The Weekly Round Up for March 8 to 14

Here are the entertainment news items for this week:

CONDOLENCES

Lost Boy actor Corey Haim passed away this week at the young age of 38.

Pro football star turned actor Merlin Olsen who appeared in Little House on the Prairie and then his own show Aaron’s Way (among others) passed away this week. Co

Condolences are extended to both their families, friends and fans.

NEWS

Congratulations to all the Oscar winners especially Lauren Bacall (Governor’s Award), Sandy Powell (Costume Design for The Young Victoria) Mo’Nique, Sandra Bullock and Kathryn Bigelow.

The Glee tour has become so popular that additional dates have been added in both New York and Los Angeles. A matinee and evening performance on May 22 in Los Angeles and a May 29 matinee and new evening show on May 30 in New York.

TV SERIES NEWS

FOX has renewed Fringe for a third season. The series returns on April 1.

Jesse Plemons will not be returning for the fifth and final season of Friday Night Lights. He may return on a guest star basis, however. New episodes will start on NBC on April 30.

Lie To Me will be back with new episodes on FOX starting on June 7 at 8 PM.

The Human Target season finale has been moved up to April 14 to make room for repeats of Lie To Me from April 28 to May 12.

It looks like this will be the final season of the FOX drama 24. Official word is expected to be made in the next couple of days. However, rumor has it that NBC is showing some interest in picking the series up should it be canceled.

ABC officially canceled the Christian Slater-led series The Forgotten. Two remaining episodes have been shot, but it’s unclear whether the network will air them.

Jennifer Morrison will be returning to House for the April 12 episode to be directed by Hugh Laurie and she will be back next season for about 3 or 4 episodes.

ABC will air a special clip show called V: The Arrival on March 23 at 10 PM, allowing viewers to get caught up on the four episodes that aired last fall.

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Jon Voight and David Keith are set to appear in the FOX drama pilot Midland, which is about Robert Allen (Jimmy Wolk), a con artist juggling two lives in two Texas cities with two different women.

Constance Zimmer has one of the lead roles in the TBS drama pilot In Security about two sisters who take over their father’s private-security business protecting the super-elite while dealing with personal and family issues.

Stephen Rea will appear in the CBS drama pilot Chaos about rogue CIA operatives who combat bureaucratic gridlock, rampant incompetence and political infighting.

Elisha Cuthbert (24) has booked the female lead in the ABC comedy pilot Happy Endings about a couple that breaks up at the altar, forcing them and their group of friends to figure out how to maintain their friendships after the split.

Traylor Howard (Monk) landed a lead role in the ABC as-yet untitled comedy pilot about a guidance counselor (Dana Gould) at a local high school and father to two young children, who is caught between his father’s (Brian Dennehy) old school parenting beliefs and his wife’s very progressive ideals. Todd Stashwick (Heroes) also stars.

Alan Tudyk (Firefly) has joined the NBC drama pilot/remake of the Rockford Files.

The Colin Hanks/Bradley Whitford FOX drama that was known as Code 58 will now be called The Good Guys.

Nicholas Bishop (Past Life) has booked a lead role in the ABC drama pilot Body of Evidence about Megan Hunt (Dana Delany), a medical examiner whose background as a neurosurgeon gives her a unique and refreshing crime-solving perspective, but puts her at odds with nearly everyone.”

Breckin Meyer and Mark-Paul Gosselaar have landed title roles on the TBS drama pilot Franklin & Bash, which follows two street lawyers and lifelong friends who, after taking down a white-shoe law firm in a high-profile case, are recruited by the firm’s patriarch. Malcolm McDowell (Entourage) has also joined the cast.

Aly Michalka (Phil of the Future) and Gail O’Grady (NYPD Blue) have been cast in the CW drama presentation (not an actual full-fledged pilot) called Hellcats, which is set in the world of competitive college cheerleading.

Kathy Bates is in final talks to star in the NBC drama pilot Kindreds about a curmudgeonly former patent lawyer (Bates) and her group of misfit associates. Brittany Snow (American Dreams) has also joined the cast.

Scott Foley (The Unit) has landed a role on the ABC drama pilot True Blue about six former best friends who rose through the ranks at the San Francisco Police Department and reunite to solve the murder of one of their own.

Michael Cassidy (Privileged) has a lead role in the NBC comedy pilot The Pink House about two Midwestern guys who move to Los Angeles and rent a house on the beach.

Patrick Fugit (Almost Famous) and Melissa Rauch (The Big Bang Theory) have joined the ABC comedy pilot Wright Vs. Wrong about Evelyn Wright (Debra Messing) a driven conservative pundit who tries to maintain her public persona despite facing her own vulnerabilities.

Tom Cavanagh has landed the title role in the ABC pilot Edgar Floats, about a police psychologist who becomes a bounty hunter. Raoul Trujillo (True Blood) has also joined the cast.

Rob Morrow (Numb3rs) will star opposite Joely Richardson (Nip/Tuck) in the ABC drama pilot The Whole Truth, a legal drama about Kathryn Pearle (Richardson), a successful New York prosecutor.

Jerry O’Connell will play the lead alongside Jim Belushi in the CBS drama pilot Defenders about two fiery Las Vegas defense attorneys who go to the mat for their clients.

Madchen Amick (Twin Peaks) will star in the FOX drama pilot Pleading Guilty alongside Jason Isaacs. The show is about an ex-cop and recovering alcoholic now serving as a partner in a top-drawer corporate law firm.

Anna Chlumsky (Cupid) has joined the cast of the CBS drama pilot The Quinn-Tuplets about the personal and professional lives of adult quintuplets, whose whole lives have been documented on TV.

Jimmy Smits will star in the NBC drama pilot Rough Justice about a Supreme Court Justice who excuses himself from the bench to go into private practice and fight constitutional injustices.

Jay Hernandez (Six Degrees) and Michael Beach (Stargate: Atlantis) have joined the as-yet untitled CBS medical project about a mobile medical team traveling the U.S. helping people in need.

Judy Greer (Miss Guided) will star alongside David Krumholtz (Numb3rs) in the FOX comedy pilot Tax Men about an IRS office in Fresno, California.

Keri Russell is in negotiations to star in the comedy pilot Wilde Kingdom about a Beverly Hills jackass who falls in love with a charitable tree-hugging woman who can’t stand his lifestyle or values.

Sendhil Ramamurthy (Heroes) has joined the cast of the upcoming USA drama Covert Affairs, which stars Piper Perabo as a young CIA trainee who is thrust into the inner sanctum of the agency when she is unexpectedly promoted to field operative.

Sarah Wynter (24) has scored a role in the ABC drama pilot Cutthroat about Nina Cabrera (Roselyn Sanchez), an upscale Beverly Hills widow and soccer mom who runs an international drug cartel.

Jean Smart has joined the CBS remake of the classic police drama Hawaii Five-O where she will play Governor Pat Jameson.

Nick Nolte is in talks and Richard Kind and Ian Hart (Dirt) have joined the HBO drama pilot Luck, which takes a look at the worlds of horse racing and gambling through a diverse group of characters surrounding a racetrack.

Oscar nominee Gabourey Sidibe has joined the Showtime comedy series, The Big C. that stars Laura Linney as Cathy, a repressed suburban wife and mother who reclaims her life after a terminal cancer diagnosis.

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Billie Piper and David Tennant (both from Doctor Who) are in talks to star in the urban thriller Love On The Murder Mile. Details of the movie are under wraps.

Anna Faris and Chris Evans are set to star in What’s Your Number?, a new comedy which focuses on a woman who decides to re-visit her ex-boyfriends in the hopes of finding the man of her dreams.

Liv Tyler, Patrick Wilson, Terrence Howard and Charlie Hunnam have joined The Ledge, which focuses on a man standing on a high-rise ledge who insists he will jump by noon as the cop below tries to manage the situation.

Ryan Gosling will star alongside Steve Carell in the as-yet unnamed comedy about a father dealing with a marital crisis.

Viggo Mortensen will star as Sigmund Freud in the David Cronenberg movie The Talking Cure, starring opposite Michael Fassbender as his pupil Jung. Keira Knightley will play Sabina, a disturbed young woman brought to see Jung by her father

Robert De Niro will play iconic coach Vince Lombardi in the ESPN Films biopic titled Lombardi. The film will focus on the 8 or so years that Lombardi rebuilt the Green Bay Packers into gridiron NFL champions.

Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess are in negotiations to join the movie One Day, an adaptation of a David Nicholls novel, about two people who met for the first time during their high school graduation in 1988 and meet one day every year for the next two decades. Over that time they led their own lives and have relationships with others until they realize they’re meant for each other.

Gary Oldman, Malin Akerman and Milo Ventimiglia will star in the indie gangster movie Criminal Empire for Dummys about a charismatic young guy who goes from a tragic childhood living in the ghetto to his current position as the head of a large multi-national organized crime syndicate. Michael Clarke Duncan and Harvey Keitel also star.

Barry Pepper has been cast in the western remake of True Grit, starring Matt Damon, Jeff Bridges, Josh Brolin and newcomer Hailee Steinfeld.

CASTING SCOOP

Coby Bell (Third Watch) will be joining Burn Notice next season as a series regular. He will play a cocky, smooth and sexy counter intelligence expert who has a chameleon-like ability to assume different aliases. He’s also able to read people instantaneously and come up with a character perfectly suited for preying on their vulnerabilities.

Kelly Carlson (Nip/Tuck) will be guest starring in an upcoming episode of Castle as a love interest for Richard.

Dania Ramirez (Heroes) will appear in the 7th season of Entourage as a new love interest for Turtle (Jerry Ferrara).

Lennie James (Jericho) is set to appear in the 2nd season of Hung as a potential love interest for Tanya (Jane Adams).

Kenny Johnson (Saving Grace) is set to recur on the FX drama Sons of Anarchy in its upcoming third season, in a role he had in the 2nd season.

Navi Rawat (Numb3rs) will make a guest appearance in an upcoming episode of Castle.

Emmanuelle Vaugier and Autumn Reeser will both make return appearances on upcoming episodes of Human Target. Guest stars on the series will also include Grace Park, Amy Acker, Moon Bloodgood, Lee Majors, Lennie James and Armand Assante.

Michael Madsen will appear in upcoming episodes of 24 as an ex-military guy from Jack’s past.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

The following movies, specials and new series will debut and/or air this weekend and throughout next week:

The Lifetime movie Who Is Clark Rockefeller?, starring Eric McCormack and Sherry Stringfield will air at 9 PM on Saturday, March 13.

NOTE: This movie will reair on Monday, March 14 at 9 PM.

The ABC Family Channel movie The Cutting Edge 4: Fire & Ice will debut at 8 PM on Sunday, March 14. The movie stars Francia Raisa (Secret Life) and Brendan Fehr (Roswell).

The HBO 10-part mini-series The Pacific will premiere on Sunday, March 14 at 9 PM.

NOTE: This first episode will reair on Wednesday, March 17 at 10 PM.

Justified premieres on FX on Tuesday, March 16 at 10 PM.

FlashForward returns to ABC with a two-hour opener at 8 PM on Thursday, March 18.

NOTE: This two-hour premiere will reair on Saturday, March 20 at 8 PM.

The CBS special Thin Ice, which is a figure skating contest starring 10 pros, will air the first of two parts on Friday, March 19 at 8 PM.

NEW EPISODES OF EXISTING SHOWS

Here are the new episodes of the dramas that will be airing this coming week:

Saturday, March 13:
Survivors on BBC America at 9 PM
Parenthood (pilot) reairs on NBC at 8 PM

NOTE: Legend of the Seeker will air a repeat episode in syndication this weekend. Check your local listings for date, time and channel.

Sunday, March 14:
Desperate Housewives on ABC at 9 PM
Brothers & Sisters on ABC at 10:01 PM
Cold Case on CBS at 10 PM
Big Love on HBO at 9 PM

NOTE: Legend of the Seeker will air a repeat episode in syndication this weekend. Check your local listings for date, time and channel.

Monday, March 15:
Life Unexpected on the CW at 8 PM
Gossip Girl on the CW at 9 PM
House on FOX at 8 PM
24 on FOX at 9 PM
Chuck on NBC at 8 PM
Trauma on NBC at 9 PM
Law & Order on NBC at 10 PM
The Secret Life of the American Teenager on ABC Family at 8 PM
Greek on ABC Family at 10 PM
Damages on FX at 10 PM

Tuesday, March 16:
Lost on ABC at 9 PM
FlashForward Special on ABC at 10 PM
NCIS on CBS at 8 PM
NCIS: Los Angeles on CBS at 9 PM
The Good Wife on CBS at 10 PM
90210 on the CW at 8 PM
Melrose Place on the CW at 9 PM
Parenthood on NBC at 10 PM
Southland on TNT at 10 PM

Wednesday, March 17:
Ugly Betty on ABC at 10:01 PM
Human Target on FOX at 8 PM
Mercy on NBC at 8 PM
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit on NBC at 10 PM
Being Erica on SOAPNet at 10 PM

Friday, March 19:
Caprica on Syfy at 9 PM
Spartacus: Blood and Sand on Starz at 10 PM

NOTE: Please check your local listings for the correct air dates and times for all of the above.

Have a great weekend!

Please note that I will feature a weekly round-up of sci-fi based (and similar genres) news items at our sister site located at http://scifitvzone.com/. Please visit there as often as you can. Thanks!

The Weekly Round for March 1 to 5

Here are the entertainment news items for this week:

NEWS

Congrats to the winners at the 41st Annual NAACP Image Awards.

TV SERIES NEWS

The second season of Drop Dead Diva will premiere on Lifetime on Sunday, June 6.

Reports state that Robert Baker and Nora Zehetner are not expected to return next season to Grey’s Anatomy. Official word has yet to come down but it looks like Jesse Williams and Sarah Drew may stick around long-term.

An all-day marathon of Drop Dead Diva will air on Sunday, May 30 from 10am to 11pm on Lifetime.

The CW renewed Smallville for a 10th season.

Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galactica) has joined the cast of the TNT drama Dark Blue.

The Emmy Awards will air on NBC on August 29 and will be aired live on both coasts.

When Neil Patrick Harris appears on Glee when it returns this Spring, his character will be a nemesis to Matthew Morrison’s character Will Schuester.

Michelle Rodriguez will return to the island of Lost for its final season.

Ashley Jensen and Freddy Rodriguez will return to Ugly Betty and it’s possible that Chris Gorham MAY be back as Henry but there is no confirmation of his return as yet.

Do you want to see the cast of Glee perform live in concert? Their concert schedule is as follows:

May 18 – Phoenix, AZ Dodge Theatre
May 20 – Los Angeles, CA Gibson Amphitheatre
May 21 – Los Angeles, CA Gibson Amphitheatre
May 25 – Chicago, IL Rosemont Theatre
May 26 – Chicago, IL Rosemont Theatre
May 28 – New York City, NY Radio City Music Hall
May 29 – New York City, NY Radio City Music Hall

If you are an American Express card member, presale tickets will be available starting March 5 with tickets for the general public being available on March 12 for the Phoenix dates and March 13 for Los Angeles, New York and Chicago. Visit www.gleetour2010.com for details.

NOTE: Due to overwhelming demands for Tickets, the Glee Tour added an extra stop in Los Angeles on May 22.

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Blair Underwood will play the president in the NBC drama pilot The Event, which focuses on a large-scale government cover-up.

Dylan Walsh (Nip/Tuck) will appear in the lead role in the CBS drama pilot ATF that follows an ATF agent who hunts down the most dangerous criminals while trying to balance life as a father to the teenage daughter who has re-entered his life.”

Eric Close (Without a Trace) has joined the CBS drama pilot Chaos which is about a group of rogue CIA operatives who combat bureaucratic gridlock, rampant incompetence and political infighting.

Jacob Vargas (Moonlight) will be seen in the CBS drama pilot The Odds about cops in Las Vegas who are as outrageous as the crimes they solve.

Amber Tamblyn, Kenneth Mitchell and Sam Witwer have been cast in roles in the CBS drama pilot The Quinn-Tuplets about 31-year-old quintuplets – Patrick, a cop; Joseph, a construction foreman; Rachel, a sports reporter; Martin, a school headmaster; Miriam, a doctor – who reunite after the death of their mother, who opted to have their childhood filmed as a reality show.

Janeane Garofalo has been added to the cast of the as-yet untitled Hannah Shakespeare CBS pilot about a mobile medical team that travels the U.S. helping those in need get through life-and-death medical crises.

