[Televisionary]

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Summer Glau ( Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles ) is set to guest star on NBC's Chuck this season, where she will turn up in the eighth episode as the latest Greta, the rotating CIA/NSA joint intelligence task force agent assigned to the Buy More. Glau, who stars in NBC's midseason action drama The Cape , follows in the footsteps of Olivia Munn, Stacy Keibler, and Isaiah Mustafa. ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) Jeff Zucker is out and Steve Burke is in. Comcast CEO Brian Roberts' right-hand man Burke, will succeed Jeff Zucker as CEO of NBC Universal once the merger deal--valued at $30 billion--is completed. Zucker announced that he would be stepping down from the position on Friday once the merger transaction is closed. "Steve Burke is an experienced, talented and visionary leader with over 25 years in the media and entertainment indus...

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. Neil Patrick Harris ( How I Met Your Mother ) won't be reprising his role from Joss Whedon's Dr. Horrible but he will be singing in an upcoming episode of Cartoon Network's Batman: The Brave and the Bold slated to air this fall. In the episode, Harris will play villain The Music Meister who "has the power to create song wherever he goes, and he’s trying to dominate the world," according to series executive producer James Tucker. Fans looking to catch an animated glimpse at Harris as the Music Meister should attend the Batman: Brave and the Bold panel at Comic-Con next month, where the entire "Mayhem of the Music Meister!" episode will be screened. ( TV Guide ) Steven Spielberg is said to be wooing Noah Wyle ( ER ) to star in his untitled TNT sci-fi pilot, which, according to Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello, "takes place six months after evil extra terrestrials decimate mankind....

Welcome to your (very early) Tuesday morning television briefing. In a rather major casting coup, FOX's 24 has cast former Battlestar Galactica star Katee Sackhoff as a series regular in Day Eight, where she will play Dana Walsh, a "highly respected and down-to-earth data analyst at the new and improved New York branch of CTU" who is romantically involved with Freddie Prinze Jr.'s Davis Cole and has a "skeleton in her closet she's trying desperately to keep hidden." Sackhoff joins such Day Eight players as Prinze, Mykelti Williamson, Jennifer Westfeldt, Chris Diamantopoulous, John Boyd, and Anil Kapoor. ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) It's now believed that Lost 's Dominic Monaghan will be joining the cast of ABC's Flash Forward this fall. IGN's Eric Goldman is reporting, citing reports from an undisclosed insider, that Monaghan will be joining Flash Forward and that the actor, who played Charlie Pace on Lost, will ...

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. E! Online's Watch with Kristin caught up with True Blood star Stephen Moyer, who plays vampire Bill Compton on the HBO supernatural drama, to talk about Season Two, which kicks off on June 14th. "There's no getting away from the fact that Bill is a vampire. He can't wish to be anything else, because he's a vampire, but he's a vampire who wants to live a human life," said Moyer about his character. "Actually, in fact, he wishes not for a human life, but for a moral life. It's not that he doesn't want to feed on blood, it's that he doesn't want it to involve killing—but in his first season he kills as many people as the murderer. That was something that was very present in our minds. He has that blood lust, he has that very strong sense of right and wrong. If somebody f--s him off, he's going to take them out. He's torn. He's not going to do it just for the sake of it. B...

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. Just a few headlines to get through on this unprecedented and hopeful inauguration day. TV Week 's Blink has a sneak peek video at Chuck 's February 3rd episode which features Lost 's Dominic Monaghan playing eyeliner-wearing rocker Tyler Martin, a character rather similar to the drugged-up faded rock star he played on ABC's Lost ... though Charlie never mistook an apartment complex fountain for a urinal. ( TV Week 's Blink ) Danny Glover ( Brothers & Sisters ) will guest star later this season on NBC comedy My Name is Earl , where he will play Crab Man's lost-lost father Thomas in a storyline that reveals why Darnell has been in hiding all of these years. ( TV Guide ) Smallville showrunners Darren Swimmer and Todd Slavkin are said to be in talks with CW brass about overseeing the pilot remake of Melrose Place , following the departure of One Tree Hill executive producer Mark Schwahn from the project when...

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. While everyone seems to be returning to work today (darn the end of holidays!), I'm still drowning in a pile of screeners and scripts, but c'est la vie. The big news this weekend, of course, was the announcement that 26-year-old Matt Smith ( Ruby in the Smoke ) would assume the mantle of the Eleventh Doctor in BBC's Doctor Who , replacing outbound series lead David Tennant, who will depart the series after appearing in four specials in 2009. ( Televisionary ) Meanwhile, The Daily Telegraph has profiled Smith in an in-depth piece which ran today. Among the more interesting points: "Smith comes to the role without Tennant's in-depth knowledge of the series and describes the next six months as a "time to build this Time Lord…to learn the history of the show", which should give his interpretation freshness. His Doctor may also be boyishly mischievous – he spoke with relish of "the sense of mischief...

