On Wednesday night, CW's top-rated series, America's Next Top Model, showed double-digit growth last season and was the No. 1 show in its time slot with women 18-34. Next season, America's Next Top Model will stay in its 8-9 pm berth, followed by the new drama Gossip Girl from 9-10 pm. From The O.C. producers Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, Gossip Girl is based on the best-selling young-adult book series of the same name. The show features an ensemble cast of new and veteran actors, including Blake Lively (The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants) and Leighton Meester (Surface), and chronicles the struggle for social supremacy among teens in a posh Manhattan prep school. The fun, sexy and dramatic hour is a perfect companion piece for Top Model's strong female audience, making Wednesday "Girls Night In" on The CW. On Thursday — television's most competitive night — Smallville and Supernatural deliver a solid mix of male and female viewers. On Friday, the wildly popular ...
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Today is not only the start of February but of February sweeps. You know what that means: a repeat-free zone for at least the next four weeks. (Then comes Mar. 1, and you know what that means: Unless you're 24, Lost or Jericho, which will be all-new to the end of their respective seasons, it's a mixed bag of new and old episodes, plus the chaos of rejiggered schedules to make room for mid-season tryouts. But we'll cross that bridge later.)For now, before we start the sweeps march, I want to reflect on Wednesday's highlights. (I'll catch up with Bones later, with a preview of next week's episode next Wednesday. That's a promise to that show's loyal and vocal fan base.)Is there any show that lifts and breaks the heart more regularly and memorably than Friday Night Lights? The quiet poignancy of Tim Riggins reuniting with his estranged dad (Brett Cullen playing his second memorable Texan of the season, after his guest shot as a laid-back mogul wooing and loosening up Vanessa Williams o...
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The Ausiello Report scooped on Monday afternoon that Ugly Betty's Brett Cullen has been cast as Tim Riggins' estranged dad on Friday Night Lights. Click here for a bit more.... Comedienne/Biggest Loser host Caroline Rhea and Sam Huntington (Superman Returns' Jimmy Olsen) have joined the cast of Fox's Two Dreadful Children, voicing the mother and one of the twins, respectively.... Brittany Ishibashi, a guest star on this week's The Office, has joined the cast of the Lifetime pilot The Madness of Ava, starring Ever Carradine as a "female House."
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Brett Cullen (aka Wilhelmina's beau on Ugly Betty) has been cast as Riggins' estranged pa on Friday Night Lights. As I first reported in Ask Ausiello last week, Tim tracks down his father to settle a pending legal issue, and the two forge an unexpected bond. Pretty fraktastic casting, IMHO. You guys agree?
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If Murphy Brown and Ally McBeal had a baby, she'd probably resemble the title character of WB's new Pepper Dennis (premiering tonight at 9 pm/ET). But as pretty as series star Rebecca Romijn may be, the top story here, in this intrepid reporter's opinion at least, may be Brooke Burns, cast against type as the sexy newscaster's wholesome sister, Kathy.
TVGuide.com: I have to say — and I hope this doesn't forfeit me any dinner invites from Rebecca Romijn — you are the most fun thing about this show.
Brooke Burns: Oh, stop! You say that to all the nurses! [Laughs]
TVGuide.com: No, really! What a fun role for you.
Burns: It's such a great role, is
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