[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. While the focus so far this season has been on early cancellations, FOX yesterday announced the first full season pickup for this woeful fall season, granting comedy Raising Hope a 22-episode order. News comes a week after the network axed drama Lone Star after just two episodes. "With Raising Hope , Greg Garcia captures a smart take on the working-class family with a great mix of wild comedy and a big dose of heart," said Fox Entertainment president Kevin Reilly. "The show is running like a Swiss clock, and we're very happy with how well audiences have responded so far -- so we're confident it will build an even bigger audience throughout the season." Meanwhile, the fate of timeslot lead-out Running Wilde is still very much up in the air. ( Variety ) The news wasn't so good for the crew of NBC's struggling freshman drama Outlaw , as the production grinded to a halt after three low-rated instal...

When we last saw Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv), she had gotten left behind in the alternate universe while her place with her friends was co-opted by her dark-haired doppelganger and the extraordinary second season of FOX's Fringe ended with our Olivia a prisoner of the Department of Defense. Season Three of Fringe begins not with one opener, but with two, as "Olivia" and next week's "The Box" pick up the pieces of where we left off, offering not so much a window into the lives of the Fringe Division members, but two distinct windows into "over there" and "over here." The effect is as intoxicating as it is compelling, establishing from the start that we'll be tracking the goings on in both dimensions throughout the early part of the season. But rather than confuse the viewer, the season opener(s) offer the perfect jumping on point for new fans as well as the die-hards who are dying to know just what that final reveal means for Olivia, a...

It's about time: NBC has handed out a full season order to freshman single-camera comedies Community and Parks and Recreation as well as drama series Mercy . News about the full season pickup of the Sony Pictures Television-produced Community --which stars Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, Yvette Nicole Brown, Danny Pudi, Alison Brie, Donald Glover, Ken Jeong, and Chevy Chase--was broken on Twitter by creator Dan Harmon, who wrote, "NBC ordered 9 more episodes of Community . I only went to community college for 1 semester, but MASH was longer than the Korean War, right?" A source close to the production confirmed to Televisionary on Friday afternoon that Community has been picked up for a full season, bringing the episodic total this season to 22 installments. UPDATE: Just minutes after posting the above, NBC has confirmed the full-season pickup for Community and announced additional full season orders for Parks and Recreation and Mercy , all three of of which have been ...

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. Good news for Castle fans: ABC has picked up the Nathan Fillion procedural drama series for a full season of 22 episodes after the series has performed well in its Monday night timeslot against tough competition from CBS. The news comes on the heels of ABC picking up first year series Modern Family, Cougar Town, The Middle , and FlashForward for full seasons, leaving only Hank, Eastwick, and The Forgotten the only new series that haven't received back nine pickups. ( Hollywood Reporter 's The Live Feed ) I wonder if he saw this in his flashforward... Co-showrunner/executive producer Marc Guggenheim has stepped down from his position on the ABC sci-fi drama series FlashForward , leaving sole showrunning duties to co-creator David Goyer. "Because of Goyer's limited hands-on TV series experience, Eli Stone co-creator Guggenheim was brought in after the FlashForward pilot to help with the launch of the mystery dr...

I wonder if the victims of the blackout saw this coming. It's hardly a surprise but ABC has today announced that it has handed out a full season order to serialized sci-fi drama series FlashForward , which recounts the aftermath of a global incident in which the world's population glimpsed visions of their future six months from now. ( UPDATE: The network has ordered twelve additional episodes of FlashForward, bringing the season total to 25 installments, per E! Online's Jennifer Godwin .) The ABC Studios-produced series, which stars Joseph Fiennes, Sonya Walger, John Cho, Jack Davenport, and a sprawling ensemble cast too numerous to list, has aired three episodes to date and has fared well in the ratings, improving the Thursday at 8 pm timeslot by 32 percent compared to former inhabitant Ugly Betty , which returns this Friday in its new home on Friday nights. The news comes on the heels of full season pickups for ABC's comedies Modern Family, Cougar Town, and The Mid...

