Recaps
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!
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