We’ve got contract news on Law and Order:SVU, insight into Wentworth Miller’s (Prison Break) next role, and some bits about Sons of Anarchy and Nip/Tuck.

We’ve also got some late-breaking bits we’ve added this afternoon with regards to the creator of My Name Is Earl, and the final season of Lost.

We have the usual weekly recap of ratings from the previous week, but it’s not the usual list.  The source is having issues distributing the information, so I’ve done the best I can this week.

And of course we wrap up with the ratings from last week.

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A Thought About House’s Upcoming Season

With the new season of House coming up, we all know that House has committed himself.

But have you thought about how things will be once he’s out and back at work?

Neither did I, but according to executive producer Katie Jacobs, we should be prepared for the hospital to be working differently.

“A doctor can’t check into a mental institution and just walk back into his job like nothing happened. We will not start forsaking reality. This [story] will have consequences.”

Source: EW

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Lost Gets One More Hour

The mythos of ABC’s Lost is so big that the last season of the show couldn’t contain the entire story.  At least that’s one take on why ABC has added an extra hour to the next season.

Now, instead of 17 hours, you’ll have 18 hours of getting Lost.

No facts are concrete, but rumors say they’ve added an additional storyline to the season.

Not to be a horrid tease, but with all the supposition about Charlie, I have to wonder if that’s the extra storyline?

Source:  THRFeed

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Gossip Girl Casting News

Hillary Duff will be joining the cast of Gossip Girl for a guest appearance in a multi-episode story arc.

She’ll be playing a movie star (shocking) named Olivia Burke who ends up rooming with Vanessa (Jessica Szohr).

Duff’s first episode will air on October 5th.

Source:  EW

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Ugly Betty Cast Update

If anyone is wondering about Daniel Eric Gold’s status on Ugly Betty, wonder no more.

Gold is returning to the show and he’s becoming a full-time series regular.

Source:  EW

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Greg Garcia Heads To Fox

It was a sad day earlier this week as production staff cleared out the facility that was being used as the set location for My Name Is Earl.  With the show gone, folks are looking for work and the creator / executive producer of Earl, Greg Garcia, was one of them.

News is that he’s landed a gig over on Fox developing a new pilot for the network.

This new pilot is about “a 25-year-old who winds up having to raise an infant with the help of his quirky family. The kid was the result of a one-night stand with a woman who ended up on death row for murder.”

If you feel like it sounds familiar, even Garcia admits that this comes from the kind of world that Earl inhabited.  At least he’s honest.

Source:  Variety

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Law And Order:SVU Contract Renewals

Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni have successfully extended their contracts for 2 more years.

Unconfirmed sources say that the pair will be making roughly $325k per episode, or $6.5 million a year, each.  I’m wondering if they’d pay me to be in just one episode. I’m not greedy!

Source:  E Online

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Where Will Wentworth Miller Show Up Next?

After playing a felon on the run in Prison Break, Wentworth Miller will next appear in a guest role on Law and Order: SVU’s season premiere episode, and this time he’ll be on the other side of the badge.

He’ll be playing a member of the NYPD Blue named Nate Kendal who ends up saving a rape victim.

Wentworth fans, set your DVR’s.  The episode will air September 23rd.

Source:  TV Guide

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FX Programming Reminders

Sons of Anarchy returns to the cable network with fresh episodes beginning on September 8th and Nip/Tuck returns in October.

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Ratings

Either my source or Nielsen are having issues with the data, so I’ve only got the top 20 ranked shows from last week to share with you.

As you can see, America’s Got Talent dominated while a repeat of NCIS takes the title of highest-rated scripted drama.  Considering all the fanfare going on, I’m a bit surprised that the Michael Jackson special on CBS was only at 13th on the list.  A pleasant surprise is that The Philanthropist landed in the top 20, settling in at 16th.  I’m glad it ranked where it did and considering the quality of its story, I hope it improves.  You can check out my quick review of The Philanthropist to see what myself and others thought of the show.

