News Briefs : HBO orders Leftovers to series

... It's not HBO, it's leftovers. Well, it will be The Leftovers. The cable network has ordered to series the latest project from Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof, the slightly supernatural drama The Leftovers. Based on the book by Tom Perrotta, The Leftovers follows what happens after the biblical Rapture takes all the righteous people away and leaves the Earth populated with everyone who didn't get called up to heaven. Specifically, the series will center on a group of people who must survive without their more devout loved ones. Liv Tyler, Justin Theroux, Christopher Eccleston, Amy Brenneman, Emily Meade, Michael Gaston, and Chris Zylka are all in the cast, and HBO has asked for 10 episodes.

... Former Awkward. showrunner and creator Lauren Iungerich has received a put pilot commitment for Bitch off the Ol' Block, a comedy about a woman who is reunited with her teenage daughter. The daughter turns out to be a smart-assed version of the mother and moves in with the mother and her roommates, who all raise her. Another twist on the family member moving in at an inopportune time!

... Enlightened creator and star Mike White has a new project cookin' at NBC. The show is about a young 16-year-old chef prodigy who works in a kitchen with his temperamental idol! NBC has given White's project a put pilot commitment.

... Hot on the heels of Magic Mike and the general idea that hunky half-naked men lure eyeballs, Fox has made a put pilot commitment to The Whole Shebang, a new comedy from producer Jennifer Garner and writer Jason Micallef (Butter). So how do gyrating washboards in banana hammocks fit in? A newly single soccer mom inherits a male strip club and discovers a supportive yet dysfunctional surrogate family within.

... Syfy has acquired the Canadian werewolf series Bitten for broadcast. The series stars Laura Vandervoort (Smallville, V) as Elena Michaels, the lone werewolf in existence. Elena ditches her pack and moves to a new city, but what do you know? A bunch of dead bodies pop up and next thing she knows, she's back working with her old gang of werepeople. Syfy will air all 13 episodes of the first season. Bitten was originally broadcast on Canada's Entertainment One.

CASTING NEWS

... The Walking Dead will add Christian Serratos to play the character Rosita Espinosa, who appeared in the comics, for Season 4. The casting announcement says she'll recur in Season 4 with the option to become a regular in Season 5, so I like her chances to survive!

... ABC's Once Upon a Time in Wonderland has found its voice for the Caterpillar. Veteran punk rocker Iggy Pop of The Stooges will speak for the drug-huffing butterfly worm. Other voices in the cast include John Lithgow for the White Rabbit and Keith David for the Cheshire Cat. Iggy takes over the job from fellow musician Roger Daltry, who lent his voice to the Caterpillar when Once Upon a Time used the character. [EW]

... Billie Piper and Helen McCrory have been cast in Showtime's Penny Dreadful. The eight-episode horror series follows several characters from literature, including Dr. Frankenstein and Dorian Grey, as they sit on the fringes of society in old London. Piper (Secret Diary of a Call Girl) will play an Irish immigrant trying to escape her past, and McRory (Harry Potter) will be a "spiritualist." Josh Hartnett, Timothy Dalton, and Eva Green are also involved in the show. Look for Penny Dreadful in 2014.

... Everybody Loves Raymond brother Brad Garrett will drop by CBS's The Crazy Ones for a couple episodes. The exact details of his role aren't yet known, but his character Lewis will be part of the ad firm that Robin Williams and Sarah Michelle Gellar's characters work for.

... LeVar Burton will be back on Community this season. Look out, Troy.

News Brief : Post 'Breaking Bad' era or Creator and actor

Breaking Bad Creator and actor move on to other projects, E! has started their own scripted series,Robert De Niro replaces the late James Gandolfini , more people join The Mindy Project and more......




... Breaking Bad may not be over until Walt says it's over—or at least until this Sunday—but series creator Vince Gilligan has lined up his next TV gig. CBS has ordered Battle Creek, a drama about two detectives with differing views and attitudes in Battle Creek, Michigan, to series for the 2014-2015 TV season. Along for the ride are House creator David Shore, who will serve as showrunner, and Breaking Bad alum Mark Johnson, who'll executive-produce alongside Gilligan.

