Chuck's Vik Sahay with Joshua Gomez, Julia Ling and Zachary Levi
Chuck's hard-earned and well-deserved renewal did come with a small price. NBC's action-comedy now needs to be a leaner, mean kung fu-fighting machine. Will that bit of belt-tightening result in less of the Buy More crowd?
Vik Sahay, who plays Buy More employee Lester, tackles that question in his TVGuide.com video Q&A — but his outlook is far from bleak.
Other topics covered include:
• Who gave Vik the good news about Chuck's pick-up, and how did he react?
• Why does Chuck strike such an emotional chord with viewers?
• What was Vik's take on the season finale's game-changing twist?
• Will Sarah leave the Orange Orange to sell subs for Subway? And might Lester be at her side?
• And, as detailed in this TVGuide.com news story, Sahay surveys the outside chance that Chuck could return to our screens sooner than March 2010.
Watch and discuss the video after the jump.
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Chuck
As if their recent all-3-D episode wasn't exciting enough, Chuck creators Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak hinted at big twists in the show's finale and next season.
Schwartz said the end of the season would be "game changing" for Chuck and his crew.
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Yvonne Strahovski
Last week, Chuck's future took a detour when he felt compelled to take one for Team USA and put the kibosh on his simmering romance with Sarah. This Monday at 8 pm/ET, NBC's Chuck delves into the past, shedding light on how a decidedly awkward teen known as "Jenny Burton" came to be the sexy and savvy CIA agent we know today. Yvonne Strahovski gave us a look at the illuminating episode, which includes a literally kick-ass fight scene with guest star Nicole Richie.
TVGuide.com: I have to be honest. You're beautiful and sexy, Yvonne, but with the "Jenny Burton" wig and braces … not so much.
Yvonne Strahovski: Oh, you've seen it? I'm just walking over right now to the cast and crew screening. I loved doing that episode. The braces really brought me back to my childhood.
TVGuide.com: Were you an "awkward" teen?
Get the surprising answer to that and many more questions, after the jump.
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Nicole Richie by Dana Edelson/NBC Photo
New mom Nicole Richie isn't just all about walks in the park with baby Harlow, or sashaying down red carpets or even shopping. In fact, The Simple Life alumna's making a return to TV as a guest on Chuck this fall. Richie's guest role will be that of a snarky, mean girl who was cruel to Yvonne Strahovski's character, Sarah Walker, in high school. Walker has to face her former torturer for a mission at her 10-year high school reunion, with Chuck as her date.Exec producer Josh Schwartz sang the praises of Richie, and made sure we knew she had to try out and everything: "Nicole auditioned for the part and was very funny. This role is a great opportunity for her to show off her comedic skills and...kick some butt." Comedic skills? Kicking butt? Could this be a Nicole we've never really seen before — or expert directing? — Anna DimondUse our Online Video Guide to see some of Richie's other appearances.
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Alex O'Loughlin and Yvonne Strahovski by Alexandra Wyman/WireImage.com
It's Thursday night and the party celebrating TV Guide's Sexiest Stars issue is just starting to clear out. Settling down into a vacated plush couch across from the sushi bar, for the first time in, oh, six hours I am off my feet. What a time! Katsuya and S Bar here at Hollywood and Vine was chock full of pretty — and that was even before I discovered the whole other room in the back! The turnout was terrific. You had a nearly full House (cast), a bazillion Dancing stars (past and present), Chuck and "Sarah" and, yes, Alex O'Loughlin. TV Guide's Sexiest Woman on TV 2008, Jennifer Love Hewitt, put in an early appearance, entirely earning her honor in a super-shimmery shape-hugging silver shift (is what I think the ladies call it). While the memories of my countless laps around the party crowd are still fresh (and only moderately fogged by vodka and tonic), let me do my best to take you inside the Sexiest night of TV's year.• The red carpet has just barely been unfurled an...