Joely Richardson (Nip/Tuck) has a lead role in the ABC legal drama pilot The Whole Truth that shows the defense and prosecution sides equally.

Jaime King (Gary Unmarried) and Mehcad Brooks (True Blood) are the latest additions to the drama pilot Generation Y at ABC. The series is about the lives of eight young adults during a 10-year span in Austin and the events that have shaped their lives.

Dermot Mulroney (My Best Friend’s Wedding) has been tapped for the title role in the NBC drama pilot (remake) The Rockford Files, which is about a roguish private eye who tackles the dangerous, quirky and unpredictable cases that no other detective wants to handle.

Peggy Lipton and Jon Seda (The Pacific) have joined Roselyn Sanchez in the ABC drama pilot Cutthroat, which is about an upscale Beverly Hills widow and soccer mom who runs an international drug cartel.

Fran Kranz (Dollhouse”) is the first to be cast in the NBC comedy pilot Friends with Benefits, which explores modern-day romance through the eyes of five friends, each looking for ‘the one’ but in the meantime settling for ‘friends with benefits.

Adrianne Palicki (Friday Night Lights) and Bryce Johnson (Popular) have each landed roles on the FOX drama pilot Midland about Robert Allen (Jimmy Wolk), a con artist – who’s married to two women – that’s looking to get inside his wealthy in-laws’ oil business.

Michael Imperioli (The Sopranos), James McDaniel (NYPD Blue) and Erin Cummings (Spartacus: Blood and Sand) have booked the lead role in the ABC drama pilot 187 Detroit which focuses on Detroit’s top homicide division as seen through the cameras of a fictitious documentary crew.

Claire Forlani and Kathleen Rose Perkins (NCIS: Los Angeles) have joined the Matt LeBlanc Showtime comedy Episodes about a British couple whose hit UK show is turned into a dumbed-down American sit-com starring LeBlanc (as himself).

Jason Behr (Roswell) has landed a role on the ABC drama pilot Matadors about two feuding families’ battle against each other as one populates the state attorney’s office and the other manages an influential private law firm.”

Jason Isaacs (Brotherhood) has been tapped for the lead role in the FOX drama pilot Pleading Guilty about an ex-cop and recovering alcoholic now serving as a partner in a top-drawer corporate law firm.

Jesse Bradford (The West Wing) is the first to book a role on the NBC drama pilot Rough Justice about Cyrus Garza, a conservative Supreme Court justice who goes into private practice.

Nicole Steinwedell (The Unit) and Brooke Nevin (The 4400) are the latest additions to the FOX drama pilot Breakout Kings, which is about a team of U.S. Marshals paired with a group of convicts to apprehend recently escaped prisoners.

Alicia Witt (Friday Night Lights) has been cast in the ABC drama pilot Edgar Floats about a police psychologist-turned-bounty hunter. Robert Patrick (The Unit) has also been cast in the pilot.

Ana Ortiz (Ugly Betty) has joined Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Marc Blucas and Poppy Montgomery in the ABC drama pilot True Blue, which is about a group of San Francisco homicide detectives reunited to solve the murder of one of their own.

Will Yun Lee (Bionic Woman) and Richard T. Jones (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) will star in the as-yet untitled ABC drama pilot starring Katee Sackhoff as a female detective named Julia Scott who teams with Angus Martin, a disgraced ex-cop to solve crimes.

Debra Messing (Will & Grace) will star and executive produce the ABC comedy pilot Wright Vs. Wrong about a driven conservative pundit who tries to maintain her public persona despite facing her own vulnerabilities.

Dana Delaney has been invited by ABC to star in the ABC pilot Body of Evidence, but her commitment to this drama has yet to be confirmed. Also, Jeri Ryan has booked a role in this drama about a brilliant, tenacious medical examiner whose background as a neurosurgeon gives her a unique and refreshing crime-solving perspective but puts her at odds with nearly everyone.

Scott Porter (Friday Night Lights) will star in Nomads, an hour-long drama pilot for The CW about a group of young backpackers who work odd jobs for the CIA.

Jason George (Eli Stone and Grey’s Anatomy) and Mamie Gummer (aka daughter of Meryl Streep) have joined the cast of Off the Map, the ABC drama pilot produced by Shonda Rhimes.

Grace Park (Battlestar Galactica) and Scott Caan (Entourage) have joined the CBS drama pilot (remake) Hawaii Five-O. Caan will play Danno.

Ten episodes of the comedy series Hot in Cleveland has been picked up by TV Land and will star Valerie Bertinelli, Wendie Malick, and Jane Leeves as three women traveling to Paris who end up living together in Cleveland.

Matt Lauria (Friday Night Lights) has joined the FOX drama pilot Ridealong set and filmed in Chicago, which revolves around three groups of police officers. It’s unclear how Lauria’s involvement will affect his status on Friday Night Lights.

Alan Ruck has joined the cast of the as yet untitled CW drama pilot, which stars Sean Faris as a horse trainer who becomes the patriarch of a Wyoming ranch responsible for his three younger sisters after their parents die.”

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Rachel McAdams, Owen Wilson and Marion Cotillard will star in the next Woody Allen movie.

Jessica Biel is expected to star alongside Richard Gere in the remake of the 1948 political drama State of the Union about a businessman who must reunite with his estranged wife in order to improve his campaign run for the President of the United States.

Real-life couple Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis will star in the movie My American Dream.

Nicole Kidman will star in the romantic comedy The Wedding Doctor, playing a relationship analyst who advises couples on their interpersonal dynamics before marriage.

James McAvoy has dropped out of the untitled cancer comedy due to an undisclosed family emergency. Joseph Gordon-Levitt will step in.

CASTING SCOOP

Adam Scott (Party Down) will reportedly join the cast of Parks & Recreation next season as a lost interest for Leslie (Amy Poehler). It also looks like Rob Lowe will be leaving Brothers & Sisters for the NBC comedy.

Tom Bergeron, Bill Bellamy, Fred Willard, French Stewart, Yeardley Smith will guest star in an upcoming episode of Castle.

Margaret Cho (Drop Dead Diva) will reprise her role as a teacher of the occult in two more episodes of Ghost Whisperer.

Jewel Staite will appear in an upcoming episode of Warehouse 13. She stated on Twitter that “Browncoats are gonna freak.”

Catherine Dent (The Shield) will also come appear in a future episode of Ghost Whisperer.

Matt Frewer (Eureka) will appear as Pestilence, one of the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse, in an upcoming episode of Supernatural.

Caterina Scorsone (Syfy’s Alice movie) will appear as Dr. Amelia Shepherd (Derek’s little sister) in an upcoming April episode of Private Practice.

Edwin Hodge will be joining his younger brother Aldis in the TNT drama Leverage for its upcoming third season premiere.

RUMOR PATROL

Rumor has it that ABC will air a recap special of their series V on Tuesday, March 23 at 10 PM.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

The following movies, specials and new series will debut and/or air this weekend and throughout next week:

The Hallmark Channel movie Uncorked will debut on Saturday, March 6 at 9 PM. The movie is about a workaholic (Julie Benz) who takes a business trip that unexpectedly turns into a vacation after her schedule opens up. The movie co-stars Scott Elrod and JoBeth Williams.

NOTE: This movie will reair at 9 PM on Sunday, March 7.

The 82nd Annual Academy Awards will air on ABC starting at 5:30 PM (West Coast time) on Sunday, March 7. Check your local listings for time in your area.

Barbara Walters’ final Oscar interview special will also air on ABC on Sunday, March 7. Check your local listings for time.

NEW EPISODES OF EXISTING SHOWS

Here are the new episodes of the dramas that will be airing this coming week:

Saturday, March 6:
Survivors on BBC America at 9 PM
Parenthood (pilot) reairs on NBC at 8 PM

NOTE: Legend of the Seeker will air a repeat episode in syndication this weekend. Check your local listings for date, time and channel.

Sunday, March 7:
Cold Case on CBS at 10 PM
Big Love on HBO at 9 PM

NOTE: Legend of the Seeker will air a repeat episode in syndication this weekend. Check your local listings for date, time and channel.

Monday, March 8:
Castle on ABC at 10 PM
CSI: Miami on CBS at 10 PM
Life Unexpected on the CW at 8 PM
Gossip Girl on the CW at 9 PM
House on FOX at 8 PM
24 on FOX at 9 PM
Chuck on NBC at 8 PM
Trauma on NBC at 9 PM
Law & Order on NBC at 10 PM
The Secret Life of the American Teenager on ABC Family at 8 PM
Make It or Break It on ABC Family at 9 PM
Greek on ABC Family at 10 PM
Damages on FX at 10 PM

Tuesday, March 9:
Lost on ABC at 9 PM
The Forgotten on ABC at 10 PM (Finale)
NCIS on CBS at 8 PM
NCIS: Los Angeles on CBS at 9 PM
The Good Wife on CBS at 10 PM
90210 on the CW at 8 PM
Melrose Place on the CW at 9 PM
Parenthood on NBC at 10 PM
Southland on TNT at 10 PM
White Collar on USA at 10 PM (finale)

Wednesday, March 10:
Ugly Betty on ABC at 10:01 PM
Criminal Minds on CBS at 9 PM
CSI: NY on CBS at 10 PM
Human Target on FOX at 8 PM
Mercy on NBC at 8 PM
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit on NBC at 9 PM and 10 PM
Psych on USA at 10 PM (finale)
Being Erica on SOAPNet at 10 PM
Spartacus: Blood and Sand (reair) on Starz at 10 PM

Thursday, March 11:
Grey’s Anatomy on ABC at 9 PM
Private Practice on ABC at 10:01 PM
CSI on CBS at 9 PM
The Mentalist on CBS at 10 PM

Friday, March 12:
Ghost Whisperer on CBS at 8 PM
Medium on CBS at 9 PM
Numb3rs on CBS at 10 PM
Caprica on Syfy at 9 PM
Spartacus: Blood and Sand on Starz at 10 PM

NOTE: Please check your local listings for the correct air dates and times for all of the above.
Have a great weekend!

Please note that I will feature a weekly round-up of sci-fi based (and similar genres) news items at our sister site located at http://scifitvzone.com/. Please visit there as often as you can. Thanks!

The Weekly Round-Up for Feb. 22 to 26

Here are the entertainment news items for this week:

NEWS

Congrats to all the winners of the British Academy Film Awards (aka BAFTA).

First Lady Michelle Obama invited the cast of Glee to perform at the annual White House Easter Egg Roll on April 5 and they are going to do it. Congrats to the cast for receiving this honor.

TV SERIES NEWS

Adam Rodriguez is returning to CSI: Miami on a full-time basis next season.

The ABC Family Channel has renewed Greek for a fourth season.

Dina Meyer will return to NCIS as Holly Snow, the sultry DC madam. Her episode should air on April 6.

Neil Patrick Harris will definitely be appearing on a future episode of Glee, but he will be more Dr. Horrible-esque, playing a really funny but really mean character in the series.

Starz announced this week they are canceling their drama series Crash due to declining ratings.

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

D.J. Cotrona (Windfall) has joined the ABC drama pilot 187 Detroit, which is about a top homicide division as seen through the lens of a fictional documentary crew.

Zeljko Ivanek (Damages and Heroes), Laura Innes (ER) and Scott Patterson (Gilmore Girls) have joined the cast of the NBC drama pilot The Event about Sean (Jason Ritter), who is a regular man fighting his way through the mysterious circumstances of a conspiracy to assassinate the U.S. president.

Julian Morris (24), Daniella Alonso (Friday Night Lights) and Kelli Garner (Lars and the Real Girl) are have joined the ABC drama pilot Generation Y, which follows a group of young adults during a 10-year span in Austin.

Becki Newton (Ugly Betty) has joined the NBC drama pilot Love Bites, which is to be an anthology of love and sex.

Rachael Leigh Cook has joined the cast of the FOX comedy pilot Nevermind Nirvana, which is to be about two grown Indian-American brothers who clash with their controlling immigrant parents as they assimilate American culture.

Neal McDonough (Desperate Housewives), Leven Rambin (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles), Vanessa Marano (Dexter) and Carlos Bernard (24) have will join Virginia Madsen in the ABC drama pilot Scoundrels. The series follows the matriarch (Madsen) of a family of criminals who decides it’s time for her brood to go straight after her husband is sentenced to a long prison term.

Charles Dutton, Lea Thompson and Jeff Davis are joining the TBS drama pilot Uncle Nigel, which stars Gary Cole in the lead role of a veteran Philadelphia homicide detective who takes on his inexperienced, incompetent nephew Ronnie (Matt Jones) as a partner.

Katee Sackhoff (24 and Battlestar Galactica) is set to star in the as-yet untitled ABC drama pilot, about a beautiful female detective who teams with a disgraced ex-cop to solve crimes and untangle the conspiracy that sent him underground.

Nicollette Sheridan has joined the cast of an as-yet untitled CBS pilot presentation about a British lowlife (Paul Kaye) who moves to L.A. to reconnect with his daughter, a precocious teen superstar.

Sean Faris, who was most recently seen in The Vampire Diaries, and newcomer Renee Smith have joined the as-yet untitled CW pilot about a horse trainer who becomes the patriarch of a Wyoming ranch and responsible for his three younger sisters – Dinah, Maggie and Bird – after their parents die.

The name of the Colin Hanks and Bradley Whitford FOX drama is being changed from Code 58 to The Five Eight.

Caroline Dhavernas (Wonderfalls) and Valerie Cruz (True Blood) have joined the ABC drama pilot Off the Map from Shonda Rhimes about three doctors who leave the comfort of the U.S. to work at an isolated tropical clinic.

Jay Harrington and Bill Pullman will star in the NBC comedy Nathan vs. Nurture that centers on successful and hardworking surgeon Nathan (Harrington) who was adopted as a child and reunites with his birth dad Arthur (Pullman) and his biological-brothers only to find them to be the underachieving type.

Jim Belushi is set to star in the CBS drama The Defenders that is to center on two charismatic and fiery Las Vegas defense attorneys who go to the mat for their clients. Jurnee Smollett (Friday Night Lights) has also been cast in this new pilot.

William Shatner will star in the CBS comedy pilot Shit My Dad Says.

Kelli Giddish (Past Life) will have a lead role in the NBC drama pilot Chase, which is about a U.S. Marshal who heads up a Texas unit devoted to hunting down the U.S.’ most dangerous fugitives.

British actor Ben Chaplin is the first to be cast in the NBC drama pilot Kindreds, which is to be about a curmudgeonly ex-patent lawyer and his group of misfit associates as their lives come together to form an unconventional kind of law practice.

Eric Lange (Lost) and Malcolm-Jamal Warner have joined the ABC drama pilot True Blue, which is about a group of San Francisco homicide detectives who reunite to solve the murder of one of their own.

Kelly Hu has been in cast in the CBS drama pilot The Odds about two Las Vegas cops (Donald Faison and Sullivan Stapleton) who are as outrageous as the crimes they solve.

NBC has decided to postpone production on the American version of the UK hit Prime Suspect until June.

A&E has ordered the pilot Sugarloaf to series. The show will star Matt Passmore as a homicide detective who’s run out of Chicago following a sex scandal and becomes wrapped up in a murder case in Miami.

Dennis Farina and John Ortiz have been cast in the HBO drama pilot Luck that is being billed as a provocative look at the worlds of horse racing and gambling told through a diverse group of characters surrounding a racetrack.

MADE FOR TV MOVIES NEWS

PBS and BBC Worldwide will co-produce new productions of the classic Upstairs Downstairs, a contemporary version of Sherlock Holmes and three Aurelio Zen mysteries, adapted from the best-selling novels by Michael Dibden set in Italy.

Upstairs Downstairs will air in three-parts and feature Jean Marsh in her Emmy award winning role of Rose, the parlor maid. The modern-day Sherlock Holmes will star Benedict Cumberbatch (Atonement) in the lead role with Martin Freeman (The Office UK) as Doctor John Watson and Rupert Graves is Inspector Lestrade. As announced last week, Rufus Sewell (The Eleventh Hour) will star as Italian detective Aurelio Zen.

Kimberly Williams-Paisley will star in the Lifetime Movie Network movie Amish Grace on March 28 at 8 PM. The movie is based on a true story about the aftermath that followed the 2006 schoolhouse shooting in the Amish community of Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania with Williams-Paisley starring as the mother of one of the shooting victims. Matt Letscher (Eli Stone) will star as her husband and Tammy Blanchard (Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows) as the shooter’s widow.

