ABC's Modern Family might look a bit different when the clan returns tonight at 9/8c. "Lily gained about 700 pounds," says Jesse Tyler Ferguson, who plays Mitchell, one of the tot's adoptive pops. "OK, I'm exaggerating. But it's amazing how much she's grown in such a short amount of time." He could easily be describing the show itself. In a mere year, the hilarious and unabashedly emotional family comedy has ...
Lost's J.J. Abrams is returning to TV with the fall's most-buzzed about new show, Fringe (premieres Tuesday, Sep. 9 at 9 pm/ET, Fox). Even, so, Abrams says he's a little nervous. We chatted with Abrams about how he handles the pressure, his strong female characters, and exploration strange new worlds on Fringe and his upcoming big-screen take on Star Trek. TV Guide: Everybody is talking about Fringe. Are you feeling the pressure? J.J. Abrams: I feel the pressure every time. I felt it on Felicity, on Alias, on Lost, and I feel it on Fringe. It goes with the territory. But I'm far more excited about people seeing it than I am nervous that they may not like it. TV Guide: What can you tell us about it?Abrams: I don't want to give away too much.
Lost's breathtaking finale will no doubt have fans feverishly dissecting its innumerable puzzles until the show returns in early 2009. (Read our recap and weigh in with your thoughts!) Locke (aka Jeremy Bentham) is in the coffin?! What "very bad things" happened after the Oceanic 6 left the island?? How in Jacob's name is Ben gonna help all of them — plus Locke! — get back there??? And exactly where did the former Others ringleader and that wacky frozen device move the island to? But at least one major character's fate was definitively sealed with the close of Season 4 when Michael (Harold Perrineau), the suicidal castaway — and father to "real big" mystery boy Walt — perished aboard the fiery
Harold Perrineau is back on the island — and ready to talk about why he left. "It only goes about five feet deep," Harold Perrineau says, nodding in the direction of the swimming pool in his backyard. "If I stand in it, part of me's still above water." From the hint of relief in his voice, you'd think a shallow pool was a major selling point when Perrineau bought the unassuming Los Angeles home more than a year ago. You wouldn't be entirely wrong. As the T-shirt- and jeans-clad actor, 44, settles onto a sofa in the family room, he admits he's not a big water guy. He doesn't swim and he's prone to seasickness. So it's not hard to imagine Perrineau's anxiety when he found out his hotly anticipated return to Lost (Thursdays at 9 pm/ET, ABC) would take place on a ship in the vast Pacific. "My first day it was like, jump in a speedb
Who would have imagined that Survi­vor could still surprise us? Yet its 16th edition, Micronesia: Fans vs. Favorites (Thursdays at 8 pm/ET, CBS; see programming note below) — which finds notable former players alongside a group of ardent devotees — has proven refreshingly unpredictable. According to host Jeff Probst, the twists just keep on comin': "Mark my words. There's so much crazy stuff to come — the kind that producers pray to the real­ity gods for." Here's an exclusive peek at the whiplash headed your way. (Lots of spoilers ahead!) Jonathan Penner is forced to leave the game — and he's not alone! A nasty gash on his right leg that Jonathan sustained during a chal­lenge in the March 6 episode grows increasingly infected, ultimately forc­ing the prickly playe
"It's no shock to say that Season 4 ends with the Oceanic 6 getting off the island," Lost executive producer Damon Lindelof shares with TV Guide. "The real mystery is how, and what they have to sacrifice, and what happens to the people who didn't leave. You get all that this year." Sounds good, we'll take it. But what other intel are producers willing to spill? To find out, we turned to no, not viewers but to Lost cast members themselves for their own burning questions. Warning! The producers' answers could cause a major head rush, if not a full-on Desmond-style time jump. Jorge Garcia (Hurley): "Is Ben in the coffin?"Carlton Cuse: Come on, Jorge!Damon Lindel
TV Guide got the details on Lost's (Thursdays, 9 pm/ET, ABC) fresh faces. KEN LEUNG "Miles": Lost executive pro­ducers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse created the role of Miles specifically for New York City native Ken Leung after catching his live-wire performance as Uncle Junior's unstable protégé in The Sopranos last year. Before signing on to the super-secret ABC series, though, the actor — who also played the porcupine-esque Kid Omega in X-Men: The Last Stand — called up Cuse and attempted to pry some info out of him. "After our conversation," Leung admits, "I was still more or less blind." Allow us to fine-tune the picture: Miles, like The Sopranos' Carter, is a hothead, but he's a uniquely gifted one. "He's after something he can g
Check out the stats for Survivor: Micronesia's (premieres Thursday, Feb. 7, at 8 pm/ET on CBS) competitors, and hear what host Jeff Probst has to say about each one! First, a few faves meet their matches... The FlirtsParvati Shallow and Mary SartainIf out-flirting were part of the Survivor creed, Parvati Shallow, 25, would've walked away from the Cook Islands a million bucks richer. And as far as real estate company owner Mary Sartain, 29, is concerned, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. "Parvati's probably my favorite Survivor player," Sartain says. "I admire the way she worked the guys. I'm a pretty big flirt myself." Still, this time around, Shallow claims she's got a less shallow strategy in mind — sort of. "I've grown up a lot," she claims. "I want to make smart alliances. Some that might surprise you.
