[Televisionary]

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. Today's briefing will be shorter than usual as I'm typing this on my iPhone, as my internet connection is down. Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello is reporting that ex- Lost executive producers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz are teaming up with co-creator Damon Lindelof to develop a drama pilot that's said to be "fairy-tale-themed" and will feature "a female lead." No other details are available, but it's thought that ABC Studios will be the studio behind the project as Kitsis and Horowitz have an overall deal there. Should the project get ordered to pilot, Lindelof would join the staff in a consulting capacity. ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) Vulture's Josef Adalian is reporting that NBC is developing an adventure/dating reality mashup that's being described as a blend of The Bachelor and Survivor . Project, currently being called Love in the Wild , hails from ...

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. NBC has given a series order to spy dramedy Undercovers , from executive producers J.J. Abrams and Josh Reims, the first series pickup for the 2010-11 season. Series, which revolves around the exploits of a married couple who both work in espionage, stars Boris Kodjoe, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Jessica Parker Kennedy, Carter MacIntyre, Gerald McRaney, and Ben Schwartz. “Having J.J. on our creative team is a great reason for celebration,” said Angela Bromstad, President, Primetime Entertainment, NBC and Universal Media Studios, in a statement. “In Undercovers , J.J. and Josh have found a breakout couple that is rich in character and brimming with romance and action. We feel he’s found the perfect cast.” ( Televisionary ) MEGA-SPOILER! I won't be clicking over to read these (and would ask that you not discuss them in any specific detail here ) but Italian blog Macchianera has obtained six script pages from the Lost series finale, schedule...

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello has an exclusive first-look at the upcoming musical episode of FOX's Fringe , set to air April 29th. "We didn’t set out to do a musical," Fringe 's executive producer Jeff Pinkner told Ausiello. "We set out to do an episode that explored Walter’s state of mind — he’s dealing with some very upsetting news. When we realized that the way Walter would deal with such news would be to try to anesthetize himself with copious amounts of marijuana, well, singing and dancing became a natural outcome." [Editor: Hmmm, just what could that "very upsetting news" be?] ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) A rather big speed bump has emerged during the ongoing talks between Conan O'Brien at FOX. Hollywood Reporter 's James Hibberd and Matthew Belloni are reporting that while the negotiations between the former Tonight Show host and FOX have been smoot...

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. Thomas Haden Church ( All About Steve ) will star opposite Matt LeBlanc, Claire Forlani, Kathleen Rose Perkins, and Stephen Mangan in Showtime's upcoming single-camera comedy series Episodes , where he will play Merc Lapidus, the network president who purchases the format for a British comedy series and then ruins it when he attempts to adapt it for American audiences. Church is slated to appear in six out of seven of Episodes ', er, episodes. Series will air on BBC Two in the UK. ( Variety ) Starz is heading to Camelot. The pay cabler has ordered ten episodes of romantic adventure series Camelot , a contemporary retelling of the Arthurian legends of Thomas Malory's "Morte d'Arthur" that will be written by Chris Chibnall ( Torchwood ) and executive produced by Graham King and The Tudors ' Morgan O'Sullivan and Michael Hirst. Production on the series, originally developed at Showtime, is set to begin ...

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. This is a series I want to watch: Locke and Ben as cutthroat buddies. Well, sort of, anyway. TV Guide Magazine 's Will Keck is reporting that Lost 's Terry O'Quinn is shopping a bible for a series that would star him and fellow Lost cast member Michael Emerson, in which the duo would play suburban hit men who must balance their work and home lives. "I really hope this works out because Michael would be in his prime in this," O'Quinn told Keck. "We’d play kind of awkward partners." Michael Emerson, meanwhile, is more than open to working alongside Quinn again. "It’s very sweet of him," Emerson told Keck. "I’m all in favor of it. Any reason to work with Terry again." ( TV Guide Magazine ) The Chicago Tribune 's Maureen Ryan has an interview with Caprica stars Sasha Roiz and Alessandra Torresani about what's coming up on the series and how their characters fit into the lar...

