TV News: Tennant, Stewart "To Be" on PBS; Galactica Takes Home Top Award

- David Tennant of Doctor Who fame will bring his critically acclaimed portrayal of Hamlet to American television as part of PBS' Great Performances series. Set to air in 2010, the cast will also include Patrick Stewart. I can't be the only one geeking out over this news . . . David Tennant, Patrick Stewart, Royal Shakespeare Company production of Hamlet.  There's just no way to lose with this! [Associated Press via MSN]

- Fox has confirmed that Kara DioGuardi will return next year as a judge on the network's ratings juggernaut American Idol. [Associated Press via Yahoo! News]

- The Television Critics Association (TCA) Award winners were announced on Saturday and Battlestar Galactica took top honors as "Program of the Year." HBO's True Blood won three awards, the most of any show this year.  For a full list of TCA Awards and winners, click here. [Hollywood Reporter]

- A remake of The Rockford Files is on tap for NBC, who has asked House creator David Shore to head up the project. The original series ran from 1974–80 and starred James Garner as "an ex-convict private eye who worked cases out of his trailer in Malibu." [TV Guide]

- USA Network has renewed three of its original series – Burn Notice, In Plain Sight and Royal Pains. [Hollywood Reporter]

- The voice cast of the resurrected cartoon comedy Futurama, including John DiMaggio, Billy West and Katey Sagal, have signed new contracts and will return to the show after a contentious negotiation process. [Variety]

- Congrats to Heroes' Ali Larter who tied the knot with fiancé Hayes MacArthur on Saturday! [E! Online]

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Fox's Fall Sked to Start Early in September

Fox has announced its fall premiere dates and, in a surprise move, they will be airing their Wednesday, Thursday and Friday line-ups a week before the official start of the new TV season. Current premiere dates are:

• Sunday, September 12 - Cops, America's Most Wanted
• Wednesday, September 16 - So You Think You Can Dance, Glee
• Thursday, September 17 - Bones, Fringe
• Friday, September 18 - Brothers, Til Death, Dollhouse
• Monday, September 21 - House
• Sunday, September 27 - The Simpsons, The Cleveland Show, Family Guy, American Dad
• Monday, September 28 - Lie to Me
• Saturday, November 7 - Wanda Sykes Show (late-night)

[Variety]

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Earl Is Out of Luck

Twentieth Century Fox TV has announced that My Name is Earl is officially over. As reported on Pop Wenches a couple of days ago, Fox and TBS were in talks to bring Earl back from cancellation. After crunching the numbers to see if the Jason Lee-starring comedy could be produced on a basic cable budget, both Fox and TBS agreed that it wasn't feasible and ended negotiations.

"As none of us (creator Greg Garcia included) want the show to go out on anything but a high note, we regret that we must put to rest any speculation that Earl will continue," said the studio. [Variety]

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TV News: Fringe Star Fired

Fringe fans learned that Kirk Acevedo, who plays FBI agent Charlie Francis on the show, was fired through an announcement on Acevedo's Facebook page. The FB post reads: "WELL BOYS AND GIRLS THEY DONE DID YER BOY WRONG! THEY FIRED ME OFF OF FRINGE,AND I'VE NEVER BEEN FIRED IN MY LIFE!!!!"

The news has since been confirmed by "industry insiders" although it does not seem that Fox has made an official announcement.

Too bad -- Charlie Francis' rapport with Olivia Dunham was excellent, and after the episode in which he almost died after being infected with a creature's progeny, I was looking forward to seeing how the character developed in season two. [Chicago TV Examiner]

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TV News: ABC announces fall lineup, The Unit and My Name Is Earl canceled...

