Stephanie Niznik

CW at TCA: Sophomore Success?

• Jul 20, 2007 07:58 PM ET
• by Matt Roush

It took a year, but the CW (the network cobbled together from the ashes of the WB and UPN) is finally starting to look like a real network, albeit one aggressively and obsessively focused on the 18-34 youth market. Which no doubt is causing more than a few existential crises among those longtime vets of the TCA press tour who said goodbye to that demo a while ago.Dawn Ostroff, the network’s relentlessly perky entertainment president, took a “no regrets” approach to her upbeat presentation Friday morning. She’s serious about tapping into trends with her programming and with various online/digital offshoots (especially where the new teen soap Gossip Girl is concerned), but otherwise, there’s something kind of refreshing about a network that doesn’t take itself too seriously.There was loud laughter in the room during clips of the CW’s various lightweight reality shows, including a first look at the new twist on guilty-pleasure fave Beauty and the Geek... read more

Everwood, Deadwood Stars Each Find a New Life

• Jul 5, 2007 12:56 PM ET
• by Matt Mitovich

Let the fall-season recasts continue. Stephanie Niznik, best known to TV fans as Everwood's Nina, is taking over the role of the wife/mother on the CW's Life Is Wild, replacing Judith Hoag (who played the part in the pilot). Just last week, the family patriarch was recast with Hidden Palms' D.W. Moffett.Also per the Hollywood Reporter, Brent Sexton (aka Deadwood's Harry Manning) has been added to the series-regular cast of the new NBC drama Life, playing the former partner of Damian Lewis' wrongfully imprisoned and now back-on-the-force lawman. read more

May 3, 2007: The Other Side of This Life

• May 4, 2007 11:38 AM ET
• by Dave Anderson

Raise your hand if you're already hooked. Shonda, you have just sold me on Grey's 2.0, or what you are currently planning on calling it: Private Practice. I can't imagine ABC not picking the show up for the fall. To make this easier for me to write, but more importantly, to give it a more reader-friendly approach, I'd like to split this in two. I'll get to my comments on the very well-executed Kate Walsh pilot later. First, let's talk about Grey's...I. GREY'S ANATOMYWhen I heard that Meredith was going to be experiencing another family death, my initial thought was Thatcher, but then I felt that it would be silly to kill off her father right after her mother. When her step mom Susan (Mare Winningham) showed up again at Seattle Grace, this time with perpetual hiccups she claimed were due to her acid reflux, I agreed with Meredith and Thatcher. I figured Susan was faking it as an excuse for Thatcher to spend needed quality time with his daughter. As Susan kept returning with worse sym... read more

Oh, my fellow Everwood lover, ...

• Mar 29, 2006 04:00 AM ET
• by Michael Ausiello

Question: Oh, my fellow Everwood lover, let us count the ways we love it! I can't believe how much I've missed it.

Answer: Monday's two-hour was damn-near unbelievable, no? (Sadly, the ratings were just so-so.) And in case you didn't figure it out, it was the second scene between Jake and Nina that made my tear ducts burst. I know we're supposed to be rooting for Andy-Nina, but there's something about Jake-Nina that brings out the hopeless romantic in me. I blame Stephanie Niznik and Scott Wolf. They have no business being so damn good together. No business at all.

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