[Televisionary]

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. Talk about perfect casting. Star Trek legend Leonard Nimoy will beam down to FOX drama series Fringe , where he will play none other than the enigmatic William Bell, the former lab partner of Walter Bishop (John Noble) and the founder of Massive Dynamic. "It was a delight to work with Mr. Nimoy on Star Trek ," executive producer J.J. Abrams told Michael Ausiello. "The idea that he will play the mysterious, much-referenced William Bell is a thrill. I know I sound like a goofy fan boy, but I can't help it: Leonard is an icon of the genre and such a wonderful actor. To have him come on board Fringe is a mind-blowing honor." Nimoy is expected to first appear in the season finale of Fringe and then appear in Season Two in an extended story arc. ( Entertaiment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) E! Online meanwhile checked in with Star Trek and Fringe writer/executive producer Roberto Orci about the casting of Nimo...

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. The Pie Maker returns to ABC! Pushing Daisies fans will finally be able to catch the final three episodes of the prematurely canceled series. ABC is expected to officially announce that it will air the final three episodes of Pushing Daisies on Saturday evenings at 10 pm ET/PT beginning May 30th. (Sadly, still no news for when or if Dirty Sexy Money or Eli Stone will return to the lineup to burn off their remaining installments.) Also on tap for May on ABC: four-hour mini-series Diamonds , starring Judy Davis and James Purefoy, on May 24th and 26th; the launch of The Bachelorette on May 18th; the return of reality competition series Opportunity Knocks on May 26th; Wipeout returns on May 27th; and comedy The Goode Family will kick off on May 27th. ( Futon Critic ) Despite her character seemingly dying in the fifth season finale of Melrose Place (where she was run over on her wedding day), Laura Leighton will reprise her role a...

Fans of Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money , and Eli Stone shouldn't hold their collective breath waiting for ABC to run the remaining episodes of their favorite series, all of which the Alphabet cancelled last year. Speaking at the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour, ABC Entertainment president Steve McPherson was maddeningly vague when questioned several times about when viewers could anticipate seeing the leftover episodes of Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money , and Eli Stone . "I wish that we had been able to give the producers really series-ending notice to some extent so they could really get that done and really have kind of a finale, if you will," said McPherson. "Because of the way the timing worked out, we didn't, and we weren't able to. But I'd love to find a way to get those out, because Pushing Daisies and Dirty Sexy Money for me -- most of the time when shows don't work, you can really, in hindsight, look back and kick you...

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. By the hammer of Thor! Good news for fans of 30 Rock and The Office : NBC has renewed both series for the 2009-10 season, which means that we're guaranteed a fourth and sixth respective season of each. Given 30 Rock 's comedy win at this week's Golden Globes (and well-deserved statuettes for stars Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin) , I would have been gobsmacked if NBC hadn't ordered an additional season of the critically beloved series. (press release) Unfortunately, there's no news of the fate of ratings-challenged but critically loved NBC series Chuck and Life , which weren't mentioned in NBC's renewal announcement (which also included another season of The Biggest Loser ). And there's even worse news for fans of ABC's Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money , and Eli Stone . According to Kristin dos Santos' sources, the Alphabet won't be airing the remaining episodes of either series until June at t...

The axe has fallen at ABC. It's time for the terrible, terrible news that we've all been dreading for weeks now: ABC has decided not to renew Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money , and Eli Stone past their initial 13-episode orders for this season. While the word cancellation hasn't been officially given, it's basically equal to just that. None of the three series will continue past their initial second season orders. Many of us have been on death watch for Pushing Daisies for some time now and it absolutely breaks my heart to think that Chuck and Ned's days are now numbered. ABC has yet to release an official statement about the, er, non-cancellation cancellations, but word started to reach me mid-day that the network would not be ordering any additional episodes of the troika. UPDATE: James Hibberd at The Live Feed has gotten a statement from Daisies creator Bryan Fuller, who was playing phone tag with ABC's president, about the decision: "I assumed that...

