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!