Oh happy day! ABC has announced that it has ordered full seasons of three of its four new Wednesday comedies, including Modern Family, The Middle, and Cougar Town . News comes after the third airing of Modern Family and Cougar Town and the second episode of Patricia Heaton-led family comedy The Middle ; all have performed well in the ratings, even against tougher competition last night. Noticeably absent from the pickups: Kesley Grammer's Hank , which kicks off ABC's new Wednesday night comedy block on Wednesdays. It's a vote of confidence for a genre that ABC hasn't had a lot of luck with until this season and very well deserved, especially for Modern Family , regarded by many--including this jaded writer--as the best new series of the season. News of the pickups quickly spread over Twitter this afternoon, following tweets from Modern Family 's cast and crew.

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. CBS has given full season orders to freshman dramas NCIS: Los Angeles and The Good Wife , which are respectively the first and second best-rated new series of the season and have assisted in CBS winning the last three Tuesday ratings matches. (via press release) Ellen Page, Alia Shawkat, and Sean Tillmann will write and executive produce a single-camera comedy pilot script entitled Stitch N' Bitch for HBO. The project will follow "two painfully cool hipster girls as they relocate from Brooklyn's Williamsburge neighborhood to Los Angeles' Silver Lake enclave in hopes of become artists -- of any kind," according to Hollywood Reporter 's Nellie Andreeva and Matthew Belloni. The trio might also star in the project if it's picked up to pilot but any decision of that kind will be made at a later date. ( Hollywood Reporter ) SPOILER! E! Online's Jennifer Godwin has details about Hayden Panettiere's ...

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. I'm back in the land of the living after recovering from a truly extraordinary Emmy evening the other night. Let's get to the headlines. FOX has given a full season order to musical comedy Glee , picking up the back nine episodes to bring this season's total to 22 segments. While the cast had already filmed the thirteen initial episodes, there had been no word if FOX would be going ahead with the production until yesterday. Meanwhile, E! Online's Jennifer Godwin has the scoop on some upcoming plot points for the ten remaining unaired episodes from Glee 's initial order, including some potential romantic complications for, well, everyone. ( E! Online's Watch with Kristin ) The CW has announced that Heather Locklear will reprise her role as conniving Amanda Woodward on the resurrected Melrose Place later this season. Locklear is set to first appear in the November 17th episode though the reasons behind her retu...

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. Although it wrapped its second season only last weekend, I am already distinctly feeling the loss of Mad Men from my Sunday nights. At least I've still got Skins to look forward to before the start of the work week. (I also watched next week's episode of Chuck --easily the very best installment of the series to date--and witnessed The Kiss that everyone will be talking about come next Tuesday.) Writer/producers Jesse Alexander and Jeph Loeb have been fired from the writing staff of NBC's Heroes , now in its third season. Both have been with the series since its first season and oversaw the day-to-day running of the production under the guidance of creator Tim Kring. While NBC and Universal Media Studios declined to comment, it's well known that execs were frustrated with the series' creative direction and its sizable budget overruns, said to be in excess of its already weighty $4 million per episode. ( Variety ) ...

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. I'm still on cloud nine after last night's perfect combination of sweet and tart on BBC America's Gavin & Stacey . Could that series be any funnier or any more genuinely emotional? It's well lush. Looks like Kate Walsh won't be returning to Seattle Grace any time soon. ABC has picked up Grey's Anatomy spinoff Private Practice for a full season of 22 episodes. Series, which had its freshman season truncated due to the writers strike, has averaged 3.2/8 in adults 18-49 and 8.3 million viewers across two original episodes this fall. ( Variety ) Showtime wants more Dexter : the pay cabler announced that it had renewed the serial killer drama for two additional seasons (that would be Season Four and Season Five) of twelve episodes each. Production on Season Four will begin in Los Angeles next spring. ( Hollywood Reporter ) CBS has ordered two additional scripts for freshman comedy Worst Week , which--after ...

