ABC is scheduling a new sitcom, Notes From the Underbelly, at the late prime-time hour of 10 p.m. — a move that follows Fox’s expansion of the American Idol results show. Notes From the Underbelly, a comedy about pregnancy and parenthood, was to debut next month in the 9:30 p.m. Wednesday slot. Then came word that Fox’s American Idol would grow to an hour on April 11, April 18 and May 2, occupying the 9 p.m.-10 p.m. slot.
This week, ABC said the sitcom would instead air Thursdays at 10 p.m. starting April 12, with two half-hour episodes airing back-to-back each week. American Idol continues to cast a giant shadow in its sixth year, ruling the ratings and creating scheduling headaches for competitors. ABC, owned by The Walt Disney Co., has taken the brunt recently: The Tuesday performance show of Idol ran seven minutes past the hour, encroaching on the first results show for ABC’s own hit talent competition, Dancing With the Stars.
Welcome to the Spoiler Roundup, the most comprehensive weekly spoiler wrapup on the internet. We scour the web for all the best spoilers on some of the most popular shows on the air. Catch it here every Wednesday at The TV Remote.
This week: 24, 30 Rock, Battlestar Galactica, Brothers and Sisters, Criminal Minds CSI: Miami, CSI: New York, Desperate Housewives, ER, Ghost Whisperer, Gilmore Girls, Grey’s Anatomy, Heroes, House, Jericho, Law & Order: SVU, Lost, Men In Trees, Numbers, October Road, One Tree Hill, Prison Break, Shark, Standoff, The Dead Zone, The Office, The Sopranos and Ugly Betty.
Continue reading The Spoiler Roundup 03.28.07
Jason Alexander has joined ABC’s untitled cop comedy pilot, says The Hollywood Reporter. Also cast in the pilot are Sarah Lafleur and Jillian Armenante. The project, from CBS Paramount Network TV and ABC TV Studio, follows the eccentric characters in a police precinct. Alexander will play the internal affairs superintendent responsible for tracking down “bad apples.” The role originally was developed as a regular, though Alexander will guest star in the pilot. If the project goes to series, he is set to recur during the show’s initial order and is expected to become a regular if it goes beyond that. Lafleur and Armenante will play homicide detectives who are partnered.
Michael Ausiello reports that House has cast Piper Perabo (Coyote Ugly, The Prestige) as a potential love interest for Hugh Laurie’s Gregory House in this season’s second-to-last episode. As of now, Perabo’s on board for one episode, but a source close to the show says there’s “definite recurring potential.”
Heather Locklear has closed a deal to play the title role in ABC’s comedy pilot See Jayne Run. From ABC TV Studio and Brillstein-Grey TV, centers on an accomplished alpha female (Locklear) working in the male-dominated world of investment banking who struggles to balance career and motherhood. The project reunites Locklear with the network and the studio following her starring role in the ABC/ABC TV Studio comedy pilot “Women of a Certain Age” last year.
TV Squad is reporting that Battlestar Galactica executive producer Ron Moore answered a few questions from a reporter at Pittsburgh’s Post-Gazette. He revealed that Chief, Saul, Sam and Tori are indeed Cylons. They heard the music when they reached a certain point in space, signaling their awareness of who they are. Moore says, “These are four of the final five, which puts them in a separate category from everybody else.” Moore doesn’t say who the fifth Cylon is, but he does promise that, next season, will fill in the backstory for the new Cylons, exploring why they didn’t know they were Cylons.
As for Starbuck’s return, Moore said, “It’s exactly the kind of thing I want people to chew over the next few months.” Katee Sackhoff, who plays Starbuck, is signed on for the next season. He also reveals the reason Roslin’s cancer has returned. It is, he says, “to fulfill the prophecy that a dying leader will get them near the promised land but will not survive to see it herself.”
Continue reading Battlestar Galactica Producer Confirms Final Four Cylons
Michael Ausiellos is reporthing that the CW has pushed the show’s return back a week to April 17. As a result, the season - and possibly series - finale moves from May 8 to May 15. According to a CW insider, the net “wanted more original Gilmore episodes in May.” Looks like we’re stuck with Gilmore Girls reruns for another of couple weeks. Meanwhile, due to the surprise success of the Pussycat Dolls reruns, One Tree Hill won’t return with originals until May 2.
Sci Fi Channel has ordered a script for Phenomenon, a two-hour pilot executive-produced by Kiefer Sutherland (24). The announcement was made March 21 by Mark Stern, executive vice president, programming, at the channel’s upfront press event in New York. Maggie Murphy, president of Sutherland’s production company, East Side Entertainment, also serves as executive producer. Phenomenon is described as a fast-moving and enigmatic thriller, following a crack team of experts, led by a mysterious young female prodigy, as they investigate bizarre and supernatural anomalies of nature.
“In Phenomenon, ordinary people have their assumptions about the natural world—their very belief systems—completely shattered when they are confronted by unsettling, unexplained phenomena,” Stern said in a statement. “Kiefer and Maggie will lend their top-notch creative skills as executive producers to create a viewing experience as intriguing and surreal as the title would suggest.” Brad Follmer and Lauren Iungerich serve as writers for the project. Phenomenon is being produced by Fox 21, the alternative boutique of Twentieth Century Fox Television.
Miguel Ferrer and Chris Bowers have been tapped to co-star in NBC’s drama pilot The Bionic Woman, a reimagination of the 1970s series that was a spinoff of Six Million, from David Eick, executive producer of Battlestar Galactica.
With Ferrer joining the Bionic Woman, could this mean that his character will be killed off this season or that this season will indeed be Jordan’s last?
Jamie Kennedy has been tapped to star opposite Lee Majors in Fox’s comedy pilot Me & Lee?, which lampoons Majors’ The Six Million Dollar Man, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Me & Lee?, from Lionsgate, centers on a guy (Kennedy) with chronic back pain who gets more than he bargained for when he undergoes “bionic” back surgery in a secret lab run by actor Lee Majors (playing himself) in the basement of his Beverly Hills mansion. Majors built the lab after becoming obsessed with bionics after Man went off the air.