Here is a special thread completely devoted to all television casting and development updates. Please feel free to comment and add the latest information for July, 2009.

Exclusive: Liza Minnelli, Delta Burke are dueling "Divas"
Jun 30, 2009 | by Michael Ausiello

Now this is the kind of screwball casting I can get on board with: Liza Minnelli and Delta Burke are set to play dueling sisters on Lifetime's upcoming legal dramedy "Drop Dead Diva," sources confirm to me exclusively.

On "Diva," which premieres July 12, Minnelli plays a psychic who takes her sister (Burke) to court after she opens a competing psychic shop directly across the street from her store. Their episode airs Sept. 20 and also features an encore appearance by Rosie O'Donnell as a judge.

Wait, there's more . . .

The following week (Sept. 27), Nia Vardalos guest stars as an offbeat (duh) office temp who discovers that she was switched at birth.

"Drop Dead Diva," the brainchild of former "CSI"/"Bones" exec producer Josh Berman, tells the story of a vapid model who dies in a sudden accident only to be reborn in the body of a brilliant, plus-size attorney (Brooke Elliott).

Might be time to introduce my FauVo to this mysterious Lifetime channel.

Piper Perabo gets 'Affairs' in order

Actress to star in USA thriller

By Nellie Andreeva

Piper Perabo has been tapped as the lead in USA Network's spy thriller "Covert Affairs."

The project, which has been quietly casting two major roles for the past month, hasn't received a firm pilot order, but a green light is expected within a couple of weeks.

Written by Matt Corman and Chris Ord, "Affairs" centers on Annie Walker (Perabo), a CIA trainee who speaks six languages and excels at any endeavor she undertakes.

Walker joins the CIA while still reeling over a mysterious ex-boyfriend who appears to be of particular interest to her new bosses. She vows never to let herself be hurt again, but that proves to be a tall order.

With the lead role cast, attention now shifts to finding an actor to play Auggie Anderson, a blind tech expert who assists Walker in her assignments.

"Affairs," from Universal Cable Prods., is exec produced by Dutch Oven's Dave Bartis and Doug Liman, with Corman and Ord serving as co-exec producers.

The spy thriller genre has been a successful one for USA, which scored a hit with "Burn Notice."

Perabo, a feature actress who rarely has ventured into TV, recently guest-starred on the USA series "Law & Order: Criminal Intent."

Having just completed a Broadway run in the Tony-nominated "Reasons to Be Pretty," she next stars opposite Chris Pine in Paramount Vantage's "Carriers." Perabo is repped by UTA and TMT Entertainment.

Christian Slater circles ABC series

Eyes starring role in new show 'The Forgotten'

By Nellie Andreeva

Christian Slater is in negotiations to star in ABC's new series "The Forgotten."

"Forgotten," from WBTV and producer Jerry Bruckheimer, is a mystery drama revolving around a group of amateur detectives led by a former cop (Slater) whose 11-year-old daughter was kidnapped three years before.

The project is recasting after being picked up to series in May to air at 10 p.m. Tuesdays.

Slater would replace British actor Rupert Penry-Jones, who played the lead in the pilot. Another role, that of a female member of the sleuth squad, also is being recast.

"Forgotten," set to launch Sept. 22, would mark Slater's second turn as a TV leading man after last year's short-lived NBC spy drama "My Own Worst Enemy," for which he garnered good reviews.

Slater is repped by CAA and Untitled Entertainment.

Rocky Carroll pulls double duty
Actor to appear in "NCIS," "NCIS" spinoff
by MICHAEL SCHNEIDER

In a rare case of primetime double duty, thesp Rocky Carroll will simultaneously appear on both "NCIS" and frosh spinoff "NCIS: Los Angeles" next season.

Carroll is signed up to star fulltime in the "NCIS" mothership. But he's also onboard as a recurring cast member on "NCIS: Los Angeles" as the same character.

Carroll plays the Naval Criminal Investigative Service director Leon Vance, whose oversight -- just like that of the real-life NCIS director -- includes multiple jurisdictions.