The ABC Family Channel movie formerly known as The Business of Falling in Love has been changed to Beauty & the Briefcase and will air on April 18 at 8 PM. The movie stars Hilary Duff as a fashion journalist who pitches an article to Cosmopolitan magazine and gets the chance of a story of a lifetime. Matt Dallas (Kyle XY), Chris Carmack (The O.C.) and Jamie Pressly (My Name Is Earl) co-star.

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Charlotte Ross will appear in the thriller Drive Angry alongside Nicolas Cage, as a man who is driven by rage to chase the people who killed his daughter and kidnapped her baby.

Isla Fisher will star in the rom-com Kiss & Tell that follows a woman who learns she has the ability to kiss a man and instantly see how a long-term relationship with him will play out.

Kellan Lutz (Twilight), Ashley Tisdale (High School Musical) and Brittany Snow (Prom Night) have all joined the movie A Misfits’ Christmas that follows eight friends who spend consecutive Christmas Eve’s together during their four years of college.

Matt Damon is set to star in the Robert F. Kennedy biopic that will follow how the younger brother of JFK went from being in the shadow of his sibling to rising up as a strong national leader in his own right before his assassination in 1968.

Anjelica Huston and Philip Baker Hall have joined the cast of the untitled cancer comedy, starring James McAvoy as a young man diagnosed with cancer who successfully beats the disease. The story is based on the real life of Will Reiser who penned the script. Seth Rogen stars as his friend while Anna Kendrick and Bryce Dallas Howard also star as their love interests.

Vanessa Redgrave, David Thewlis and Rhys Ifans have joined the Shakespeare-themed royal political thriller Anonymous, which explores the theory that Shakespeare was not the author of his plays, but rather Edward De Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford; it will also explore the declining years of Elizabeth the First’s reign as her court devolved into feuding factions between the Cecils and the Essex’s.

Jennifer Garner and Anna Faris are teaming for the romantic comedy The Bachelorette Party, that is based on the novel by Karen McCullah Lutz and is described as a female version of ‘The Hangover’.

Leighton Meester (Gossip Girl) will appear in dramedy The Oranges with Hugh Laurie (House) and Catherine Keener. The movie follows a man who gets into a relationship with the daughter of a family friend.

CASTING SCOOP

Actress Ann-Margaret will guest star in the same episode of Law & Order: SVU as Jaclyn Smith.  The episode is set to air on March 31 and will also feature Morgan Fairchild, Susan Anton, William Atherton and Renee Taylor and will be directed by actress Helen Shaver.

Actor Jake McLaughlin (TV series Crash) has been cast as the estranged younger brother of Alex Karev on Grey’s Anatomy. He is expected to appear in one episode in April.

Dichen Lachman (Dollhouse) will guest star in an upcoming episode of NCIS: Los Angeles.

Elon Gold, who starred in the short-lived sitcom Stacked, will join Bones in April as a new love interest for Cam (Tamara Taylor).

Wendy Raquel Robinson (The Game) will guest star on an upcoming episode of Grey’s Anatomy as a very tough patient who will get help from Owen, Teddy, Callie and Cristina.

Malcolm McDowell will guest star on an upcoming episode of The Mentalist, playing the leader of a twisted religious cult in which Jane (Simon Baker) gets entangled. McDowell will also guest star on the March 1 episode of CSI: Miami.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

The following movies, specials and new series will debut and/or air this weekend and throughout next week:

The Syfy movie Beauty and the Beasts: A Dark Tale will air on Saturday, February 27 at 9 PM. The movie stars Estella Warren.

The Winter Olympics come to a close over the weekend with the closing ceremonies on Sunday.

The new series Parenthood will debut on NBC on Tuesday, March 2 at 10 PM. The series stars Craig T. Nelson, Bonnie Bedelia, Lauren Graham, Peter Krause, Monica Potter, Dax Shepard, Sam Jaeger and Erika Christensen.

NEW EPISODES OF EXISTING SHOWS

Here are the new episodes of the dramas that will be airing this coming week:

Saturday, February 27:
Survivors on BBC America at 9 PM

NOTE: Legend of the Seeker will air a new episode in syndication this weekend. Check your local listings for date, time and channel.

Sunday, February 28:
Desperate Housewives on ABC at 9 PM
Brothers & Sisters on ABC at 10 PM
Big Love on HBO at 9 PM

NOTE: Legend of the Seeker will air a new episode in syndication this weekend. Check your local listings for date, time and channel.

Monday, March 1:
Life Unexpected on the CW at 9 PM
24 on FOX at 9 PM
Chuck on NBC at 8 PM
Law & Order on NBC at 9 PM (Two Hours)
CSI: Miami on CBS at 10 PM
The Secret Life of the American Teenager on ABC Family at 8 PM
Make It or Break It on ABC Family at 9 PM
Greek on ABC Family at 10 PM
Damages on FX at 10 PM

Tuesday, March 2:
Lost on ABC at 9 PM
NCIS on CBS at 8 PM
NCIS: Los Angeles on CBS at 9 PM
The Good Wife on CBS at 10 PM
Southland on TNT at 10 PM
White Collar on USA at 10 PM

Wednesday, March 3:
Criminal Minds on CBS at 9 PM
CSI: NY on CBS at 10 PM
Life Unexpected (reair) on the CW at 8 PM
Mercy on NBC at 8 PM
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit on NBC at 9 PM and 10 PM
Nip/Tuck on FX at 10 PM
Psych on USA at 10 PM
Being Erica on SOAPNet at 10 PM
Spartacus: Blood and Sand (reair) on Starz at 10 PM

Thursday, March 4:
Grey’s Anatomy on ABC at 9 PM
Private Practice on ABC at 10:01 PM
CSI on CBS at 9 PM
The Mentalist on CBS at 10 PM
Burn Notice on USA at 10 PM (finale)

Friday, March 5:
Ghost Whisperer on CBS at 8 PM
Medium on CBS at 9 PM
Numb3rs on CBS at 10 PM
Caprica on Syfy at 9 PM
Spartacus: Blood and Sand on Starz at 10 PM

NOTE: Please check your local listings for the correct air dates and times for all of the above.

Have a great weekend!

Please note that I will feature a weekly round-up of sci-fi based (and similar genres) news items at our sister site located at http://scifitvzone.com/. Please visit there as often as you can. Thanks!

The Weekly Round-Up for Feb. 15 to 19

Here are the entertainment news items for this week:

CONDOLENCES

Power pop hitmaker Doug Fieger of the group The Knack (who was responsible for the song “My Sharona”) passed away this week at the age of 57 after reportedly battling lung and brain cancer for years.

Legendary movie musical actress Kathryn Grayson, whose beauty and lilting soprano voice was featured in movies like Kiss Me Kate and Showboat passed away this week at the age of 88.

NEWS

Barbara Walters announced earlier this week that after this year’s Academy Awards presentation she will end her annual pre-Oscars sit-down interviews with Hollywood’s biggest stars.

TV SERIES NEWS

The CW announced this week that they have given early renewals to the following series: Supernatural, Gossip Girl, 90210, The Vampire Diaries and America’s Next Top Model.

ION Television will debut the new series The Guard starting on Saturday, March 13 with back-to-back episodes at 9 and 10 PM. The series centers around four members of the Canadian Coast Guard Search and Rescue Team who knowingly place themselves at risk everyday in order to save lives. The cast includes Steve Bacic and guest star David James Elliott. The series will continue to air in the same two-hour time period each Saturday night.

Maggie Grace (who played Shannon) and Andrea Gabriel (who played Nadia) will return for the final season of Lost.

FOX has canceled the new reincarnation/crime drama Past Life.

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Director Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker) will direct the pilot episode of HBO’s new drama The Miraculous Year, a light family drama that is an examination of a New York family as seen through the lens of a charismatic self-destructive Broadway composer.

Michelle Borth (The Forgotten) and Jonathan Scarfe (Raising the Bar) have joined Zach Gilford and David Strathairn in the ABC drama pilot Matadors that is a Romeo-and-Juliet-style drama about two feuding families’ battle against each other as one populates the state attorney’s office and the other manages an influential private law firm.

Australian actor Sullivan Stapleton (Underbelly) has been tapped for one of the lead roles on the CBS drama pilot The Odds, which is about a pair of Las Vegas cops who are as outrageous as the crimes they solve.

Amy Smart has been cast in the CBS untitled medical drama from executive producer John Wells, which is about a mobile medical team that travels the US and helps those less fortunate yet in need of serious medical attention.  Rachelle Lefevre (Twilight) has also landed a lead role in this new series.

Actress-designer-singer Taryn Manning has joined Alex O’Loughlin (Moonlight and Three Rivers) and Daniel Dae Kim (Lost) in the CBS remake of Hawaii Five-O.

Laurie Metcalf (Roseanne) will star in the FOX comedy pilot Strange Brew from Will & Grace creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick. The series is set at a family-run brewery.

James Murray (Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire) has joined the cast of the CBS drama pilot Chaos, which is about a group of rogue CIA operatives combating bureaucratic gridlock, rampant incompetence and political infighting. He joins Freddy Rodriguez in the cast.

Poppy Montgomery (Without a Trace) and Marc Blucas (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) have both joined the cast of the ABC drama pilot True Blue that follows six former best friends who rose through the ranks at the San Francisco Police Department and reunite to solve the murder of one of their own.

Going against the norm is the CW. They are looking to producer-directors Ridley Scott and Tony Scott to bring the series tentatively called Nomads to the network. Why is this going against the norm? The series is described as an adrenaline fueled thrill-ride following a group of nearly broke young backpackers in foreign lands who agree to earn money (and keep their never-ending “vacation” going) by working secret missions for the CIA. In the process (they get) more adventure, romance, and danger than they bargained for.

Natalie Martinez (Sons of Tucson) has joined the ABC drama pilot 187 Detroit, which is about the city’s top homicide division as seen through the cameras of a fictitious documentary crew. She joins Aisha Hinds and John Michael Hill who have already been cast.

Donald Faison (Scrubs) has landed a role on the drama pilot The Odds from CBS about Las Vegas cops who are as outrageous as the crimes they solve.

John Schneider will appear in the Spike TV pilot Back Nine, playing a washed-up former U.S. Open golf champion.

Rufus Sewell (The Eleventh Hour) will star as Italian detective Aurelio Zen in three feature-length dramas for BBC One. The stories are based on novels by  Michael Didbin.

Roselyn Sanchez (Without a Trace) will play the lead in the ABC drama pilot Cutthroat, playing a Beverly Hills widow who runs a drug cartel.

David Tennant will be the lead in Single Father, a four-part drama series for BBC One that revolves around a photographer and single dad who must raise his four children on his own and who falls in love with his wife’s best friend.

Kristin Kreuk (Smallville) and Jack Carpenter (The Return of Jezebel James) will star in the Josh Schwartz-produced comedy pilot Hitched for CBS about a newly-married couple who return from their honeymoon only to discover that their relationship has only just begun.

MADE FOR TV MOVIES NEWS

Eric McCormack, Sherry Stringfield and Regina Taylor will star in the Lifetime original movie Who is Clark Rockefeller?, which is set to premiere on March 13 at 9 PM. The movie is based on a true shocking story that explores the inconceivable life of a con artist who ran the longest running con in FBI history, brilliantly impersonating numerous people, ranging from a talk show host to a Pentagon Advisor and even a member of the powerful Rockefeller family.

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Jeffrey Dean Morgan joins Sam Worthington in the movie The Texas Killing Fields, which is based on the true story of two Texas police detectives who teamed up to solve numerous unsolved crimes.

Ecosse Films is moving forward with a contemporary adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, updating the 19th century tale with a ‘hipper’ contemporary sensibility and a stronger focus on the relationship between Long John Silver and Jim Hawkins.

Gwyneth Paltrow has joined the cast-heavy Steven Soderberg virus thriller movie Contagion, which already includes Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard and Jude Law.

Djimon Hounsou and Kevin Bacon will appear in the action thriller Elephant White.

Luke Perry and Armand Assante have been cast in the horse racing drama A Fine Step about a champion horse rider injured in a car accident. One of the co-stars includes Justin Baldoni (Everwood).

Billy Burke (Twilight) has joined the movie Nicolas Cage-led movie Drive Angry about a rage-filled father (Cage) who is hell-bent on revenge against those who killed his daughter, and kidnapped his granddaughter. The vendetta/rescue spins out of control as the chase gets bloodier by the mile, leaving bodies strewn along the highway.

Carla Gugino will star alongside Dwayne Johnson, Moon Bloodgood and Maggie Grace in the action thriller Faster about an ex-con out to avenge the death of his brother, a murder with connections to a similar killing a decade before.

Julian McMahon (Nip/Tuck) will star in the thriller Faces in the Crowd , which revolves around a female murder witness (Milla Jovovich) who awakens from an accident with prosopagnosia (aka face blindness), an impairment in the recognition of faces.

CASTING SCOOP

Michael Trucco (Battlestar Galactica) has been cast as the infamous John May, the mysterious underground leader of the Fifth Column in the ABC series V. He will appear in one episode slated to air April 13.

Stephen Martines (The Closer) has landed a recurring role in The Vampire Diaries, playing bad-ass vampire named Frederick who is locked in the tomb where Katherine was once thought to be and is up to no good when released.

Samm Levine (Freaks & Geeks) will guest star in the final season of Lost.

It looks like Daniel Cosgrove is out and Colin Egglesfield (Melrose Place) is in as William Walker in the flashback-laced upcoming episode of Brothers & Sisters. Brianne Davis (Prom Night) will appear as Holly (Patricia Wettig) in the same flashback episode.

Jill Scott (The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency) and Quinton Aaron (The Blind Side) will appear in an in the March 24 episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.  Jaclyn Smith (the original Charlie’s Angels) will also guest star in the series as a former police officer who gets involved with Detectives Stabler and Benson.

Harold Perrineau (Lost) will guest star in CSI: NY as a death row inmate who ironically finds himself fighting for his life when he’s trapped in a prison riot.

When In Plain Sight returns at the end of next month, some of the guest stars will include Allison Janney, Rita Moreno and Steven Weber.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

The following movies, specials and new series will debut and/or air this weekend and throughout next week:

The Winter Olympics will continue to air all week long on NBC. Check local listings for times and events.

The movie Sins of the Mother will air on Lifetime Movie Network on Sunday, February 21 at 9 PM and follows a down on her luck grad student who returns home to her alcoholic mother (Jill Scott).

NOTE: This movie will reair on Wednesday, February 24 at 8 PM on Lifetime Movie Network.

The British Academy of Film Awards will air on BBC America on Sunday, February 21 at 8 PM.

NEW EPISODES OF EXISTING SHOWS

Here are the new episodes of the dramas that will be airing this coming week:

Saturday, February 20:
Survivors on BBC America at 9 PM

NOTE: Legend of the Seeker will air a new episode in syndication this weekend. Check your local listings for date, time and channel.

Sunday, February 21:
Desperate Housewives on ABC at 9 PM
Brothers & Sisters on ABC at 10 PM
Cold Case on CBS at 10 PM
Big Love on HBO at 9 PM

NOTE: Legend of the Seeker will air a new episode in syndication this weekend. Check your local listings for date, time and channel.

Monday, February 22:
One Tree Hill on the CW at 8 PM
Life Unexpected on the CW at 9 PM
24 on FOX at 9 PM
The Secret Life of the American Teenager on ABC Family at 8 PM
Make It or Break It on ABC Family at 9 PM
Greek on ABC Family at 10 PM
Damages on FX at 10 PM
Men of a Certain Age on TNT at 10 PM

Tuesday, February 23:
Lost on ABC at 9 PM
The Forgotten on ABC at 10 PM
Caprica (reair) on Syfy at 9 PM
Southland on TNT at 10 PM
White Collar on USA at 10 PM

Wednesday, February 24:
Life Unexpected (reair) on the CW at 8 PM
Nip/Tuck on FX at 10 PM
Psych on USA at 10 PM
Being Erica on SOAPNet at 10 PM
Spartacus: Blood and Sand (reair) on Starz at 10 PM)

Thursday, February 25:
The Deep End on ABC at 8 PM
Burn Notice on USA at 10 PM

Friday, February 26:
Smallville on the CW at 8 PM
Caprica on Syfy at 9 PM
Spartacus: Blood and Sand on Starz at 10 PM

NOTE: Please check your local listings for the correct air dates and times for all of the above.

Have a great weekend!

Please note that I will feature a weekly round-up of sci-fi based (and similar genres) news items at our sister site located at http://scifitvzone.com/. Please visit there as often as you can. Thanks!

