[Televisionary]

Bad news for Caprica fans. Syfy has axed the Battlestar Galactica prequel spinoff and will be pulling the remaining episodes from the schedule, effective immediately. Which doesn't mean that you won't get to see how the season ended. Syfy also announced that it would air the remaining five episodes sometime next year, according to the press release: "The remaining first run episodes of Caprica -- airing Tuesdays at 10/9c -- will be removed from the schedule as of next Tuesday, November 2. These final five episodes of the season will be re-scheduled to air at a to-be-announced time in the first quarter of 2011, and will conclude the run of the series." News comes on the heels that the cabler has ordered a pilot for another Battlestar Galactica prequel series, entitled Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome , which will return the series' setting to war-torn battles and Viper maneuvers. (I had wondered just what Syfy would do with Caprica last week when that ...

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. A few things to get through before I hit the road for San Diego and Comic-Con. Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Olivia Munn (the newly minted Daily Show correspondent) will guest star on NBC's Chuck this fall when the series returns for its fourth season on September 20th. Munn, who is a series regular on NBC's midseason comedy Perfect Couples , will play "an impossibly cool, smart, and pretty CIA agent who intimidates and schools Chuck and Morgan" in the same installment that features Dolph Lundgren. ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) In other scoop, Ausiello writes that former Friday Night Lights star Scott Porter will be joining the cast of CBS' The Good Wife this fall. Porter, whose CW pilot Nomads was not ordered to series, will play Blake, described as "Kalinda’s private-eye counterpart at the D.C. firm that’s merging with Lockhart & Gardner" w...

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Jennifer Jason Leigh and Alanis Morissette will return to Weeds for the Showtime dark comedy's sixth season, set to launch August 16th. Leigh will reprise her role as Nancy's sister Jill in one episode, with Morissette due to appear in two episodes as Andy's girlfriend Audra Kitson, who also happened to be Nancy's doctor. ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that Jamie Foxx has shot a trailer for a potential television project entitled Tommy's Little Girl , which features Paul Sorvino, Selma Blair, James Russo, and Tony Sirico. Project would revolve around the relationship between a mobster (Sorvino) and his daughter (Blair) and will be pitched to cable networks. ( Deadline ) Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello has an interview with newly promoted Grey's Anatomy series regular Sarah...

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. It's official: former Life on Mars star Jason O'Mara has signed on to topline FOX's new action-adventure series Terra Nova , following the successful close of his deal, according to Deadline's Nellie Andreeva. Series revolves around a family from the future who travels back in time to the Earth's prehistoric past in order to save mankind. O'Mara will play Jim Shannon, described as "a devoted father with a checkered past who guides his family through this new land of limitless beauty, mystery and terror." (The role was reportedly offered to Friday Night Lights star Kyle Chandler prior to O'Mara.) Alex Graves ( Fringe will direct the pilot. ( Deadline ) Back Stage's Jessica Jardine has an interview with True Blood 's Mariana Klaveno, who plays Bill's maker, the devious vampire Lorena. "That's one of the really brilliant things about the show," said Klaveno. "[The wr...

"I will not have a three-way cuddle with a struggling comedian!" I think it's fairly safe to say that those words could only have emanated from the twisted mind of author Jonathan Ames, creator of HBO's deliciously loopy private investigator comedy Bored to Death , which returns for a second season in September. But Bored to Death 's Jason Schwartzman, Ted Danson, and Zach Galifianakis aren't the only ones headed back to HBO this fall as the pay cabler also brings back Danny McBride's Kenny Powers to the lineup as Eastbound and Down returns for a second season in September. The teaser promos for the second seasons of Bored to Death and Eastbound and Down , as well as the image campaign for HBO's Summer/Fall 2010 series, can be found below. Bored to Death Season Two: Eastbound and Down Season Two: HBO Original Series Summer/Fall 2010 Image Campaign: Season Two of Bored to Death and Eastbound and Down return to HBO in September.

HBO's Richard Plepler and Michael Lombardo took to the stage yesterday at the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour in Pasadena that HBO had locked in its entire current Sunday night lineup for additional seasons next summer. The pay cabler has officially renewed True Blood for a third season, Hung for a second season, and Entourage for a staggering seventh season. All will return to the lineup next summer rather than premiering earlier. " True Blood , Hung , and Entourage will all be coming back next summer and we're very excited about it." Lombardo told the press. "So stay tuned for next June." The duo, in an executive session at the aforementioned TCA panel, also relayed information about HBO's other crop of series and whether we could expect to see them return or not, with the fate of several series still very much up in the air. Curb Your Enthusiasm returns September 20th with a new series and will be slotted together with new comedy...

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. Melora Hardin ( The Office ) has been cast as the female lead in FX drama pilot Lights Out , where she will play the wife of a former heavyweight boxing champ Patrick "Lights Out" Leary (Holt McCallany) who is diagnosed with pugilistic dementia and must find another way to support his family before his brain turns to mush. Also cast in the drama pilot, written by Justin Zackham and to be directed by Clark Johnson: Elisa Koteas ( The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ) and Kevin Conway ( The Black Donnellys ), who will play Leary's father/former trainer and his manager/business partner respectively. Hardin, meanwhile, isn't expected to reprise her role as Michael Scott's ex-girlfriend Jan Levinson for the remainder of the current season of The Office but will guest star in at least one episode next season. ( Hollywood Reporter ) The internet was abuzz yesterday with news that FOX wouldn't be airing the final pr...

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...

Looks like Will Ferrell's production company, Gary Sanchez Productions, is getting into the television business. According to The Hollywood Reporter , Ferrell and business partner Adam McKay ( Talladega Nights: The Legend of Ricky Bobby, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy ) have sold single-camera comedy project P.E. to HBO. The project revolves around a former major league baseball pitcher who returns to his Southern hometown to teach P.E. at his old middle school, where he is forced to repair the bridges he burned with his former neighbors. P.E. was the subject of a bidding war among several broadcast and cable networks before setting in at the pay cabler in what is said to be one of HBO's "richest development deals." The pilot will be written by troika Jody Hill, Ben Best, and Danny McBride, who previously wrote and starred in The Foot Fist Way , an indie kung fu comedy film that screened this past year at the Sundance Film Festival and which Ferrell and McKa...