Rank, Show Title, (Repeat, Premiere, Special), Network, Viewers in the Millions

1. America’s Got Talent-Tue (P) NBC – 11.5 < NBC’s best performer
2. NCIS (R) CBS – 11.1 < CBS’s Best performer
3. America’s Got Talent – Wed (P) NBC – 10.4
4. The Mentalist – Tue (R) CBS – 9.1
5. 60 Minutes (R) CBS – 8.8
6. CSI (R) CBS – 8.7
7. Two And A Half Men (R) CBS – 8.7
8. 20/20 Special Edition on 6/25 (S) ABC – 8.2 < ABC’s best performer
9. CSI: Miami (R) CBS – 8.0
10. Wipeout ABC – 7.8
11. So You Think You Can Dance – Wed Fox – 7.6 < Fox’s best performer
12. Criminal Minds (R) CBS – 7.6
13. CBS News: Michael Jackson (S) CBS – 7.5
14. CSI: NY (R) CBS – 7.4
15. The Big Bang Theory (R) CBS – 7.2
16. Philanthropist (P) NBC – 7.1
17. 48 Hours Mystery Tuesday (R) CBS – 7.0
18. So You Think You Can Dance – Thurs  Fox – 6.9
19. The Bachelorette ABC – 6.8
20. Dateline Friday NBC – 6.7

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Selected Top Cable Shows

As you can see, break-ups help reality TV as Jon & Kate ratings spiked, marking another good week for TLC with The Closer, Royal Pains, Burn Notice and NCIS snagging spots in the top-20 cable slots for their respective networks.

1. BET Awards Show, BET – 10.7
2. Jon & Kate Plus 8, TLC – 10.6
4. WWE Entertainment, USA – 7.3
5. The Closer, TNT – 6.4
8. Royal Pains, USA – 5.9
9. Sprint Cup Racing/Loudon, TNT – 5.6
12. Burn Notice, USA – 5.3
17. NCIS, USA – 4.2
20. Confed. Cup Soccer, ESPN – 3.9

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I’m looking forward to how they mix up the chemistry of House with the new equation of his having been committed and it’s good to see that Law and Order: SVU will retain the steadfast cast that’s been in place since 1999.  I was a bit worried, considering how the network had renewed the show before the two lead actors were resigned. For you Gossip Girl fans (who ask me to cover news on the show), I’m wondering if you feel like having big-name stars come and go on the show is great to see or just distracting?  Do you think it’s only a ruse to boost ratings?

As always, questions and comments are welcome here on Screen Rant.

ABC is hitting us with a bunch of new shows for their upcoming 2009-10 season.

The new shows include Cougar Town, The Deep End, Eastwick, Flash Forward, The Forgotten, Hank, Happy Town, The Middle, Modern Family, Shark Tank and V.

While shows like Better Off Ted, Castle, Scrubs and True Beauty will be falling in line with other mainstays of the network like The Bachelor, Brothers & Sisters, Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy, Lost, Ugly Betty and others.

I know that most of the shows mentioned are not of primary interest to the majority of Screen Rant readers, but we’re tossing them out there for everyone.

ABC of course stuck with their best rated scripted dramas of Desperate Housewives and Grey’s Anatomy.

If a show is shown as having been picked up, but does not show in the below list, that means it is debuting later on in the 2009-10 season.

ABC’s fall prime time schedule is as follows (all times listed are Eastern):

Notes:  The Bachelor will air Monday nights from 8:00-10:00 p.m. after Dancing with the Stars has its run.  Scrubs and Better Off Ted will fill the 9:00 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. time slots.

The New Fall And Mid-Season Shows

The Deep End is a legal drama starring Matt Long, Ben Lawson, Billy Zane and Clancy Brown to name a few.

Is that a young Cylon Next to that Benton Fraser?

Eastwick is a TV version of The Witches of Eastwick starring Rebecca Romijn, Lindsay Price and Jamie Ray Newman.  Of note, for the serious Due South fan, of which I am, Paul Gross will play Darryl Van Horne in Eastwick.  Paul Gross used to play Constable Benton Fraser on Due South and now I may have a reason to watch this show.   “Thank you kindly.”

Flash Forward is about a mysterious event that causes the entire world to black out, and during the black out,  humanity is given a glimpse of its near future.  Executive producers are David S. Goyer (co-writer of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight) and Brannon Braga (24, Star Trek: Enterprise) and stars Joseph Fiennes, John Cho & Jack Davenport to name a few.

The Forgotten is a police drama from executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer.