As a result, the Mark Harmon-led team on "NCIS" will be seen reporting to Carroll, and ditto the LL Cool J-Chris O'Donnell team on "NCIS: Los Angeles."

Carroll joined "NCIS" fulltime last year after his character, who had been assistant director of the NCIS, was promoted in the wake of the death of his predecessor (Lauren Holly).

CBS TV Studios is behind "NCIS" and "NCIS: Los Angeles," which will air back-to-back this fall on Tuesday nights.

Wentworth Miller's Latest Break? "Law & Order: SVU"
by Adam Bryant

"Prison Break" star Wentworth Miller will guest star in the Season 11 premiere of "Law & Order: SVU," TVGuide.com has confirmed.

Miller, who spent years running from the police on "Prison Break," will be on the other side of the law this time around. He will play a NYPD cop named Nate Kendal, who saves a rape victim and crosses paths with Benson and Stabler.

Alas, Miller's run won't extend beyond the one episode. "SVU" premieres Wednesday, Sept. 23 at 9 pm/ET on NBC.

'Gossip' centers on Hilary Duff
Singer/actress to guest on teen soap

By JON WEISMAN

Hilary Duff is joining the cast of "Gossip Girl" - but not on a regular basis.

The CW series' spokeswoman, Melissa Burton, says the 21-year-old singer and actress will guest-star next season as "a movie star looking for a typical college experience."

Duff's character, named Olivia Burke, enrolls at New York University and becomes roommates with "Gossip Girl" hipster Vanessa, portrayed by Jessica Szohr (ZOR).

Oh, what a tangled web: Burton says Olivia will spark a romance with aspiring novelist Dan, played by Penn Badgley. As fans know, Vanessa used to have eyes for Dan - then they dated other people.

Duff begins her "Gossip" arc on Oct. 5.

Season three premieres Sept. 14, as the prep kids head off to college.

Maiara Walsh is a 'Desperate' regular

Actress previously guest starred in two episodes

By Nellie Andreeva

Gaby is in for more trouble with the newest addition to the Solises household.

Maiara Walsh is joining the cast of ABC's "Desperate Housewives" as a regular next season after guest starring in the last two episodes this past season.

Walsh plays Ana, Carlos' (Ricardo Chavira) gorgeous and manipulative niece who came to live with the Solises and already has been pushing Gaby's (Eva Longoria Parker) buttons.

"Desperate Housewives" returns for a sixth season Sept. 27.

Walsh is best known for her role on the Disney Channel sitcom "Cory in the House" as Meena Paroom, daughter of the Ambassador of the fictional country of Bahavia and one of Cory's friends and former love interests.

Her credits also include the 2009 indie "The Prankster" and the Sci Fi Channel pilot "Revolution."

Walsh is repped by APA and Mathea Webb at Mattie Management.

Andrea Bowen returning to 'Housewives'

Coming back to ABC series as a regular in the fall

By Nellie Andreeva

After she was mostly out of the picture last season off to college, Susan Mayer's daughter Julie will be back in full force in the upcoming sixth season of ABC's "Desperate Housewives."

Andrea Bowen is returning to the hit ABC series as a regular in the fall, sources said.

An ABC spokeswoman would only confirm that Bowen will appear in the sixth season opener, slated for Sept. 27.

It is also understood that Julie's father, Karl (Richard Burgi), may be featured prominently on the series this coming season.

On the show, Bowen was last seen in the Nov. 16 episode, in which Julie visited her mom (Teri Hatcher), bringing along her much older boyfriend Lloyd (Steven Weber).

In addition to her resuming her duties on "Desperate Housewives," Bowen, who debuted on stage on Broadway at age six as young Cosette in "Les Miserables," is in the midst of recording her first solo album, which will feature original pop-rock songs she has written.

She is repped by UTA and Framework.

"30 Rock" cable ready
Show nabs big bucks in off-network sales
by CYNTHIA LITTLETON

Liz Lemon has reason to celebrate: NBC's "30 Rock" has nabbed megabucks in off-network sales to Comedy Central and WGN America.