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. SPOILER! Entertainment Weekly 's Jeff Jensen and Dan Snierson are reporting that Maggie Grace is set to reprise her role as Shannon Rutherford on ABC's Lost later this season in an unspecified number of episodes. "We’re really excited about having her back on the show," showrunner/executive producer Carlton Cuse told EW.com, "and we have a good story for her." Grace joins fellow former cast members Ian Somerhalder, Harold Perrineau, Cynthia Watros, and Rebecca Mader, all of whom are set to return to Lost this season. Sadly, Malcolm David Kelley will be the only original cast member not returning. [Editor: Grace has been the center of several conflicting reports about her possible return or non-return, so this confirmation should finally put those to bed.] ( Entertainment Weekly 's PopWatch ) Looks like Nine Lives found another one. The twelve-hour mini-series from executive producer Steven Spielbe...

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Nip/Tuck 's Joely Richardson has been cast in the fourth and final season of Showtime's The Tudors , where she would play King Henry VIII's final wife, Katherine Parr. The Tudors is set to return in Spring 2010 and Showtime would not comment on the casting. ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) In a first, British channel UKTV has sold lifestyle special Ty's Great British Adventure to ABC. Special, which will air Sunday, August 2nd at 8 pm on ABC, features Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 's Ty Pennington transforming the rundown Cornish beach down of Portreath, including commissioning a children's park, a sports shop, and walking routes, along with other improvements. ( Broadcast ) Jamie-Lynn Sigler ( The Sopranos ) has joined the cast of ABC's Ugly Betty , where she will recur as Natalie, Daniel Meade's new assistant who is des...

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. Jared Harris ( Fringe 's David Robert Jones) has been cast in a ten-episode story arc on Season Three of AMC's period drama Mad Men , which is expected to launch in August. Harris will play Lane Pryce, the financial officer of Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency, in the series, which stars Jon Hamm, Elisabeth Moss, January Jones, Vincent Kartheiser, Christina Hendricks, and "guest star" John Slattery. ( Hollywood Reporter ) Should CBS opt not to renew comedy The New Adventures of Old Christine for a fifth season, ABC is willing to give the Warner Bros. Television-produced series, which stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus, a bailout, guaranteeing it a full 22-episode season on ABC. Move marks the second time ABC has organized a deal like this on behalf of Old Christine (network head Steve McPherson is said to be a huge fan), but it's thought rather likely that CBS will renew it in the end. ( Hollywood Reporter ) FOX has of...

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. Timothy Olyphant ( Damages ) has been cast in FX's untitled Elmore Leonard project, which is based on a short story by Leonard entitled "Fire in the Hole." Olyphant will play U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens who returns to his hometown in Kentucky. "He has a certain jaggedness, but he also loves his job," said creator/executive producer Graham Yost. "He is like an anachronism: He wears a hat, cowboy boots and a holster on his hip. It's a little bit like he was born 100 years too late." Project, from Sony Pictures Television and Timberman/Beverly Prods., will be directed by Michael Dinner and will start shooting at the end of May. ( Hollywood Reporter ) The Chicago Tribune 's Maureen Ryan has a sneak peek at three scenes from Wednesday evening's 100th episode of ABC's Lost , entitled "The Variable." (Gee, does that title remind you of another famous installment?) All I can say is th...

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. Evan Rachel Wood ( The Wrestler ) has been cast on HBO's True Blood , where she will guest star in two episodes as Sophie-Anne, a 500-year-old French vampire who is the Queen of Louisiana. Woods will turn up towards the end of Season Two, which kicks off on June 14th, but is expected to reprise her role should True Blood be renewed for a third season. Her character, Sophie-Anne, is described as "who is charming, wily, ruthless and wise. She's a consummate diplomat who has (or had) many of history's most famous people on speed dial." ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) Nancy Botwin may have left Agrestic behind but Weeds ' Mary-Louise Parker isn't going anywhere. "No. That's not true," said series creator Jenji Kohan when asked whether Parker would leave Weeds now that Jennifer Jason Leigh had been cast in the series. Leigh's character will appear in just a handful of episo...

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello is reporting that FOX will not be renewing sophomore drama series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles for a third season. While the network has declined to comment on a cancellation, saying that they won't be announcing their fall schedule until May 18th, Ausiello has several unnamed insiders stating that the series is dead. "It's done," said one source. "Everyone has pretty much known for a couple of weeks." Ausiello was told by one network insider, "Consider it canceled." ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) As previously reported, Richard Dean Anderson, Michael Shanks, and Gary Jones will reprise their roles from various Stargate franchise series in Sci Fi's upcoming series SGU: Stargate Universe. Also joining them in providing a guest starring role on the first season of the spin-off series is Amanda Tapping, who will reprise...