Who’s going to win? Jeff Probst helps us rate China's (Thursdays, 8 pm/ET, CBS) final five. ToddWe Say: The Utah-based flight attendant, 22, may be a little guy, but he's had the biggest impact on this season's game. He's smart, strategic and as cutthroat as Richard Hatch. But has he made too many enemies?Jeff Probst Says: "Todd has been exciting to watch because he gets such joy out of playing the game. He's loving this manipulative adventure he's on, and he's good at it. But it's always fun to be the person in charge of giving the blind side to somebody until you get to the final tribal council and they're sitting on the jury. Todd's gotta let other people get credit for making moves if he wants a chance to convince people he's worthy [of winning]."Odds:
"A guy who loves a girl wants to be left alone to make pies but can't because of the situa­tion he's in." So star Lee Pace explains his surreal new ABC series Pushing Daisies (Wednesdays, 8 pm/ET, ABC). For those who have yet to cultivate a Dai­sies crush, the situation is this: Pace's character, Ned, a lonely pie baker, can bring the dead back to life with a touch — but can also kill with one more. Which kinda throws a kink into romancing Chuck (Anna Friel), the childhood sweetheart he's resurrected from the grave. Here's a primer to ABC's promising freshman fantasy. 1. Daisies bloomed out of a never-realized storyline for Show­time's Dead
When it comes to Survivor (Thursdays, 8 pm/ET, CBS), a memorable Tribal Council requires more than just a good torch-snuffing. The set can pack a visual wallop, too. Production designer Jesse Jensen has outdone himself for Survivor: China with a 60-foot-high, three-story temple inspired by the country's traditional, vibrantly hued places of worship. The ambitious project took 57 workers seven weeks of 12-hour days in sweltering humidity to build. Not to mention 20 tons of steel framing, 8 tons of concrete and 400 sheets of tim­ber shipped in from Russia and milled in Shanghai before being driven seven hours to the remote building site. Here, Jensen gives us an exclusive tour of the Tribal set. The ivory pen used by the Survivors to cast their votes was molded from an uncon­ventional source: an opium pipe. The urn where they place their parchments was origi­nally an antique b
Ah, the glamorous life of a newly minted American Idol: Mere hours after a Badgley Mischka-clad Jordin Sparks beat out Blake Lewis for the coveted title on May 23, the effusive 17-year-old Arizona native had changed into jeans and was wolfing down a roast-beef sandwich. "Sorry," she said, politely covering her mouth. "I haven't eaten since breakfast." While Sparks seemed like a clear victor after nailing her final performances, she swears she didn't see it that way: "I had no idea what was going to happen. When Blake and I were standing up there [waiting to hear who'd won], he was just like, 'I love you, sweetheart,' and he squeezed my hand, and I realized that no matter what happened, everything was going to be OK." OK, indeed. Here is TV Guide's post-fina
Lost's mind-blowing third-season finale raised a million questions. Among them: Jack and Kate get off the island?! Who's in the casket?! Are flash-forwards the new flashbacks?! Fans will have to wait until next winter — when the fourth season commences — to stop scratching their heads. Until then, let's pause to remember Dominic Monaghan's Charlie Pace, the ex-junkie rock star turned self-sacrificing hero who died at the hands of Eyepatch Dude so that his fellow plane-crash survivors might be rescued. (Though now we're wondering whether that's such a good thing.) Says executive producer Damon Lindelof, "Charlie's death is indicative of a whole new kind of feel surrounding the show. Charlie's death is the beginning of the end, as it were." Here, Monaghan fills us in on
This TV Guide reporter lucked into getting an advance copy of "The Brig," tonight's Locke-centric episode of Lost (10 pm/ET on ABC), and, having watched it, what can I say? It's one of the series' best. And I'm not just talking this season. Written by series masterminds Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, it is, by turns, twisted, spine-chilling and emotionally stirring. Make that gut-wrenching. It grabs hold and doesn't let go, even after the last frame has smashed to black. If you've watched the sneak-peek clip on this website, you already know that Locke — MIA from the canvas since early April, when he discovered his loser pop was in the island's magi
Elizabeth Mitchell previews Juliet's new, revealing Lost (Wednesdays at 10 pm/ET) flashback, reflects on her life as a mom, and tells tales from riding shotgun with Angelina Jolie. TV Guide: Your character, Juliet, the fertility doc recruited by the Others, gets flashback action in this week's episode. What can you tell us about the episode? Elizabeth Mitchell: It's a nice, revelatory flashback. My first flashback episode wasn't particularly twisty or turny. This one is definitely twisty and turny. TV Guide: You're not just teasing us? We'll actually get some big answers? Mitchell: Oh, yeah. So many things we've already seen about Juliet and wondered, "Why did she do this? Why is she so cold?" You'll know exactly why. TV Guide:
