News Roundup: Early April Edition

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

Renewals, Cancellations, & Scheduling:
Oprah's Master Class was renewed by OWN.

HBO has renewed Game of Thrones for a third season.

FOX renewed New Girl, Glee, and Raising Hope.

ABC is keeping General Hospital and extending Good Morning, America into an additional hour-long segment in the afternoons, beginning this summer. 

FOX is cutting back on COPS, mainly because they're filling Saturday nights with sports.

Sunday, April 15th brings back another season of True Life on MTV.

HBO's new comedy series, VEEP, begins Sunday, April 22nd at 10pm ET/PT.

A new season of Discovery's American Guns begins Wednesday, April 25th at 9pm ET/PT.

TLC's My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding will begin Sunday, April 29th at 10pm ET/PT.

Tuesday, May 8th begins The United Stats of America, a History program designed to teach you about America using numbers. Check it out at 10pm.

Food Network Star returns on Sunday, May 13th at 9pm ET/PT to Food Network.

The CW has The Catalina, a reality series about Miami hotel employees, premiering Tuesday, May 29th at 8pm ET/PT and Breaking Pointe, a reality series about a ballet company in Utah, premiering Thursday, May 31st at 8pm ET/PT.

On Wednesday, June 6th at 9pm ET/PT, Travel Channel will debut Adam Richman's Best Sandwich in America.

A&E will debut Cajun Justice on Thursday, June 7th at 10pm ET/PT. The series is about a police station in southern Louisiana.

True Blood returns to HBO on Sunday, June 10th at 9pm ET/PT.

HBO's The Newsroom will kick off its first season on Sunday, June 24th at 10pm ET/OT.

Showtime's Web Therapy will be back on July 2nd at 11pm and The Real L Word will return July 12th at 10pm.

On Friday, August 17th at 10pm ET/PT, Starz will premiere the second season of Boss.

BBCAmerica's first original drama, Copper, will premiere Sunday, August 19th at 9pm ET/PT. The 10-episode show will be about an 1860s cop in NYC.

Cast & Plot Updates:
James Denton will play a love interest for Joy on Hot in Cleveland.

Peri Gilpin (most known as Roz from Frasier) will play Ted Danson's wife on CSI.

Matt Laurer will remain with Today, making $25M each year.

Rosie O'Donnell and Dan Akyroyd will appear on Happily Divorced, albeit in separate episodes.

Shows in Development & Other Fun Stuff:
Netflix has added some new cartoons to their streaming: My Little Pony, GI Joe: Renegades, The Adventures of Chuck & Friends, and Transformers Prime. Later this year, JEM & the Holograms, Transformers: Generation 1, GI Joe: Real American Heroes, and Transformers: Beast Wars and Rescue Bots will also be added.

The Smash soundtrack will be available May 1st.

CMT has picked up Bounty Hunters (an animated series) and Trinity 911 (a reality show about hijinks in a small Texas police force).

Disney has ordered the family comedy pilot Bits & Pieces, where step-siblings will have to learn to get along.

Disney XD has ordered a live-action series called Crash & Bernstein, about a 14-year-old boy whose puppet comes to life. It should premiere this fall.

OWN has four new series coming: Elura and Michele Take Staten Island (BFFs who are former prosecutors tell people what to do), Iyanla Fix My Life (an author who believes in the power of acting on faith solces people's problems), Married to the Army: Alaska (military wives in Alaska, many of whom have husbands serving in Afghanistan), and Six Little McGhees (Ohio's first sextuplets and their family).

Discovery has four new series coming, including Top Engineer (pitting engineering teams against one another), One Car Too Far (drive to survive!), Mark Burnett's Alaska (yet another Alaska show), and Fast and Loud (restoring classic cars).

Matt Groening has finally announced that The Simpsons is set in Springfield, OREGON. [edit: nope. that was a misinterpretation.]

Bravo has green-lit a bunch of new projects. Silicon Valley is about some young folks in that area trying to become the next big thing. Life after Top Chef will look at the lives of some former contestants. Below Deck will look at the lives of those who work on yachts. Huh? will look at internet memes. Newlyweds: The First Year looks at the trials and tribulations of the first year of marriage of couples across the country.