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. While I watched this week's episode of Chuck yet again (and fell in love with it all over again) , I couldn't help shake the feeling that last night's episode of Gossip Girl was absolutely beyond ludicrous. Anyone else agree? ABC is allegedly making some changes to its midseason schedule, with Grey's Anatomy spin-off Private Practice shifting to Thursdays at 10 pm, where it will air right behind Grey's . Meanwhile, the current timeslot holder, Life on Mars , will move to Wednesdays at 10 pm, where it will receive a hell of a lead-in from Lost . The Alphabet didn't comment on the leaked schedule, which it has yet to announce. Can we see ABC launching a Wednesday night around Pushing Daisies, Lost, and Life on Mars ... or does this once again signal a death knell for Daisies ? ( Hollywood Reporter ) Samaire Armstrong's Juliet Darling WILL be returning to ABC's Dirty Sexy Money after all. (Come on, I...

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. I'm still gutted by David Tennant's decision to leave Doctor Who after next year but my sadness was quelled somewhat by a gorgeous episode of Pushing Daisies . (Now, if only others were actually tuning in to watch!) Courteney Cox ( Dirt ) and Bill Lawrence ( Scrubs ) are developing a half-hour comedy at ABC entitled Cougar Town , which will star Cox as a newly divorced single mom, possibly on the prowl for a new man. Lawrence and Kevin Biegel ( Scrubs ) will write the pilot. ( Variety ) John Schneider ( The Secret Life of the American Teenager ) will guest star in a three-episode arc of ABC's Dirty Sexy Money , where he'll play a Congressman who puts Simon Elder in his place at the request (and, um, payment) of Tripp Darling. ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) Ice Cube will write and executive produce an untitled one-hour buddy cop comedy for NBC and Universal Media Studios. It's possible that Cube ...

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. Details are slowly emerging about the next season of British import Torchwood . Producers have cast four actors for the series' condensed third season, entitled Torchwood: Children of Earth . Lucy Cohu ( Meadowlands ) will play Alice, "a woman keeping many secrets from the past," according to producer Peter Bennett. Susan Brown ( The Riff Raff Element ) will play Bridget Spears, "a character vitally connected to the government, which plays an important part in this story." Cush Jumbo will play Lois Habiba, a secretary who "hacks into some vital information," and Rik Makarem will play Doctor Rupesh Patanjali, a "junior doctor at St Helen's hospital who gets drawn into Torchwood's investigations." I can't wait! ( Digital Spy ) ABC is developing an adaptation of classic 1980s mini-series V , about reptilian aliens who enslave Earth, with The 4400 co-creator/executive producer Scott...

Oh, Dirty Sexy Money , I've missed you. What other series, returning after a hiatus of nearly a year (thanks to the writers strike of late last year) would kick off its second season by having one member of its central family arrested for murder, kill off another member, while having yet another cover up said death of the wife of one of its scions... by burning their gorgeous country home down to the ground? Not many, that's for sure. And that's what makes ABC's Dirty Sexy Money such a sinful treat to watch. Sure, there was no mention whatsoever of errant Darling daughter Juliet (Samaire Armstong, who was a series regular last season is no longer with the series) who seems to have vanished into the wind and I had a hard time remembering just what went down between William Baldwin's Patrick and Donald Sutherland's Tripp Darling (or, hell, if Nick believed that Letitia had murdered his father Dutch), but last night's season premiere ("The Birthday Presen...

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. I'm in fashion overload after back-to-back episodes last night of Top Model and Project Runway (more on the latter in a bit) but can't say that I am as enthused with either series as I was in the past. Lest you worry about the fate of Joss Whedon's action drama Dollhouse --beset by multiple problems months before the series' launch--you can dismantle the shrine. FOX is said to be still deeply committed to the project. “With months before our broadcast premiere, we have the rare luxury of extra time,” a 20th Century Fox Television spokesman said. “We believe in this show and want to give it every opportunity to succeed.” Let's hope that's true, given the recent reports that the network was decidedly less than pleased with the series' creative direction. ( Entertainment Weekly 's Hollywood Insider ) Meanwhile, FOX must be pleased as punch that its other cult drama Fringe performed so well in its seco...

Good morning and welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. It's my birthday today (yesterday was my brother's and--before you ask--no, we're not twins) so between work, dinner, and present-opening, I still hope to find the time to watch tonight's Project Runway . When there's a will, there's a way as they say. Season 18 of venerable reality franchise Survivor is about to launch on CBS in just a few weeks. But if you're curious as to who the eighteen men and women are who are competing for the million-dollar prize on Survivor: Gabon , look no further. They include a pin-up girl/actress, a fashion photographer/Cartier salesman (seriously, you can't make this stuff up), a professional gamer, a retired nurse, a personal trainer, and many others. ( Entertainment Weekly ) Creator Craig Wright talks about what went wrong with Season One of ABC soap Dirty Sexy Money , including "experimenting" with tone shifts between installments, and wh...