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. NBC has given a full season pickup to Knight Rider , bringing this season's total to 22 episodes despite sagging ratings . And that's all I want to say on the subject. ( E! Online ) CW has ordered a few additional scripts for freshman drama series Privileged , which has struggled to find ratings though has shown significant improvement in recent weeks (it's up 22 percent) despite softening numbers for its lead-in, 90210 . Should the trend continue, it seems fairly certain that Privileged will get a full season order. ( Hollywood Reporter ) One of my main suggestions for improving FOX's Fringe involved giving its supporting cast some real dimension , especially Jasika Nicole's Astrid Farnsworth. Nicole speaks with TV Guide and reveals in this interview that she doesn't know Astrid's backstory either, other than "Astrid majored in music" and is "really, really smart." Not quite the thr...

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. Quite a lot of good telly on last night, including new episodes of Skins, Mad Men, Amazing Race , and Little Britain USA , not to mention another installment of Masterpiece Contemporary's The Last Enemy . Whew. FOX has issued a reprieve for ratings-starved sci-fi action drama Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles . The series has been given a full season order for its second season, which averaged a 2.3/6 in adults 18-49 in its last original airing. Many insiders had pegged the series as a goner, proving that there's obviously still some life in the Terminator franchise yet. ( Variety ) Zeljko Ivanek ( Damages ) has been cast in Season Three of Heroes , where he'll appear in a multiple-episode story arc playing a character known as the Hunter in Volume Four of the series, which is subtitled "Fugitives" and is set to kick off in January or February of 2009. ( E! Online's Watch with Kristin ) Entertainment W...

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. While not totally TV-related, you can see a sneak peek of the cover of the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly (which hits newsstands tomorrow) to the right, depicting Heroes ' Zachary Quinto and Chris Pine as Spock and Kirk in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek . The issue also features an in-depth interview with Abrams, in which he talks about Star Trek , his YouTube-fueled feud with William Shatner, and also features quotes from Leonard Nimoy and Quinto about the new film. Are you GOB Bluth? FOX is said to be in final negotiations for a talent/development deal with Will Arnett ( Arrested Development ); under the deal, FOX would develop a comedy vehicle for Arnett or cast him in a pre-existing project at the network. Arnett, who is currently recurring as Devon Banks on NBC's 30 Rock , also stars (or his voice does, anyway) in FOX's upcoming animated comedy series Sit Down, Shut Up . ( TV Week ) Not such good news, however, f...

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. But is it The Pattern? The big news is, of course, the full season pick up for FOX's freshman drama Fringe , bringing this season's total to 22 episodes. "We're having a blast working on this show with this great team of producers and amazing cast," said FOX Entertainment president Kevin Reilly. "The series has really taken off creatively, and it's exciting to see that the audience is responding. We believe this is the first full season of many years to come." The pickup for Fringe marks the second full season order so far this year; last month, the CW ordered a full season of 90210 . To date, Fringe has ranked as the number one new series among adults 18-49 this season. ( Variety ) Pushing Daisies ' second season launch plummeted in the ratings, sadly. "Despite strong reviews, the return of Daisies (6.3 million viewers, 2.0/6) had the steepest drop of any show this fall, declining a ...

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. I caught up on television-watching last night and finally got to watch Sunday's episode of Skins (Tony really is a manipulative sociopath, isn't he?) and watched some Season Two episodes of 30 Rock but, sigh, will have to wait to watch last night's Gossip Girl until tonight. Netlet the CW has given a full season order to freshman drama 90210 , with 22 episodes slated to air this season. “The successful addition of 90210 has taken The CW another step forward in building a cohesive schedule that defines this network as a destination for young women with shows that get our audience talking—and watching,” said president of entertainment Dawn Ostroff. "We're very excited about the chance to watch this ensemble of newcomers and familiar faces coalesce and grow together as we move forward." (Hmmm, methinks Ostroff may have just saved her job with this one.) ( Variety ) In other 90210 -related news, the drama ha...