Oh Internet, say it ain’t so!

Hulu – my utopia of free TV online – may soon become another run-of-the-buck paid subscription site (see header image)! (Sigh) It was only a matter of time, really…

Broadcasting & Cable brings us this chilling news, which supposedly originated from the mouth of News Corp. Deputy Chairman Chase Carey, who said during the Onscreen Media Summit that:

When you think Joss Whedon and musicals, it’s not with dread. His more creative and unique entertainment venues have generated some very popular products. Some examples of those, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode titled “Once More, With Feeling,” and the latest, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.

Now, Joss Whedon will be adding Glee to his dossier of credits.

Fox ordered the back 9 episodes of the season of Glee and as a big fan of the show, Joss made sure there was so scheduling conflicts when asked by the studio to direct an episode. In fact, Joss had this to say about the news:

Since the Fall TV season has kicked off with new series starting up, I thought I’d start paying attention again – but the numbers were rather disappointing for the week ending September 13th.

Football dominated the top 25 in ratings, taking spot numbers 1-4, 6 & 11.

Glee premiered at 18th with 7.5 million estimated viewers.

The highest ranked scripted drama in the top 25 was a repeat of NCIS on CBS.  It landed 8th in the list with 11.2 million estimated viewers.

What were the top 7 shows?  All I’m going to say is that the “reality” of the ratings charts can be rather sobering.

Source:  TV By The Numbers

Just a brief update on this Monday: Plan your prime time with the 2009 TV Fall Schedule; Smallville is getting another new guest star; A certain “Foxy” lady might be kicking off SNL this year; Learn how to catch up on all the NBC shows you missed last year (for free!); and speaking of NBC, how about a first-look photo of Jim and Pam getting married on The Office?

And as a bonus (because I love you) I let you know about the government’s “Cash for TV Clunkers” program.

Let’s get to it!

If you didn’t catch the pilot episode of Fox’s new fall series Glee last May, go here RIGHT NOW and check it out. Just the first five minutes, trust me, it’s good stuff.

The show is the creation of Ryan Murphy (Nip/Tuck), Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan (who was actually in a glee club in high school), and is basically a really offbeat and funny look at high school, adulthood and the all the distance in between the two. And of course there’s glee club/musical stuff too.

Ok, sounds weird, I know. But ask the thousand people at the Glee panel during this year’s San Diego Comic-Con and they’ll tell you: they too were “gleeking out” at the screening of Glee’s upcoming premiere episode.