The Weekly Round-Up (Feb. 8 to 12)

Here are the entertainment news items for this week:

TV SERIES NEWS

Vampire Diaries and Supernatural will be on hiatus until March 25 then there are no episode breaks until the season finales air on May 13.

NBC announced the season finale dates for a number of their shows, including the following:

May 10 – Trauma at 9 PM
May 12 – Mercy at 8 PM
May 19 – Law & Order: Special Victims Unit at 10 PM
May 24 – Chuck (two-hours) at 8 PM
May 24 – Law & Order at 10 PM

ABC has added two more episodes to the season order of Brothers & Sisters. Their planned two-hour event, featuring flashbacks to 1986, will air in April.

It was announced this week that the fifth season of Friday Night Lights will be its last. The 5th season will air on DirecTV this fall. NBC will air the current and fourth season starting April 30 and the final season could very well air in 2011.

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Drew Barrymore will act as executive producer on the Charlie’s Angels pilot for ABC and casting of the pilot is underway now.

Beau Garrett (who will be seen in Tron Legacy in theaters later this year) will appear as the female lead in the Criminal Minds spin off. Actors Michael Kelly (Generation Kill) and Matt Ryan will also appear in the pilot.

Brett Ratner has signed on to direct the drama pilot Chaos about rogue CIA operatives who combat bureaucratic gridlock, rampant incompetence and political infighting. Freddy Rodriguez (Ugly Betty) has been cast as the lead in the series.

Jesse Metcalfe (Desperate Housewives), Rose Rollins (The L Word) and Cole Hauser (K-Ville) will appear in the drama pilot Chase about a high-priority fugitive apprehension team in South Texas.

Aisha Hinds (Hawthorne) has been added to the cast of the pilot 187 Detroit, which is about a fictional documentary crew that follows a top homicide division.

Zach Gilford (Friday Night Lights) and David Strathairn will appear in the ABC drama pilot Matadors, which revolves around two rival Chicago-based families, one in the DA’s office and another in a high-powered law firm.

Jason Ritter (Joan of Arcadia) has been cast as the lead in the NBC drama pilot The Event.

Todd Williams (In Plain Sight) has joined the cast of the FOX drama pilot Ridealong.

Daniel Dae Kim (Lost) and Alex O’Loughlin (Moonlight) will appear in the CBS remake of the 1970’s classic series Hawaii Five-0.

Minka Kelly (Friday Night Lights) will appear in the CBS comedy pilot True Love that focuses on four friends looking for love in New York.

Jennifer Finnigan (Close to Home) will star opposite Joanna Garcia in an as-yet untitled ABC comedy.

Patrick Flueger (The 4400) has joined the cast of ABC’s eight-episode drama series Scoundrels based on New Zealand series Outrageous Fortune.

Hart Hanson, the creator of Bones, has come aboard the FOX drama pilot Pleading Guilty as an executive producer.  Should the project go to series, he’ll oversee both Bones and Pleading Guilty.

Mick Jackson (Temple Grandin) will direct the NBC remake of the British crime drama Prime Suspect.

Matt Jones (Breaking Bad) will star opposite Gary Cole in the TBS comedy pilot Uncle Nigel.

Eamonn Walker (Kings) has been added to the cast of ABC drama pilot The Whole Truth.

Andrea Anders (Better Off Ted) has joined the Matthew Perry comedy pilot Mr. Sunshine about an aging stadium manager (Perry) who realizes after his 40th birthday that he can no longer skate by on his charming, non-committal ways. Anders will play Alice, Ben’s friend-with-benefits.

Laz Alonso (Avatar) has been cast in the drama pilot Breakout Kings about former fugitives who are tapped to work as U.S. Marshals.

Newcomer Jimmy Wolk will be the lead in the drama pilot Midland for FOX about a con artist who’s looking to get inside his wealthy in-laws’ oil business.”

David Krumholtz (Numb3rs) has been cast as the lead in FOX’s as-yet untitled Ron Howard IRS pilot comedy.

Keir O’Donnell (Paul Blart: Mall Cop) and Michael Stahl-David (Cloverfield) were cast in the ABC dramedy pilot Generation Y.

MADE FOR TV MOVIES NEWS

Queen Latifah will executive produce a new as-yet untitled made-for-TV movie for VH1 about two twentysomething African-American women in Atlanta: one an aspiring fashion mogul and the other a former music video dancer Keisha with very different takes on relationships.

The Hallmark Channel movie Friends to Die For will air on Saturday, April 10 at 9 PM, starring Gabrielle Anwar (Burn Notice) and Craig Sheffer (One Tree Hill). The film centers on seven college friends who reunite a decade after graduation for a weekend getaway, only to have one of the women found murdered and long-buried secrets must being dug up.

The movie After the Fall will air on the Hallmark Channel, starring Andrea Bowen (Desperate Housewives) and Greg Evigan (My Two Dads). The movie is about a champion horseback rider (Bowen) paralyzed in a serious accident. Evigan will play her father.

Kate Winslet will appear in the five-hour HBO mini-series Mildred Pierce about a proud, single mother struggling to earn her daughter’s love during the Depression in middle-class Los Angeles. The story is based on the novel by James M. Cain.

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Watchmen) will star in the psychological thriller The Unblinking Eye about a determined journalist hunting down a retired homicide detective (Morgan) who has become a recluse after nearly being killed by a serial killer. Dark stories from both their pasts come out as the pair face each other.

Kevin Costner will direct and star in A Little War of Our Own, which centers on a sheriff who has to try to keep a town from exploding into violence.

The final installment of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn will be split into two back-to-back films to begin shooting in mid-October. The question that still remains, though, is who will be directing the close of the series.

Colin Firth and Matthew Macfadyen have joined the cast of the political crime thriller The Promised Land, which details the events that lead up to the 1948 partition of Palestine and the subsequent creation of the state of Israel. Jim Sturgess co-stars.

Shailene Woodley (The Secret Life of the American Teenager) will appear in the movie The Descendants, based on the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings, that follows an attorney (George Clooney) forced to get closer to his daughters after a family tragedy. Woodley plays the eldest daughter.

Cate Blanchett is to join Eric Bana and Saoirse Ronan in the movie Hanna about a 14-year-old Eastern European girl saved from a CIA breeding camp and raised to be a cold-blooded killing machine.

Amber Tamblyn will star opposite James Franco in the film 127 Hours about mountain climber Aron Ralston who cut off his arm with a dull knife to save his life after being unable to free the limb from under a boulder.

Katherine Heigl will star in One for the Money, an adaptation of the Janet Evanovich novel of the same name. This is the first of 15 novels to feature character Stephanie Plum, an unemployed lingerie buyer who becomes a bounty hunter to make ends meet.

Tom Cruise will reprise his role of Ethan Hunt in a 4th Mission Impossible film that will begin shooting this summer with an expected release date around Memorial Day 2011.

CASTING SCOOP

Sarah Wayne Callies (Prison Break) will guest star in a upcoming episode of House that is expected to air sometime this spring.

Marsha Thomason will return for the season finale of White Collar on March 9 and then will be back full-time in the series second season.

Heidi Klum and Paulina Porizkova will guest star in an upcoming episode of Desperate Housewives.

Kathy Najimy will appear in the March 24 episode of Ugly Betty as the orthodontist who removes Betty’s signature braces.  Najimy will also serve as Betty’s guardian angel in an It’s a Wonderful Life-style sequence.

Christopher Lloyd will appear in an episode of Chuck slated for April or May as a therapist who Chuck turns to when the pressures of the spy biz become too much for him to bear.

Molly Shannon will join Glee at the end of the season as the new astronomy teacher and badminton coach at McKinley High School, who is both an alcoholic and a pill-popper and will serve as a potential nemesis for Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch).

Sheryl Crow will have a recurring role in the ABC comedy Cougar Town. She will appear in multiple episodes as Grayson’s (Josh Hopkins) new girlfriend.

Joe Jonas is out and Cody Longo (Make It or Break It) is in as the younger version of Tommy (Balthazar Getty) on Brothers & Sisters in the soon to air flashback episode. Daniel Cosgrove (Dirty Sexy Money) will appear as patriarch William in the flashback episode as well.

Leann Hunley (Days of Our Lives) will appear as Joann (to be played by Gena Rowlands), the ex mother-in-law of Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon) in flashbacks set in the 1980s of an upcoming episode of NCIS.

Justin Kirk (Weeds) will guest star in at least one episode (if not more) of Modern Family.

John Rhys-Davies (Lord of the Rings) will be making a guest appearance in an upcoming episode of Legend of the Seeker.

Rena Sofer will have a recurring role in Bones as a potential love interest for Booth (David Boreanaz).

Leslie Hope (24) will be returning for the final two episodes of The Mentalist as psychic Kristina.

Gabrielle Carteris (Beverly Hills, 90210) will guest star in an upcoming episode of Criminal Minds, playing the mother of 15-year-old girl, who is questioned after she crosses paths with a suspected murderer.

Mark Sheppard will return to Supernatural near the end of the season as demon Crowley, and he will play a villain in two upcoming episodes of Chuck.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

The following movies, specials and new series will debut and/or air this weekend and throughout next week:

The Winter Olympics will air all week long on NBC. Check local listings for times and events.

The HBO movie Temple Grandin, starring Claire Danes, will reair on Tuesday, February 16 at 9 PM. This is a biopic about the animal scientist who overcame the stigma of autism to become an authority on livestock in the 1970s.

The movie StarStruck will air on Disney on Sunday, February 14 at 8 PM. It follows a teen star who falls for a girl in the Midwest, but he fears their relationship will harm his career.

NOTE: This movie will reair on Friday, February 19 at 8 PM.

The BBC America series Survivors debuts on Saturday, February 13 at 8 PM. It airs for two hours and follows what happens when a deadly virus spreads around the world.

The Hallmark Channel movie Elevator Girl airs on Saturday, February 13 at 9 PM and stars Lacey Chabert (Party of Five) and Ryan Merriman (The Pretender) as two very different people who fall in love after being trapped together in an elevator.

NOTE: This movie will reair on both Sunday, February 14 at 9 PM and Friday, February 19 at 9 PM.

NEW EPISODES OF EXISTING SHOWS

Here are the new episodes of the dramas that will be airing this coming week:

Saturday, February 13:

Legend of the Seeker will air a new episode in syndication this weekend. Check your local listings for date, time and channel.

Sunday, February 14:
Cold Case on CBS at 10 PM
Big Love on HBO at 9 PM

NOTE: Legend of the Seeker will air a new episode in syndication this weekend. Check your local listings for date, time and channel.

Monday, February 15:
Life Unexpected on the CW at 9 PM
24 on FOX at 9 PM
The Secret Life of the American Teenager on ABC Family at 8 PM
Make It or Break It on ABC Family at 9 PM
Greek on ABC Family at 10 PM
Damages on FX at 10 PM
Men of a Certain Age on TNT at 10 PM

Tuesday, February 16:
Lost on ABC at 9 PM
The Forgotten on ABC at 10 PM
Southland on TNT at 10 PM

Wednesday, February 17:
Human Target on FOX at 8 PM
Life Unexpected (reair) on the CW at 8 PM
Nip/Tuck on FX at 10 PM
Leverage on TNT at 10 PM
Psych on USA at 10 PM
Being Erica on SOAPNet at 10 PM

Thursday, February 18:
The Deep End on ABC at 8 PM
Grey’s Anatomy on ABC at 9 PM
Private Practice on ABC at 10:01 PM
Past Life on FOX at 9 PM
Burn Notice on USA at 10 PM

Friday, February 19:
Smallville on the CW at 8 PM
Spartacus: Blood and Sand on Starz at 10 PM

NOTE: Please check your local listings for the correct air dates and times for all of the above.
Have a great weekend!

Please note that I will feature a weekly round-up of sci-fi based (and similar genres) news items at our sister site located at http://scifitvzone.com/. Please visit there as often as you can. Thanks!

The Weekly Round Up (Feb. 1 to 5)

Here are the entertainment news items for this week:

CONDOLENCES

Days of Our Lives actress Frances Reid passed away this week at the age of 95. She was a theater veteran who appeared in the soap for 42 years (from 1965 to 2007). Condolences are extended to her family, friends and fans.

NEWS

Congrats to all the winners at this past weekend’s Grammy awards. And, congrats to all the Oscar nominees that were announced earlier this week.

The Canadian series The Bridge will air on CTV (in Canada) starting on March 5 at 9 PM with a two-hour premiere before shifting to its normal timeslot of 10 PM the following week. CBS still has yet to announce an airdate for the series, which is being co-produced between the American and Canadian netlets.

The Emmy Awards may be coming to the nation LIVE on both coasts rather than the typical tape delayed airings that the West Coast always gets, following the lead of the Golden Globes. No confirmed plans have been set yet, though.

TV SERIES NEWS

A new series finale date for the ABC series Lost was announced earlier this week: Sunday, May 23. Mark your calendar!

The final episodes of Saving Grace will air on TNT starting on March 29 at 9 PM with back-to-back episodes. The remaining 7 episodes will play out over the spring in its regular 10 PM timeslot (with a slight interruption by the NBA playoffs in between).

Southland will conclude its second season on TNT on April 6 at 10 PM. A marathon of the second season episodes will run that same day starting at 5 PM.

Big Love has been renewed for a fifth season on HBO.

The new series Happy Town, a mid-season series, has been given a premiere date: April 28 at 10 PM. The series stars Geoff Stults, Sam Neill, Lauren German, Steven Weber, Amy Acker, Robert Wisdom (among others).  The series is being touted as a creepy show (ala supposedly Twin Peaks) about a small town still haunted by a number of unsolved kidnappings.

The March 5 episode of Ghost Whisperer will be the series 100th episode and it will feature a major characters death.

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

ABC Family Channel has picked up the half-hour comedy Melissa & Joey, which will star Melissa Joan Hart and Joey Lawrence (who also serve executive producers). Hart will portray Mel, the grown-up former wild child of a political family who is now a local politician herself. When her sister ends up in prison and brother-in-law flees after a scandal hits, Mel must take responsibility for her teenaged niece Lennox and pre-adolescent nephew Ryder. Spread too thin to manage by herself, help comes in the unlikely form of Joe (Lawrence) who, desperate for a job, moves in and becomes the family’s “manny.” The series has been given a 10-episode order and is scheduled to premiere in 2010.

CBS has picked up drama pilot ATF, which centers on an ATF agent who hunts down the most dangerous criminals while trying to balance life as a dad to his teenage daughter who has re-entered his life.

Matt Ryan (The Tudors) is expected to join Forest Whitaker in the cast of the Criminal Minds spin-off about a new group of profilers who work outside the FBI bureaucracy. Michael Kelly (The Sopranos) has also been added to the cast.

The pilot Hellcats based in the world of competitive college cheerleading and based on the Kate Torgovnick book Cheer will come to the CW and will produced by none other than Tom Welling (Smallville).

The exploits of the sexy freshmen class at Harvard Medical School as seen through the eyes of a young female student will come to the CW in a pilot called HMS from co-executive producer Hayden Panettiere (Heroes).

CBS will bring the personal and professional lives of the adult Quinn quintuplets, whose whole lives have been documented on TV to life in the new drama pilot called The Quinn-Tuplets.

Sarah Chalke (Scrubs) has the lead role in the comedy pilot Freshmen from ABC that follows the friendship of three freshmen members of Congress – two men and a woman – who live together in D.C.

Emmy-winner Allison Janney (The West Wing) has joined the cast of the Matthew Perry comedy pilot Mr. Sunshine at ABC, which is about the manager of an aging San Diego stadium who realizes on his 40th birthday that he can no longer get by on just his charming, noncommittal ways. She’ll play Crystal Cohen, his boss at the arena.

Emmy-winners Mitchell Burgess and Robin Green (The Sopranos) have booked a pilot called Reagan’s Law with CBS, which is about a multi-generational family of New York-based cops.

NBC has slated a two-hour backdoor pilot called Secrets of the Mountain for Friday, April 16 at 8 PM. The possible series stars Barry Bostwick and Paige Turco in a story about a single mom (Turco) with three kids who inherits a remote mountain cabin from a supposedly dead uncle (Bostwick) who turns out to be very much alive, and they set out to keep an evil buyer from gaining access to the mountain that holds secrets and treasures.

An as-yet untitled new drama from Hannah Shakespeare (The Philanthropist) has received a pilot order from CBS. The series is to follow a roaming medical team that travels the U.S. helping those less fortunate get through life-or-death medical crises.