... The CW is developing Red, a sci-fi Western drama from The Mentalist creator Bruno Heller and executive producer Tom Szentgyorgyi. The project is about the first human settlement on Mars and centers on the relationships between the town’s female sheriff, a doctor, and a criminal.

... Robert Zemeckis has partnered with Clifton Campbell (The Glades) for Billy Ray, which has a put pilot commitment from FOX, is about a family whose world is turned upside-down when their child who was kidnapped as a baby returns home to them at the age of 16 after being raised by a wackadoodle.

CASTING NEWS

... Bryan Cranston, much like Vince Gilligan, is keeping busy. He'll be reprising his role as Ted's former boss on How I Met Your Mother for one episode in the final season.

... HBO has finally given the go-ahead to Criminal Justice, a miniseries that James Gandolfini had been set to star in prior to his death. Robert De Niro will take over Gandolfini's role. Criminal Justice is about a New York attorney who's just a bit too ambitious in taking on a case involving a Pakistani accused of murder.

... The legendary Vanessa Redgrave has joined ABC's The Black Box, a new drama about a world-renowned neuroscientist played by Kelly Reilly who appears to have her crap together on the surface, but is struggling with a mental illness. Redgrave will play her psychiatrist.

... Martin Freeman, who you may recognize from the hit BBC series Sherlock, or from his roles in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and something called The Hobbit, has landed the lead role in FX's limited event series Fargo. He'll play Lester Nygaard, William H. Macy's character in the 1996 Coen brothers film of the same name. The series will feature an all new "true crime" case.

... Comedian and all-around awesome guy Patton Oswalt is following up appearances on Justified and Parks and Recreation with a guest-starring tole on FOX's Brooklyn Nine-Nine. He'll play a fire marshall who butts heads with Andy Samberg's Detective Peralta.

... Revenge has hired current Devious Maids star Ana Ortiz. She'll guest-star as Bizzy Preston, a public relations specialist hired by Conrad. This role should come as no surprise considering all the crap the Graysons have gone through in the public eye over the course of two seasons.

... Alanna Masterson is joining the cast of The Walking Dead for Season 4. Right now we don't know much about her character, but she'll recur this season, with an option to become a series regular in the future. She'll play a new survivor who first appears midway through the season.

... Loretta Devine has joined USA's new series Sirens. The series follows "three Chicago EMTs whose self-righteous and self-destructive personalities make them unfit for long-term relationships and most occupations. Devine will play the no-nonsense church-hugging mother of one of the characters, and will appear in two episodes.

... Bethany Joy Lenz of One Tree Hill (she played Haley) has landed the lead role in E!'s scripted series pilot Songbyrd. The drama follows a songwriter named Lauren Byrd (Lenz), who has a small group of employees who help her with her unusual songwriting process. And then there's love problems and all that, of course.  Rumer Willis has joined as the sister of Lauren.

... Kendra Wilkinson will appear on FOX's The Mindy Project this season because every single celebrity is legally required to guest-star on this show at some point. The former Playmate and Girls Next Door star won't be playing herself.

... Army Wives' Sally Pressman is dropping by Scandal for a few episodes this season. Her role is being kept under wraps because this is a Shona Rhime's show (that woman is so secretive), Look for her in November.

... D.B. Sweeney will appear on Two and a Half Men this season as the boyfriend of Courtney Thorne-Smith's character Lyndsey. He's only due on one episode as of now.

Five Promising New Fall TV Shows

It's that time of year. The time when there are a whole bunch of new TV series debuting within just a few weeks of each other - far more than most people could possibly keep up with.

So what sticks out as being worth your time? I've listed five of the most promising new series below, based on what we've seen, heard and what we know so far. There are some shows that nearly made this list -- Sleepy Hollow, Trophy Wife and The Blacklist among them -- that show signs they could soon turn into something strong as well. And it's very possible a couple of shows with outright poor pilots could quickly turn themselves around, as has happened in the past; just as it's possible a show with a promising start could quickly falter. But right now, as the TV season begins, here's five to keep your eye on...

.... Brooklyn Nine-Nine

 

Premiered September 17th, Tuesday on FOX.

