Charlie Sheen is Dominating TV News

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

There's another new show coming out in the fall on ABC. This one will star James Van Der Beek, and it's called Don't Trust the B*tch in Apt. 23, a title with which I am not thrilled.

On Sunday, March 6th, at 8pm, Firefly will premiere on the Science Channel. It will air at 10pm on subsequent Sunday nights.

John Lithgow is playing Barney's father on How I Met Your Mother, and his first episode will be March 21st.

When Charlie Sheen comes back and production on Two and a Half Men resumes, they might be doing it without a studio audience, if Sheen is still.... "out there." And then Charlie Sheen talked about taking a vacation before going back to work. And then Sheen called into a radio show and ranted to high heaven, part of which you can see here. So, the rest of the season (4 more episodes at this point), has been canceled. And, the latest, Charlie Sheen is going to get a 20/20 special interview this Tuesday night at 10pm on ABC.

Farrah from Teen Mom is now modeling clothes that she designed. 

Jo from Teen Mom 2 got arrested for marijuana.

Amber from Teen Mom now has naked photos on the internet.

If you have DirecTV, you get free Starz channels through tomorrow. For a complete list of what channels this includes, click here.

Despite recently being in the unfortunate 7:30pm slot, FOX has renewed American Dad for a seventh season.

On Monday, Canada launches an all-chicken channel. Get excited for... The Rotisserie Channel!

TBS's Glory Daze was canceled. I'm glad, since I didn't like that trash.

Some of the characters from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (including Will, Carlton, Ashley, Hilary, and Uncle Phil) will be doing a reunion of sorts.

The "Movie Made for TV" and "TV Miniseries" categories will be merged for the Emmys. They will allow six total nominations, rather than five.

Big News!

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

Hot in Cleveland has a bunch of new guest stars coming up, including Susan Lucci, Peri Gilpin, Mary Tyler Moore, and Jimmy Kimmel. Similarly, Wendie Malick will appear in an episode of All My Children as a cross-promotion.

The History Channel was supposed to air the new eight-part miniseries The Kennedys this spring, but the channel decided it's not historically accurate enough for them. It will still air in Canada, and there's a chance that a different cable channel may pick it up for the US as well.

Mike Tyson has a new show coming to Animal Planet, a six-part documentary called, Taking on Tyson, which will focus on him training pigeons. No lie. It begins March 6th.

Katy Perry is going to play Jennifer Morrison's cousin on How I Met Your Mother, and yet another potential love interest. (This was all over the place, so no single source, LoL!)

TLC's Extreme Couponing did well in its first airing, and a 12-episode series has been ordered.

The Secret Life of the American Teenager comes back on Monday, March 28th at 8pm. It's also been renewed for Season 4 to show in the summer.

Raising Hope got renewed for a second season.

Terra Nova will preview May 23rd and 24th, 9-10pm ET each night. The FOX show will officially premiere in the fall.

Lots is going on with the cast of Teen Mom 2. Or, at least one girl in particular. Jenelle Evans signed the custody of her baby over to her mother in June, and goes to court over a breaking and entering AND marijuana possession charge before the show even premieres.

ABC and Salma Hayek are teaming up to do a miniseries of the Wicked book, not the Wicked musical.

The Big Bang Theory got a three-year renewal.

Another Wipeout-type game is in the works, this time featuring Pac-Man, and it is to be "the world's biggest game of tag on television."

Sarah Michelle Geller will be back on television next season in the CBS drama Ringer.

Regis Philbin has announced that this is his final year on Live with Regis & Kelly. He's been on that show longer than I've been alive, LoL. But... the man is about to turn 80, after all!

More Cancellations & Renewals

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

Michael J. Fox is going to be on The Good Wife again.

Tivo lost 112,000 subscribers last quarter, putting it at the same place it was in 2004.

Cartoon Network has canceled Unnatural History.

NBC cut Chase down to 18 episodes, which isn't good news for the series.

While Life Unexpected hasn't officially been canceled, the "Complete Series" on DVD is forthcoming...