The Universal Media Studios laffer starring Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin was said to have fetched an impressive fee of about $800,000 per episode in total from separate deals with Viacom-owned Comedy Central and Tribune-owned WGN. Both outlets will begin airing the episodes as a Monday-Friday strip in fall 2011.

Laffer sold for a surprisingly high price at a time when the recession and the slump in ad sales has made for a generally down market for programming deals. It's also a healthy number considering that "30 Rock" has been a modest ratings performer in primetime for the Pea****.

Skein drew strong interest from several cablers, including TBS and E!, which allowed NBC Universal Television Distribution to drive up the price over several rounds of bidding. There is no repurposing element to the deal prior to the start of Monday-Friday runs in 2011, which made the Comedy Central and WGN offer attractive to NBC U.

The "30 Rock" fee paid by Comedy Central alone is high by cable standards for a comedy, though it is a little less than the estimated $750,000 per episode that Lifetime ponied up last fall for "How I Met Your Mother" rights beginning next year. The cable record for off-net sitcom rights remains the $800,000 that FX has committed for primetime's most-watched laffer, "Two and a Half Men."

Show-within-a-show vehicle "30 Rock," which features Fey as harried TV producer Lemon and Baldwin as a gonzo NBC exec, has been a critical darling since its debut in fall 2006. It has earned the comedy series Emmy for the past two years. The show, heading into its fourth season on NBC, will have more than 100 segs in the can by the time it bows on Comedy Central and WGN.

David Bernath, Comedy Central's senior veep of programming, said the cabler pursued "30 Rock" aggressively because it's a good fit with the Comedy Central aud, and because web execs are confident that the series' aud will only grow in the next two years.

"Pound for pound, this is one of the funniest shows on TV. The DNA of the show is fabulous," Bernath said. "I really believe its biggest and broadest days are still ahead of it on NBC."

Comedy Central has only recently jumped into the off-network acquisition game, adding "Scrubs" repeats to its lineup last year. The cabler was in the hunt for a "Scrubs" companion just as NBC U's syndie arm got serious about shopping the "30 Rock" rights a few months back.

The "30 Rock" purchase also marks an unusually competitive move in the off-net realm by WGN, which is looking to add more top-tier contempo fare to the cable superstation's primetime lineup. Industry insiders said WGN execs went in on a bid with Comedy Central at the eleventh hour earlier this month when it appeared that the show was headed for a shared deal between TBS and E!.

It's understood that WGN's newly appointed programming team has been actively stocking up on acquisitions timed to bow next year in conjunction with a planned relaunch of the general entertainment channel.

Meanwhile, NBC U TV Distribution is also in the midst of shopping "30 Rock" to local TV stations, which will add more millions to the show's bottom line.

Frances Manfredi, exec veep and general manager of cable sales for NBC U TV Distribution Group, spearheaded the sale along with division prexy Barry Wallach for the Pea****. Syndie vet Chuck Larsen, head of October Moon Television, served as the rep for the producers and profit participants on the show.

"The Mentalist" recruits Terry Kinney
Will play Agent Bosco in a recurring role
by Nellie Andreeva

Veteran Terry Kinney has landed the all-important new recurring role on CBS' hot crime drama "The Mentalist."

In at least seven episodes of the Warner Bros. TV-produced series' upcoming second season, Kinney will play Agent Sam Bosco, a seemingly flat-footed policeman with a deceptively sharp intelligence.

Bosco leads the California Bureau of Investigation's Serial Crimes Unit and is brought in to assist in cracking the case of the elusive Red John serial killer, whose victims include the wife and daughter of CBI consultant Patrick Jane (Simon Baker).

Bosco and Jane are bound to clash as Bosco's by-the-book approach is a constant irritation to Jane, while Bosco hates Jane's unorthodox methods and is determined to oust him from the CBI.

To make things even more complicated, earlier in his career, Bosco was Teresa Lisbon's (Robin Tunney) boss, and a dark secret from their shared past hangs over their current relationship.

"Oz" alum Kinney recently co-starred on ABC's well-received but short-lived dramedy "The Unusuals."

