[Televisionary]

Where did the broadcasters go wrong this season, and what did they do right? Good question. Head over to The Daily Beast, where you can read my latest piece, "TV's Winners and Losers," as I break down the network's performance in the 2009-10 season and (via a nifty gallery) take a look at the season's winners--including Modern Family, Chuck, Vampire Diaries, Fringe, Bones, Parenthood, NCIS (and NCIS: Los Angeles), The Good Wife , and others--and the losers (such as FlashForward, Heroes, Melrose Place and medical dramas in general, as well as the draws. Where did your favorite series end up on the list? And what's your take on the 2009-10 season? Head to the comments section to discuss.

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. Elisha Cuthbert ( 24 ) has been cast as the female lead in ABC comedy pilot Happy Endings , where she will play Alex, a woman whose relationship ends at the alter and she and her would-have-been husband have to figure out how they and their friends can keep their relationship intact. Project, from writer David Caspe, directors Anthony and Joe Russo, and Sony Pictures Television, also stars Adam Pally, Casey Wilson, Eliza Coupe, and Damon Wayans, Jr. ( Hollywood Reporter ) Facebook has spoken and Lorne Michaels has listened: 88-year-old Betty White ( The Proposal ) will be hosting NBC's Saturday Night Live on May 8th. "It took on a groundswell," Michaels told USA Today 's Gary Levin. "It isn't something we would have said no to, [but the campaign] validated that... It was the outpouring of affection from fans, and we feel the same way." White's episode will also feature former SNL -ers Tina Fey, A...

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. Jason Isaacs is heading to network television. After several years of offers, Isaacs ( Green Zone and the Harry Potter films) has signed on to star in a broadcast network pilot. Isaacs, who last starred in Showtime's Brotherhood before it ended in 2008, has come aboard FOX legal drama pilot Pleading Guilty , based on the Scott Turow book of the same name. Isaacs will play the lead, Mack, a former cop and current attorney who is described as "a big handsome Irish lunk" and who investigates the disappearance of his firm's star litigator. Isaacs' attachment removing the casting contigency on the project, which hails from 20th Century Fox Television and Chernin Entertainment and which is being shepherded by Bones creator Hart Hanson. ( Hollywood Reporter ) HBO has given a series order to fantasy drama Game of Thrones , based on George R.R. Martin's beststelling novel series. Project, written by David Benio...

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. HBO has officially announced that Academy Award winner Kate Winslet ( The Reader ) has come aboard the pay cabler's five-hour miniseries Mildred Pierce . Based on the novel by James M. Cain (which was the basis for the 1945 melodrama starring Joan Crawford and Eve Arden), Mildred Pierce will star Winslet as the titular character, a self-made millionaire who struggles to earn her daughter's love. Project will be directed by Todd Haynes ( Far From Heaven ), who will write the script with Jon Raymond. Production on the five-hour miniseries, to be executive produced by Haynes, Christine Vachon, and John Wells, is set to being in New York in April. ( Variety ) The Wrap's Josef Adalian breaks down the current crop of series that are said to be on the bubble for renewal next season, including Chuck, Fringe, V, FlashForward , and Community and names the five series he feels are worth saving. "Being on the bubble is incredi...

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. Jason Lee ( My Name is Earl ) has been cast as the lead in TNT drama pilot Delta Blues , where he will play Dwight Hendricks, a Memphis cop who moonlights as an Elvis impersonator and lives with his mother. Pilot, from Warner Horizon and Smokehouse Pictures, is written by Liz M. Garcia and Joshua Harto and will be directed by Clark Johnson, who will executive produce with George Clooney and Grant Heslov. ( Hollywood Reporter ) Proving that the series' casting directors have inherited the comedy casting mantle from Arrested Development and 30 Rock , Fred Willard ( Back to You ) has signed on to guest star on an upcoming episode of ABC's Modern Family , where he will play the father to Ty Burrell's Phil. [Editor: look for Willard to turn up, oh, before the end of the calendar year.] ( Fancast ) Gretchen Mol ( Life on Mars ) has joined the cast of HBO's upcoming period drama Boardwalk Empire in the recurring role of ...