CBS's The Bold and the Beautiful will go on for at least two more years. Similarly, The Young and the Resltess (also on CBS) got a 3-year renewal.

WOW! Dexter is getting renewed for a SIXTH season! I hadn't realized that show had been around for so long already. Although I attended a paper on the first two seasons in March 2009, and there have been two seasons since then, so I guess it makes sense, LoL.

If you want your kid to be seen on Raising Hope, check out how to audition your baby here.

The Simpsons is going to stop making fun of FOX. Which, I think, is smart... who bites the hand that feeds?

Discovery's new Sons of Guns will be about custom-made weapons and will premiere on Wednesday, January 12th at 10pm.

Another new show is going to be based on the geo-location social media game, Foursquare.

Steve Carrell, who is leaving The Office, is doing another office show, also on NBC, also a comedy. It's going to be shot with a single camera and it's based on truth.

Idina Menzel is starring in an hour-long musical drama on ABC. It's going to be mother-daughter-y like Gilmore Girls.

Netflix is trying to offer current episodes for streaming, too. This was Hulu's big pro, LoL.

On December 12th, Hot in Cleveland will be doing a behind-the-scenes special.

Canadian Jersey Shore to Debut....

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

Wanna be in the new Muppet movie? Here's the casting director information.

Wanna be on Glee? Look here. Unless you submitted your video via MySpace last summer. If that's the case, you should find out the results any day now.

Did you see this? 10 ways TV would be different without the Internet. Lost's online fans wouldn't have existed and the show wouldn't have lasted. Shows like $#*! My Dad Says wouldn't exist without twitter. iTunes wouldn't have helped Glee beat the Beatles. Betty White wouldn't have hosted SNL without those online petitions. My personal favorite... we wouldn't know about ever guest star ahead of time!

If you're interested in trying to be more frugal by cutting out cable, read this for tips on watching things through other means.

Did you know that Guy Fieri hosts like FOUR shows? Three on Food Network and the other is Minute to Win It.

Medium got canceled.

Dark Blue was also canceled.

Rubicon, which had a short life, has also been canceled.

The Jonas Brothers television show got canceled.

King of Queens got picked up for reruns on SpikeTV in October 2011 and TVLand in 2013.

Speaking of TVLand, they're debuting Retired at 35 after the season premiere of Hot in Cleveland in January. It's about a businessman who heads to Florida to retire at a young age.

The College BCS games are now scheduled for television.

Simpsons got renewed for a 23rd season.

The Tony Awards will air on Sunday, June 12th, 2011, at 8pm on CBS.

NBC wants to put comedies in the Thursday 10pm slot. No major network has tried this since 1991. To see what they're putting there as well as their midseason lineup, look here.

Did you ever want to know what women in rural Dothan, Alabama do? Me neither, but TLC is about to start showing Bama Belles, where you can find out.

FOX has a new cartoon debuting in January, called Bob's Burgers, and it looks weird.

Jaleel White voiced one of the Sonics when I was a kid. Never would've guessed.

Josh and Anna Duggar are pregnant with their second, shortly after their first child turned one year old. It's clear that they were trying to conceive sooner than that, since Anna mentions a miscarriage in between as well.

Jersey Shore is about to have some Canadian competition; Lake Shore to premiere soon.

Steve Sanders Sells Cosmetics; Teen Moms Profit

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

Okay, folks. I wanted to let you guys know that I'm now living in the Pacific Time Zone, so stuff may get posted at times more aligned with my new awake/asleep times, LoL. Now, I did collect some great bits of info over the weekend and I wanted to share those with you. :)

ABC's The Whole Truth was canceled, and most of the world probably heard it first from Twitter.

The DIY Network (yeah, I've never seen it, either) has given The Vanilla Ice Project a second season. This is really only interesting to me because the guy is in Port St. Lucie every now and then (the show focuses on his just-outside-Palm Beach estate)... my brother has seen him at Duffy's at least three times, LoL.

