NBC announced today that Chuck will be returning to the entertainment lineup starting January 10th.

Along with this return date confirmation was the announcement of the many guest stars they’ll have churning through the set of Chuck for the 2010 season.

The guests include Angie Harmon (Law & Order), Brandon Routh (Superman Returns), Robert Patrick (The Unit), Kristin Kreuk (Smallville), Armand Assante (Judge Dredd), Steve Austin (WWE Smackdown!) and Vinnie Jones (Snatch).

Employees of Orange Orange and the Buy More can sleep a little easier at night because, for the time being, it appears that their jobs are safe as NBC has decided to order six more episodes of our favorite undercover underachiever, Chuck.

As good news comes, so must the bad. In this case the bad news is NBC will be canceling their low-rated freshman paramedic series Trauma after just five episodes.  Although, I have a feeling that fans of Chuck won’t be too dejected by this news.

Still, fans of Trauma deserve their moment to grieve and NBC has decided to give them that moment, as they’re committed to airing the remaining seven episodes of Trauma. While it’s only prolonging the inevitable, it’s more than Southland received. (I won’t even bring you up, FOX, and that whole Firefly debacle.)

If you’re a fan of the critically-acclaimed show Chuck, but don’t want to wait until March for its triumphant return, you may be in luck as NBC is eyeing to move up the premiere date of the series return. Since the start of the fall season, NBC’s numbers have been down across the board with new series not performing as expected and with the recent news of Southland being canceled before any new episodes aired, NBC needs help.

Last year, Chuck, with its small but loyal audience, almost wasn’t enough to keep the struggling show on the schedule. But after the “Save Chuck” campaign, NBC picked up the show for a third season with a 13-episode order. With that much enthusiasm behind a show, this is the shot in the arm that the struggling network needs as NBC is eyeing a late-October return of the show. No word yet of it would stay in its Monday at 9PM slot.

Starting on September 21st, NBC.com will start streaming old episodes of Chuck.

The episodes will include the pilot episode of Chuck and the 2nd season.  Yet for some reason, they’ll be rolling them out 5 at a time.

I guess they don’t want you to just show up and get Chuck burnout!

Source:  Entertainment Weekly

So it worked once and it developed a devoted following, despite how Fox treated it, so it looks like Fox is trying it again.

Scott Rosenbaum (Producer: Chuck, The Shield) is stepping outside the boundaries he’s made for himself with NBC’s Chuck and is taking a stab at a yet-to-be-named western with a science fiction twist.

Rosenbaum will be producing the show with Warner Bros. TV and Wonderland Sound and Vision studios (McG’s company), the latter of which has a fairly decent list of shows to their credits.  That’s if you count Chuck, Human Target and Supernatural as decent shows. They also produce The OC, but I couldn’t put that in the same sentence with the phrase “decent shows.” Just ain’t our cup of tea here at Screen Rant.

If you have found yourself missing Angie Harmon on the tube, you’ll get a bit of a dose of her once again.

She’s joining the cast of NBC’s Chuck for a guest appearance in the 4th episode of the upcoming season of Chuck.

She’ll be playing Sydney who is a spy.

To be honest, she hasn’t been missing.  I just haven’t caught her on TV.  Of late, she’s been in or on Inconceivable, Secrets of a Small Town, Women’s Murder Club, Living Proof & Samantha Who.

Source:  TV Guide

Kristin Kreuk (Lana Lang on the CW’s Smallville) has landed a role on the NBC TV series Chuck.

Kristin will be playing the role of Hannah, who Chuck meets on a flight to Paris.  Hannah then ends up getting laid off from her cool job and finds herself working for Buy More.

It’s a new week and today your TV news includes a look at Fringe’s second season; Superman will be teaming with Chuck; The Alien Nation is rising again; True Blood takes a big bit of DVD sales; Patton Oswalt talks life on Caprica; and could Supernatural rise from the grave?

Let’s get to it:

FRINGE

Got a few pics from Fringe’s upcoming second season. The pics include The Bishops (Joshua Jackson, John Noble) and Astrid (Jasika Nicole) up to their usual hijinks in the lab, as well as guest star Meghan Markle, who will play junior FBI agent Amy Jessup – I’m guessing while Sr. Agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) is hanging out with Leonard Nimoy in alternate dimensions.