- ABC has presented its fall lineup, which will include returning shows like Grey's Anatomy and Dancing with the Stars. There will also be a Wednesday night, two-hour block of comedies (including Cougar Town). Scrubs and Better Off Ted are supposed to appear midseason. For more about the network's fall lineup, go here. [The Hollywood Reporter]

- Meanwhile, NBC has decided to cancel My Name Is Earl, but 20th Century executives are speaking to FOX and ABC about picking it up. The peacock network has also passed on ordering another season of Medium, but those rumors that show owner CBS could pick it up are still alive and kicking. Meanwhile, CBS has decided not to pick up The Unit. [Entertainment Weekly]

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TV News: Renewals and Cancellations as of May 18, 2009

We've been posting sporadic news about recent TV renewals and cancellations since last week, and I just posted my thoughts about the Sarah Connor cancellation here earlier today. But since we've all got day jobs here at Pop Wenches, it's tough to post each and every bit of TV scheduling news that's come out today.

So here's a little rundown of the fall line-ups so far:

- FOX announced its line-up of shows today, confirming the cancellation of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and stating that an abbreviated season of Dollhouse will (still) be airing on Friday nights. Fringe will move to Thursday night, while other established hits like House will stay in their current time slots (which means House will be on Monday nights). For a more comprehensive look at FOX's fall schedule, go here. [THR.com]
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- Meanwhile, it looks like ABC has decided to cancel Samantha Who? But executives have renewed Castle, meaning Nathan Fillion is finally on a series — not including Two Guys and a Girl — that hasn't been canceled only 10 or so episodes into its first season. Better Off Ted, which is actually pretty quirky/funny, has also been renewed. And as posted this weekend, Scrubs is coming back...[Entertainment Weekly Link 1; Link 2]

- CBS has picked up four new dramas, including an NCIS spin-off starring Chris O'Donnell and LL Cool J, alongside a Jenna Elfman comedy. For more information on that go here. [Entertainment Weekly]

- As posted this weekend, NBC decided to renew Chuck and has renewed established shows like Heroes as well.

For a final tally of all the shows that are getting renewed and canceled, you can always visit this cheat sheet by Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello. It's a little messy, but gives you a good idea of his predictions and final outcomes for each major network's TV line-up.

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TV Cancellation News: The Sarah Connor Chronicles gets terminated

Bad news for Terminator fans: It looks like FOX's Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles has officially been canceled (at least according to Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello). It seems a bit premature, considering the fact that Terminator: Salvation will be out later this week. But even though I was a fan of the series, I will admit that it had a tendency to be fairly inconsistent -- maybe things would have been different if we'd had more episodes like the last season finale.
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Should FOX executives be crucified for this move? As much as it pains me to say it, I don't think so. I would have loved to see Terminator continue for another season, and some are speculating that it could in the form of DVD movies. However, let's not forget that the show did get another chance after a first season hampered by an industry-wide writers' strike. This was not another situation (a la Firefly) where the show's episodes were consistently aired out of order. Maybe it has been prematurely canceled -- this is something we may never know. But the fact remains: the show got two seasons, which is more than most well-liked, but poorly-rated shows tend to get.

Another thing I've noticed is that many fans are railing against Dollhouse as if that show really had anything to do with Terminator's cancellation. And I don't get it, even though I was a Terminator fan first and didn't even like Dollhouse much until its sixth episode. Though Dollhouse has a polarizing effect on viewers, and though many say its Whedon's weakest show, it does happen to have fans. And it's still a triumph for a poorly-rated science fiction show to be saved for at least one more season.

For all you know, Dollhouse will ultimately yield a poor profit for FOX (I'm sure they'll be watching those DVD sales this summer) and wind up getting canceled as well. So let's not turn this into a war. As a creative person, I'm extremely disappointed to hear about Terminator's cancellation, and I genuinely sympathize with the show's actors and production team. But even though we hate to admit it, TV is ultimately a business. And since this is not a colossally cruel cancellation of Firefly proportions, we can't be surprised (though we can still be disappointed) by this news.

[Entertainment Weekly]

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TV News: Fox Renews Fringe

Fox announced that they have renewed J.J. Abrams' paranormal thriller Fringe for a full 22-episode second season.

Fringe, starring thesps Anna Torv, Joshua Jackson and John Noble, is the #1 rated new TV series among the adults 18-49. The first season finale, airing May 12, will feature none other than Leonard Nimoy guest starring as the mysterious Dr. William Bell. [Hollywood Reporter]

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