Ian Ziering (aka Steve from the original 90210) is now selling cosmetics. AND he hopes to start a reality show where he helps people come up with good marriage proposals, LoL.

Apparently Joan Rivers wanted that Snickers commercial that Betty White did for last year's SuperBowl. In fact, Joan called Betty a b!tch who is stealing work from her.

The folks over on Teen Mom make between $60,000 and $65,000 per season. Not a ton of money, and nowhere near the amount the Jersey Shore fools make, but they are pulling in some real dough. My question is, how much of Amber's portion actually goes to Gary, or how does that work, LoL??

Not that I've ever seen it, but HBO's Big Love will be starting its final season on January 16th.

CBS is starting another reality show, this time it's Live to Dance, and will feature Paula Abdul. Starts Tuesday, January 4th.

For some reason, TLC's Sister Wives got renewed for a second season. How have they not been arrested yet? Is polygamy no big deal anymore?

Whoa, whoa, whoa... Susan Boyle can now be called SuBo??!? Regardless, the woman is getting a guest spot on Glee's holiday episode.

Kung Fu Panda is going to be a balloon in this year's Macy*s!!

Who knows who is going to be receiving OWN, Oprah's new channel? But, for those who might be curious to learn more about it, there is now information available about the early programming plan. Don't forget, it goes live at noon on January 1st, 2011.

Three holiday episodes are coming for Minute to Win It. They're going to air on December 7th, 14th, and 21st. 8pm all three nights.

Cake Boss's mini-spin-off, Cake Boss: Next Great Baker, is going full force now. They've got 10 contestants to play the 8-week series of challenges, trying to win $50,000 and the chance to work with Buddy. It starts December 6th at 9pm.

Silly ABCFamily and their constant updates on ideas for television series. This time around it's developing something based on the 1998 film, Practical Magic. Apparently, this is not the first time somebody has tried to make a show out of this film-based-on-a-novel, but the last attempt never got off the ground.

Really? A Napoleon Dynamite Cartoon??

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

ABC's Body of Proof is getting pushed to midseason so it doesn't get the 9pm Friday slot.

Fran Drescher is getting a talk show in later November. It's getting a three-week trial in limited areas before it might go national.

FOX has ordered six episodes of a Napoleon Dynamite cartoon.

Even though they canceled Huge, ABCFamily is coming out with FOUR new shows. One looks like a reboot of The Facts of Life, another a mix between Witch Mountain and The Parent Trap, one's about a fat girl trying to become famous in NYC, and the last one looks like they're taking Maeby's big storyline from Arrested Development and making it a series, except the girl works in fashion rather than film (it reminds me of Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead, too). Any of these look good to anyone?? Oh, and it looks like each will be an hour long, except maybe the "get famous in NYC" show.

NBC moved Outlaw from Friday night to Saturday night, and most people are predicting its cancellation during the time it'll take to run the final four episodes.

You know how there's been some great writing throughout the years to cover pregnant bellies? CBS is going to do it by covering a broken leg rater than write it in. Let's see how well that works for The Big Bang Theory. This reminds me of a play I saw in college (This is Our Youth) where one of the three main actors broke a foot or something the week before the show opened. The director (who was my acting teacher the following year) had to re-block the show to accommodate a broken foot. It was brilliantly done (especially a fight scene that now took place with crutches!), so I think maybe they should've written it in for Kaley Cuoco, LoL.

E! has a show about the wives of rockstars coming out on November 7th at 10:30. I don't think this premise is overdue by any stretch of the imagination.

How I Met Your Mother must be doing strikingly well this season (I really need to start paying more attention to the viewer statistics), since they ordered an additional two episodes (putting us at 24 for the season, folks!).

Shaft is developing a crime-solving show for the CW called Hackshaw. THe protagonist is going to have Dissociative Identity Disorder and be in his 20s. Well, Monk has been off the air a while now, guess we need another detective with a mental disorder?

FOX has a "reverse-Three's Company" sitcom in the works, where a young girl moves in with three guys in NYC. Doesn't look promising.