Parks and Recreation creator Michael Schur and his fellow Parks alum Dan Goor have a simple but highly effective scenario here, imprinting the style of comedy Schur honed on Parks and The Office onto a cop show. Andy Samberg and Andre Braugher are a great wacky guy/serious guy pairing, surrounded by a strong group of supporting characters. It's important to remember that neither The Office or Parks and Recreation started all that strong, taking several episodes to really find themselves. Brooklyn Nine-Nine is all the more impressive for feeling very solid in its premiere, indicating the show could quickly find itself among the best comedies on TV these days.
Available in Nigeria early Wednesday mornings.


.... Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

 Premieres September 24th, Tuesdays on ABC.

Look, everyone is going to at least give this one a shot. But the good news is, it's worth your time. Joss Whedon and Marvel already hit pay dirt (to say the least) with The Avengers, so the anticipation for this series -- the first show to tie into the Marvel cinematic universe -- is sky high. But take away the Marvel connection and you'd still have plenty of interest in this show simply because it's Whedon returning to the medium he's kicked so much ass in. The pilot is very fun and exciting, setting a great tone for what's to come.
 Available in Nigeria early Wednesday mornings.

.... Masters of Sex

Premieres September 29th, Sundays on Showtime.

Showtime takes a look at the real life story of Masters and Johnson, the research duo who would become pioneers in the field of sexual response and how the human body responds during intercourse. The eyebrow-raising scenario is added to by the period setting, as William H. Masters and Virginia E. Johnson face considerable obstacles looking into a subject matter that wasn't exactly widely discussed in the 1950s. Masters of Sex is clever, funny, and, yes, provocative, with Michael Sheen and Lizzy Caplan expertly portraying the way ahead of their time duo at the center of the story.
 Available in Nigeria early Monday mornings.

.... Almost Human

Premieres November 4th, Monday on FOX.

The pilot to this one is good, but not great, yet still, there's a lot to be hopeful about here, especially given Almost Human's pedigree. For those of us who loved Fringe, getting a new sci-fi show from J.J. Abrams and J.H. Wyman so soon after that show ended is something to be excited about, as is seeing Karl Urban (Star Trek, Dredd) take the lead in the series. Urban and Michael Ealy are a good pairing as a cop 35 years in the future and his android partner. And keep in mind, Fringe started out just okay too. All of which is to say, let's see where Almost Human takes us...
 Available in Nigeria early Tuesday mornings.

.... Mob City



Premieres December 4th, Wednesday on TNT.

This is the one show on this list that is listed completely due to expectations, since it hasn't been sent out to press yet. Frank Darabont returns to TV following his unceremonious departure from The Walking Dead, with the Shawshank Redemption/Green Mile director tackling cops and mobsters in 1940s-50s Los Angeles. A couple of The Walking Dead cast alum are along for the ride, including Jon Bernthal and Jeffrey DeMunn, plus folks like Neal McDonough (Justified), Robert Knepper (Prison Break) and Milo Ventimiglia (Heroes). It all sounds pretty damn cool, no? We'll have to wait until late this year to see for ourselves, but there's certainly a lot to have us intrigued...
Available in Nigeria early Thursdays mornings.

AMC, HBO and Showtime .......... Troubling times at Cable powerhouses

AMC vesus Showtime versus HBO

News Brief : New Poster for The Walking Dead, and Game Of Thrones casts a major character

... New poster for The Walking Dead's fourth season. Showing off different range of weapons used by the characters, Rick's there with his revolver, Daryl's  with his trusted crossbow (dude's got that thing since Season One), Tyreese is wielding his hammer like he's Black Thor, while Michonne is swinging her katana while riding on a horse.

... Game of Thrones has cast Prince Oberyn Martell. Chilean actor Pedro Pascal who has appeared in The Good Wife and presently stars in Graceland, will play the brash, charismatic prince from Dorne who comes to King's Landing looking for bloodthirsty revenge?

... Happy Endings is "OFFICIALLY" officially canceled. After weeks of trying to find a new home for the show, Sony TV has given up, and the cast's contracts expire this weekend. After the show's axing at the hands of ABC, there was word that the comedy might be shipped off to a cable network like USA, TBS, or TNT. But USA passed, and no other networks stepped in to pick it up. Sad though, Happy Endings was the funniest Friends ripoff-inspired comedy since Ross and Rachel got married.