Happy Town looks like a crime drama mystery.  After a decade of peace this small town’s first crime since reveals dark truths about some familiar faces. From her short stint on Dollhouse, Amy Acker stars as Rachel Conroy.  (Watch out!  She’s a doll!)

V is the re-imagining of the 1980s miniseries about the world’s first encounter with an alien race with a seemingly friendly agenda.

The Comedies on the list are:

• Cougar Town with Courteney Cox.  (Oh hold me back.)
• Hank with Kelsey Grammer.  (I’ve enjoyed Grammer in the past.  Maybe)
• The Middle with Patricia Heaton. (Meh.)
• Modern Family with Ed O’Neill. (I just don’t have the time folks.)

Dropped and Forgotten

Cupid has been sent back to where he came from, while maybe Dirty Sexy Money was just too blatant for the mouse network.

Eli Stone and In the Motherhood are also gone and there was not enough love left to keep Pushing Daisies around.  The other casualties were Samantha Who? and The Unusuals.

Today we’re chatting a little about CBS’s season finales, also  A Game Of Thrones, Supernatural, Fringe, Burn Notice, BSG, Dexter, Kings, and a bit on Ugly Betty.  We’ve also got a video preview of True Blood season two, and a few other bits and pieces.  Oh, and of course, I touch on some ratings from the week that was.

Game Of Thrones

The HBO pilot for George R. R. Martin’s A Game Of Thrones will begin filming in Northern Ireland in the 3rd quarter of 2009.

Economically speaking, Northern Ireland is excited about the production coming their way.  Emotionally speaking, this is great news for the fans of the book series.

The First Minister Peter D. Robinson said: “This is the first time that a TV production of such vast size and scale has been filmed in Northern Ireland.”

Source: Northern Ireland Executive

Supernatural

Supernatural is all new this week. With the new set of episodes comes the much-heralded meeting between Dean, Sam and their younger brother! Yep. The younger winchester brother I hinted at way back in February, will be played by Jake Abel (Threshold).

And for one more detail to keep in mind, the season finale of Supernatural takes place on May 14th!

Fringe

Everyone is presuming that Fringe will be getting a second season even though it hasn’t been officially announced yet. With that second season will come an interesting move of filming locations.

Fringe has been filming in New York City, but due to something or other about poor tax breaks for television productions, they’re moving to Vancouver.

So the big question is, can they make Vancouver look anything like Boston? I presume so. I’m betting if they actually said they were in New York City, things might have been different, being how cities love to be talked about. They claim it draws tourism.

Source: TV Guide

Prison Break

Prison Break kicked it back in gear last week. Was it me, or did it just not pull you in? I guess it could be that it’s been so long since Fox actually gave up on showed it that I forgot everything. It pulled me back in at about the halfway mark.

But that still doesn’t detract from the 32% ratings drop in viewers on… oh, wait, another show slapped into Friday night! I’m shocked. The show pulled in only 3.3 million viewers. Fox must not care since it’s ending in a few weeks.

The finale is scheduled for a double-episode that airs on May 8th. As far as that stand-alone, 2-hour episode that’s been filmed, no one knows what Fox plans to do with it yet. If it doesn’t air, it better be on the DVD.

The 2-hour movie takes place in a 4-year flash-forward.

Source: TV Guide, TV Guide

Burn Notice

Here’s a confusing note: Burn Notice is going to have a guest star in a season 3 episode.

The actor guest starring will be Michael Weston, from House and Six Feet Under. Weston (The actor) will play a character named Spencer who’s a little imbalanced.

He’s an MIT grad who uncovers a plan to sell the names of spies. Aside from the seriousness of the issue, he believes aliens are behind it. Hmm, they do say imbalanced.

Source: EW.com

Battlestar Galactica

If you’ve been waiting for the chance to purchase season 4.5 of Battlestar Galactica on DVD or Blu-ray, it became available for pre-order. It will be shipping on July 28th.

Source: Universal Studios Home Entertainment

Dexter

Since I’m chatting up DVD’s, let’s talk Dexter. Season 3 of Dexter is available for pre-order, but oddly, no date has been set yet for its delivery. Thought you’d like to know.

Kings

We were asked by a reader if we knew anything about NBC’s Kings. Well, of course we do!

