News Roundup: Late December Edition

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

Renewals, Cancellations, & Scheduling:
The Nate Berkus Show has been canceled. The final episode will air in May.

A fifth season of Ruby is not planned.

The League has been renewed for a fourth season.

CBS, FOX, and NBC all renew their NFL deals through 2022. Here's a little history if you're interested.

Psych returns with new episodes on Wednesday, February 29th at 10pm Eastern.

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition has been canceled as a regular series, but will still air specials from time to time. The final episode will air on January 13th. [Apparently many people are upset about this cancellation...]

House of Anubis, a Nickelodeon live-action mystery show, returns with its second season on Monday, January 9th at 7pm Eastern.

Enlightened has been renewed, but Hung, How to Make it in America, and Bored have all been canceled.

Hell on Wheels has been renewed for a second season. [bleh.]

Cast & Plot Updates:
On March 19th, "A" on Pretty Little Liars will be revealed.

Alicia Silverstone will have a recurring role on Suburgatory, playing a love interest for George.


Shows in Development & Other Fun Stuff:
Showtime is having a free weekend Friday, January 6th - Sunday, January 8th. Not all providers are participating, however, so take a look at the list on that site to see if you're lucky or not.

Lowe's and Kayak pulled (or "did not renew") their advertising from All-American Muslim. Since this is one of the bigger news stories lately, I imagine that you've heard all about it by now, but I still wanted to throw up some links, just in case.

President Obama's favorite shows include Homeland and Boardwalk Empire. Also, the Obama family enjoys Modern Family.

The average American watched 34.1 hours of television on average each week in 2011. It was 33.9 hours in 2010. And, 42% of all homes in America now have a DVR of one sort or another.

HBO is developing a drama series called Beat the Reaper, focusing on a young ER doctor. [I like the title!]

CBS has acquired the rights for broadcast distribution of Hot in Cleveland.

Speaking of Hot in Cleveland, Betty's White's 90th Birthday Bash will air on January 16th on NBC. Her birthday is January 17th.

If you have Time Warner Cable and subscribe to HBO, HBO Go is finally available for streaming. Expect to have the unlimited option within a month.

NBC.com is offering full-season free streaming of Up All Night, Whitney, and Grimm through January 15th, so if you want to pick up these shows, now is a good time. This season's episodes of Parenthood, The Voice, The Biggest Loser, and The Sing-Off are also available.

Similarly, all the episodes of Pan Am are available free on iTunes, Amazon, VUDU, CinemaNow, the PlayStation Store, and Sony Video Unlimited.

Next fall, Bloopers will return to the air.

Cougar Town is going to have viewing parties across the country to hype up the fading comedy. A star and a writer will be in attendance at each one (and they started a few days ago), and plenty of prizes will be available for attendees.

16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom star Amber is back in jail, and will be until at least January 27th, when she appears before a judge. She's in for probation violation, battery, and possession of a controlled substance. Regarding her probation violation, she failed to submit to some drug tests, didn't get her GED, didn't complete anger management classes, didn't put $10,000 into en educational fund for Leah, and she owes some fees. The battery is the same old charge from a while ago. The controlled substance is in regards to pills such as hydrocodone that she has without a prescription. Oh, and she wants to get out of Teen Mom ASAP.

Did you see Betty White talking about Monday Night Football? It's fun.

News Roundup: 2 Broke Girls, Up All Night, Whitney picked up; Playboy Club canceled; and more!

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

Renewals, Cancellations, & Scheduling:
- Up All Night and Whitney get full-season pick-ups. [NBC Entertainment Press Release]

- 2 Broke Girls also got a full-season pick-up.

- NBC has canceled The Playboy Club, which faced plenty of opposition during its short airtime. Hugh Hefner believes that the show should have been on cable to begin with. One of the actors suffered an on-set injury earlier in the day.

- NBC has pushed the season premiere of Chuck and the series premiere of Grimm back a week; they will now start October 28th.

- CBS's Rules of Engagement will start on Saturday the 15th now, a week later than previously planned.