ABC, who has tried doing Romeo & Juliet in both Chicago and New York recently, has decided to try it in Renaissance Italy. Why not... period shows are all the rage right now, and everyone seems to be dropping tons of money on sets. I wonder how the heck the storylines will play out, though.

Speaking of expensive sets, have you heard about FOX's Terra Nova? It's already cost $10M to make the pilot, and filming has not yet begun.

There's also a new fairy-tale television show in the works. At least that's somewhat of an original idea... and in this case, I mean not-currently-overdone, lmao.

Last, ABC's Wipeout is going to have the 4th season premiere in January, with 8 Winter Wonderland episodes. I'm really looking forward to this idea.

Huge got Canceled, Senate Passes TV Bill

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

Hulu made the second season of Arrested Development available online. Now, I just finished the second season a week ago, but if you've never seen it, now's as good a time as any.

Huge got canceled. I'm sad, as I really liked that show. Ratings had steadily declined. However, there is an online petition to try to save it. Similarly, I hear that 19 Kids and Counting isn't doing well, so they may be nearing their end, too. Unless an announcement of #20 spikes things again...

The Senate passed a bill to force commercials to be quieter. As in, not louder than the show they are interrupting. It was unanimous. The House has already passed a similar bill (there are minor differences). This could be a law soon... and I have mixed feelings on it.

Um, it's October. But, plans for May sweeps are already underway. FOX plans to have all three Seth MacFarlane shows (Family Guy, American Dad, and The Cleveland Show) have a giant crossover as a hurricane hits all three. Yes, you read right... it's hitting Washington, DC, Stoolbend, VA, and Quahog, RI.

All sorts of new things are going on with GoogleTV.

This isn't real-time news, but it's new to me: Shredder, the bad guy from the late-80s-early-90s cartoon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was voiced by James Avery... aka Uncle Phil from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Crazy.

As if the show wasn't popular enough, Modern Family is considering doing a musical episode.

I don't watch these shows, but premiere dates for White Collar (Tuesday, January 18th, 10pm) and Royal Pains (Thursday, January 20th, 9pm) are up.

The blog "Awkward Family Photos" has gotten picked up as a tv series for ABC.

FOX got the rights to make a series based on Will Smith's Hitch. It's going to be an hour-long format.

You mom being on Facebook is no longer an issue. SNL addressed it, LoL.

The Latest

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

Hugh Laurie was on Ellen to talk about his naked scene on the season premiere of House.

Matt LeBlanc is to play Matt LeBlanc in Showtime's upcoming co-production with the BBC, "Episodes."

NBC has new holiday specials this year. Halloween special for Shrek coming up on October 28th and a Christmas special for Kung Fu Panda on November 24th.

Oprah is having a The Sound of Music cast reunion... 45 years later! Tune in October 29th.

White Collar, Royal Pains, and Psych all got renewed for another season.

ABCFamily has ordered three new hour-long drama pilots: Nine Lives, based on a girl with superpowers after she turns 16. Strut, where a showgirl has to help out a Texas high school drill team. Switched at Birth, where a rich girl and a poor, hearing-impaired girl find out they were switched at birth, so their families deal with living together.

My Generation has been canceled after just two episodes. I had considered it, but never tried it. I guess that's for the better. Similarly, Lone Star also got the ax after two episodes. However, it was running up against the powerhouses Dacing with the Stars and Two and a Half Men, and also some other promising new shows. Even if you go from 4.1 million viewers to 3.2 million, I think 2 episodes is still too short to call it.

Since the 50th anniversary of The Flintstones was this past week, there's been a lot of "fun facts" thrown around the internet.

There are rumors that The Munsters is being brought back to life. NBC ordered the pilot, and it's said to shoot for a mix of Modern Family and True Blood. Count me out.

Highlights in October television include: American Dad 6th season premiere on the 3rd. The Glades first season finale on 3rd. The third season of Lie to Me premieres on the 4th. Cake Boss mid-season premiere on the 11th (TLC didn't really do a good job telling us it was on mid-season hiatus...). Mad Men 4th season finale is on the 17th. The holiday special Scared Shrekless is on the 28th.