Even in death, Lost's most reviled castaways can't get any peace. In the ABC series' March 28th episode, Nikki (Kiele Sanchez) and Paolo (Rodrigo Santoro) — who were clumsily introduced at the beginning of season three and never forgiven for it — were revealed to be diamond-grubbing murderers who, in one of the series' darkest twists to date, were paralyzed by spider bites and unwittingly buried alive by show heroes Sawyer and Hurley. Response to the episode proved bitterly divided, with viewers and online bloggers — see TVGuide.com's Roush Dispatch,
Remember? Kate and Sawyer got down to business in the fish-biscuit cage. Big Bad Ben promised to let Dr. Jack leave the island in exchange for some lifesaving surgery. But Jack rediscovered his spine and threatened to let the smug Other die unless Kate was allowed to do what she does best: run. It's been nearly three months since we've gotten Lost. But starting this Wednesday, ABC's eternally trippy hit returns with fresh episodes every! single! week! through May (at the new hour of 10 pm/ET). Here's a sneak peek at what you'll be buzzing about on Thursday mornings. (Stop reading now if spoilers aren't your thing. Seriously.) 1. The Sawyer/Kate/Jack love triangle isn't over yet. Kate seemingly chose the charismatic con man over the honorable doc when she hooked up with Sawyer in the Nov. 8 fall finale, a move that pleased both fans and Sawyer himself (
Are the words "This is American Idol" music to your ears? Then brace yourself: Fox's unstoppable ratings juggernaut returns this week — the first auditions unspool Tuesday and Wednesday at 8 pm/ET — for a sixth season of off-key wannabes and future chart-toppers. We tracked down the show's three judges, two producers and one excitable host and got them to reveal exclusive scoop on what just might be Idol's most unpredictable year yet. Missing the early episodes would be a huge mistake. There are generally two reasons to sit through Idol's initial auditions: to catch the drama created by those who are A) tone-deaf or B) have Lifetime-movie sob stories (such as Kellie Pickler, who revealed at her audition last year that Mom had
This was the year that America fell in love with America. Thanks to 22-year-old Ferrera's winning performance as a homely girl with a heart of gold, ABC's Ugly Betty (Thursdays at 8 pm/ET) became one of the fall's few breakout hits. On a recent day off, the lovely and low-key Ferrera took a break from house-hunting to fill us in on her Bettylicious year. TV Guide: You look so different in person. Do you get that a lot? Ferrera: It takes me an hour to become Betty. But I love that she's so different from me. I can [keep] a bit of myself private. TV Guide: What's the most difficult part of the Betty transformation? Ferrera: Betty wears a lot of clothes — tights, parkas, all these shirts buttoned up to her neck. That drives me insane. I don't like to feel restricted. TV Guide
J.J. Abrams, the man behind Lost, Alias and Mission: Impossible III, is about to add another sci-fi classic to his résumé. Paramount recently handed the 40-year-old writer-producer-director the reins to one of its most revered projects: the next Star Trek film. Abrams will produce the movie with Lost cocreator (and fellow Trekker) Damon Lindelof. Abrams recently called from his Pacific Palisades, California, home, where he was hanging with kids (and budding sci-fi fans) Henry, Gracie and baby August, to chat about sci-fi, the th
Talk about a rough couple of weeks. On April 25 Michelle Rodriguez — who was slapped with a DUI in Hawaii in December — opted to go to jail rather than perform 240 hours of community service. (She was released after serving four days of her five-day sentence.) Then, on May 3, her Lost alter ego, ex-cop Ana Lucia, was gunned down by Michael in a where-did-that-come-from twist. Just days after getting sprung from jail, the free-spi
Is Sawyer, the sexy bad boy on ABC's Lost (Wednesdays at 9 pm/ET), turning all good on us? Not if Josh Holloway has anything to say about it — and does he ever, in this TV Guide interview! TV Guide: In this week's episode, Sawyer finally gets some more flashback love. It's about time! Josh Holloway: I know! Of course, he got shot, so he was kind of out of commission for awhile. Now he's healed enough to be back in the game. TV Guide: By the Lost time line, though, it's only been a matter of days since he was shot by the Others, right? Holloway: In reality, he wouldn't be able to use his damn arm. I guess those antibiotics are workin'. That Jack is one wonder doc