Today in TV news, two returning shows acquire major new additions for their upcoming seasons. Read on to find out about Brandon Routh in Chuck and Summer Glau in Dollhouse.

Over last few months, there’s been talk about Summer Glau playing a part in the next season of Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse. Although, Whedon shot down a lot of folks’ hope by saying these reports were exaggerated, it now turns out that Summer is in fact joining season 2 of the show that barely survived to get its second season.

All sci-fi fans will know Summer from her role as the troubled girl from Firefly and the bad-ass fembot in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. This time around, she’ll be playing a different sort of character.

Today’s Weekly TV Wrap Up has some news about the Syfy channel picking up a show called Alphas, news on Chuck air dates, plus renewal news on In Plain Sight and other USA shows.

I’m also chatting about some Ghost Whisperer bits, Futurama voice casting news and some news about Medium on CBS.  I’ve also found some casting news on Game Of Thrones.

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Syfy Picks Up Alphas

Syfy has picked up a 90-minute action-adventure pilot called Alphas.

Alphas is about a team of ordinary citizens who possess hyper-developed neurological abilities.  Each person has a slightly special feature about them, but as a team, they combine to have extra-special skills.  It’s to be written by Zak Penn (X-Men: The Last Stand), Michael Karnow and BermanBraun Television.

For whatever reason, NBC and ABC passed on Alphas while Syfy, having the opportunity, jumped on this superhero genre show.

Source:  Hollywood Reporter

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This week, we’re going to chat about a new website for Chuck, an award bestowed upon Doctor Who and a bit about Syfy dominating Tuesdays with Warehouse 13.  We also delve into some news about Burn Notice, Royal Pains & Dollhouse.

Some cast members have been added to Steven Spielberg’s unnamed alien pilot on TNT, we have an interesting tidbit on Disney and a quick, condensed look at last week’s Summer TV ratings.

UpDated 7-2-09

Last year at the 2008 San Diego Comic-Con, the event was ruled by several big named movies that ranged from youthful vampires to illegal vigilantes.  TV was more a side-note than anything else.

This year at the 2009 Comic-Con, things will be a bit different as television programming seems to have a bigger presence than last year.

For instance, the Warner Brothers Television Group will have 11 different panels for their shows.  That’s a studio best for them.  ABC Studios will have 7 panels.  20th Century Fox will have 9 panels.

Do you think your favorite television show will be represented?

Welcome to my weekly TV Wrap Up.

This week we’re chatting about the NCIS cast, Chuck season 3 insights, a bit of Fringe cast news and I ask a question about a character from Lost.  I’m also going to touch on yet another alien invasion show from TNT.  Also have some details on the DVD / Blu-ray release of season one of Lie To Me.

I wrap it up with my usual look at how shows did in the ratings from last week.

Let’s get on with it.

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NCIS Spin-off Adds Cast

Linda Hunt will be joining the cast of the NCIS spin-off as a hard-nosed former film industry technician who oversees the “backroom” support staff.

Of note, Louise Lombard was let go from the staff, as the cast seems to be constantly evolving.

Is it me, or will we have a hard time getting past the ‘ghosts’ from Linda Hunt’s past?

Source:  Entertainment Weekly

Welcome to my corner of Thursdays where we get to chat about some of the other goings on from the world of  (soon to be totally digital) TV.

This week, we take a look at some noise about Chuck, news about some Dexter casting, the premiere date for Eureka on Sci-Fi (SyFy) and why Eleventh Hour got dumped.

While we’re at it, I also chat about TNT ordering it’s own version of V, Doctor Who guest starring in The Sarah Jane Adventures, and if there are any Gigantor fans out there, I’ve got a bit of news for you.

And of course, at the end of the article, I entice you with a ratings chart showing how our favored shows did last week.

Welcome to Screen Rant’s weekly TV Update.

It seems that I’ve reported most of the developing TV news throughout the week.  I’m exhausted but I still dug up a few more bits about the Gossip Girl spin-off, a Chuck tidbit, the move that Smallville is making.

And I’ve got the usual set of numbers for the ratings from last week.

Onward, my fair readers.

Today NBC announced their 2009 Fall and mid-season television schedules.  As you will see, there are some new shows, some old shows, and you might notice there are a couple of shows that are missing from the roster.