... The Once Upon a Time spinoff Once Upon a Time in Wonderland will be longer than expected. The series was originally conceived as a 13-episode miniseries, but now it's going to get extra episodes. How many? We don't know yet. 


... The Good Wife is upping its sexy factor with the addition of Hunted's Melissa George in a recurring role next season. George will play the in-house counsel of Governor Florrick. George also appeared in Grey's Anatomy and Alias.

... Beverly Hills, 90210 vet Brian Austin Green is joining FX's Anger Management as the nemesis to Charlie Sheen's character. 

... Lots of Glee cast members won't be returning to the series as credited regulars in Season 5. Heather Morris (Brittany), Mark Salling (Puck), Amber Riley (Mercedes), and Harry Shum Jr. (Mike) are all expected to see a lot less screen time next season. Same goes for Dianna Agron (Quinn)—though to be fair, Agron wasn't all that present in Season 4.

... Lost's vet, Rebecca Mader will guest-star on the upcoming final season of Syfy's Warehouse 13. The actress has an affinity for science-fiction shows, she's appeared in shows like No Ordinary Family, Fringe and Alphas. 

News Briefs: Game of Thrones Is the Most Pirated Show of the Season

... Congratulations, Game of Thrones! A lot of people are so addicted to you that they are willing to break the law to watch every one of your episodes. The HBO fantasy series was the most pirated show of the spring by a wide margin, averaging approximately 5.2 million illegal downloads per episode. That's almost the same number of people who watch the show legally—an estimated 5.5 million viewers. Rounding out the top 10 pirated shows of the season are The Big Bang Theory (2.9 million), How I Met Your Mother (2.85 million), The Walking Dead (2.7 million), Hannibal (2.1 million), Vikings (1.9 million), Arrow (1.85 million), The Vampire Diaries (1.8 million), Modern Family (1.75 million), and Revenge (1.7 million).


BUSINESS TIME
.... Under The Dome, CBS new summer show debuted to very impressive numbers, earning 3.2 ratings with 13 - 14 million viewers. Impressive numbers, ratings-wise and viewership-wise for a new summer show, they don't normally perform well outside of the Main TV season.

... Apparently AMC's Mad Men had an up-and-down season creatively, but when it comes to ratings, it was pretty much the same old, same old. Last night's Season 6 finale pulled in an audience of 2.7 million viewers, about the same as last season's (give or take a hundred thousand people), but it was just big enough for AMC to tout it as the highest-rated Mad Men finale ever.

... Lifetime debuted Devious Maids, a.k.a. Los Housewives Desperados, this past weekend and it did rather pedestrian in the ratings. Just 2 million people tuned in to watch the latest from Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry. Lifetime's top shows hover around the 3 million mark.

.... Stars has ordered "Battlestar Galactica" executive producer Ronald D. Moore's Outlander, based on Diana Gabaldon's bestselling books. The Outlander series follows Claire Randall, a married combat nurse from 1945 who is swept back to 1743, forced to marry Scottish warrior Jamie Fraser and finds herself torn between two times. The show's 16 episodes will begin filming in Scotland this fall and premiere next year.

CASTING NEWS
... Expect a very cranky American person to arrive at Downton Abbey. Legitimately great actor Paul Giamatti will drop by the fourth season of the PBS import as Harold Levinson, brother of Cora and uncle to Mary and Edith. His character is described as a maverick playboy, and will appear in the Season 4 finale next year.

... Hunky twins Charlie and Max Carver have been cast in the HBO pilot The Leftovers, the Rapture-themed drama from Lost's Damon Lindelof. The facsimiles, best known for playing the Scavo twins on Desperate Housewives, will play—you guessed it—twins who befriend the main character's daughter.

... Boardwalk Empire's Julianne Nicholson has landed the lead role on Sundance Channel's original drama The Descendants. A straight-to-series order for six episodes, The Descendants follows a sheriff who's struggling to prevent a small town and a Native American tribe from tearing each other apart. Nicholson, whose other credits include Law & Order: Criminal Intent and She will play the sheriff's boozing wife.

SAD NEWS
... Gary David Goldberg, the creator of Family Ties and Spin City, passed away on Sunday at the age of 68. The multiple-Emmy winner helped launch the careers of Michael J. Fox and Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence (Lawrence co-created Spin City with Goldberg). Goldberg's other credits in varying capacities included The Bob Newhart Show, Alice, Brooklyn Bridge, and The Tony Randall Show.