Zooey Deschanel (500 Days of Summer) has joined the HBO half-hour pilot based on the Pamela Des Barres memoir about her life of bed-hopping with musicians and movie stars in the late 1960s.

HBO is developing an untitled political drama that revolves around a young political aide and his relationship with his idol–the former President of the United States.

Gary Cole will headline the first hour-long mystery comedy called Uncle Nigel on TBS about a veteran homicide detective (Cole) in Philadelphia who partners up with his rookie nephew.

Virginia Madsen will appear as the lead in the new ABC dramedy Scoundrels, which is about a family of small-town criminals who attempt to go straight after the patriarch is sent to prison. Madsen would play the mom. The show, which has been picked up for eight episodes (all of them slated to air this summer), is based on the New Zealand series Outrageous Fortune.

Enrique Murciano (Without a Trace) has joined ABC pilot Off the Map, which centers around a team of medical professionals who flee the U.S. to work at a clinic on a tropical island. He will join Martin Henderson in the cast.

Laura Prepon (That ’70s Show) will star in the ABC comedy pilot Awkward Situations for Men, alongside Matt Letscher (Eli Stone).

Bret Harrison (Reaper) has landed the lead role in FOX’s untitled Adam Goldberg single-camera comedy, where he will play a member of a team who crack computer security systems.

Emily Rose (Jericho and Brothers & Sisters) will appear in the Syfy series Haven, which is based on the Stephen King novella The Colorado Kid. She will play FBI agent Audrey Parker, who investigates a murder in the small town of Haven, Maine and finds herself caught up in a web of supernatural activity among its citizens.

MADE FOR TV MOVIES NEWS

The Syfy made-for-TV movie Beauty and the Beast will premiere on Saturday, February 27, at 9PM. The movie stars Estella Warren (Planet of the Apes) is a young Beauty with a gift for healing who helps a deformed Prince (Rhett Gilles, Wraiths of Roanoke) regain his throne and defeat the ruthless nobleman who wants to be king — and then together they try to destroy a power-hungry witch.

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Zachary Quinto (Heroes and Star Trek) is set to play famed composer and pianist George Gershwin in a biopic of the man who was responsible for more than a dozen Broadway shows such as Funny Face and Porgy and Bess who died of a brain tumor at the age of 38.

Orlando Bloom is to star in the indie drama The Good Doctor, which centers on a frustrated doctor (Bloom) looking to impress his superiors and colleagues.

Greg Kinnear, Alan Arkin and Billy Crudup will be seen in the indie crime drama The Convincer that follows a desperate insurance salesman whose scheme to acquire a rare violin, which leads to unforeseen consequences.

Uma Thurman, Kristin Scott Thomas and Christina Ricci have joined the cast of the Robet Pattinson-led film Bel Ami, which is based on the Guy de Maupassant novel and set in 1890’s Paris.

American Idol winner and country singing star Carrie Underwood will play the church youth leader in the movie Soul Surfer, the biopic of 19-year-old surfer Bethany Hamilton, who lost her arm in a shark attack but persevered to resume hanging 10 less than a month later. AnnaSophia Robb, Helen Hunt and Dennis Quaid also star.

Christian Bale, Javier Bardem, Rachel McAdams and Olga Kurylenko will appear in the as-yet untitled romantic drama from acclaimed director Terrence Malick.

Whoopi Goldberg and Kathy Bates have signed on to the film Earthbound which also stars Kate Hudson, Gael Garcia Bernal, Rosemarie DeWitt, Steven Weber and Treat Williams.

Bradley Cooper and Reese Witherspoon will appear in the action-comedy This Means War. Cooper is expected to play one of a pair of spies whose friendship devolves into trickery and deceit when they both fall for the same woman (Witherspoon).

CASTING SCOOP

Fred Willard and Swoosie Kurtz will guest star in an upcoming episode of Chuck, as a Hart to Hart-esque spy couple now over-the-hill but still in the game.

Actor Chelcie Ross (Mad Men) will appear as Jackson’s (Jesse Williams) ailing grandfather, Harper Avery, in an upcoming episode of Grey’s Anatomy. Turns out he is the namesake of the Avery Award that was bestowed on Meredith’s mom, Ellis. This will help form a bond between Jackson and Meredith.

Indy race car driver Danica Patrick will appear on CSI: NY next week as a rival of a racing legend (guest star Antonio Sabato Jr.) who dies in a vehicle explosion.

Dawn Olivieri (Heroes) will play Janice Herveaux, the sister of werewolf Alcide (Joe Manganiello) and Brit Morgan (The Middleman) will play Alcide’s psycho ex girlfriend Debbie Pelt on True Blood.

It would appear that casting is nearly confirmed for the flashback episodes of Brothers & Sisters with Rachel Leigh Cook, Nora Zehetner (Grey’s Anatomy) or Courtney Ford (Dexter) could possibly playing a young Nora (Sally Field); Kay Panabaker (Fame) will play a young Kitty (Calista Flockhart); newcomer Anna Wood will play Sarah (Rachel Griffiths) and newcomer Kasey Campbell will play Kevin (Matthew Rhys). Also it’s being rumored that singer Joe Jonas (of the Jonas Brothers) will play a young Tommy (Balthazar Getty).

Cynthia Watros (Lost) will appear as Wilson’s (Robert Sean Leonard) first ex-wife and the doctor’s rekindled love interest in upcoming multi-episode arch of House.

Charles Measure (Crossing Jordan), Nicholas Lea (The X-Files), and Lexa Doig (The 4400) are joining the cast of the ABC drama V.

Julie Benz’s appearance in Desperate Housewives has been extended at least one more episode (if not more). Her character will be moving out of Susan’s home and moving in on Katherine (Dana Delany).

Henry Winkler is joining the USA Network hit Royal Pains in a major recurring role next season, playing Eddie R. Lawson, the absentee father to Hank (Mark Feuerstein) and Evan (Paulo Costanzo) Lawson.

RUMOR PATROL

Ginnifer Goodwin (He’s Just Not That Into You and Big Love) is in talks to star in Something Borrowed, which is based on the Emily Giffin novel. She would play a Manhattan attorney who becomes involved with her best friend’s fiancé following her 30th birthday.

Could Rob Lowe be headed to the planned Criminal Minds spin-off on CBS?  Rumor has it that he has been approached about a leading role in the new series.

Russell Crowe is apparently the front-runner for the male lead in the latest remake of A Star Is Born, playing an alcoholic musician who mentors a rising female star and the pair begin a romance. The female role has yet to be cast but Beyonce Knowles is likely to star as the singer/actress has long been linked with the role.

Eric Bana is in the final negotiations to join the movie Hanna, which already stars Saoirse Ronan (The Lovely Bones) as a 14-year-old girl who has grown up entirely in a remote woods where her father has taught her to become a lethal assassin.

Brad Pitt is the top contender while Ryan Reynolds is among the potential back-up candidates to star in a film remake of classic western series Gunsmoke. In the film version, Pitt or the other potentials would play the lead role of Marshall Matt Dillon.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

The following movies, special and new series will debut and/or air this weekend and throughout next week:

The HBO movie Temple Grandin, starring Claire Danes, will air on Saturday, February 6 at 8 PM. This is a biopic about the animal scientist who overcame the stigma of autism to become an authority on livestock in the 1970s.

NOTE: This movie will reair on both Monday, February 8 at 9 PM and Wednesday, February 10 at 8 PM on HBO.

The movie The Cursed will air on Syfy on Saturday, February 6 at 9 PM and follows a writer who awakens a malevolent creature in a Tennessee town with a dark past. The cast includes Costas and Louis Mandylor.

The conclusion of the Jane Austen classic novel Emma, starring Jonny Lee Miller an Romola Garai in the lead roles will air on PBS on Sunday, February 7 at 9 PM.

The new series Past Life will debut on FOX on Tuesday, February 9 at 9 PM. This series follows a woman who “solves crimes that put souls to rest”. The series will then move to its regular timeslot on Thursday, February 11 at 9 PM.

The opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics will air at 7:30 PM on NBC on Friday, February 12.

NEW EPISODES OF EXISTING SHOWS

Here are the new episodes of the dramas that will be airing this coming week:

Saturday, February 6:
Demons on BBC America at 8 and 9 PM (Series Finale at 9 PM)

NOTE: A repeat of Legend of the Seeker will air in syndication this weekend. Check your local listings for date, time and channel.

Sunday, February 7:
Super Bowl Sunday
Big Love on HBO at 9 PM

NOTE: A repeat of Legend of the Seeker will air in syndication this weekend. Check your local listings for date, time and channel.

Monday, February 8:
Castle on ABC at 10 PM
CSI: Miami on CBS at 10 PM
One Tree Hill on the CW at 8 PM
Life Unexpected on the CW at 9 PM
House on FOX at 8 PM
24 on FOX at 9 PM
Chuck on NBC at 8 PM
Heroes on NBC at 9 PM
The Secret Life of the American Teenager on ABC Family at 8 PM
Make It or Break It on ABC Family at 9 PM
Greek on ABC Family at 10 PM
Damages on FX at 10 PM
Men of a Certain Age on TNT at 10 PM

Tuesday, February 9:
Lost on ABC at 9 PM
The Forgotten on ABC at 10 PM
NCIS on CBS at 8 PM
NCIS: Los Angeles on CBS at 9 PM
The Good Wife on CBS at 10 PM
Southland on TNT at 10 PM
White Collar on USA at 10 PM

Wednesday, February 10:
Ugly Betty on ABC at 10:01 PM
Criminal Minds on CBS at 9 PM
CSI: NY on CBS at 10 PM
Human Target on FOX at 8 PM
Life Unexpected (reair) on the CW at 8 PM
Nip/Tuck on FX at 10 PM
Mercy on NBC at 8 PM
Leverage on TNT at 10 PM
Psych on USA at 10 PM
Friday Night Lights on DirecTV; check local listings for time (Season Finale)
Being Erica on SOAPNet at 10 PM

Thursday, February 11:
The Deep End on ABC at 8 PM
Grey’s Anatomy on ABC at 9 PM
Private Practice on ABC at 10:01 PM
The Mentalist on CBS at 10 PM
The Vampire Diaries on The CW at 8 PM
Supernatural on The CW at 9 PM
Burn Notice on USA at 10 PM

Friday, February 12:
Smallville on the CW at 8 PM
Spartacus: Blood and Sand on Starz at 10 PM

NOTE: Please check your local listings for the correct air dates and times for all of the above.  Have a great weekend!

Please note that I will feature a weekly round-up of sci-fi based (and similar genres) news items at our sister site located at http://scifitvzone.com/. Please visit there as often as you can. Thanks!

The Weekly Round-Up for Jan. 25 to 29

Here are the entertainment news items for this week:

CONDOLENCES

Legendary actress Jean Simmons passed away earlier this week of lung cancer at the age of 80. She won an Emmy for her role in The Thorn Birds and was a two-time Oscar nominee. She appeared in the box office movies Guys and Dolls, Elmer Gantry and Spartacus (among many others).

Long-time soap actor James Mitchell (All My Children) passed away late last week of lung disease complicated by pneumonia at 89 years of age. He was a dancer on Broadway in his early career and he appeared in the movies Oklahoma! and The Band Wagon.

Well-known TV actor Pernell Roberts, who appeared in Bonanza and was the star of the M*A*S*H spinoff Trapper John, M.D., passed away this week at the age of 81 after a battle with cancer.

Legendary author J.D. Salinger (The Cather in the Rye) passed away this week at the age of 91.

Petite actress Zelda Rubinstein, who played the psychic in the classic movie Poltergeist passed away at 76 this past week.

Condolences are extended to the families, friends and fans of Ms. Simmons, Mr. Mitchell, Mr. Roberts, Mr. Salinger and Ms. Rubinstein.

Legendary singer Etta James, 72 is currently in a hospital in Riverside, California with a serious infection. Well wishes are set her way.

NEWS

Congrats to the SAG winners who were announced this past weekend.

NBC is going to quietly pull The Jay Leno Show two days earlier than expected with its final “episode” airing on February 9.

Cancellation news broke mid-week that ABC will pull Ugly Betty at the end of its current (fourth) season and the episode order has been reduced from 22 to 20. The show’s bosses were, however, given enough time to create a satisfying series finale, though.

TV SERIES NEWS

Mark Pellegrino and Titus Welliver will reprise their roles of Jacob and his nemesis on Lost when it returns for its final season.

ABC Family Channel has picked up two new one-hour dramas Huge and Pretty Little Liars:

Huge is based on the book by author Sasha Paley, which is being developed by Winnie Holzman (My So-Called Life) and her daughter Savannah Dooley. The series will follow the lives of six teens and the staff at a weight-loss camp, as they look beneath the surface to discover their true selves and the truth about each other. Pretty Little Liars will follow four estranged best friends who are reunited one year after their best friend and queen bee of the group, Alison, goes missing only to discover they are receiving messages from an anonymous “A” who knows all their secrets. The drama stars Lucy Hale (Privileged), Troian Bellisario (NCIS) Ashley Benson (Eastwick), Shay Mitchell, Laura Leighton (Melrose Place), Nia Peeples (The Young and the Restless) and Bianca Lawson (The Vampire Diaries).

This new season of the ABC drama Castle has been extended by two more episodes, bringing the full season order to 24 episodes.

Bryan Batt will not be back for fourth season of Mad Men when it returns this summer on AMC.

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

JoAnna Garcia (Privileged) has landed an as yet untitled sitcom on ABC from Shana Goldberg-Meehan Friends) that will center on two sisters who are at different points in their romantic relationships. One is unmarried and in a long-term relationship and the other (Garcia) gets married after getting knocked up.

Some of the new shows in development at the major networks include:

BREAKOUT KINGS (FOX) – This procedural pilot is about ex-fugitives who are recruited to work as U.S. Marshals .

EDGAR FLOATS (ABC) – This pilot comes from men behind the NBC series Life and follows a police psychologist who becomes a bounty hunter.”

PLEADING GUILTY (FOX) – This pilot is based on the Scott Turow novel about an ex-cop-turned-attorney who works as a partner at a powerful Chicago law firm.

NO ORDINARY FAMILY (ABC) – This pilot come from Greg Berlanti and Jon Harmon Feldman and is about a typical American family whose members have special abilities. ( Kind of like Brothers & Sisters x Heroes?!)

SHAMELESS (Showtime) – The lives of a very unconventional family will be chronicled in this new pilot from John Wells and stars Emmy Rossum, Justin Chatwin and William H. Macy.

187 DETROIT (ABC) – This pilot is about a fictional documentary crew that follows a top homicide division.

CHAOS (CBS) – This pilot revolves around a group of rogue CIA operatives who combat bureaucratic gridlock, rampant incompetence and political infighting.

JUSTICE (NBC) – This pilot follows an ex-Supreme Court justice who quits the Court to start his own legal practice and comes from none other than Conan O’Brien’s production team.

MIDLAND (FOX) – This soap is set against the backdrop of an oil business that centers on a polygamist living a double life.

THE REMEMBERER (CBS) – A drama pilot about a female NYPD detective who possesses the ability to remember everything – a gift in her job but a curse in her personal life.

THE UNTITLED RICHARD HATEM PROJET (ABC) – A new drama pilot about a beautiful female detective who teams with a disgraced ex-cop to solve crimes and untangle the conspiracy that sent him underground.

THE WHOLE TRUTH (ABC) – This pilot chronicles the building of a case from the perspective of both the defense and prosecution. It will be produced by Jerry Bruckheimer.

THE CUBE (CBS) – Neil Patrick Harris will host the potential game show based on the ITV series of the same name in which folks try to win big bucks by completing simple tasks inside a chamber designed to induce stress.

NOTE: I am only including the above “show” because Neil Patrick Harris has been tapped as the host.

The CW plans to do a remake of the action-thriller La Femme Nikita, which started out as a French film that was then remade for US theaters as the film Point of No Return and then became a popular series on the USA Network. This new version will have the lead character Nikita going rogue with a new assassin brought in to replace her.

Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino and executive producer Dan Palladino are coming back to the CW with a new as-yet untitled project that is supposed to revolve around a family horse farm in the Midwest. Meanwhile Sherman-Palladino also has a deal with HBO for a show about three sisters and their complicated relationships with their mother and each other.

Martin Henderson (Bride & Prejudice) has been cast in the ABC pilot Off the Map from Shonda Rhimes where he will play one of three doctors working a remote medical clinic in the tropics.