Kings had started out to what NBC considered to be dismal ratings, despite the hoopla they tried to generate about the show. Of course, being originally scheduled for Thursdays, then airing on Sunday’s didn’t help. Then moving it to Saturday, where in theory it was going to do better amongst the world of repeats on Saturday’s, it still didn’t seem to take with the hoped-for audience.

If you were wondering what’s up about the season being finished out, NBC is going to do just that. They’re looking to finish the rest of the season of Kings Starting Saturday, June 13th and running on through to July 25th.

Source: THR

True Blood

For the upcoming second season of HBO’s True Blood, Evan Rachel Wood has been cast as the Louisiana vampire Queen, Sophie-Ann. She’ll be in two episodes near the end of season two and if they go to a third season, she should have a more prevalent role.

Below is a preview of the upcoming 2nd season of True Blood. We already talked a little bit about True Blood’s 2nd season, now let’s show you something about it.

Source: EW.com

CBS Season Finales

The following are season finale dates announced by CBS

Ugly Betty

The season finale of Ugly Betty is due to air on May 21st. Guest stars lined up are Joy Behar and Elisabeth Hasselbeck. They’ll be playing themselves, as View hosts when Daniel is a guest of the show (in the show, not for real. I think I just hurt my brain). I’m sure you’ve heard of the View. It’s the show where the hostess’s get into big rip roaring arguments every 3 to 4 weeks to generate media, and try to pump up their ratings.

One other note: Ugly Betty is coming back on April 30th. That’s one week earlier than it was originally scheduled.

Source: EW.com

Last Week’s Ratings:

I hate repeating myself, so I won’t.  When you get to the chart, you’ll see who dominated the top 2 spots.  CSI moved into 4th with their Science Fiction Convention-based episode, where we saw some guest appearances by several Battlestar Galactica alumni.  Did you catch everyone that was on the show?  There were more than just Moore…

From Last Week

CSI had fewer viewers, but moved up from 7th to 4th.  Mathematically, that confuses me.  Fringe moves up 1 spot to 21st, while the ratings got murdered on Harper’s Island,  and it tumbled from 20th to 34th on the list.  Meanwhile, Heroes pushed up from 48th to 43rd as it approached its season finale.  I included Miss USA 2009…  having to be as thorough as I can, and, um, checking the quality of the programming content for our viewers.  Yeah, that’s it.   Coming in 64th on the list isn’t surprising considering how mundane = the outline they presently have is.  Of course, this year, Ms. California seems to have generated the most notoriety I’ve ever seen for a runner-up (1st loser).  Dudette, move on already.

We had one premiere, Sit Down Shut up, on Fox that debuted in 60th.  Meanwhile, repeat episodes like the perennial performer NCIS still kept the top-20 mixed up.  NCIS just hits all the right buttons.  The appeal of the police drama, combined with the mystery of the top-secret world of the military and the mix of cast / characters is just the perfect hit for viewers.  Good job CBS.

Best Performing Show For Each Network

Fox had American Idol as their bread winner, while ABC’s Dancing with the Stars was their best hit of the week.  Considering the eye-candy, I’m not surprised. (I’ve been told one of the dancers, LT’s partner, Edyta Sliwinska, looks like my wife.)  CBS hit 4th on the chart with their best performing show, CSI.  NBC’s best hit, (on this list) is Southland, hitting 25th on the charts.  The CW shows up near the bottom with their best performer, America’s Next Top Model.

Considering how much we love Smallville and Supernatural, I’m surprised at the numbers of these shows.  Thank god they’re on the CW.  Fox would have taken out their shovel and put them on Friday nights and buried them.  Oops, did I just say that?  Damn keyboard malfunctions all the time.

This is a selected 60 out 92 shows rated.

The “I Hope You Haven’t Eaten Yet” Section

I was entertaining the idea of adding ratings from cable networks to accent my basic network table, but after seeing what constituted the top-10 shows on the cable networks, I don’t think I want to irritate myself:

Just in case you really don’t know, WWE is “wrestling”.  I’m not showing spots 3, 4, 7, 8 or 10 because they’re different episodes or air dates of the same things already noted. I’m not sure what to say about SpongeBob giving WWE a run for its money in spots 1-4.  I can only root for the sea-faring sponge.  Go Bob! Go!  Huh, I’ve never rooted for a sponge before.

I think I will digress on the issue and not pursue this!