... Discovery Channel continued to look like a shell of its former self last night with a live broadcast of daredevil tightrope artist Nick Wallenda walking across the Grand Canyon on a two-inch wide high-wire with no harness and only Jesus to guide him along. And lots of people tuned in to watch him fall to his death (he made it safely to the other side)! The broadcast averaged 8.5 million viewers, but at its peak, 13 million viewers took a peak at the program, crushing everything on network television.

News Brief: James Gandolfini is Dead ,,,,, and other TV news.

SAD NEWS
Actor James Gandolfini, known for his iconic, Emmy-winning portrayal of one of television's most famous gangsters, Tony Soprano (in the series The Sopranos) has died at age 51. Early reports suggest that the cause of death is a massive heart attack; Gandolfini was in Italy at the time. Gandolfini's long and impressive resume includes roles both large and small in True Romance, Where The Wild Things Are, In the Loop, Zero Dark Thirty, and a host of other films. He is survived by his wife and two children.

LET THE LAUGHS BEGIN NEWS
... FX has ordered a new untitled comedy starring Martin Lawrence and Kelsey Grammer as mismatched lawyers who end up being buddies. The deal, dubbed a 10/90, is similar to the one FX struck with Anger Management; FX is asking for 10 episodes, and if those 10 episodes hit a certain target in the ratings department, FX will order 90 more episodes. FX has a similar deal with a new comedy starring George Lopez.

.... Community creator Dan Harmon has apologized for his comments about Community Season 4. Where he said that he watched the fourth season Community—the season he was not part of after his firing—and did not care for it. At all. In fact, he compared watching Season 4, specifically seeing James Brolin play Jeff's dad, to "being held down and watching your family get raped on a beach." And "flipping through Instagram just watching your girlfriend blow everyone." He apologized to fans, the Season 4 writers, and the cast and crew for his remarks, but did not mention Sony or Season 4 showrunners Moses Port and David Guarascio. He also acknowledged that he said what he said in a cheap attempt to get laughs and that his head "was up his ass."

BUSINESS TIME
.... Netflix has renewed the Eli Roth-helmed horror series Hemlock Grove for Season 2, ordering 10 episodes with a target launch date of 2014. The company has also announced that Charles H. Eglee will join the series as an executive producer and showrunner; Eglee's previous EP credits include The Walking Dead, Dexter, and The Shield.

... Singer John Legend won't let his dream of getting into the TV business die. After a few failed attempts at producing, Legend has a new project in the works at Showtime. The half-hour comedy would follow the lives of big-time music producers, and be loosely based on Legend's life, which probably involves all kinds of opulence and pretty ladies and man. Is this going to be similar to The Real Husbands of Hollywood (one of the best new comedy series this year), reality-show or scripted? We wait and see.

... Nashville music boss T Bone Burnett is leaving the series between seasons, and will hand over his post to Buddy Miller, Burnett's righthand man in Season 1. Burnett produced all the original tunes for the country-music drama and co-composed the score.

CASTING NEWS
... HBO's drama pilot The Leftovers has beefed up its cast with a rare bit of TV casting for one actress. Liv Tyler (that elf lady from Lord of the Rings, that daughter of that rock star) has joined the project, starring opposite Justin Theroux. The drama comes from Damon Lindelof and follows those left behind after the Rapture takes all the righteous away. Tyler, in her first major TV role, will play a woman who becomes the target of a cult.

... Oscar nominee John Hurt has joined FX's vampire pilot The Strain, from Carlton Cuse and Guillermo Del Toro. Hurt will play the owner of a pawn shop who may be the only one who knows what's going on with the sudden viral outbreak the show is built around. Corey Stoll and Mia Maestro were previously cast in the series.

... NBC's upcoming drama Believe is already changing things up. Sienna Guillory, originally cast as a series regular, will see her character written out of the show now that producers have decided on a new direction. In the J.J. Abrams-produced drama about a young woman named Bo with special abilities, Guillory's character was a professional goon attempting to kidnap her. But now several new bad guys will be written in with the hopes that one becomes a series regular.

