[Televisionary]

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. CBS has opted to cancel dramas The Unit, Without a Trace , and Eleventh Hour and will renew dramas Cold Case and NUMB3RS and comedies The New Adventures of Old Christine and Gary Unmarried . ( Hollywood Reporter ) CW has ordered three new drama series for next season, giving the greenlight to Melrose Place, Vampire Diaries , and The Beautiful Life , while Privileged, Reaper, Everybody Hates Chris , and The Game have all been officially cancelled. Meanwhile, the CW has announced that it will not go ahead with the planned spin-off of Gossip Girl but has indicated that drama Life Unexpected remains in contention for a midseason order. The network will unveil its schedule to advertisers tomorrow. ( Variety , Hollywood Reporter ) After NBC's cancellation of comedy series My Name is Earl , producers on the 20th Century Fox Television-produced series are said to be shopping it elsewhere, including to FOX and ABC. Series co-star...

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. In a surprise twist, ABC has opted to cancel comedy series Samantha Who , after it was widely believed that the network would renew the Christina Applegate-led comedy. The reason behind the cancellation was budget-cutting by the network and the comedy series was unable to reduce its budget enough to make a third season financially viable for ABC. The network had attempted to transition Samantha to a multi-camera format from single-camera in efforts to cut as much as half a million dollars per episode. ( Variety ) NBC has given out an eleventh hour renewal to long-running legal procedural Law & Order , bringing the series' total to twenty seasons, tying it with Gunsmoke for the longest running drama series on television. It's believed that the order is for sixteen episodes. NBC will unveil their fall schedule to advertisers later today. ( Hollywood Reporter ) CBS is set to unveil its fall schedule to advertisers on Wedne...

While I am still over the moon about NBC's decision to renew Chuck for a third season this fall , this weekend didn't bring good news for fans of several series. ABC has confirmed that it will not be renewing freshman drama series The Unusuals for a second season. The Sony Pictures Television-produced series, created by Noah Hawley, had struggled in the ratings this season, launching in the post- Lost berth on Wednesdays at 10 pm (traditionally a show killer). ABC attempted to test The Unusuals in an alternate timeslot, airing one episode in a Tuesday slot at 10 pm but the series, about the cops in Manhattan's quirky 2nd Precinct, never quite gelled with audiences. Which is a shame as the series offered a fantastic character study each week, some bizarro crimes, and one of the best ensembles on television today, with all of the actors--including Amber Tamblyn, Jeremy Renner, Adam Goldberg, Harold Perrineau, Kai Lennox, Monique Gabriela Curnen, Joshua Close, and Terry Ki...

A few days ahead of its upfront presentation to advertisers on Tuesday, ABC indicated several early pickups and renewals, creating a diverse slate of programming that includes six new dramas and two new comedies (in addition to several already previously announced) and a slew of surprising renewals. ABC has gone ahead and reportedly handed out series orders to dramas The Forgotten, Happy Town , The Associates (which is also being referring to by some outlets as The Deep End ), and Eastwick and comedies Cougar Town , Hank (a.k.a. Awesome Hank ), and The Middle . An updated version of sci-fi cult hit V , from The 4400 creator Scott Peters, is said to be on tap for midseason, though as of press time discussions are still ongoing between the network and studio Warner Bros. Television about the episodic order, with ABC said to have offered six episodes in a limited series format and the studio pushing for a larger episodic count. The series pickups come on the heels of ABC's announc...

Welcome to (a very early edition of) your Monday morning television briefing on the first day of the 2009 network upfronts. In a surprising twist, FOX has renewed drama series Dollhouse for a second season. Dollhouse , which secured a thirteen-episode order from the network, is expected to remain on Friday evenings next season. Variety 's Cynthia Littleton writes, "The 20th Century Fox TV fantasy drama starring Eliza Dushku has delivered modest but consistent ratings on a low-trafficked night, thanks to Whedon's built-in fan base." It's believed that the renewal was secured after the studio agreed to drastically reduce the series' budget and accept a significantly lower license fee. Just what that decision will mean for the writing staff and cast of Dollhouse remains to be seen. ( Variety ) Good news for Bones fans (even those irked by the season finale's twist): FOX and studio 20th Century Fox Television have signed a deal to renew Bones for not one b...

There wasn't much in the way of news at yesterday's NBC Infront, which I attended at the Globe Theatre on the Universal backlot, although I will say that I did tell Ben Silverman to please renew Chuck . (Yep, right to his face.) The second annual NBC Infront presentation, overseen by Ben Silverman, Mike Pilot, Dick Ebersol, Angela Bromstad, Vivi Zigler, and Paul Telegdy, was pretty similar to the one given in New York last week (and likely the one in Chicago as well). Silverman said that the fall schedule was still not locked and urged advertisers to speak up about their support for bubble series like Chuck and that there were still negotiations going on behind-the-scenes on these series. After hearing Silverman (and confronting him later on the red carpet), I do feel like NBC will be bringing back Chuck ... if they can reach a financial agreement that makes sense for all concerned parties. Silverman's reaction to my heartfelt pleas to renew Chuck certainly indicated that...

The networks aren't expected to announce their schedules until the week of May 18th, but ABC got a jump on the competition yesterday by announcing that they had given an early pickup to single-camera comedy Modern Family , from writer/executive producers Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd, giving the series an initial thirteen-episode commitment. Looking extremely likely for a series order at ABC is drama Flash Forward , especially given the fact that ABC has already launched an on-air viral campaign for the series with its "What did you see?" tagline. ABC executives are slated to screen the pilot and it's a given that Flash Forward will make it on the schedule . Other slots on the schedule could go to such drama projects as Happy Town, V, Limelight, Empire State, The Unknown , or Eastwick . On the comedy front Awesome Hank (formerly known as Untitled Kelsey Grammer) is looking positive as are Ricky Blitt's Romantically Challenged (formerly known as Single Wi...

NBC unveiled part of its plan for the 2009-2010 season just a few hours ahead of its infront presentation to advertisers in New York. The Peacock ordered six new series including dramas Trauma, Parenthood, Mercy, and Day One (described as an "event series") and comedies 100 Questions and Community . NBC also officially announced that it had renewed dramas Heroes and Southland and comedy Parks and Recreation , as well as ordering six new installments of Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday . As expected, there was no mention of on the bubble series like Chuck, Law & Order , and My Name is Earl , although the network was quick to acknowledge that additional renewals and pickups will be announced May 19th, when NBC announces its full 2009-2010 schedule. (Also missing: Medium , which some news outlets had reported as already being renewed.) It's a rather full offering (with the potential for further orders), considering that NBC has lost its 10 pm hour during t...