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. Let's get to the headlines, shall we? Neve Campbell ( Party of Five ) will return to network television with NBC's midseason drama The Philanthropist , starring James Purefoy and Jesse Martin, about a renegade billionaire who uses his wealth to help people in need. The former Scream queen will play the wife of Teddy Rist's business partner and BFF Phillip (Martin), who runs the men's philanthropic organization and finds herself drawn to Rist (Purefoy). ( Hollywood Reporter ) ABC released some new footage from the Season Five premiere of Lost . ( Televisionary ) Samantha Who? (and former Ugly Betty ) writer Marco Pennette has three projects in development, including ABC drama pilot The Romeos , about four men in the 1960s who eventually become the country's biggest pop stars, which he'll write and executive produce with Brad Meltzer and Steve Cohen ( Jack and Bobby ), and ABC comedy Straight Up and Dirty , ...

There are few things that are certain in this life: death, taxes, and the fact that that I will laugh uncontrollably whenever I watch David Walliams and Matt Lucas. I speak, of course, of the creators and stars of BBC's Little Britain , who have taken their subversive sketch comedy act on the road, partnering with pay cabler HBO to develop an American-centric take on their comedy of the absurd with Little Britain USA , which launches on HBO on September 28th. I was extremely curious (not to mention concerned) to see just how well Walliams and Lucas' bizarro characters would translate across the pond. It turns out that I needn't have worried, as the three episodes of Little Britain USA provided for review prove that the dynamic duo's keenly wicked sense of humor is still sharpened like a rapier. If you have no familiarity with Little Britain , fret not: there's none needed (though shame on you for missing what is arguably one of the very wackiest comedies of the las...

Good morning and welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. Production will shut down on 24 , whose seventh season has been delayed since last January due to the writers strike, for more than two weeks beginning September 15th. The reason behind the enforced break? 24 executive producer Howard Gordon was reportedly displeased with the direction of the last six episodes of the season. During their time off, scripts will be written in order to change the season's direction, with production set to resume by October 9th. ( Variety ) More on that 24 shut down: ""We had a couple of scripts that we weren't happy with," said Howard Gordon in an interview. "We just couldn't get this direction to work, and we found another one that we liked better, so we wound up retooling it [...] The only, only, only concern at all is getting it right. Our feeling was this: We're so happy with what we've done so far, and to the extent that we had that luxury [...

I don't know about you but BBC's Little Britain has been giving me paroxysms of laughter for several years now and I'm positively salivating with the prospect of catching up with favorite characters Lou and Andy, Vicky Pollard, Marjorie, Emily Howard, and Daffyd as they embark on a series of new adventures. Yes, HBO is launching Little Britain USA , from the (wickedly) fertile minds of series creators/stars David Walliams and Matt Lucas, on September 28th. (Well, you knew that if you read my What I'm Watching This Fall ) That might still be a few weeks out but in the meantime, check out this clip as Lou and Andy attempt to check into their American motel. Now where's Tom Baker when you need him to introduce a clip? Little Britain USA launches September 28th at 10:30 pm ET/PT on HBO.

Finally, a bit of news about HBO's US-set transplant of BBC hit sketch comedy Little Britain ! HBO is planning to launch Little Britain USA this fall with six episodes set in America, with sketches shot on location in North Carolina and in a Los Angeles studio in front of a live audience, with segments to be helmed by Michael Patrick Jann ( Reno 911! ) and David Schwimmer ( Run Fat Boy Run ). Series, written by Little Britain creators Matt Lucas and David Walliams, will follow the pair as they bring their hysterical creations--a mix of dangerous eccentric individuals from chavvy ASBO Vicky Pollard and homosexual aide to the PM Sebastian to Fat Fighters group leader Marjorie Dawes and unconvincing transvestite Emily Howard (to say nothing of Bubbles de Vere or fan favorites Lou and Andy)--to the United States, where they will skewer contemporary American culture. Look for Rosie O'Donnell and Sting to turn up in the live studio segments. Storylines allegedly include Vicky Polla...

As Daffyd Thomas might say, "I'm the only gay in the... Peoria, Ill. metropolitan area?" Variety is reporting that HBO is in talks with American Idol creator Simon Fuller to adapt the wickedly funny British sketch series Little Britain for an American audience. Little Britain creators Matt Lucas and David Walliams have approached Fuller to develop the series for the pay cabler and HBO has confirmed that it is in discussions with Fuller about adapting the show. No further details were released. "It's not surprising a U.S. take on Little Britain would end up on HBO. The surreal and scatological sketch show, whose characters include 'The Only Gay in the Village,' wayward teen Vicky Pollard and an incontinent grandma, would be a tough sell for the broadcast nets." I'd have to agree. But even on HBO, I'm not sure how well characters like Daffyd, Vicky Pollard, Emily, Ill. Howard, and Lou and Andy will translate for audiences on this side of t...