... Desperate Housewives vet Doug Savant will guest-star on TNT's Rizzoli & Isles. He'll play a mock trial adviser in a September episode.

... Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane will lend his voice to Futurama's final season, and not for just any role; I'm talking about the character who owes me 10,000,000 tears. MacFarlane will voice Seymour, Fry's dog from 1999 who was the centerpiece of the series' masterpiece "Jurassic Bark." Listen for MacFarlane in the August 14 episode. [EW]

... The Veronica Mars movie will bring back New Girl star Max Greenfield as Deputy Leo. Basically, everyone who was originally part of Veronica Mars will be back for the movie.

FIRING NEWS

Following Charlie Sheen's weekend tantrum over his co-star Selma Blair, Blair has been canned from Anger Management. Sheen had threatened to quit the show if Blair wasn't fired after word got back to Sheen that Blair had been talking smack about his work ethic.

Shows: Canceled, Ended Renewed or Unknown

This is a sesasonal cumulative list of recent changes (not a full year).
However, please feel free to continue discussing and or posting/sharing information. If you see a show information page with outdated information (48 hours or more), please post it in the comments.

======================================================
Canceled, Ended, or Not Renewed
======================================================

1600 Penn
30 Rock
666 Park Avenue
90210
Alphas
Animal Practice
Beavis and Butt-head (The last episodes aired in December 2011 and there hasn't been any
...word about making more. I'm calling it Canceled)
Ben And Kate
Body Of Proof
Buckwild (Canceled one week after Shain Gandee's death)
Burn Notice (Final season to premiere June 2013)
CSI: NY
Cult
Damages
Deception
Dexter (final season to premiere June 2013)
Do No Harm
Don't Trust The B---- in Apartment 23
Emily Owens, M.D.
Eureka
Fairly Legal
Family Tools
Fringe
Futurama (the 13 remaining episodes will air summer 2013)
Go On
Golden Boy
Gossip Girl
Guys With Kids
Happy Endings
How To Live With Your Parents...
Last Resort
Made In Jersey
Malibu Country
Office, The
Partners
Private Practice
Red Widow
Rock Center with Brian Williams
Rules of Engagement
Smash
Southland
Spartacus
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
The Cleveland Show
The Mob Doctor
The New Normal
The Secret Life of the American Teenager
Touch
Tyler Perry's House of Payne
Up All Night
Vegas
Wedding Band
Weeds
Whitney
Zero Hour

======================================================
Renewed
======================================================
2 Broke Girls
American Dad
Arrow
Banshee
Beauty And The Beast
Blue Bloods
Bob's Burgers
Bones
Castle
Chicago Fire
Community
Cracked
Criminal Minds
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
Defiance
Elementary
Family Guy
Glee
Grey's Anatomy
Grimm
Hannibal
Hart Of Dixie
Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
How I Met Your Mother
Last Man Standing
Law and Order: Special Victims Unit
Mike & Molly
Modern Family
Nashville
NCIS
NCIS: Los Angeles
New Girl
Nikita (short season)
Once Upon A Time
Orphan Black
Parenthood
Parks and Recreation
Person Of Interest
Raising Hope
Revenge
Revolution (2012)
Saving Hope (Dropped by NBC, continuing on CTV)
Scandal
Suburgatory
Suits
Supernatural
The Big Bang Theory
The Carrie Diaries
The Following
The Good Wife
The Mentalist
The Middle
The Mindy Project
The Neighbors (2012)
The Simpsons
The Vampire Diaries
Two and a Half Men
Vikings

======================================================
Not Canceled or Renewed Yet
======================================================

Borgias
Duets
The Blue Rose

News Brief : Actress threatens Obama, High numbers for Game Of Thrones and Burn Notice season premiere

NUMBERS NEWS....
... "Game of Thrones" is being watched by a lot of people. But how many people? Enough to give it the second-biggest audience among original HBO series, according to a collection of data put together by someone. Across all platforms it's notching about 13.4 million viewers per episode this season, which stands just below the 14.4 million that watched "The Sopranos” in 2004.

... USA's "Graceland" premiered last week to decent numbers. The drama, about undercover agents from different government departments who live together in a safehouse, drew 3.3 million viewers despite going up against the NBA finals (go Spurs, or should I say, don't go Heat!) and having its pilot available online for a few weeks.
"Burn Notice's final-season premiere was up from last year, with 4.3 million viewers.