We’ll touch on the missing shows in a moment – and in the case of some of them, the situation may not be as bad as it looks. Here are the 2009 NBC Fall and mid-season schedules, as they stand today:

Though the networks are making official statements in the coming week, news is coming out slowly but surely on what is going to happen with shows like Dollhouse, Chuck, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Scrubs among others.

Here’s the news that’s come out of this weekend about some of our favorite shows…  after the break.

The word on the street is that the Fox network is thinking about renewing Dollhouse.  Color me shocked.  Even Eliza is holding her head in shock!  (Read this article carefully.  There’s a surprise tidbit in here.)

Despite miserably low ratings in its Friday night time slot, Dollhouse brings in strong online streaming numbers and DVR viewings.  Initially thought to be a non-issue to advertisers, it’s still apparently an influence on the waffling of renewals.

This is the weekly TV update coming at you yet again.  Today I chat about how Numbers has survived on Friday nights, I share my suspicions on what will happen with Chuck on NBC and I celebrate a bit about Fringe on Fox.

I’ll also touch on how the new Wolverine movie has already had its TV rights secured while I tell you about a couple of upcoming Sci-Fi Channel marathons, and then I’ll close with some depressing inclinations about Dollhouse and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.  At the very bottom, past my ratings chart, I actually make a suggestion about an episode of Criminal Minds that I suggest hunting down to watch.  (Yes, I make a recommendation.)

Let’s get on with it, shall we?

On Monday, May 5th 2009, The Jay Leno network NBC announced a slate of new shows at their In-Fronts for the 2009 / 2010 television season.  No the above screen shot is not from their in-fronts.  It’s a behind the scenes shot from NBC’s new show, Day One.

Keeping in mind that we here at Screen Rant are all about action / adventure and sci-fi / fantasy (with a dribble of comedy). I’ve left out some details on the new NBC comedy shows but only because we do like our action-adventure shows.  Rather than babble about what I am going to say, I might as well get right to it:

This week’s weekly TV report from April 30th, 2009 chats a little about Chuck’s sandwich run, the probable return of Fringe, a new character for Burn Notice and how Harper’s Island is not only sinking, but moving – much like the island on Lost!  We’ve also got some syndication news on My Own Worst Enemy, Knight Rider and Dollhouse.  Yep, syndication news on Dollhouse.  That can’t be good.  Read on folks!

Chuck Takes Fans To Subway

Though they feel they’re currently on the good side of the ratings / cancel bubble, the cast of Chuck are still trying to take care of their sponsors.

While the cast was attending a Starfury convention T1 event in Birmingham, U.K., a fan suggested they try to help the show by supporting a sponsor, in this case, Subway. Zachary Levi and Adam Baldwin (who else would have done this?) then asked those in attendance if they’d follow them to a local Subway. Sure enough, they ended up leading about 400 convention attendees to the poor beleaguered sandwich shop. That would have sucked to be the guy behind the counter when this unruly gang showed up!

The Chuck panel at the 2009 WonderCon was attended by Zachary Levi (Chuck), Yvonne Strahovski (Sarah), Josh Gomez (Morgan), Adam Baldwin (Casey) & exec producers Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak.

We were treated to some previews and upcoming scenes.  There is definitely a lot more skin this season than last.  Wouldn’t you agree?  No, I’m not having a problem with it – just saying.

Well, we survived the Super Bowl and the travesty of a 3D commercial and now we, what?  Wait for the 2009 football season to start back up?  Well, so be it.  In the mean time, let’s check out what happened during the last week.

This week, we chat a little about the latest Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue, NBC’s Chuck, some wedding news about Fringe, upcoming episodes of The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Prison Break’s final episodes, Nip/Tuck going away, Supernatural feuds, and some sad or stupid news about Kyle XY, Reaper and the Digital TV transition delay.

Let’s get to it gang!

Here’s the second post of our new regular feature: The Weekly TV Wrap Up.

The 2nd half of the 08-09 season is officially underway and I am pretty busy trying to watch so many of the new shows that have come out that my recorder is starting to smoke. This morning it said “EAS” and I had to reboot it. (I have no clue what EAS means.) I don’t think my recorder likes me anymore.

But with all the new shows coming up, there’s still news and events to report on. So let’s get this show on the road and get you caught up on some of the things going on behind the veil of our television glass.