This just in from Mike Ausiello, stationed at the TCA winter press tour: NBC announced on Wednesday that Heroes, My Name Is Earl, The Office and Law & Order: SVU have each been renewed for another season. For more on that as well as the fates of Friday Night Lights and Studio 60, and the status of the SVU stars' contract talks, click over to the Ausiello Report.
The first season of Prison Break, which returns from hiatus on Monday, detailed the breakout, while the current season concerns our fugitives' race for freedom. What, then, would Season 3 be about? To hear series star Dominic Purcell tell it... well, no one knows. "Prison Break originally was a concept for two seasons," he says in the New York Post. "Now, because of its success and economics, the writers have to get really creative to justify a Season 3." One thing Purcell is (relatively) sure about: "I've been told that the conspiracy [that framed Lincoln for murder] ends this year." Indeed, judging by Monday's episode, which I am just about done watching, it would almost have to....
Did you know that America Ferrera wasn't the first choice to play Ugly Betty? Neither did she, apparently. Ferrera has Maria Menounos to thank for bringing the slight to her attention, mere seconds after she grabbed her Golden Globe. While backstage witnesses tell the New York Post's Page Six that show producers grew "antsy" watching Menounos orchestrate such awkward moments, a rep for the Greek goddess says the talk "is not true." Adds Globes exec producer Barry Adelman, "We were very pleased to have Maria as a correspondent. She did a great job."
Friday's premiere of Jump In roped in an audience of 8.2 million total viewers, making it Disney Channel's most-watched telecast ever, even surpassing the previous benchmark (7.8 mil) set by High School Musical. That same night's debut of Cory in the House, meanwhile, drew 7.6 million, making it basic cable's second-most-watched program of the day, behind Jump In.
Per the Hollywood Reporter, Oscar winner Gwyneth Paltrow has joined the cast of Iron Man, playing Virginia "Pepper" Potts, the personal assistant to the title charcter's alter ego, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.).... Per Variety, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and General Zod himself, Terence Stamp, are set to join Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway in Get Smart, playing Agent 23 and a villain, respectively.
Rachael Ray has been renewed for two more batches, through the 2009-10 season. I'm a Giada man myself.... Norman Lear's Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman: Volume One arrives as a three-disc DVD on Mar. 27.... Per Reuters, ESPN has tapped Mike & Mike in the Morning hosts Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic to serve as its Arena Football League announcing team. (Arena football is back? Have I been under a rock?)
In his first one-on-one interview since the early-October incident on the Grey's Anatomy set, and since he publicly came out, T.R. Knight reveals on Wednesday's The Ellen DeGeneres Show that cast mate Isaiah Washington was (badly) lying at Monday night's Golden Globes.Recalling Washington's original verbal clash with Patrick Dempsey, Knight says the former "referred to me as a f----t," and loud enough for everyone to overhear. "I could've just let it slide and not said anything," Knight tells DeGeneres during the must-see sit-down, "but it became important," as word spread and the press latched on. Three months later, Washington tried to whitewash what was said, while backstage at the Globes. "Yeah, he denied that he said it," Knight marvels. "I don’t know what to say, really, about that." Well, our Mike Ausiello does, and he says it in this week's Ask Ausiello.
Isaiah Washington, who backstage at the Golden Globes made some sort of bid to set the record straight about what he did or did not call T.R. Knight during the infamous October on-set fracas, may have only dug himself in deeper — at the very least with another Grey's Anatomy cast mate, Katherine Heigl. Speaking to Access Hollywood after his latest spiel, Washington reiterated, "There is no way I could do anything so vile" as calling another person the F-word.Heigl, though, says Washington's revisiting of the incident — complete with uttering the epithet — hurt Knight, who was also in the press room at the time. "I'm going to be really honest right now. [Isaiah] needs to just not speak in public. Period," the actress tells Access Hollywood in an interview airing Tuesday. "That did not need to be said, I’m not OK with it. Drawing attention to it and saying the word again is just unnecessary."
What, no Jonathan and Victoria? Nope. CBS has announced the competitors for its all-star edition of The Amazing Race, and the nastiest piece of work in reality-TV history and his wife/emotional punching bag aren't among them. Ah, well — guess this means we'll just have to root against perpetual villains/reality whores Boston Rob Mariano and his missus, Amber. Among the other globe-trotting teams: frat boys Kevin O'Connor and Drew Feinberg; Season 7 winners/saints Uchenna and Joyce Agu; open-hearted coal miner David Conley and his wife, Mary; little person Charla Baklayan and her cousin, Mirna Hindoyan; and AARP poster kids Teri and Ian Pollack. The season kicks off on Feb. 18. On your marks, get set... call me when they're down to the final three teams.Tuesday's Today's News column was written by Ben Katner
At Wednesday's Television Critics Association press-tour session, NBC is expected to announce that it will add a fourth hour to Today. (Isn't it already 12 hours long?) Although the third hour performs well for the Peacock network, a fourth is likely to be a tough sell in many markets, since it would cost affiliates an hour of local advertising at midday and is expected to include Access Hollywood's Billy Bush.
Although we took Paula Abdul's off-the-charts wiggy appearance on a Seattle morning news show as confirmation that the American Idol judge was off her rocker, Fox has issued a statement to the contrary. "All of us at Fox have tremendous respect and admiration for Paula Abdul," the mash note reads. "Last week, during a satellite press tour, there were intermittent technical difficulties, including severe audio issues in which multiple stations were speaking to her at once. Rather than getting angry about these difficulties, or stopping the tour, Paula forged ahead and decided to have fun with the increasingly challenging situation. Unfortunately, because reporters and viewers were unaware of the situation, her humor was misconstrued." Mm, no. We think we got the joke.