... FX has canceled "Brand X With Russell Brand”, but it hasn't done away with Russell Brand entirely. After realizing that letting Brand do a live, daily show wasn't working, FX has opted to use him elsewhere and ordered a Brand-starring pilot loosely based on Brand's life.

CASTING NEWS
... Leverage star and internet sensation Christian Kane will guest-star on TNT's upcoming drama King & Maxwell. Kane will play the brother of star Rebecca Romijn's character in Episode 6.

... Ernie Hudson, the black guy from Ghostbusters, is close to joining Frank Darabont's upcoming '50s cop drama Lost Angels. Hudson would play a mobster in the employ of Bugsy Siegel who owns a bunch of clubs.

... The upcoming movie Hot Tub Time Machine 2 will reunite a pair of "Community" actors, as Gillian Jacobs and Chevy Chase have both signed on to appear in the film. I'm sure everything will go great.

JENSEN ACKLES NEWS
... ”Supernatural's Jensen Ackles and his actress wife Danneel Harris (One Tree Hill) had a baby girl! And they named it Justice Jay Jensen. Congrats, guys.

BIZARRE NEWS
... An actress named Shannon Richardson who's played bit parts on The Walking Dead and The Vampire Diaries has been indicted for sending ricin-laced letters to President Barack Obama and New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg in May. The letters were full of pro-gun statements and threats to anyone who tried to take Richardson's guns away. A snippet from one of them: "Anyone who wants to come to my house will get shot in the face. The right to bear arms is my constitutional God given right and I will exercise that right till the day I die." Ricin, made famous by Breaking Bad's Walter White, is a deadly poison that's difficult to trace and takes a few days to kill those who come in contact with it. Small-time actress Richardson played a zombie on The Walking Dead.

News: Pilots, Casting and Finales

--- J.J. Abrams' production company Bad Robot is in the process of acquiring the rights to Stephen King's novel 11/22/63 with the idea of adapting it for television. In the book, an English teacher travels back in time to to 1958 to prevent the assassination of President John F. Kennedy by Lee Harvey Oswald.

--- AMC's "The Walking Dead" is tapping "The Wire" for another casting addition. Lawrence Gilliard, Jr., who played D'Angelo Barksdale in the HBO series, will play Bob Stookie in the zombie drama. The character will be quite different from the Bob Stookey in the comics, as Gilliard is much younger. "The Walking Dead" previously cast The Wire vet Chad Coleman as Tyreese.

--- FX has cast Corey Stoll as the lead in its upcoming vampire pilot "The Strain". Stoll played the substance-abusing and adulterous senator Peter Russo in the Netflix's "House of Cards". In "The Strain", he'll play a head of the CDC during a viral outbreak that smells like vampirism. Guillermo del Toro is on board as a director, writer, and producer, and Lost's Carlton Cuse is lined up as producer and showrunner if it goes to series.

... NBC made a few more scheduling decisions for its summer, with the highlight being a Sunday, June 23 launch for its new drama "Crossing Lines". The series stars William Fichter and Donald Sutherland as members of the International Criminal Court, a group that chases down international crooks who operate over multiple borders.

... AMC has ordered a pilot for "Line of Sight", a sci-fi thriller from "Brotherhood" creator Blake Masters. In "Line of Sight", a National Transportation Safety Board investigator survives a plane crash, and then his head nearly explodes from all the conspiracies that are involved in the accident.

OFFICE CLOSURE UPDATE
--- We now have some details on The Office series finale, so turn away if you want to avoid spoilers! Go ahead! Turn away! Set months after the end of the documentary project, the episode will feature a wedding that brings back past and present Dunder-Mifflin workers, including guest-stars Mindy Kaling, BJ Novak, Rachael Harris, Dakota Johnson, Joan Cusack, Ed Begley Jr., Malcolm Barrett, Matt Jones (Badger!), Andy Buckley, Mike Schur, and Bobby Ray Shafer. Steve Carell reportedly won't be there, but he's gotta be in this, right? The one-hour finale airs May 16. [THR]

AMC's Announcements today.