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After way too long a wait, Chuck returned with two new episodes tonight. Why they were on a Thursday and separated by a part as mysterious as the one in Donald Trump's hair is beyond me, but hey, I'll take what I can get!First up, we got a glimpse of Casey like we've never seen him: a besotted romantic. As Chuck proclaimed, "It's alive!" So what, or who, had Casey smiling, for a change? A Russian photojournalist named Ilsa, who moments after receiving a necklace from him, walked into a bomb. Poor Casey...his flashback on it was heartbreaking. Not a minute later, Chuck flashes on the mother lode of Intersect info: a cache of Russian weapons dealers all staying at a local hotel. But also in the bunch? Casey's lost love. And she's the guest of honor as the bride-to-be of the big baddie. Poor, poor Casey.Chuck was the perfect blend of nosy and nice, helping (or so he thought)Casey win back his lady. But then Chuck discovered something else about Ilsa: she was actually a spy herself on a...
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The good news is NBC ordered "the back nine" to round out a full season pick-up of our favorite nerd-turned-spy. The bad news is Chuck goes on hiatus after tonight. And right after such an evil cliffhanger!Tonight Chuck stumbled upon a counterfeiter who was posing as a humanitarian hosting a charity fundraiser. The mission to infiltrate his operation at the yacht club was scuttled by the tension between Chuck and Sarah, so Plan B was put into effect: Sarah would seduce the man to get the info they needed. This did not sit well with Chuck, and he did not hide that fact at all, so when his flash intel seemed to be wrong, they blamed it on his jealousy and they were all kicked off the case. But Morgan and Anna managed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time: namely on a cruise with her parents on the very boat the counterfeiter planned to blow up to destroy the printing plates he had used for the funny money. Chuck convinced Sarah of the danger, Casey joined them at the marina, and ...
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Yet another jam-packed episode! This one promised to hold a lot of answers, but it seems to have opened up just as many new questions along the way. We might know a bit more about why Bryce destroyed the Intersect, but we found out about a new secret group of agents with their own agenda. And where do Sarah's loyalties and feelings lie now?So, what was on Chuck's plate this Thanksgiving? Unfortunately a not-so-dead duck by the name of Bryce Larkin. Not that there would have been a good time to tell him, but Sarah drops that little bombshell on him at a really bad time: right as Chuck's hopes are at their highest. Next thing Chuck knows, he is face to face with his former friend speaking Klingon. This was certainly not one of Chuck's better holidays....How exactly did Bryce return from the dead? Even he did not know how, but he knew why: Bryce was not rogue after all, but sent on a mission by a secret group within the CIA called Fulcrum, and they saved Bryce believing he was the Inte...
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Adam Baldwin, Chuck
While Zachary Levi's unlikely spy tries to make the best of an impossible situation – none to easy when your CIA handler is as smokin' as Sarah! – it's up to Adam Baldwin's Casey to keep everyone in line and on target. The Firefly alum gave TVGuide.com a sneak peek at what's ahead on NBC's buzzworthy Chuck (airing Mondays at 8 pm/ET). Plus, what is Zachary Levi really like when the cameras stop rolling?
TVGuide.com: It's nice to see Chuck ticking back up in the ratings.Adam Baldwin: Yeah, yeah, I mean we have really tough competition on Monday nights. The sports guys [watching Monday Night Football], hopefully they'll be finding us [when the NFL season is over]. So we're all full of high hopes. And then… there's the writers strike.
TVGuide.com: And then there's the writers strike. How many episodes did you get done?Baldwin: We will complete the initial order of 13. They banged out Episode
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Is it just me, or are these episodes getting better every week? The writing is top-notch, the storylines are deliciously deep and complex and the humor is right there. Each Monday I think it can't get any better, and then I am happily and pleasantly surprised.So what happened tonight? Chuck seemed to have everything going his way: A beautiful "normal" woman (returning guest star Rachel Bilson) was interested in him... really interested, as the sweaty homage to Titanic illustrated. But the Intersect in his brain had to go and ruin it all. He flashed on the name of Lou's smuggler ex-boyfriend, and that lead to a downward spiral of mistake after mistake. He was ordered to wear a wire on a date with Lou to try to get some info, and he was so busy trying to do that that he ended up ignoring Lou. Sarah showing up didn't help either.Chuck managed to make it up to her with a sexy sandwich order and a bouquet of Gerber daisies, but the intel he gathered the previous night ended up being comp...
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