John Stamos will appear in the "Rocky Horror-themed episode" on Glee. He will both sing and dance in the episode (link not working anymore...)

New Gossip

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

As I mentioned in this week's television commentary, I really like the new show Better with You. Here's a little video of Joanna Garcia & Jennifer Finnigan talking about the show.

Glee is having a Rocky Horror-themed episode, set to air October 26th. Barry Bostwick (Brad) and Meat Loaf (Eddie) are set to appear. I am gonna have to watch this one, as much as I dislike Glee.

Oprah is doing a few episodes from Australia.... bringing some of her biggest fans with her to tour parts of the country. It's costing Australian taxpayers almost $3,000,000, but the former tourism minister believes that the publicity is worth every penny.

Grad student (in Computer Science) Roger Craig won $77,000 on a single episode of Jeopardy!. This beats Ken Jennings, whose highest one-day total was $75,000. This was the fifth time in his life that he's tried out for the show, but the first time he's made it.

There are a bunch of celebrities who are afraid of flying. In particular, Ben Affleck recently told his story on Jay Leno.

The fact that a bunch of episodes in last season's How I Met Your Mother don't really fit a larger arc was because they weren't meant to. They also know bits and pieces about how the series is going to end, but no hints there. They have written a new Robin Sparkles song. Wayne Brady is coming back as Barney's brother.

Hulk Hogan is going to be hosting a new kids' show. The first season is ordered for 26 half-hour episodes where Hogan is a referee of sorts for kids' arguments.

Last week I mentioned that Penny on The Big Bang Theory had broken her leg and was missing a taping. Well, she's going to be missing several more, the the point where the show is on production hiatus.

Boardwalk Empire got picked up for a second season a mere TWO DAYS after it premiered.

The Flintstones turned 50 this month. To celebrate, Boomerang will air the original episode this Thursday, September 30th, at 8:30pm, which is the same slot the pilot occupied in 1960. Then two more episodes, The Man Called Flintstone, and a 24-hour marathon the following day.

News, Gossip, Spoilers, & Others

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

This is the first in a weekly series on television news that I expect to be ongoing forever. Some weeks will feature more stories than others, as I'm not going for a "top five most interesting stories" format, but rather a "things I liked and want to pass on" design. The order is how I came across them, not necessarily oldest news to the latest gossip.


Jennifer Morrison, who is best known as Dr. Cameron on House, will play Zooey for 5+ episodes of How I Met Your Mother this season. I'm kinda excited because I wonder what that'll do to ratings, since those shows air at the same time...

Looking way ahead... Tim Allen is looking to return to prime time next fall. I wonder what kind of role he'll get... I like him in comedy, but lots of people seem to think he should do a drama.

The Disney Channel is running out of good tween stuff. Glad they realized it.

Two movies and a TV series are going to be made about Stephen King's The Dark Tower. I agree that it's a weird way to franchise that.

Jennifer Lopez is going to get $12million to judge American Idol. I think that's excessive.

Kaley Cuoco (Penny) broke her leg horseback riding and is going to miss a taping of The Big Bang Theory.

The new season of How I Met Your Mother is not planning to reveal the mother's identity yet. Barney is going on a quest to meet his real father (aka not Bob Barker). Marshall and Lily are in full-force trying to make a baby.

Lots of House spoilers. House's relationship with Cuddy is going public fast, so the team will find out AND he'll be doubling with Wilson. House is going to babysit Cuddy's daughter Rachel. Chase is totally playing the field with the ladies until a new doctor (played by Amber Tamblyn) steps in. Speaking of guest stars, Jennifer Grey will be the parent of a patient in an October episode.

Speaking of which, Candice Bergen has been cast to play Cuddy's mother on House. She'll appear in multiple episodes, starting in January.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt has a new, live show gala coming up. It'll be October 28th.

There was an interesting tidbit collection on The Golden Girls as it celebrated its start 25 years ago this week.