Charlize Theron (The Road) has teamed with auteur David Fincher (Zodiac) to develop the HBO drama series Mind Hunter based on John Douglas and Mark Olshaker’s non-fiction book about the profiling of serial killers and rapists.

Maria Bello, Simon Beaufoy, and Russell Crowe have teamed up to develop the HBO drama project Emergency Sex, based on a non-fiction book by Kenneth Cain, Heidi Postlewait and Andrew Thomson. The story is about the larger-than-life exploits of expatriate nongovernment-organization workers who find their sanity tested in the face of atrocities, loneliness and primal desires.

Tony Hale (Chuck), Matt Letscher (Eli Stone) will star in the ABC hybrid comedy pilot Awkward Situations for Men, about an Englishman who moves to the US with his wife and discovers that his everyday behavior clashes with American values and gets him into trouble.

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Vincent D’Onofrio and Kyra Sedgwick will star in the comedy-drama Chlorine that revolves around a family struggling to maintain their well-to-do lifestyle in their overly materialistic New England community.

Kellan Lutz (Twilight) will star with Mandy Moore in the romantic comedy Love, Wedding, Marriage about a husband (Lutz) of a relationship counselor (Moore) who endangers her marriage while trying to save that of her parents. Actor Dermot Mulroney will be the director and Blythe Danner and Christopher Walken co-star.

Zac Efron will star in the adaptation of the graphic novel Fire by Brian Michael Bendis. He will play a college student who is recruited by the CIA, only to find that he has been trained for a program that creates expendable agents.

Seth Rogen and Michelle Williams will star in the romantic drama Take This Waltz that follows a young woman (Williams) who struggles with her infidelities and the budding realization that she may be addicted to the honeymoon period of her relationships. The movie is from actress/director Sarah Polley.

CASTING SCOOP

Sam Page (Mad Men) will guest star in episodes of Desperate Housewives, playing a chef who admires Bree Hodge and her conservative values.  The episodes will start in late February.

Tony winner Brian Stokes Mitchell will guest star in Ugly Betty, playing a former flame of Wilhelmina.

Alan Cumming is set to guest star The Good Wife later this season, playing an image consultant named Eli Gold hired to help Peter (Chris Noth) make over his image.

Sarah Drew will return to Grey’s Anatomy for the Valentine’s Day episode to air on February 11.

Richard Burgi will appear on episode of Lie to Me as a state governor who is the target of an assassination attempt.

Brooke Nevin (The 4400) will guest star in an upcoming episode of How I Met Your Mother, playing a romantic interest for Ted. Also, Jennifer Lopez is slated to appear on the comedy in March, as a no-nonsense author of self-help books that teach woman how to train men into relationship machines through the power of denial

Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger himself) will terrorize Booth and Brennan in a slasher-themed episode of Bones that is to air this spring.

Leonard Roberts (Heroes) has been cast as the partner of Dana Delaney’s federal agent character on upcoming episodes of Castle.

John Barrowman (Torchwood) will be guest starring in at least five episodes of Desperate Housewives, as the “Big Bad” at the center of the Angie (Drea de Matteo) mystery.

Mexican pop star Diego Boneta will appear on 90210 as Javier, a young musician who has a fling with Adriana (Jessica Lowndes).

RUMOR PATROL

Oscar winner Forest Whitaker is in final negotiations to star on the Criminal Minds spinoff, which revolves around a new group of profilers who work outside the FBI bureaucracy.

Mel Gibson is in negotiations to star in the spy thriller Cold Warrior about a Cold War spy who comes out of retirement to confront a domestic terrorism threat from Russia by joining with a younger agent.

Miley Cyrus and Demi Moore are in talks to star in a remake of the French comedy L.O.L.: Laughing Out Loud that follows a 15-year-old girl who, dumped by her more sexually experienced boyfriend, who sets her sights on his best friend. At the same time, her 40-year-old divorcee mother is struggling to move on with her life.

Julianne Moore may become the lead of the US adaptation of the crime series Prime Suspect if NBC gets what they want. Other actresses being considered for the lead role are Maria Bello, Tea Leoni, and Christina Applegate.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

The following movies and special will air this weekend and throughout next week:

On Sunday, January 31, Masterpiece Classic on PBS will air part 2 of 3 at 9 PM of the Jane Austen classic movie Emma, starring Jonny Lee Miller (Eli Stone) starring as Mr. Knightley and Romola Garai in the lead role.

The Grammy Awards will air on CBS on Sunday, January 31 at 8 PM.

The new Lifetime movie Lying to be Perfect will reair at 9 PM and stars Poppy Montgomery, as a magazine editor who leads a double life as an anonymous online advice columnist. The movie co-stars Adam Kaufman.

Also, Lost will return for its final season on Tuesday, February 2 for a 2-hour premiere, starting at 9 PM.

NEW EPISODES OF EXISTING SHOWS

Here are the new episodes of returning and new series that will be airing this coming week:

Saturday, January 30:
Demons on BBC America at 8 and 9 PM

NOTE: Legend of the Seeker will be back with all new episodes in syndication starting this weekend. Check your local listings for date, time and channel.

Sunday, January 31:
Desperate Housewives on ABC at 9 PM
Brothers & Sisters on ABC at 10:01 PM
Big Love on HBO at 9 PM

NOTE: Legend of the Seeker will be back with all new episodes in syndication starting this weekend. Check your local listings for date, time and channel.

Monday, February 1:
CSI: Miami on CBS at 10 PM
One Tree Hill on the CW at 8 PM
Life Unexpected on the CW at 9 PM
House on FOX at 8 PM
24 on FOX at 9 PM
Chuck on NBC at 8 PM
Heroes on NBC at 9 PM
The Secret Life of the American Teenager on ABC Family at 8 PM
Make It or Break It on ABC Family at 9 PM
Greek on ABC Family at 10 PM
Damages on FX at 10 PM
Men of a Certain Age on TNT at 10 PM

Tuesday, February 2:
NCIS on CBS at 8 PM
NCIS: Los Angeles on CBS at 9 PM
The Good Wife on CBS at 10 PM
Southland on TNT at 10 PM
White Collar on USA at 10 PM

Wednesday, February 3:
Ugly Betty on ABC at 10:01 PM
Criminal Minds on CBS at 9 PM
CSI: NY on CBS at 10 PM
Human Target on FOX at 8 PM
Life Unexpected on the CW at 8 PM
Nip/Tuck on FX at 10 PM
Mercy on NBC at 8 PM
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit on NBC at 9 PM
Leverage on TNT at 10 PM
Psych on USA at 10 PM
Friday Night Lights on DirecTV; check local listings for time
Being Erica on SOAPNet at 10 PM

Thursday, February 4:
The Deep End on ABC at 8 PM
Grey’s Anatomy on ABC at 9 PM
Private Practice on ABC at 10:01 PM
CSI on CBS at 9 PM
The Mentalist on CBS at 10 PM
Bones on FOX at 8 PM
Fringe on FOX at 9 PM
The Vampire Diaries on The CW at 8 PM
Supernatural on The CW at 9 PM
Burn Notice on USA at 10 PM

Friday, February 5:
Smallville on the CW at 8 PM (Two-Hour Special)
Ghost Whisperer on CBS at 8 PM
Medium on CBS at 9 PM
Numb3rs on CBS at 10 PM
Spartacus: Blood and Sand on Starz at 10 PM
Caprica on Syfy at 9 PM

NOTE: Please check your local listings for the correct air dates and times for all of the above.

Have a great weekend!

Please note that I will feature a weekly round-up of sci-fi based (and similar genres) news items at our sister site located at http://scifitvzone.com/. Please visit there as often as you can. Thanks!

The Weekly Round-Up for Jan. 18 to 22

Here are the entertainment news items for this week: (January 18 to 22):

CONDOLENCES

The best-selling mystery novelist and the creator of both the “Spenser” and “Jesse Stone” series of novels Robert B. Parker passed away earlier this week at the age of 77.

Canadian folk singer and songwriter Kate McGarrigle passed away from cancer this week at the age of 63.

Musician Charlie Daniels suffered a mild stroke on Friday while snowmobiling in Colorado; but he was later released and is recuperating at his home.

NEWS

Congratulations to all the winners of last weekend’s Golden Globe Awards presentation.

The annual PaleyFest held by the Paley Center for Media will be held from February 26 to March 14 and the full schedule was announced this week. It is as follows:

Friday, February 26 at 7 PM – Modern Family
Saturday, February 27 at 7 PM – Lost
Monday, March 1 at 7 PM – NCIS
Wednesday, March 3 at 7 PM – Community
Thursday, March 4 at 7 PM – Dexter
Friday, March 5 at 7 PM – Cougar Town
Saturday, March 6 at 7 PM – The Vampire Diaries
Tuesday, March 9 at 7 PM – Seth MacFarlane & Friends
Wednesday, March 10 at 7 PM – Breaking Bad
Thursday, March 11 at 7 PM – FlashForward
Friday, March 12 at 7 PM – Men of a Certain Age
Saturday, March 13 at 7 PM – Glee
Sunday, March 14 at 7 PM – Curb Your Enthusiasm

As everyone knows by now, the Jay Leno Show 10 PM programming has been pulled and will end on February 12; and the “drama” of the late night scheduling has left Conan O’Brien (and his staff) $45 million richer.

President Obama will have his State of the Union speech on Wednesday, January 27.

TV SERIES NEWS

The new FX series Justified, starring Timothy Olyphant, will debut on March 16 at 10 PM.

Jennie Garth and Rob Estes are both leaving 90210; Estes will be gone next season.

Rob Lowe will be leaving the ABC series Brothers & Sisters at the end of this season.

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Relative newcomer Jessica Parker Kennedy (Another Cinderella Story) will star alongside Boris Kodjoe and Gugu Mbatha-Raw in the J.J. Abrams spy drama Undercovers. Gerald McRaney (Jericho) will also be part of the show and Carter MacIntyre (American Heiress) has joined the show as a CIA agent with a drinking problem who goes ‘missing’ while trailing a Russian arms dealer.

CBS has greenlit a remake of the classic cop shows Hawaii Five-O to be written by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. This updated version will center on an elite branch of the Hawaii State Police who only answer to the governor.

A new pilot at FOX called Midland has been ordered. The series revolves around a polygamist with a double life who works in the oil industry. *Cough* Big Love *cough* part deaux?!

The following ABC pilots have been picked up:

• Body of Evidence a drama from Chris Murphey about a female medical examiner who used to work as a neurosurgeon;

• The dramedy Generation Y from writer/executive producer Noah Hawley (The Unusuals) is based on a Scandinavian series about a group of people who remember their lives ten years ago as high school seniors;

• A female-driven dramedy called Cutthroat from writers/executive producers Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters (Reaper) about a single mom who runs a drug cartel in Beverly Hills in order to keep up financially with her neighbors;

• The legal drama The Whole Truth, from writer Tom Donaghy and executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer;

• Edgar Floats from Rand Ravich and Far Shariat (the team behind Life) is about a police psychologist who becomes a bounty hunter;

• Matadors, set in Chicago, follows two feuding families; one in the district attorney’s office and the other in a large law firm, comes from Jack Orman (writer and executive producer of ER);

• The cop drama True Blue centers on San Francisco homicide detectives who regroup to figure out who killed one of their own. This series comes from Jon Feldman (Dirty Sexy Money) and executive producers Chris Brancato and Bert Salke; and,

• The Shonda Rhimes created medical drama, tentatively called Off the Map, about three stateside doctors who opt to work for an isolated tropical clinic.

TNT has greenlit two original series, including:

•  The offbeat drama Delta Blues (the working title) executive produced by George Clooney will star Jason Lee as a Memphis police officer who lives with his mother. The cast includes Alfre Woodard (Three Rivers), Celia Weston (Junebug), Sam Hennings, Robyn Lively (Saving Grace), Leonard Earl Howze (Barbershop), Abraham Benrubi (Men in Trees and ER) and DJ Qualls (My Name is Earl). The series will premiere this year and will have 10 episodes.

•  Based on the Tess Gerritsen mystery novels, Rizzoli & Isles (the working title) will star Angie Harmon (Women’s Murder Club) as a Boston detective who works closely with a medical examiner (Sasha Alexander from NCIS) to solve crimes. Lorraine Bracco (The Sopranos) will have a recurring role in the series with Lee Thompson Young (FlashForward), Bruce McGill, Jordan Bridges (Dawson’s Creek) and Billy Burke as co-stars. This series will also have 10 episodes and premiere sometime this year.

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Academy Award winning screenwriter Ronald Harwood will write the Martin Luther King, Jr. biopic with Steven Spielberg and Suzanne de Passe acting as producers.

Keira Knightley is no longer up for consideration in the role of Eliza Doolittle in the new adaptation of My Fair Lady. Current candidates include Carey Mulligan, Gemma Arterton and Emily Blunt.

Marc Webb (500 Days of Summer) will be the director of the retooled Spider-Man which is set to pick up in 2012 with Peter Parker in high school

Marcia Gay Harden and Aidan Quinn have joined the indie drama If I Were You, which centers on two women who form and unlikely bond to repair their lives.

Clive Owen is replacing Paul Walker in the action thriller Protection that follows a disgraced former Special Forces soldier who takes on Mexican gangs in an attempt to rescue a judge’s daughter.

MADE-FOR-TV MOVIES

The Hallmark Channel movie The Wild Girl will air on April 24 at 9 PM and is set in the Depression Era and stars Brian Austin Green (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) and Graham Greene (Dances with Wolves) as an unlikely team who embarks on a rescue mission in the Sierra Madre Badlands, but who stumble upon an orphaned Apache girl abandoned in the wilderness. Kathleen Munroe co-stars. The movie is based on the novel by Jim Fergus.

The movie Healing Hands will air on the Hallmark Channel on March 20 at 9 PM and stars Eddie Cibrian and Lisa Sheridan (both formerly on Invasion). The movie follows the simple life of Buddy Hoyt (Cibrian), a school janitor who lives in the garage apartment of his adoptive parents’ home; but tragedy strikes him and his fiancée Alice (Sheridan) when he ends up in a coma. When he awakens, he discovers he has the ability to heal others just by touching them. The movie also stars Patrick Duffy.

CASTING SCOOP

Rich Sommer (Mad Men) will play a working class fireman who will be aiming for Betty’s heart in upcoming episodes of Ugly Betty. His episode is set to air in March. Liza Minnelli has landed a recurring role in the series, recurring as Lena Korvinka, the high school drama teacher. Kristen Johnson will reprise her role as Helen on next week’s episode of the series. Lainie Kazan (My Big Fat Greek Wedding) and Nestor Serrano (24) will play Bobby’s Italian parents, Dina and Anthony in this season’s 15th episode.

Allison Sweeney (Days of Our Lives) will appear in an episode of Mercy as a bus-crash victim who appears to have only minor injuries.

Legendary actress Gena Rowlands will appear in a potentially recurring role as Leroy Jethro Gibbs’ mother-in-law in NCIS starting in March.

Movie actor Michael Sheen (Underworld movies) will guest star in an upcoming episode of 30 Rock and John Hamm (Mad Men) will return to the series for the Valentine’s Day episode.

Neil Patrick Harris is to appear in the episode of Glee that will be helmed by Joss Whedon.

Billy Baldwin will play Serena’s (Blake Lively) absentee father in a few episodes of Gossip Girl that will air later this season.

Sarah Paulson(Cupid) and J. August Richards (Angel) will appear in the February 18 episode of Grey’s Anatomy as the younger versions of Meredith’s mother Ellis and the Chief. Missi Pyle will also be seen in flashbacks of Dr. Bailey’s first days on the job.

Madchen Amick (Californication) has been cast in a recurring role on CSI: NY. She will play a romantic interest for Detective Taylor (Gary Sinise).

RUMOR PATROL

Rumor has it that CBS is eyeing Alex O’Loughlin (Moonlight) for their proposed remake of Hawaii Five-O; but that is speculation at best right now.

Robert Pattinson and Sean Penn are said to be in negotiations to star with Reese Witherspoon in the movie Water for Elephants, which is an adaptation of Sara Gruen’s 2006 novel of the same name about a love triangle among circus employees in Depression-era America.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

The following movies and specials will air this weekend and throughout next week:

The Lifetime movie The Pregnancy Pact will debut at 9 PM on Saturday, January 23 and is about a blogger (Thora Birch) who investigates a rash of teen pregnancies at her old high school, and rumors swirl about a pact between the girls.

NOTE: The movie will reair on Monday, January 25 at 9 PM.

The US Figure Skating Championships for women will air on NBC at 9 PM on Saturday, January 23.

