitely a birthday to remember. NBC has gone ahead and ordered the back nine episodes of action-comedy series Chuck a month before the start of its sophomore season. As all Chuck fans know, the first season of the genre-busting series was cut short by the writers strike last season and the Peacock only aired 13 episodes. Series co-creator Josh Schwartz called the news "unexpected" and went to say, "It's an incredible show of faith by NBC and so amazingly nice to get based on the work alone." I couldn't have put it better myself and am pleased as punch that Chuck will get to air 22 episodes this year. Happy days! Chuck returns to the airwaves September 29th. ( Variety ) The Peacock also ordered a fourth season of reality competit...