Kinney is repped by ICM and Brookside Artists Management.

Robin Williams "Self-Destructs" for HBO
Stand-up special will premiere in December
by Nellie Andreeva

Robin Williams is returning to HBO with "Weapons of Self-Destruction," his first solo special for the premium cable network in seven years.

The special will be taped in November at DAR Constitution Hall during the Washington DC stop of the comedian's sold-out national tour.

It is slated to premiere on HBO in December.

Williams' current tour drew extra attention in March when it was put on hold so that the comedian could undergo heart surgery.

Williams first appeared on HBO in 1977 as part of the "Young Comedians" special. He went on to star in four solo specials on the network: "On Location: Robin Williams" (1978), "An Evening with Robin Williams" (1983), "Robin Williams: An Evening at the Met" (1986) and "Robin Williams: Live on Broadway" (2002). Along with Billy Crystal and Whoopi Goldberg, Williams was one of the hosts of all nine "Comic Relief" all-star charity benefit specials on HBO.

Olympic Network to debut in 2010
Will air live events, archival footage, and lifestyle shows
by Anthony Crupi, Mediaweek

Comcast has partnered with the U.S. Olympic Committee to launch a new standalone cable network dedicated to the nation's premiere athletes.

Slated to bow after the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games, the U.S. Olympic Network will look to chronicle the "excitement, competition and values connected with the Olympic movement." If successful, the venture will help athletes maintain a higher profile during the interim periods in which no Games are held.

The network will be slotted on Comcast's digital classic tier, which serves some 10 million subscribers and plays host to major sports-league channels like NFL Network, MLB Network and NBA TV.

The USON will offer live coverage of championship competitions and, following the 2012 London Summer Games, trials and qualifiers. News, archival footage and other original programming will be part of the mix as well.

A multiplatform effort, the USON will provide VOD content via Comcast's on-demand and broadband platforms.

"The U.S. Olympic Network will be a dream come true for fans of the Olympic Games, delivering rich year-round content associated with the world's greatest sporting competitions," said Stephanie Streeter, acting CEO of the USOC. "By bringing the stories, competitions and history of the Olympic Movement into American homes year-round, the USOC hopes to not only inspire a new generation of athletes but also to educate young people about the ideals and values of the Olympic movement."

Streeter added that the increased exposure "will generate compelling opportunities for Olympic sponsors to expand their association with the Games. At the same time, we believe it will enhance interest in and viewership of Olympic-related coverage on broadcast networks."

While terms of the Comcast-USOC were not disclosed, it is believed that the Olympic Committee will trade a percentage of the network's ad revenue for carriage and promotional consideration. Comcast will oversee day-to-day operations of the USON, but the channel will not be grouped with the operator's other sports properties (Versus, Golf Channel).

While the initiative marks the U.S. Olympic Committee's first foray into programming, the USON won't be the first network to focus on Olympic-level competition. Universal Sports Television Network carried the 2008 Paralympic Games and rebroadcast select competition from the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Introduced in 2005 as World Championship Sports Network, the channel changed its name to Universal Sports in June 2008 after NBC Universal and Leo Hindery's InterMedia Partners bought a joint stake in the venture. The network passes some 55.7 million households and is available in nine of the top 10 DMAs.

Hope Davis to play Hillary Clinton

Replaces Julianne Moore in upcoming film

By Nellie Andreeva

There has been a second talent change on the HBO Films/BBC Films movie "The Special Relationship," this time in front of the camera.

Julianne Moore, originally slated to play Hillary Clinton, has pulled out because of a scheduling conflict.

Hope Davis is now set to play the former First Lady and current Secretary of State.

The film, which chronicles the unique and sometimes turbulent political relationship between newly installed British Prime Minister Tony Blair and U.S. President Bill Clinton in the late 1990s, is slated to begin production July 20 in London.

Dennis Quaid is on board to play President Clinton, Michael Sheen as Prime Minister Blair and Helen McCrory as Cherie Blair.

Oscar-nominated scribe Peter Morgan, who wrote the movie, had planned to make "Special Relationship" his directorial debut but pulled out from helming duties last month, with Richard Loncraine stepping in to direct.