The Screen Actors Guild Awards will be simulcast on both TNT and TBS on Saturday, January 23 at 8 PM.

Masterpiece Classic on PBS will feature the first of the three-part movie Emma based on the beloved Jane Austen novel with Jonny Lee Miller (Eli Stone) as Mr. Knightley and Romola Garai in the lead role on Sunday, January 24 at 9 PM.

The following new or returning shows will debut this coming weekend and next week:

Damages returns for another season on FX on Monday, January 25 at 10 PM.

Psych returns for the rest of its new season on USA Network at 10 PM on Wednesday, January 27.

Greek will return to the ABC Family Channel at its new time of 10 PM on Monday, January 24.

NEW EPISODES OF EXISTING SHOWS

Here are the new episodes of returning and new series that will be airing this coming week:

Saturday, January 23:
Demons on BBC America at 8 and 9 PM

NOTE: Legend of the Seeker will be back with all new episodes in syndication starting this weekend. Check your local listings for date, time and channel.

Sunday, January 24:
Big Love on HBO at 9 PM

NOTE: Legend of the Seeker will be back with all new episodes in syndication starting this weekend. Check your local listings for date, time and channel.

Monday, January 25:
Castle on ABC at 10 PM
One Tree Hill on the CW at 8 PM
Life Unexpected on the CW at 9 PM
House on FOX at 8 PM
24 on FOX at 9 PM
Chuck on NBC at 8 PM
Heroes on NBC at 9 PM
The Secret Life of the American Teenager on ABC Family at 8 PM
Make It or Break It on ABC Family at 9 PM
Men of a Certain Age on TNT at 10 PM

Tuesday, January 26:
NCIS on CBS at 8 PM
NCIS: Los Angeles on CBS at 9 PM
Southland on TNT at 10 PM
White Collar on USA at 10 PM

NOTE: If you want to remember what happened on last season’s finale of Lost, you can rewatch the 2-hour finale tonight at 9 PM on ABC. You can also rewatch the 2-hour pilot of Caprica on Syfy at 8 PM tonight. A special airing of Human Target is supposed to air on FOX tonight, too. Please check your local listings for time and confirmation.

Wednesday, January 27:
Ugly Betty on ABC at 10:01 PM
Nip/Tuck on FX at 10 PM
Leverage on TNT at 10 PM
Friday Night Lights on DirecTV; check local listings for time
Being Erica on SOAPNet at 10 PM
Human Target on FOX at 9 PM (Note: Check local listings for this airing)

Thursday, January 28:
The Deep End on ABC at 8 PM
Bones on FOX at 8 PM
Fringe on FOX at 9 PM
The Vampire Diaries on The CW at 8 PM
Supernatural on The CW at 9 PM
Burn Notice on USA at 10 PM

Friday, January 29:
Smallville on the CW at 8 PM
Dollhouse on FOX at 8 PM – Series Finale
Law & Order on NBC at 8 PM
Spartacus: Blood and Sand on Starz at 10 PM
Caprica on Syfy at 9 PM

NOTE: Please check your local listings for the correct air dates and times for all of the above.

Have a great weekend!

Please note that I will feature a weekly round-up of sci-fi based (and similar genres) news items at our sister site located at http://scifitvzone.com/. Please visit there as often as you can. Thanks!

The Weekly Round-Up for Jan. 11 to 15

Here are the entertainment news items for this week: (January 11 to 15):

CONDOLENCES

Legendary R&B singer Teddy Pendergrass, who was paralyzed from the waist down in a 1982 car accident passed away this week at the age of 59. Condolences are extended to his family, friends and fans.

Golden Girl Rue McClanahan suffered a minor stroke while recovering from heart bypass surgery this week. Doctors state after physical therapy she should be out of the hospital by the end of January. We wish her well.

NEWS

Scott Bakula has signed on to reprise his role as Chuck’s spy daddy, Steve, for multiple episodes of the NBC series Chuck.

Taylor Kitsch will not be returning next season as a series regular to Friday Night Lights. The series is currently airing on DirecTV through February and will rerun on NBC staring on April 30. 

The second Richard Castle cross-platform novel based on the fictional character Nikki Heat from within the ABC series Castle will be available for purchase at the end of September 2010. The first publication “Heat Wave” currently has over 170,000 copies in print and has made it to the New York Times hardcover bestsellers list.

It was announced by ABC that Harold Perrineau and Cynthia Watros will return to Lost for the final season. Also returning are Ian Somerhalder, Dominic Monaghan and Katey Sagal.

FOX is planning a special week of sweeps programming called “Fox Rocks” where music will be a driving theme in much of the networks series. How that will play in some of their shows is still in question, though.

Brothers & Sisters will air a special two-part episode that will be set in 1973 and 1986 and that means casting of younger versions of the Walker family, including William, Nora, Kevin, Kitty, Tommy and Sarah as well as Holly Harper.

Jennifer Morrison will be heading back to House later this season and while the timing and context of her return are being kept under wraps, she will be back before the end of the season.

Steven Spielberg has signed on to produce Rebuilding Ground Zero, a six-part documentary series about the construction of a new World Trade Center for the Science Channel.

More adventures of Captain Mal Reynolds and the crew of Serenity will become available to fans in the form of short stories coming from Titan Books with Jane Espenson (Battlestar Galactica and Caprica) writing one of the planned stories.

TV SERIES NEWS

FOX has renewed the musicomedy Glee for a second season.

It was also announced that there will be a nationwide casting call for three new characters for the FOX series Glee, which will air as a multi-part special leading up to the season two premiere. The producers are looking for actors between the ages of 16 and 26, and all hopefuls will be able to submit auditions online. You can find out more information and updates at www.fox.com/glee.

Earlier this week NBC finally admitted defeat, cancelling the floundering Jay Leno 5-night a week programming decision that was previously touted by the network only to be greeted with weak ratings. With that being said the network has announced their plans for programming for NBC starting in March, including the following:

• On Mondays: Chuck will air at 8 PM, Trauma at 9 PM (beginning March 8 ) and Law & Order at 10 PM (returning March 1 with two-hour episode from 9 to 11);

• On Tuesdays: Parenthood will debut on Tuesday, March 2 and air at 10 PM from there on out;

• On Wednesdays: Mercy will air at 8 PM; encore episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit will air at 9 PM and new episodes of SVU will air at 10 PM;

• On Fridays: Friday Night Lights will return with a new season, starting on April 30 at 8 PM; and,

• On Saturdays: Encore episodes of Law & Order will air at 9 PM and encore episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit will air at 10 PM.

CBS has picked up both NCIS: Los Angeles and The Good Wife for second season.

TNT ordered a second season of their male-oriented series Men of a Certain Age.

The Secret Life of the American Teenager and Make It or Break It have both been picked up for new seasons on the ABC Family Channel.

The ABC Family Channel comedy 10 Things I Hate About You will return on March 29 at 8 PM.

Army Wives will be back on Lifetime on Sunday, April 11at 10 PM.

Teen actress Victoria Justice (Zoey 101) will star in the new Nickelodeon action comedy Victorious about kids at a Hollywood Performing Arts school. The premiere will be on March 27 at 9:30 PM and the series has an order of 20 episodes.

MADE FOR TV MOVIES NEWS

The movie The Cutting Edge: Fire & Ice will premiere on ABC Family Channel at 8 PM on March 14 and stars Francia Raisa (The Secret Life of the American Teenager) as Alexandra “Alex” Delgado whose figure skating career is in jeopardy because her partner (on and off the ice) gets injured. As their love affairs cools off, she stops competing and turns to teaching. Enter James Van Behr (Brenden Fehr, Roswell and Bones), the bad boy of speed skating who wants Alex as his partner since he was banned from the sport.

The ABC Family Channel movie Business of Falling in Love will debut at 8 PM on April 18. Based on the book by Daniella Brodsky, Diary of a Working Girl, Hilary Duff stars as Lane Daniels, a bright fashion journalist whose career and love life come together in an unusual way after her article “Switching Careers to Find Love” in Cosmopolitan magazine is accepted and that article changes her life in unexpected ways. Also starring in the movie are Matt Dallas (Eastwick and Kyle XY) and Chris Carmack (The O.C.).

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

ABC has ordered eight episodes of the new drama Scoundrels for its 2010 summer lineup. The series, which is based on a show from New Zealand, is about a family of small-time criminals who are uprooted when the dad is thrown into prison for an extended period of time. The mother then tries to encourage her children to go straight.

The Alyssa Milano comedy Romantically Challenged is expected to premiere on ABC on Monday, April 5 at 9:30 PM; but a confirmed date has yet to be announced. Should the series move forward it will have a seven episode run.

Jerry Bruckheimer could add three more TV shows to his credit, including the following:

• The NBC series Chase, based on a real-life group and set in the American Southwest, follows a crucial fugitive apprehension team comprised of U.S. Marshals that tracks down the nation’s most notorious criminals;

• The ABC show Hopscotch, a high-concept crime drama that focuses on the five most compelling days in a murder investigation; and,

• The ABC series The Whole Truth, a legal drama that shows both the defense and the prosecution as they build and try a case.

NBC made the following announcements at the winter press tour of the Television Critics Association this week:

• Day One has been trimmed again. First it was a new series then it was diminished to a mini-series now it will be nothing more than a 2-hour pilot that will be considered a two-hour backdoor pilot that will only be picked up for more IF the ratings are strong enough;

• Law & Order has been picked up for at least four additional episodes, bringing its season total to 20;

• A Los Angeles version of Law & Order is being considered;

• An update to the 70’s classic detective series The Rockford Files is being banded about with David Shore (creator and executive producer of House) being considered as show runner;

• A US version of Prime Suspect will come from Hank Steinberg, the executive producer of Without A Trace;

• Undercovers, from J.J. Abrams (Lost) will be about a domesticated husband and wife who re-activated as CIA Agents after years in retirement and are re-activated as CIA agents (British ingenue Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Boris Kodjoe (Soul Food) have the leads and newcomer Ben Schwartz will play a young CIA agent);

• The series The Event will be a thriller with a unique storytelling device that features multiple points of view concerning a decent, regular fellow who battles against mysterious circumstances that envelope a larger conspiracy from Steve Stark (Medium) and Nick Wauters (The 4400); and,

• Kindreds, from David E. Kelley (Boston Legal), follows a curmudgeonly ex-patent lawyer and his group of misfit associates as their lives come together to form an unconventional kind of law practice.

Betty White, Jane Leeves (Frasier), Wendie Malick (Just Shoot Me) and Valerie Bertinelli will appear in the TV Land comedy pilot Hot in Cleveland that will follow three fortysomething best friends from Los Angeles who, after getting stuck in Ohio, decide to stick around because the locals find them glamorous. White will be a lady who has lived in the cottage of the trio’s Cleveland house for 50 years.

Jeremy Irons will star in The Borgias, a new period series that will replace The Tudors on Showtime, playing Rodrigo Borgia, the patriarch of the Renaissance-era Italian noble family known for its profound corruption. The series is scheduled to premiere in the spring of 2011.

The Bradley Whitford and Colin Hanks quirky cop comedy Code 58 from Matt Nix (Burn Notice) is heading to FOX first on May 12 with a sneak preview and then debuting on June 7. The show centers on washed-up cop Dan Stark (Whitford) who spends much of his time drunk and reminiscing about the good old days. His new partner Jack Bailey (Hanks) is a snarky, ambitious detective who unfortunately makes enemies at the station, undermining his own job. Jenny Wade (Reaper) and Diana Maria Riva (Side Order of Life) will co-star.

Matthew Perry will star in the comedy pilot Mr. Sunshine for ABC. The pilot centers on a manager (Perry) of an aging San Diego sports stadium who reevalutes his devil-may-care ways once he turns 40.

Carla Gallo (Bones) and Jose Zuniga (CSI) have been cast in the FOX comedy pilot The Station, which also stars Justin Bartha (The Hangover) and Jordan Peele.

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Blake Lively (Gossip Girl) will star alongside Ryan Reynolds in the box office movie Green Lantern.

Channing Tatum (G.I. Joe) has joined the spy thriller Knockout, joining Gina Carano, Michael Douglas, Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender and Dennis Quaid.

John Malkovich has replaced John C. Reilly in the comic book adaptation Red, which also stars Brue Willis, Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, Mary-Louise Parker, Julian McMahon, Ernest Borgnine, Richard Dreyfuss, Brian Cox and James Remar.

Nathan Fillion (Castle) and Linda Cardellini (ER) join Rainn Wilson (The Office), Ellen Page (Juno), Liv Tyler (The Lord of the Rings), and Kevin Bacon (Mystic River) in James Gunn’s movie Super, which is a comedic look at superhero genre.

Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts will appear in the movie Larry Crowne, which Hanks will direct.

Robert Downey Jr. has dropped out of the movie Cowboys & Aliens to appear in the Sherlock Holmes sequel.

Michelle Monaghan has joined the time-travel thriller Source Code, starring alongside Jake Gyllenhaal.

Moon Bloodgood has joined the cast of the Dwayne Johnson revenge drama movie Faster.

Kevin Spacey has signed on to star in the Chinese black comedy Inseparable, which tells the story of a young man with problems at home and work who is befriended by a mysterious American expatriate (Spacey).

Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) has joined the cast of the movie John Carter of Mars, which already stars Thomas Haden Church, Willem Dafoe, Taylor Kitsch, Samantha Morton, Dominic West, James Purefoy and Mark Strong.

Angelina Jolie will star as medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta from author Patricia Cornwell long-running mystery novel series.

Bill Murray will replace British actor Toby Kebbell as a murderous mobster in the dramatic thriller Passion Play that is set in 1950s Los Angeles. Mickey Rourke, Megan Fox and Kelly Lynch also star.

CASTING SCOOP

Singer/Actress Olivia Newton-John will guest star in the “back-nine” episodes of Glee when it returns to the FOX schedule in April. She will also sing her 80’s hit “Let’s Get Physical” with Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch).

Melinda Clarke (The O.C.) will guest star in The Vampire Diaries as Kelly Donovan, the absentee and alcoholic mother of Matt. She will appear in at least three episodes starting in March.

Comic-book legend Stan Lee will appear in an upcoming episode of The Big Bang Theory that is expected to air in February.

Joey Lauren Adams will appear as a new character on the Showtime series United States of Tara when it returns for its second season.

Guest stars to be seen in upcoming episodes of the new Syfy series Caprica will include Meg Tilly, Patton Oswalt, James Marsters and (the previously announced) Scott Porter.

Dana Delany (Desperate Housewives) will appear as a federal agent in two upcoming episodes of Castle.

Actor David Strathairn will guest star in the 17th episode of House, which is being directed by lead Hugh Laurie (making his directorial debut).

Sara Rue (Eastwick) and Bruno Campos (Royal Pains) will guest star in an upcoming episode of Private Practice slated to air in mid-February.

Peter Horton (thirtysomething) will guest star in the new CW series Life Unexpected, playing the father of Cate (Shiri Appleby). Cate’s mother will be played by Cynthia Stevenson (Men in Trees). Erica Karpluk (Being Erica) will also have a recurring role in the series.

Judy Greer (Miss Guided) will guest star on Modern Family, playing an ex-girlfriend of family man Phil (Ty Burrell).

Soap vet Sterling Sulieman (All My Children) will appear in at least three episodes of The Vampire Diaries, as one of the vampire entombed with Damon and Stefan’s lover Katherine.

Former wrestler “Rowdy” Roddy Piper will appear in an upcoming episode of Cold Case, playing (not ironically, I’m sure) as wrestler named Sweet Sil.

Dominic Chianese (The Sopranos) and Craig Bierko (Boston Legal) will both appear in multiple episodes of the FX drama Damages.

Barry Bostwick will appear in the February 10 episode of Cougar Town as the father of Laurie’s (Busy Phillips) boyfriend. Also, Beverly D’Angelo will appear in the series as Laurie’s “white trash mom”.

John Larroquette will appear in an upcoming episode of Parks and Recreation as a former flame of Leslie’s (Amy Poehler) mother, Marlene (Pamela Reed).

Lex Medlin (Southland) will play Cupid in the February 11 episode of Supernatural.

RUMOR PATROL

There is a possibility that the Starz drama series Crash may not be back for a third season.

Rumor has it that Peter Sarsgaard (An Education) is in talks to play villain Dr. Hector Hammond in the box office movie Green Lantern.

Vera Farmiga (Up In the Air) is in negotiations to join the time travel thriller Source Code that already stars Jake Gyllenhaal.