Personal Thought

I’m straying off the beaten path of my known realm of TV but I have to say that after I saw the short film that the upcoming Tim Burton-produced film, 9, is based on, I was moved at how much could be conveyed in a 10-minute, silent animated short.  We are shown back story, present plight and future hopes all in 10 minutes.

I think 9 creator Shane Acker is abso-freakin-lutely genius and I can’t wait for more from him.

If you haven’t checked it out, this link will show you Kofi and Ross’s articles written about 9. Even if you don’t think that silent animated skits are your thing, maybe you can join the “Totally Surprised” section I’m sitting in right now.

I’m Done, I’m Shutting Up

If anyone has anything to add, help or have questions – you can leave a comment and we’ll do our best to answer them in the subsequent weekly article.

Thanks for coming by.

This week we have news on new shows that FOX has ordered, a bit of news on Dead Like Me, we touch on some House info and more on yet more guest appearances on E.R..

In the confused department, I’ve got some news sort of related to Smallville, and we chat about Ugly Betty getting dumped temporarily.

We wrap it up with a little bit of new news for our overseas readers on a new set of episodes of Red Dwarf.  Let’s get on with it!

1. FOX Network ordered itself a bunch of pilots. Four comedies and three dramas. Of the three dramas, two of them are of the sci-fi genre.

One is Human Target, based on the DC Comics title about a man for hire whose job is to assume the role of people who find themselves in life threatening situations. John Steinberg writes the scripts and is executive producing alongside McG.

The other project is untitled at this time, but focuses on past-life investigators using the concept of reincarnation to solve present day crimes. Source: THR.com

2. For the Dead Like Me fans, a direct-to-DVD movie is being released on February 17th, 2009 titled Dead Like Me: Life After Death.

I’ve always found the show interesting and wouldn’t mind catching a full length movie version. Of course after watching a movie, I would probably end up wanting more. Source: TVShowsOnDVD

3. In case you missed the news and missed the show, House has moved to Monday nights. (SPOILER) Later this season Gregory House and Cuddy will, um, well… you know, they um, well… they “hit it” off pretty good, if you know what I mean. Of course the creators of House warn us that even though House and Cuddy settle into the sheets together, they’re going to do this the only way it can be done, House style. Sigh. Source: EW.com, Image: FOX

4. As Niall reported a few days ago regarding George Clooney returning for a reprisal of his role of Doug Ross on E.R., Julianna Margulies is following suit and also reprising her role as Hathaway on the final season of E.R. on NBC.  Source: ET Online.

There are also some rumors that Susan Sarandon will be appearing in the same episode with Clooney.  Source: E Online.

5. First it’s good news, then it’s not. I can’t decide if The CW really knows what’s up.

In the process of getting a reboot of Melrose Place up and running, The CW is talking to Darren Swimmer and Todd Slavkin about helming the Melrose effort. Yes, the same Darren Swimmer and Todd Slavkin who are 2 of the 4 show-runners for Smallville.

If for some reason they move on to tackle Melrose Place, that would leave Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson as the executive producers for the 9th season of Smallville. It’s being reported that Warner Bros is finalizing deals with the cast for a 9th season.

So my question to you would be what do you think would happen to the quality of the show if they split up this four-some?  Source: EW.com,

6. It’s been thought that ABC’s Ugly Betty was their workhorse signature series, yet they’re shelving the show starting March 26th in favor of Samantha Who?, and then In The Motherhood. claiming that the Thursday night time slot is a great spot to launch these shows.

According to ABC, Ugly Betty will return after these two shows run their set number of episodes.  Though the network is not saying when the show will return, by some calculations, it should probably air sometime in June.  The dreaded summertime slot. Source: EW.com.

7.  Channel Dave is a network over in the UK.  If you have access to the network, and you’re a fan of Red Dwarf, then you are in for a treat.  Red Dwarf is returning with a brand new two-part series.  Dave Lister gets to return home!

Red Dwarf: Back to Earth starts filming their two-part episode in February.

Over the Easter weekend, four new episodes will come at you.  After the two episodes of Back to Earth, prepare yourself for Red Dwarf: Unplugged.  Unplugged will have no sets, no effects and egads, no cue cards!  Then you get to watch Red Dwarf: The Making of Back to Earth.  Source: Dave TV.

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