AMC, the Network that owns, Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead and Mad Men has made some announcements that arent about their 3 top shows.
Congratulations to Comic Book Men, Talking Dead, and Freakshow... you're all coming back for new seasons! That's a third season for Talking Dead and Comic Book Men, and a second season for Freakshow, the reality program

Congratulations to Comic Book Men, Talking Dead, and Freakshow... you're all coming back for new seasons! That's a third season for Talking Dead and Comic Book Men, and a second season for Freakshow, the reality program that follows a Venice Beach sideshow.

IN DEVELOPMENT
With Mad Men and Breaking Bad approaching their end dates, AMC opened up the cupboard and realized, "Uh-oh. We need some new shows." The network has put seven scripted series in development:

Ballistic City – A futuristic drama, Ballistic City is the story of a former cop thrust into the criminal underworld of a city housed in a generational spaceship destined for an unknown world.

King – In the early 1960s, Floridian King Carmichael sells his soul to a corrupt, racist political machine to win a seat in the Senate. Having run as a segregationist, he is then tapped by Lyndon B. Johnson to champion civil rights in the South.

Ashland – Set in 1950 in Ashland, a tiny mining town in Kentucky, the Evans family has just relocated from California and the matriarch, Del, must hide her family's secrets and find a way to support her three children at the height of the Red Scare.

White City – The drama series follows western diplomats and journalists living in Afghanistan.

Untitled Dahvi Waller Project – Set against the New York automobile industry of the 1920s, two brothers struggle to keep their family-run company afloat with a class-hopping Ziegfeld girl and the daughter of an English competitor blurring the line between love and business.

Untitled Tim Lea/Anonymous Content Project – In America's near future, one family is nearly torn apart in the conflict between a repressive government and the emerging movement for a second American Revolution.

The Wall – In 1960s Berlin, an American businessman becomes embroiled in a web of East-West espionage.

AMC is also beefing up its reality slate, putting three unscripted series into development. We may as well look at those while we're here:

Majority Rules – A docu-style, unscripted series that celebrates the American democratic process. At the most grassroots level, whether it's an election for president of the birdwatchers club or a small-town city council, it will take a lighthearted look at democracy at work as the candidates vie for votes, because in America, Majority Rules.

All-Star Celebrity Bowling – (Previously announced, from Talking Dead host Chris Hardwick's production company.) Take a guess!

Cancelled – A social experiment that will attempt to determine just how far people will really go for fame. Over the course of eight weeks, six households will be outfitted with cameras that will give them the chance to compete for ratings that will determine which household has the most-watched reality show.

Culled from TV.com

Doctor Who is Back........ Game of Thrones is back......... The Walking Dead season Finale...

DOCTOR WHO

The doctor is back, with a new companion, with new episodes for the season. This season promises to deliver on more excellent episodes. Expect old nemesis to return, Cybermen, Daleks. This is season is also special because its the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who.
Also confirmed to appear this season, or the season special, the "10th Doctor and Rose". Which isn't going to be till November.
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THE GAME OF THRONES

The fight for the "Iron Throne" is back, dragons, assassins, nightwatchers, starks, lannister, betrayal, lust, pride, imps. This season is going to be based on the first part of book 3 "A Storm of Swords" of the 7 book series "A Song of Ice and Fire".
Season 1 and 2 were based on Books 1 and 2 ( A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings) of the 7 book series, and following that format wouldn't be productive because the Books are right now at Book 5 ( A Dance with Dragons).
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The Walking Dead

The season finale is here. The showdown between Rick and The Governor continues and might be settled in the finale. But one thing this season has taught us, 'leadership aint easy', we've seen Rick with his back against the wall this season, having to make some tough decisions, for the benefit of the group. And this season, he isn't facing off against the "Dead", but rather the "Living", who can fight back, outnumber them, outgun them and more ruthless. The character of 'The Governor' has been a needed boom for the series, because he was the end product of what 'Shane' would have been had he survived and been the leader of the group.


Not to forget the Season 6 premiere of "Mad Men" and new series "Orphan Black"

So, that's all for new series to watch out for this weekend, more series are airing new episodes this week after taking breaks off, we expect to see season finales for Justified and Comic Book Men. Series premiere for "Hannibal" is this week, from the trailers, this looks like a good series to watch out for, networks answer to HBO's successful "Dexter".