[Televisionary]

Looking for something to watch this spring? Head over to The Daily Beast, where you can read my latest piece, "15 Reasons to Watch TV This Spring," where I round up fifteen new and returning series airing this spring--from Doctor Who , V, Nurse Jackie , and Fringe to Treme, Peep Show, and Top Chef Masters , among others--as well as some major events like the end of ABC's Lost in May. What are you most looking forward to this spring and what's caught your fancy as your latest television obsession? Head to the comments section to discuss.

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. NBC has confirmed that they have passed on David E. Kelley's legal drama Legally Mad , which will not be going to series. Project, which starred Charity Wakefield, Hugh Bonneville, Kristin Chenoweth, Jon Seda, Loretta Devine, and Kurt Fuller as the denizens of a quirky Chicago law firm, has a rather hefty multi-million dollar penalty against it, which NBC will have to pay out to Warner Bros. Television after making a series commitment to the project last year. It's not anticipated that the studio will shop the project to other outlets. In other pilot news, ABC comedy pilot Let It Go (a.k.a. The Bridget Show ), starring Lauren Graham ( Gilmore Girls ), is now believed to be "dead." ( Variety ) The Peacock is also said to have killed procedural drama Lost & Found , which starred Katee Sackhoff and Brian Cox. There were rumors that the Universal Media Studios-produced pilot was being shopped to USA but The Hollyw...

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. Showtime has renewed period drama The Tudors for a fourth and final season. The series, which stars Jonathan Rhys Meyers as England's King Henry VIII, will air ten episodes--all penned by series creator Michael Hirst--in spring 2010. ( Variety ) 24 executive producer Howard Gordon talks to Entertainment Weekly 's Hollywood Insider about the return of Kim Bauer (Elisha Cuthbert) to the FOX series. "Kim has been easily targeted and lampooned by fans, so we had to do it very carefully," said Gordon of Cuthbert's return. "Elisha was as sensitive to this as we were." Gordon, meanwhile, offers a few tidbits about the reason behind her return and about her relationship with Kiefer Sutherland's Jack Bauer. ( Entertainment Weekly 's Hollywood Insider ) E! Online's Jennifer Godwin was on hand last night at the Paley Festival's panel for HBO's True Blood and has some answers about the Sooki...

"I would not be a queen/For all the world." - William Shakespeare, Henry VIII Showtime's period drama The Tudors might not return for another few weeks, but readers can check out a special full-length sneak peak of the series' third season premiere, set to air on April 5th. Season Three of The Tudors is set to focus on Henry's marriages to Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, and Catherine Howard, and Henry's attentions are also diverted from the marital bed to squelch the Pilgrimage of Grace. The full-length third season premiere of The Tudors can be viewed below. The Tudors launches its third season on Sunday, April 5th at 9 pm ET/PT on Showtime.

I was really looking forward to Showtime's The Tudors . After all, it's got all of the things that I do love in a fantastic costume drama: a stellar cast, sword fights and sex, and a tumultuous period of history to draw from. So why does the series leave me so cold? I've given The Tudors several shots now to entertain and captivate me (I've seen various versions of the pilot over the last few months), but even after sitting through the series' second episode, I still can't wrap my head around what's missing from what's arguably one of the most expensive series ever created (10 episodes at roughly $38 million dollars, or so I've heard). I think it all comes back down to HBO's Rome , which wrapped its series on Sunday. Now that series managed to find the right balance between salaciousness and serious drama. Both series occur at critical moments in history, with corrupt politicians, immature leaders, and lawlessness the bon mots of the day. Yet wh...

Curious about the upcoming costume drama The Tudors , starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Sam Neill, Jeremy Northam, Henry Czerny, Henry Cavill, and Callum Blue? (Or just looking for your next historical fix with the conclusion of Rome nearly upon us?) Showtime has created a VIP preview of their new bodices-and-battles drama, The Tudors (premiering April 1 at 10 pm on the pay cabler), but you can catch a sneak peak at, not one, but two upcoming episodes from the luxe period drama now. The two-episode preview can be found here and, fittingly enough, the password is the word "king." Oh and a word to the wise: The Tudors features the kind of, er, atmosphere you might find on Rome or Deadwood , so I wouldn't try watching this at work. Unless of course, you happen to work in a Henry VIII-style workplace where anything goes and sex, betrayals, and beheadings are the watchwords of the day. In which case, go crazy.

Fans of Weeds are in for a few surprises when the series launches its second season on Showtime next month. I attended the Weeds Season Two premiere last night at the Egyptian in Hollywood and the audience -- a mix of celebrities, cast members, and execs from Showtime and studio Lionsgate Television -- was able to catch a sneak peek at the first two episodes of next season. And let me just say, if you thought that season finale cliffhanger ending with Nancy (Mary Louise Parker) discovering that her newest beau Peter (Martin Donovan) was a DEA agent after sleeping with him was a doozy, you're in for a real treat. Before the main event, Showtime president Bob Greenblatt screened the trailer for Showtime's upcoming series The Tudors , a revisionist take on the Tudor dynasty starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Sam Neill, and Jeremy Northam, among others. It's sort of a soap operatic version of history but without any of the flair or panache of HBO's Rome . The first half of th...