- That 90s block on TeenNick? It's moving to 10pm instead of midnight, and Hey Dude and Stick Stickly are being added.

Cast & Plot Updates:
- Melinda McGraw has been cast as one of Gibbs' ex-wives on NCIS.

Shows in Development & Other Fun Stuff:
- Oxygen green-lights The Next Big Thing, Brooklyn Crew, Tanisha Gets Married, all working titles. The first will follow Trapper Felides as he trains performers to break into show business. The second looks at a group of girls and the events that tore them apart. The last focuses on Tanisha Thomas' wedding planning process. [Oxygen Media Press Release]

- It's been all over the internet for the past few days... Arrested Development may be back for a short (9-10 episode) season and a movie.

- Universal Soldier will become a television show.

- Blood & Treasure is also under development, which will be a drama about two brothers who solve crimes and unearth secrets.

- Lifetime has ordered After the Runway to air after Project Runway, to give viewers additional insight.

- JoAnna Garcia (of Reba and Better with You) has a new show coming next year to ABC, where her character moves in with her husband's family.

- Because of host costly The Simpsons is to make, it may not have a bright future. The voice actors need to take a serious pay cut if the show will return next year.

- The Coen brothers are developing an hour-long show for FOX, currently called HarveKarbo.

News Roundup: A few Renewals and a LOT of Future Projects

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

Renewals, Cancellations, & Scheduling:
Disney XD renewed Kickin' It for a second season.

Drop Dead Diva has gotten a 13-episode season four renewal.

Roseanne Barr announced via Twitter that Roseanne's Nuts, a Lifetime show, as been cancelled.

Lifetime did, however, renew Dance Moms for a second season.

The most surprising order goes to The New Girl, getting the go-ahead for a back-11.

TOLN, The Online Network, will launch in January 2012, with new episodes of All My Children and One Life to Live, among other shows.

The best renewal story of the week? Boss received an order for a ten-episode second season. The pilot will air October 21st.

Cast & Plot Updates:
Katie Holmes will play the Slutty Pumpkin that's been referenced semi-annually on How I Met Your Mother.


Shows in Development & Other Fun Stuff:
Comedy Central has a pilot contest going on. Go for it.

FOX has ordered a new Gordon Ramsey Series, currently known as Hotel Hell. This time, the unscripted show will focus on Ramsey & crew fixing hotels, motels, and B&Bs.

FOX also ordered up Touch, a Kiefer Sutherland show to premiere in the Spring. He'll play the dad of a mute son who is gifted with numbers.

Another FOX pick? A show about serial killers who use social networking.

ABC is looking to do a show about an angel who is expelled from Heaven and has to live in NYC. [I know, what??]

Another show ABC is looking to do? A guy has to find clues about the twelve apostles. So, Da Vinci Code fans, get excited.

What else? Oh yeah, another New York show about a cop. But, this is a fictional New York, or, magical, as it were.

CBS, on the other hand, is going to feature a mid-season replacement with Rob Schneider. He marries into a close-knit Mexican-American family, where his father-in-law is played by Cheech Marin.

NBC is looking to have a Dane Cook comedy show next fall.

Weirder yet, NBC also wants an 1880s drama/western. Not a bad idea, until you hear about the doctor character who uses his intellect rather than a six-shooter....

Extreme Musical Chairs, guys. This may be a thing. On the CW.

On Thursday, October 6th, the newest episode of Psych will air in NYC for 1,000 fans... the rest of us will have to wait until the 12th.

There are fewer GLBT characters on television this season than last season. Not a startling number, just less.

Netflix and the Discovery Networks (everything from TLC, the Science Channel, the Hub, and the Military Channel to the Discovery Channel, Investigation Discovery, and Animal Planet) have reached an agreement for a two-year contract to allow streaming of some of the networks' programming.

More on that note, FOX stuff is getting streamed via Amazon and Dreamworks is hitting Netflix.

But, really, the big story about streaming right now is that new episodes of Whitney and Up All Night were available to watch via Yahoo! before they were broadcast this week. Yeah, glad this didn't have publicity three weeks ago, huh?