Morgan is executive producing with Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall, Andy Harries and Christine Langan.

For Moore, the scheduling conflict arose from her commitment to the feature "The Kids Are All Right."

Davis, who co-starred on HBO's "In Treatment" this past season, is currently on Broadway in the Tony Award-winning play "God of Carnage" for which she received a Tony nomination.

She is repped by UTA and Perri Kipperman Management.

Exclusive: "SVU" collars Eric McCormack
Jul 8, 2009 | by Michael Ausiello

The parade of top-tier tube talent to "Law & Order: SVU" continues. "Will & Grace" Emmy winner Eric McCormack has inked a deal to guest star in this season's second episode as a handsome (and straight) sugar daddy. As previously reported, "SVU"'s season premiere will feature "Prison Break" 's Wentworth Miller as a cop.

"Christine" set for Lifetime adventure
Cable network picks up rerun rights to CBS show
by CYNTHIA LITTLETON

Lifetime has picked up rerun rights to CBS' Julia Louis-Dreyfus starrer "The New Adventures of Old Christine."

The deal with Warner Bros. Domestic TV Distribution calls for Lifetime to pay about $350,000 per episode for the show, and the cabler will also hand over 1½ minutes of barter advertising time. The show, featuring Louis-Dreyfus as a harried single mother, will bow on Lifetime in fall 2010.

JoAnn Alfano, exec veep of entertainment at Lifetime, called the show "funny, modern, smart and relatable -- a perfect fit for our brand."

Warner Bros. has cleared "Old Christine" reruns on TV stations covering more than 85% of U.S. TV households, including Tribune's WPIX New York and KTLA Los Angeles, also for fall 2010. In Chicago, "Old Christine" will air in primetime on indie WCIU. On the local station front, Warner Bros. is getting cash license fees plus two minutes of barter ad time.

"Old Christine" has been on the off-network block at the same time that NBC Universal TV Distribution has been shopping rerun rights to "30 Rock." NBC U landed a significantly higher cash license fee of around $800,000 from Comedy Central and WGN America for "30 Rock" in a deal without any barter time (Daily Variety, July 8).

On the station side, NBC U confirmed Wednesday that it has cleared "30 Rock" on Fox O&Os in New York and L.A. and on Tribune's local WGN Chicago, starting in fall 2011. Those deals were done on an all-barter basis, with NBC U taking three minutes of ad time in each half-hour.

The all-barter structure for "30 Rock's" broadcast deals reflects the ad slump in the local TV biz and the fact that "30 Rock" is likely to draw a niche aud. But "30 Rock" nonetheless drew spirited bidding from Fox and Tribune stations, which committed to double runs of the show in prime evening and latenight time slots.

"Old Christine" doesn't have the same creative cachet as "30 Rock," but it does have the familiar face of star Louis-Dreyfus, a mainstay in syndie comedy thanks to the enduring appeal of "Seinfeld." The thesp earned an Emmy in 2006 for the Warner Bros. TV sitcom, which is heading into its fifth season on CBS.

"Top Chef" to start cooking in Vegas
Bravo to launch show August 26
by STUART LEVINE

Bravo has set an Aug. 26 launch for "Top Chef: Las Vegas," the sixth installment in its popular culinary competition series.
The fifth season of the skein, which shot in New York and ended in February, was the highest rated so far, averaging nearly 3 million in the 18-49 demo and 4 million total viewers.

Seventeen chefs will appear in week one, to be whittled down to a champ by season's end. The playing field has been extended since the show began in March 2006, when only 12 chefs competed.

Padma Lakshmi, Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons, and Toby Young will once again serve as judges. Production takes place at the newly opened M Resort in Henderson, Nev.

Magical Elves will produce. Dan Cutforth, Jane Lipsitz, Liz Cook, and Casey Kriley are exec producers.

Jon Heder lands Comedy Central show
Net orders 10 episodes of scripted comedy
by James Hibberd

"Napoleon Dynamite" star Jon Heder has landed a sitcom deal at Comedy Central.