It's official: This is what Friends are for. Jennifer Aniston will guest on the March 27 season finale of Courteney Cox's FX series Dirt, Variety reports. The actress formerly known as Rachel Green will play a rival of Cox's tabloid editor.... Who better than Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, to guest on a show called In Case of Emergency? Randolph Mantooth, you say? OK, but he just wasn't right for the part of David Arquette's mother. Instead, Jane Seymour has been tapped to appear in three episodes. Actually, come to think of it, Jane's not right for that part, either. I'm seeing Shirley Jones.
ABC has ordered pilots for X-Men director Bryan Singer's Dirty Sexy Money, described as "Dynasty meets Six Feet Under," and Judy's Got a Gun, about a single-mom detective solving crimes in suburbia. Please, please, please cast Gail O'Grady! C'mon, we said please.
In the Feb. 15 episode of Ugly Betty, wardrobe mistress Christina is tapped to design a dress for a "name" celebrity. Alas, a blizzard keeps her from her fabric suppliers, and she has only 12 hours to complete her assignment. What does the resourceful lass do? She uses office supplies to construct the gown. (Clearly, somebody's been watching Project Runway.) Moreover, apparently assuming that we don't always use our own office supplies for strictly work-related projects, ABC.com is offering Betty fans a chance to create the, ahem, imaginative frock that will be featured in the episode. The winning entry scores its designer a trip for two to L.A. Dibs on the Liquid Paper!
During HBO's portion of the TCA Tour, it was announced that The Sopranos and Entourage will both return on April 8. Sopranos creator David Chase will write and direct the last of his mob hit's final nine episodes. In related news, Sopranos star James Gandolfini is producing a documentary for HBO in which he interviews wounded soldiers. The special, whose working title is Alive Day: Home from Iraq, is scheduled to premiere on July 4.
In the current issue of Newsweek, assistant managing editor Mark Miller writes that the magazine obtained a copy of "The Night in Question," the crucial chapter of O.J. Simpson's aborted tell-all in which he revealed how he hypothetically would have massacred his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman. "In his crude, expletive-laced account, Simpson suggests Nicole all but drove him to kill her," Miller writes, by coming at him like a "banshee" after he showed up at her condo with a knife to scare her. And Goldman? Miller relates that the other victim enraged the disgraced footballer by assuming a karate stance. In related news, Simpson insists to the Associated Press that the chapter is "a fictional creation. It has so many [factual] holes in it." And he oughta know.
Farscape, I got. Farscape, I liked. Farscape, I miss. But Stargate SG-1? Um, no. Nonetheless, MGM Television has given the green light to a pair of TV-movies based on its hit sci-fi series. The first, Stargate: The Ark of Truth, will wrap up the main story line from the show's last two seasons. The second, Stargate: Continuum, will kick off a new adventure. On board are leads Amanda Tapping, Christopher Judge and Michael Shanks, and Farscape alumni Ben Browder and Claudia Black. I'll say it again: Farscape, I miss.
First, Miss Nevada was exposed as an Internet porn queen, then Miss USA herself got spanked for underage drinking. Now Miss New Jersey, aka Ashley Harker, has decided to give up her tiara because she is pregnant by her live-in boyfriend, she tells the Philadelphia Daily News. In her stead, the Turnpike State will be represented in March's Miss USA pageant by runner-up Erin Abrahamson, whose shellacked bangs suddenly seem quaint rather than scandalous.Tuesday's Today's News column was written by Ben Katner
This just in, 99-percent live per the Ausiello Report: ABC prez Steve McPherson revealed on Sunday at the TCA Winter Press Tour that the remaining, unaired episodes of Day Break will be posted at ABC.com by the end of February, at the latest. For more on that, plus Dancing with the Stars scoop and McPherson's take on Lost's season-to date, go here. Also, Ausiello is blogging live from the Lost press session right now, 2 pm/EST. Click and refresh like a madman!
Paul McCartney and Mariah Carey are the biggies being bandied about as possible special guests on the about-to-launch sixth season of American Idol. "Nothing's locked," executive producer Cecile Frot-Coutaz tells the Associated Press, referring to the former Beatle. "We've had discussions with him over the years. It's always a matter of making it work." The show's inside line on Mimi, meanwhile, is her good pal Randy Jackson. Recalling last season's surprise showing by The Purple One, Frot-Coutaz says, "The fact we can get Prince is a real tribute to the show. Who knows who we can get?"The only scary thought about Paul swinging by is, what, would it be for a "Wings' Greatest Hits" theme week? Or, "Say, Say, Say"?
Law & Order's latest bit of headline-ripping will dramatize the Nov. 1 murder of actress Adrienne Shelly, whose credits included a guest-star gig on the serial back in 2000. According to the New York Post, a casting call is out for a male Hispanic, age 19 to 24, to play an illegal immigrant who argues with a Manhattan woman. When the woman is knocked unconscious, the man, thinking he may have killed her, tries to cover up the incident by making it look like a suicide — the same circumstances of Shelly's own death. Asked for comment by the Post, an NBC rep defended the show as fiction, and declined to offer details on the episode, which could air as early as February..
We have breaking news about, and not from, Holly Ellenbogen: A CBS spokesperson confirms that Lucy Punch, who played The Class' high-strung news anchor, is leaving the series. In a statement released to TVGuide.com, the freshman sitcom's executive producers explain, "Due to creative changes, Lucy Punch is no longer a cast member. She is a superb actress and did a fabulous job. We hope to work with her again in the near future."I guess this is what Jason Ritter meant when he told me they were "reworking some things" with Punch's character, though Holly's "colorful" hubby, played by Sam Harris, will apparently stick around.