My loyalties are so divided on Friday nights. I want ABC’s so-so new crime drama Women’s Murder Club to do well enough to bring some much-needed eyeballs to the charming romantic comedy Men in Trees, which finally returns from a cruel nearly eight-month hiatus. With James Patterson’s name as a selling point for Murder Club (though he’s not writing this series any more than he appears to be penning half of the books that go out with co-writers’ names on his ubiquitous book jackets), the show certainly has a shot at commercial success, even on a night that’s widely considered a graveyard. Remember: This same night, and this same time period (9 pm/ET), is where the original CSI launched to even less fanfare, and the rest is TV history.But I also don’t want anything to take audience away from Murder Club’s competition, most notably NBC’s ever-fragile Friday Night Lights, which offers another superb episode this week. Even if like many observe...
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The latest word on who's doing which pilots, per the Hollywood Reporter and Variety:• But what about Nikki emerging later this season as an "iconic" character?! Lost's Kiele Sanchez has a second-position gig lined up for the fall, playing the pregnant wife of a rising star in ABC's Football Wives.• Julianna Margulies has the lead, playing an edgy defense attorney, in Fox's Canterbury's Law.• Playing one of NBC's Nurses, Less Than Perfect's Sara Rue is a married woman who (gasp!) frequents online dating sites.• Frances O'Connor (Mansfield Park) is an investment banker in ABC's Cashmere Mafia.• Aubrey Dollar (Point Pleasant) is a crime reporter in ABC's Women's Murder Club.• Jaime Murray (Hustle) has joined CBS' Demons.• Glenn Fitzgerald is a minister with secrets in ABC's Dirty Sexy Money, starring fellow Six Feet Under alum Peter Krause.• Jonathan Cake (Six Degrees) is (are?) identical twin brothers in NBC's The Mastersons of Manhattan.
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