A possible sequel to the 2005 drama Four Brothers could be in development at Paramount Pictures.

Sources say that Daniel Craig is being considered as a replacement for Robert Downey Jr. in the film Cowboys & Aliens.

The front runner for the director’s chair of the to be revamped Spider-Man is 500 Days of Summer director Marc Webb.

Antonio Banderas is in talks to play the head of a Black Ops European unit in the spy thriller Knockout that stars Gina Carano, Michael Douglas, Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender, Dennis Quaid and Channing Tatum. Michael Angarano (Forbidden Kingdom) is also in negotiations to join the cast.

Kellan Lutz (Twilight) and Jason Momoa (Stargate Atlantis) are both being considered to play Conan the Barbarian in the upcoming remake. One other unnamed actor who is “more established” is also being considred.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

The following movies and special will air this weekend and throughout next week:

Saturday, January 16 – The Syfy movie House of Bones about a haunted New Orleans house that terrorizes a TV paranormal team of investigators will air at 9 PM. The movie stars Charisma Carpenter and Corin Nemec.

Sunday, January 17 – The Lifetime Movie Network movie The Wronged Man, stars Julie Ormond as a paralegal who spends countless years attempting to prove the innocence of a man serving a jail sentence will air at 8 PM.

NOTE: The movie will reair on Monday, January 18 at 8 PM.

Sunday, January 17 – A marathon of the first season of Being Erica will air on SOAPNet, starting at 11 AM (check local listings for exact airtimes).

Sunday, January 17 – The conclusion of the PBS movie Return to Cranford will air at 9 PM. The movie stars Dame Judi Dench.

Sunday, January 17 – The Golden Globe Awards will be telecast on NBC at 8 PM.

Sunday, January 17 – The Disney Channel movie Skyrunners about two brothers who discover a small UFO and uncover an alien plot to take over the world will air at 8 PM.

Sunday, January 17 – The ABC Family Channel movie Bring It On: Fight to the Finish about a cheerleader whose hopes are plummeted after a sudden relocation leavers her with a far inferior squad will air at 8 PM.

NOTE: This movie will reair at 10 PM.

The following new or returning shows will debut this coming weekend and next week:

Sunday, January 17 – The FOX drama 24 will return for an 8th season with a four-hour premiere; the first two hours will air from 9 to 11 PM.

Sunday, January 17 – The new series Human Target will have a sneak preview on FOX at 8 PM.

Monday, January 18 – The final two hours of the FOX drama 24 will air from 8 to 10 PM.

Monday, January 18 – The debut of Life Unexpected on the CW at 9 PM.

NOTE: The pilot will reair on Wednesday, January 20 at 8 PM.

Thursday, January 21 – The new ABC legal drama The Deep End will debut at 8 PM.

Friday, January 22 – The new Starz series Spartacus: Sand and Blood will have its series premiere at 10 PM.

Friday, January 22 – The new Syfy series Caprica will debut for two hours starting at 8 PM.

NEW EPISODES OF EXISTING SHOWS

Here are the new episodes of returning and new series that will be airing this coming week:

Saturday, January 16:
Demons on BBC America at 8 and 9 PM

NOTE: Legend of the Seeker will be back with all new episodes in syndication starting this weekend. Check your local listings for date, time and channel.

Sunday, January 17:
Desperate Housewives on ABC at 9 PM
Brothers & Sisters on ABC at 10:01 PM
Cold Case on CBS at 9 PM
Big Love on HBO at 9 PM

NOTE: Legend of the Seeker will be back with all new episodes in syndication starting this weekend. Check your local listings for date, time and channel.

Monday, January 18:
Castle on ABC at 1 PM
CSI: Miami on CBS at 10 PM
Chuck on NBC at 8 PM
Heroes on NBC at 9 PM
The Secret Life of the American Teenager on ABC Family at 8 PM
Make It or Break It on ABC Family at 9 PM
One Tree Hill on the CW at 8 PM

Tuesday, January 19:
Southland on TNT at 10 PM
White Collar on USA at 10 PM

Wednesday, January 20:
Ugly Betty on ABC at 10:01 PM
Mercy on NBC at 8 PM
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit on NBC at 9 PM
Criminal Minds on CBS at 9 PM
CSI: NY on CBS at 10 PM
Nip/Tuck on FX at 10 PM
Leverage on TNT at 10 PM
Friday Night Lights on DirecTV; check local listings for time
Being Erica on SOAPNet at 10 PM
Human Target on FOX at 9 PM

Thursday, January 21:
Grey’s Anatomy on ABC at 9 PM
Private Practice on ABC at 10:01 PM
CSI on CBS at 9 PM
The Mentalist on CBS at 10 PM
Bones on FOX at 8 PM
Fringe on FOX at 9 PM
The Vampire Diaries on The CW at 8 PM
Supernatural on The CW at 9 PM
Burn Notice on USA at 10 PM

Friday, January 22:

Regular programming will not be seen tonight due to the telethon special “Hope for Haiti,” which will air live at 8 PM on the following channels: ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, The CW, CNN, HBO, BET, MTV, VH1, CMT and National Geographic. Please check your local listings for other networks that may join the cause; or what those channels that do not participate in the telethon will actually air.

NOTE: Please check your local listings for the correct air dates and times for all of the above.

Have a great weekend!

Please note that I will feature a weekly round-up of sci-fi based (and similar genres) news items at our sister site located at http://scifitvzone.com/. Please visit there as often as you can. Thanks!

The Weekly Round-Up for Jan. 4 to 8

Here are the entertainment news items for this week:

NEWS

Kim Raver has been added as a regular on Grey’s Anatomy only two months after she joined the medical drama as a recurring character. She is expected to appear in all but one of the show’s remaining episodes this season.

NBC has plans to renew Law & Order for a 21st season, and by doing so, will make it the longest-running network drama in TV history.

Sandra Bullock will present SAG’s Life Achievement Award to Betty White at the event which will be simulcast on TNT and TBS on Saturday, January 23 at 8:00 PM.

Kevin Bacon will receive the Joel Siegel Award at the 15th annual Critics’ Choice Movie Awards, which will air live on VH1 on Friday, January 15 at 9 PM (hosted by Kristin Chenoweth)

The USA Network announced they have picked up original series Covert Affairs about a young CIA trainee who is thrust into the inner sanctum of the agency when she is unexpectedly promoted to be a field operative. The series will star Piper Perabo (Coyote Ugly), Christopher Gorham (Ugly Betty), Peter Gallagher (The OC), Kari Matchett (Invasion) and Anne Dudek (House). The show will have a 90-minut premiere and 11 one-hour episodes.

The CBS medical drama called Miami Medical (formerly known as Miami Trauma) will debut on CBS on Friday, April 2 at 10 PM. The series follows a team of expert surgeons who thrive on the adrenaline rush of working at one of the premiere trauma facilities in the country. The cast includes Jeremy Northam (The Net), Lana Parrilla (Swingtown), Mike Vogel (Cloverfield), Elisabeth Harnois (Point Pleasant) and Omar Gooding (Playmakers).

FOX has announced that Eric Milligan, who played Zack, will return to Bones for its 100th episode, which is expected to air later this season.

Congratulations to all of the winners of the recent People’s Choice Awards.

Showtime announced they have ordered 13 episode of the new Laura Linney drama The Big C (formerly known as The C Word), which will focus on a suburban mother who attempts to find humor in her cancer diagnosis. The series will also star Oliver Platt.

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

NBC plans to produce 18 pilots this spring, which is the most since 2003. Among the new pilots are Rex Is Not Your Lawyer, starring David Tennant and Jeffrey Tambor, a Rockford Files remake, and Undercovers, a spy thriller from Lost and Fringe creator J.J. Abrams.

ABC has picked up a new crime drama pilot set called 187 Detroit, which will be shot like a fictional documentary crew following a top homicide division, having a realistic yet sometimes humorous tone. The series will be executive produced by Jason Richman, David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman.

FOX has given a pilot order to Shawn Ryan’s cop drama project Ridealong, which follows a group of police officers–ranging from beat cops to the female police chief–in Chicago.

David Milch and Michael Mann will team at HBO for a horse racing drama called Luck, which will be a provocative look at the world of horse racing and gambling

Catherine McCormack (28 Weeks Later) has replaced Melora Hardin (The Office) in the FX drama series Lights Out, playing a pediatric orthopedic surgeon and the wife of an aging boxing champion (Holt McCallany) attempting to support his family after he is diagnosed with a rare neurological condition. Stacy Keach (Prison Break) and Pablo Schreiber (The Wire) will also star in the series.

TBS has given ordered a one-hour mystery-comedy pilot called Uncle Nigel, from writer/executive producer Adam Breckman (Monk). The project will revolve around an uptight Philadelphia police detective who clashes with his screw-up cop nephew.

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Lucy Punch (Ella Enchanted) has been cast in the movie Earthbound, which follows a woman, played by Kate Hudson, as she learns she has been stricken with cancer before meeting a new guy (Gael Garcia Bernal). Punch will play the woman’s best friend and advertising agency co-worker. Rosemarie DeWitt (Rachel Getting Married) will also star as a best friend and confidante of Hudson’s character. Kathy Bates also stars.

Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air and Twilight) has joined the untitled cancer dramatic comedy (possibly titled I’m With Cancer), starring alongside James McAvoy, as a 25-year-old who learns he has cancer. Kendrick will play the role of Katherine, a young psychologist assigned to handle McAvoy’s character’s case despite her lack of real life experience. Seth Rogen also has a role in the film.

Taylor Lautner (Twilight) will star in the Tom Cruise thriller Northern Lights about a gifted, young, aerobatics pilot (Lautner) who faces off with his controlling, billionaire father (Cruise) and falls in love with a gifted, female pilot.

James Franco (Spiderman) will star in the Danny Boyle movie called 127 Hours about the true life story of Aron Ralston, a mountaineer who spent five days with his right forearm pinned under a boulder during a climb in 2003.

Kat Dennings (Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist) and Josh Lucas (Sweet Home Alabama) have joined the romance drama Daydream Nation about a disaffected high school senior who finds herself deposited along with her widowed father in a desolate Canadian hamlet where boredom leads her into an affair with a teacher and into a more promising romance with a druggie teen.

Ewan McGregor, Dennis Quaid, Michael Douglas and Michael Fassbender have all joined the spy thriller Knockout, which also stars mixed martial arts fighter Gina Carano. The film is about a black ops super soldier who seeks to uncover who has set her up to take the fall for a job that goes bad and involves a murder.

Maggie Grace (Lost) will star in the action drama Faster alongside Dwayne Johnson, who plays an ex-con bent on avenging the death of his brother, murdered 10 years earlier when the two were double-crossed during a heist. Billy Bob Thornton also stars and Salma Hayek is in negotiations to also star.

Christina Ricci has joined Bel Ami, which follows George Duroy (Robert Pattinson), a young journalist who rose from poverty to become one of the most successful men in Paris via the ruthless and calculating bedding of the city’s most glamorous and influential women. The cast also includes Uma Thurman and Kristin Scott Thomas.

CASTING SCOOP

Julie Benz (Dexter) will appear in three episodes of Desperate Housewives as Debbie, a stripper with a Master’s degree who is offered a chance to transition into a more stable career path by Susan. The first episode will air in February.

James Van Der Beek (Dawson’s Creek) will join the cast of the NBC medical drama Mercy in the major recurring role of Liam West, the hospital’s new ICU chief.

Sharon Stone is joining the cast of Law & Order: SVU for a four-episode arc beginning in April. Stone will play a former cop-turned-prosecutor who will (presumably) go toe-to-toe with Benson, Stabler and the gang.

Mischa Barton has been cast in an episode of Law & Order: SVU, which is expected to air on March 3. She will play a prostitute named Gladys, who has a secret which will create some sort of trouble for Benson.

Carrie Underwood will make her acting debut on How I Met Your Mother later this season, playing a character named Tiffany who catches Ted’s eye. The episode will likely air in March.

Other future guests on How I Met Your Mother include Amanda Peet as a co-worker of Marshall’s on January 18, and New York Yankee Nick Swisher and CBS sportscaster Jim Nantz later in the season.

Ryan O’Neal will appear in multiple episodes of 90210 as the super-famous movie star father of Teddy (Trevor Donovan). The series returns of its mid-season hiatus on March 9.

Lee Tergeson (Oz) will co-star in an upcoming episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, playing a deranged religious zealot suspected of murder.

David Brenner will guest star on an episode of Modern Family that is expected to air on February 10.

RUMOR PATROL

Saoirse Ronan (The Lovely Bones) is in talks to appear in the movie Hanna, which is about a 14-year-old Eastern European girl (Ronan) who has been raised by her father to be a cold-blooded killing machine. She connects with a French family, forms a friendship with their daughter and goes through the pangs of adolescence. When the girl is dragged back to her father’s world and discovers that she was bred as a killing machine in a CIA prison camp, she must fight her way to a free life.

Bill Paxton has pitched an idea for a 3D sequel to Twister to producer Kathleen Kennedy, basing the premise of the possible sequel on the Tri-State Tornado of 1925, which was a mile wide and stayed on the ground for nearly four hours.

There are reports floating around that a reboot is in the works for the 1980’s comedy smash Mannequin that starred Andrew McCarthy and Kim Cattrall. Writers are supposedly being sought for the project.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

The following movies will air this coming weekend and next week:

The Hallmark movie The Wishing Well will air at 9 PM on Saturday, January 9. The movie is about a reportedly magic well that is investigated by a jaded journalist (Jordan Ladd), who makes the same wish as a young girl, setting off an unusual series of events.

NOTE: This movie will reair on Sunday, January 10 at 9 PM and on Friday, January 15 at 9 PM.

Masterpiece Theatre movie Return to Cranford Part 1 of 2 will air on PBS on Sunday, January 10 at 9 PM (1 ½ hours).

The Syfy movie Battlestar Galactica: The Plan will air on Sunday, January 10 at 9 PM.

A marathon of NCIS episodes will air throughout the day on the USA Network. Check your local listings for time.

NEW EPISODES OF EXISTING SHOWS

Here are the new episodes of returning and new series that will be airing this coming week:

Saturday, January 9:
Demons on BBC America at 8 and 9 PM

NOTE: Legend of the Seeker will be back with all new episodes in syndication starting this weekend. Check your local listings for date, time and channel.

Sunday, January 10:
Desperate Housewives on ABC at 9 PM
Brothers & Sisters on ABC at 10:01 PM
Cold Case on CBS at 9 PM
Chuck returns for its 3rd season with a two hour premiere on NBC at 9 PM
Big Love on HBO at 9 PM

NOTE: Legend of the Seeker will be back with all new episodes in syndication starting this weekend. Check your local listings for date, time and channel.

Monday, January 11:
Castle on ABC at 10 PM
CSI: Miami on CBS at 10 PM
Chuck on NBC at 8 PM
Heroes on NBC at 9 PM
The Secret Life of the American Teenager on ABC Family at 8 PM
Make It or Break It on ABC Family at 9 PM
House on FOX at 8 PM
Fringe on FOX at 9 PM
Men of a Certain Age on TNT at 10 PM

Tuesday, January 12:
The Forgotten on ABC at 10 PM
NCIS on CBS at 8 PM
NCIS: Los Angeles on CBS at 9 PM
The Good Wife on CBS at 10 PM
Southland on TNT at 10 PM

Wednesday, January 13:
Ugly Betty on ABC at 10:01 PM
Mercy on NBC at 8 PM
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit on NBC at 9 PM
Criminal Minds on CBS at 9 PM
CSI: NY on CBS at 10 PM
Nip/Tuck on FX at 10 PM
Leverage on TNT at 10 PM

Thursday, January 14:
Grey’s Anatomy on ABC at 9 PM
Private Practice on ABC at 10:01 PM
CSI on CBS at 9 PM
The Mentalist on CBS at 10 PM
Bones on FOX at 8 PM
Fringe on FOX at 9 PM

Friday, January 15:
Ghost Whisperer on CBS at 8 PM – Check local listings to determine if this is a new episode
Medium on CBS at 9 PM
Numb3rs on CBS at 10 PM
Dollhouse on FOX at 9 PM
Law & Order on NBC at 8 PM
Sanctuary on Syfy at 9 PM – Two Hour Finale

NOTE: Please check your local listings for the correct air dates and times for all of the above.

Have a great weekend!

Please note that I will feature a weekly round-up of sci-fi based (and similar genres) news items at our sister site located at http://scifitvzone.com/. Please visit there as often as you can. Thanks!

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