[Televisionary]

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. With May Upfronts only a few weeks away, there are an awful lot of series that are on the bubble for renewal next season. Chuck , which airs its penultimate episode of the season tonight, is definitely on the bubble, with its return hindered by the lack of real estate now that NBC will use the 10 pm hour next fall for a nightly Jay Leno talk show and by the numbers for midseason replacement Southland . There's a slightly better chance for Medium to return, however. ( Life is expected to be cancelled, as is Kath & Kim .) FOX's Dollhouse is said to have a 50/50 shot at coming back. CBS' Without a Trace and Cold Case are said to have a 50/50 shot at a renewal, things are looking brighter for The Unit after the network asked Shawn Ryan for a fifth season bible, while Eleventh Hour is thought unlikely to return. At ABC, Better Off Ted, Castle , and The Unusuals could get a second go-around as the network is said to be ...

Did last night's Cupid win you over or break your heart? You've read my advance review of ABC's redo of Rob Thomas' Cupid , starring Bobby Cannavale and Sarah Paulson. But now that the series has launched, I'm curious to know what you thought of this new Cupid . To those of you who had seen the original Cupid , with Jeremy Piven and Paula Marshall, how did this new Cupid compare? Did you think that Bobby Cannavale and Sarah Paulson had any chemistry? Did you like the New York City setting? Did you buy that Cannavale really could be the ancient Roman god of love sent to Earth as a punishment where he has to unite 100 couples in true love? And, most importantly, will you watch the series again next week? Talk back here.

A lot of what goes right with love can be attributed to Cupid (a lot of what goes wrong can be too). After all, as the myth tells us, it's his arrows that strike the hearts of true lovers and unites them. He's a cosmic matchmaker with a penchant for archery, really. It's no surprise then that so many writers have taken inspiration from the Cupid/Eros mythology and sought to use the deity as the springboard for all sorts of romantic-related mischief. Rob Thomas is one such writer. He had a short-lived series entitled Cupid on ABC in 1998 which starred Jeremy Piven as Trevor Hale, a man claiming to be the ancient deity stranded on Earth until he can complete his penance, bringing 100 couples together, and Paula Marshall as Claire Allen, a psychologist who is assigned to keep an eye on Trevor. The series was canceled after just one season. And, for all accounts and purposes, that seemed to be the end of Thomas' Cupid . Until now. ABC is once again launching Cupid with Ro...

It definitely seems as though there are some problems with ABC's relaunch of romantic drama Cupid and not of the romantic kind. The series, which stars Bobby Cannavale, Sarah Paulson, Rick Gomez, and Camille Guaty, was originally slated to air this spring with 13 episodes. Back in December, it was widely reported that ABC slashed Cupid 's episodic order to nine episodes, including the pilot, and announced that the series would premiere on Tuesday, March 24th. Today, ABC indicated that it would bump Cupid 's premiere back a week to Tuesday, March 31st. However, that's not the only news for the Rob Thomas-executive produced series. A source within ABC Studios, speaking on condition of anonymity, has told me that ABC has once again cut Cupid 's order, this time to seven episodes, including the pilot. The reason behind the reduced order? That old standby: creative differences, according to my source, who tells me that Cupid 's writers had sent the network story bea...

After several weeks of guessing, I'm finally happy to report that ABC has announced launch dates for the three new drama series it will launch this spring: Castle , Cupid , and The Unusuals . First up is Castle , starring Desperate Housewives ' Nathan Fillion (though he'll always be Firefly 's Mal to me), which launches Monday, March 9th at 10 pm. Fillion stars as mystery novelist Richard Castle who is called in to assist the NYPD with a series of homicides that seem virtually recreated from scenes within his own novels. Series also stars Stana Katic, Susan Sullivan, Molly Quinn, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Tamala Jones, Jon Huertas, and Seamus Dever. Rob Thomas' Cupid , starring Bobby Cannavale and Sarah Paulson, launches Tuesday, March 24th at 10 pm. Cannavale stars as Trevor Hale, a man who claims to be the Roman god of love exiled to Earth until he can make 100 mortal couples fall in love; Paulson plays a psychiatrist and self-help author assigned to keep an eye on T...

In a flurry of ordering activity, ABC has granted series orders to no less than five projects today. The Alphabet handed out series orders to procedural mystery series Castle , Rob Thomas' update of romantic dramedy Cupid , and cop drama The Unusuals . Castle , which stars Nathan Fillion ( Firefly ), is about a womanizing horror novelist who assists the New York Police Department with crime-solving. Project, from ABC Studios, was written by Andrew Marlowe and is executive produced by Marlowe, Laurie Zaks, and Armyan Bernstein. Pilot was directed by Rob S. Bowman ( The X-Files ) and also stars Stana Katic ( 24 ), Monet Mazur ( The House Bunny ), Molly Quinn ( Walk Hard ), Ruben Santiago-Hudson ( Law & Order ), and Susan Sullivan ( The Nine ). (Yes, it is Captain Tightpants himself. I wasn't crazy about the pilot script but think that Fillion will bring a certain je ne sais quoi to the role. And rest assured, I am trying to get my hands on the completed pilot.) Rob Thomas...

I spent this weekend catching up on reading the growing stack of pilot scripts in my living room, a daunting challenge given how many scripts I still have to read but I was propelled forward by the fact that I did at least have a script written by Rob Thomas ( Veronica Mars ) to look forward to. The alternately hilarious and touching Good Behavior script, for Thomas' US adaptation of New Zealand series Outrageous Fortune set up at ABC, was a thing of beauty: fast-paced, quick-witted, and, well, pretty damn fun. (It's like The Riches crossed with Shameless , blended together with the bleak humor of Veronica Mars , and served straight up in a chilled martini glass.) The plot revolves around the West family who, after their father is arrested and sentenced to five years in prison, are forced to go straight by their domineering mother. There are hints of some of the familiar themes of Veronica Mars at work there: class warfare, morality struggles, and the exploration of a city...