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Minnie Driver ( The Riches ) has landed a plum guest role on ABC comedy Modern Family , where she will play "a friend and former co-worker of Claire’s (Julie Bowen). The two reconnect after years of being out of touch and things are not exactly how they remembered." Driver's episode is slated to air in January. ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) Jeffrey Tambor ( Arrested Development ) will star opposite David Tennant in NBC's legal dramedy Rex is Not Your Lawyer , where he will play the psychiatrist of the panic attack-prone titular lawyer (Tennant) who is described as "a specialist in anxiety disorders who himself suffers from them and who also becomes romantically involved with Rex's mother." David Semel will direct the pilot, written by Andrew Leeds and David Lampson. ( Hollywood Reporter ) ABC is said to be close to handing o...

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. Good news for Party Down fans! Kristen Bell and Jane Lynch will reprise their roles as Uda Bengt and Constance Carmichael respectively on Season Two of Starz comedy Party Down , which will launch next year on the pay cabler. Bell is set to appear in one episode of the comedy and Party Down star Adam Scott revealed that Henry and Uda are dating while Lizzy Caplan's Casey is seeing someone else. Uh-oh. Lynch, meanwhile, is set to appear in the second season finale, where the Party Down staffers cater... her wedding. ( E! Online's Watch with Kristin ) Angie Harmon ( Women's Murder Club ) has been cast as the titular character in TNT's mystery pilot Rizzoli , where she will play Jane Rizzoli, a detective who teams up with a medical examiner (as yet uncast) to solve crimes in Boston. Project, from Warner Horizon, is based on Tess Gerritsen's novel series and is written by Janet Tamaro. Harmon's casting lifts the c...

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. Benjamin Bratt ( The Cleaner ) has been cast as a guest star on ABC's Modern Family , where he will play the ex-husband of Sofia Vergara's Gloria. Bratt is currently slated to appear in one episode of the ABC comedy series, where his character has been mentioned but not yet seen. Look for some friction between Bratt's character and Ed O'Neill's Jay. ( Hollywood Reporter ) Great news for Gilmore Girls fans. Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino will write and executive produce an untitled dramedy project for pay cabler HBO about the "complicated relationship between three adult sisters, all writers sharing the same upper east side apartment building, and their mother, a domineering literary lioness who reserves most of her affections for their ne'er-do-well brother," according to Hollywood Reporter 's Nellie Andreeva. The project marks the first time that Sherman-Palladino has worked in ...

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. Former Dirty Sexy Money star Natalie Zea, who most recently recurred on HBO's Hung , has signed on a series regular on FX's drama Lawman , starring Timothy Olyphant. Zea, who appeared in Lawman 's pilot, will reprise her role as the ex-wife of Olyphant's US Marshall Givens in the series. Project hails from Sony Pictures Television and FX Productions. ( Hollywood Reporter ) Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Emmy winner Armand Assante has been cast as a guest star on NBC's Chuck , where he will play "a Castro-esque dictator who Casey has unsuccessfully tried to assassinate multiple times." ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) The CW has given a full season order to veteran drama series One Tree Hill , which is currently in its seventh season. Initially, the netlet had only ordered 13 installments for this season but the order bumps the episode total to a full 22. El...

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. Los Angeles Times ' Show Tracker has an interview with Dollhouse creator Joss Whedon about Season Two of the FOX drama series, which returns on Friday. Asked about how malleable the future depicted in the unaired thirteen episode "Epitaph One" is, Whedon said, "We talked about whether it was malleable or not, and right now we pretty much take it as gospel. But then we have a lot of different opinions about how it gets there and who does what. We're fascinated by the implications of this future, and a lot of this season has been guided by it without being so beholden to it that people who didn't see it won't understand. We were incited by the idea that the abuse of power is more widespread than just this one house." ( Los Angeles Times ' Show Tracker ) J.J. Abrams' production shingle Bad Robot has landed a pilot presentation order from FOX for a half-hour comedy series that's being de...

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 Thursday morning television briefing. Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Ed Norton will guest star on an upcoming episode of ABC's new comedy series Modern Family . Norton will play "the bassist of a famous band whom Claire (Julie Bowen) hires as an anniversary surprise for husband Phil (Ty Burrell)," writes Ausiello. His episode is slated to air in November. ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) Pushing Daisies ' Bryan Fuller and Bryan Singer are teaming up to develop SelleVision , a comedic one-hour adaptation of Augusten Burrough's novel, which is set behind the scenes at a home shopping network. Fuller will write the pilot script while Singer is attached to direct; both will executive produce with Mark Bozek and Russell Nuce. Universal Media Studio is behind the adaptation. "We were all big fans of Augusten and the book, and we all got along great," Fuller told Variety . "So we decided to get ...