I really miss Dirty Sexy Money . When I first saw an early cut of the original pilot for the ABC nighttime soap last May, there is no way I ever would have imagined myself uttering those words, but cut to April, several months after Dirty Sexy Money went on hiatus (thanks to the WGA strike of last fall), and I am aching to catch up with the Darlings. While the soap won't return to ABC until next fall (damn!), the series may return with a new cast member: Lucy Liu. Liu is in talks with the network to join the cast of Dirty Sexy Money as a series regular, should her struggling freshman drama Cashmere Mafia not return next season. (It's looking increasingly likely that the female-skewing drama won't be renewed.) She would play an attorney, one possibly connected to Nick George (Peter Krause), the Darlings, or someone else altogether. Me, I'm hoping she's in league with Simon Elders (Blair Underwood), where she can channel her so-good-when-she's-bad moxie into a ...

ABC has opted to give nine scripted series early renewals this season, including Lost (guaranteed two additional seasons after the series' current fourth season), Brothers & Sisters, Ugly Betty, Grey's Anatomy , and Desperate Housewives . These series will all return next season for a place on ABC's fall schedule and have each received a full season pickups for the 2008-09 season. "The strength of our schedule this fall was unprecedented and speaks for itself," said ABC Entertainment president Stephen McPherson in a statement. "We're looking forward to building on that success." The Alphabet also granted reprieves to three first-year dramas and one freshman comedy; Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money, Private Practice , and Samantha Who? will join the above series on the schedule next season. Good news, right? Well, yes, I am happy that they've gotten another shot on the ratings merry-go-round but as of right now Pushing Daisies and these oth...

The PR machine is in overdrive for the 2008 William S. Paley Television Festival, the fest's 25th anniversary installment, which moves its location this year from its cramped quarters at the DGA to the Cinerama Dome at the Arclight. (Wahoo!) While the festival's organizers are being pretty coy about the full lineup and schedule this year, what with teasing us about a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reunion , they have quietly nailed down some dates for some of the panels: March 14th: Elvis '68 Comeback Special (Opening Night Selection) March 15th: Pushing Daisies March 17th: The Comedy World of Judd Apatow & Friends March 18th: Chuck March 20th: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Reunion March 21st: Dancing with the Stars March 25th: Dirty Sexy Money March 27th: Mad Men (Closing Night Selection) The full lineup and schedule, including the date for the previously announced panel for Gossip Girl, is slated to be revealed on February 4th. Individual tickets for members of the Paley Cen...

It pays to be a member... of the Paley Center, that is. As with most years since I moved out to Los Angeles (five years ago, for those keeping score), I'm planning on attending as many William S. Paley Television Festival events as I can (and as many as my wallet will allow). The festival's organizers--from the Paley Center for Media--have been particularly canny this year, teasing the audience with little glimpses into this year's lineup (March 14-27 at the Arclight, in the Cinerama Dome, no less), which so far includes panels for Pushing Daisies and Gossip Girl and a special evening with Judd Apatow. If that wasn't enough, they then made me drool with sweet, sweet anticipation with their latest tantalizing unveiling of the schedule, which features panels for Chuck , Dirty Sexy Money , Dancing with the Stars , and Mad Men . And, oh, a reunion of the cast from a little show called Buffy the Vampire Slayer . Yes, that's right, ladies and gents, the cast of the cult...

I heart Gina Torres. It doesn't matter what she's in or what role she's playing, whether it be kickass Russian superspy Anna Espinosa on Alias , the steely second-in-command Zoe on Firefly , or demon goddess Jasmine on Angel , I'll follow this woman just about anywhere (except maybe to her FOX series last season, Standoff ). So I was so happy to see Torres turn up this week on one of my favorite new series this season, Dirty Sexy Money ("The Nutcracker"), where she seems to be recurring as a graceful African princess who just happens to be the ex-wife of Darling nemesis Simon Elder. While I knew Torres would be turning up on the primetime soap, I had no idea it would be such a juicy role, given Elder's prominence in the plot at the moment. While Torres only appeared in one scene--in which Simon introduces new paramour Karen Darling to his, er, darling ex-wife--it hinted at things to come. Why exactly did Simon need his ex-wife's blessing to begin datin...