The network has ordered 10 episodes of a new scripted comedy starring Heder as an out of work computer IT specialist who returns to his small home town and moves back in with his parents and younger brother.

The project is from Gary Sanchez Productions and Debmar-Mercury.

The news comes on the heels of yesterday's announcement of the net picking up "30 Rock" in syndication, and its recent deal to resurrect former Fox animated series "Futurama."

"Mother" producer eyes new series
Greg Malins, Harlan Coben developing hourlong project
by Nellie Andreeva

"How I Met Your Mother" executive producer Greg Malins has teamed with best-selling mystery novelist Harlan Coben for an hourlong series project.

The project, about a larger-than-life former private eye who teaches a college criminology class, was sold at the first place it was pitched, Fox, where it landed a script commitment with a penalty attached.

The untitled series, described as a drama with humor, hails from 20th Century Fox TV, where veteran comedy writer-producer Malins has an overall deal.

Coben, author of 18 novels in the mystery and thriller genres who lives in his native New Jersey, had been thinking about venturing into television. He had an idea to center a crime drama on a character with a frontal-lobe injury that suppresses his inhibitions.

Meanwhile, across the country in Hollywood, Malins was moving from one successful comedy series to another, doing exec producer stints on "Friends," "Will & Grace" and "Mother." He also happens to be a huge Coben fan who had read each of his books.

One day in the fall, Malins was surprised to see a collection of Coben novels in the offices of his agency, Endeavor (now WME). He was shocked to find out that he shared an agent with Coben; he immediately set up a meeting with the writer.

"It was a dream come true, the coolest thing I've ever done," Malins said. "Before (the meeting) I had him on a pedestal, but he turned out to be a regular guy."

The two hatched the idea for a series, a procedural about a private investigator-turned criminology teacher who solves crimes with his graduate students while also schooling them.

The setting will be an UCLA-type school in Los Angeles. With most of Coben's books set in and around New York and New Jersey and Malins working on three consecutive series set in New York, both were looking for a change of scenery.

Not long before he took the teaching job, the show's private eye suffered a bullet wound to the head that made him lose his inhibitions. That "makes him a psychopath," Coben said. "It (also) makes him a better cop and teacher because he doesn't have a sympathetic outlook."

Thus the tagline for the show: "They want to learn about the mind of a psychopath. Well, they are about to learn from the best."

Expect this one to get a lot of love next year:
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Hope Davis talks about gearing up to play Hillary Clinton
Jul 9, 2009, 08:21 PM | by Nicole Sperling

In a matter of weeks, actress Hope Davis will transform herself from Annette -- the upper-class wife and mother who spars on stage with Jeff Daniels, Marcia Gay Harden, and James Gandolfini eight shows a week in the Tony Award-winning Broadway play God of Carnage -- into Hillary Clinton for HBO Films' political drama The Special Relationship for British director Richard Loncraine (Wimbledon). She was just asked Monday to step into the role after Julianne Moore had to bow out due to a scheduling conflict. Now, Davis is tasked with embodying our current Secretary of State during her less glamorous years as First Lady to Bill Clinton (played by Dennis Quaid) during the Monica Lewinsky affair.

So how does the award-winning actress plan to hastily prepare? Through lots of audio tapes, lots of books, and a trusty wig. "With something like this, you can't spend all your time worrying about what you sound like, that you're not doing the storytelling part," Davis tells EW, while on her way to yet another live show of Carnage. "That has to come first."

While the title A Special Relationship refers to the friendship between two heads of state, U.S. President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair (to be played for the third time by actor Michael Sheen), the film, from screenwriter Peter Morgan (The Queen), also imagines what went on behind closed doors between the Clintons during the Lewinsky affair. And it's something Davis can relate to. "Almost every woman in the world has been in that position -- it was a long time ago in my life -- where the person that you trusted looks at you and says, 'I have an admission to make.' It's a moment we've all lived through."

Davis will be flying to London on Sunday to meet Quaid and Loncraine and to do a script read-through. Production will begin July 20 and Davis will join the cast in the beginning of August.