News

Will the 2011-12 television season be a winner or another dud? Over at The Daily Beast, my fellow Daily Beast staffer Maria Elena Fernandez and I offer our first impressions of more than 30 network pilots--from Awake and Ringer to Alcatraz and Work It--coming to TV next season. You can check out our he said/she said-style thoughts in my latest feature, entitled "TV Preview: Snap Judgments of 2011-2012's New Shows." Which fall or midseason show are you most excited about? And which are you most dreading? Head to the comments section to discuss, and see whether you agree with our first impression take on more than 30 broadcast network pilots. Did your potential favorite make the must-see list?

Read the full article at Televisionary (http://www.televisionarytv.com).

Was the Kurt Hummel storyline on Glee as revolutionary as its fans say it is?

Some say no. They pick apart Glee's bits and pieces – storylines, characterizations, wardrobe choices, casting – and point out there are things here we've seen before. The harassed effeminate queer high school kid was done by Rickie Vasquez (Wilson Cruz) on My So-Called Life all the way back in 1994, and Queer as Folk's Justin Taylor (Randy Harrison) spent the show's entire first season being slammed into lockers by a football player in the hallways of his high school. [For more, on these characters see our companion article, Life Before Kurt.]

But those who say Kurt Hummel and his still-developing story aren't something new are wrong. Of course we've seen some of their components before – in fact, many of us have lived them. But at this moment in time, elements both external and internal to Glee have come together to create a phenomenon of popular culture that...

The always-unpredictable Hollywood Foreign Press Association delivered some surprises in the TV categories.

By Aly Semigran

The cast of "Lost"

Photo: ABC

While the Emmys often serve up nods to the same old favorites, year after year, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's Golden Globes are beloved for their unpredictability. In the TV category, the domination of shows like "Glee" and "Mad Men" wasn't too surprising, but there were plenty of out-of-left-field choices and sad-face snubs to keep awards-show junkies amused on Tuesday morning (December 14). (Here's a complete list of the 2011 Golden Globe nominations.)

In the drama acting categories, a Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Drama nomination for Katey Sagal for her work on FX drama "Sons of Anarchy" (The Atlantic raved that Sagal gave a "riveting performance as matriarch of a corrupt biker family") may have been overshadowed by the "Huh?" factor of "Covert Affairs...

The always-unpredictable Hollywood Foreign Press Association delivered some surprises in the TV categories.

By Aly Semigran

The cast of "Lost"

Photo: ABC

While the Emmys often serve up nods to the same old favorites, year after year, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's Golden Globes are beloved for their unpredictability. In the TV category, the domination of shows like "Glee" and "Mad Men" wasn't too surprising, but there were plenty of out-of-left-field choices and sad-face snubs to keep awards-show junkies amused on Tuesday morning (December 14). (Here's a complete list of the 2011 Golden Globe nominations.)

In the drama acting categories, a Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Drama nomination for Katey Sagal for her work on FX drama "Sons of Anarchy" (The Atlantic raved that Sagal gave a "riveting performance as matriarch of a corrupt biker family") may have been overshadowed by the "Huh?" factor of "Covert Affairs...

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. The Los Angeles Times's Maria Elena Fernandez is reporting that the final shots of the Oceanic Flight 815 wreckage that accompanied the closing credits of the series finale of Lost were not placed there by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, but rather by ABC executives who wanted to "soften the transition from the moving ending of the series to the 11 p.m. news and never considered that it would confuse viewers about the actual ending of the show," according to Fernandez. ABC went on to release a statement to confirm this fact. "The images shown during the end credits of the Lost finale, which included shots of Oceanic 815 on a deserted beach, were not part of the final story but were a visual aid to allow the viewer to decompress before heading into the news," said an ABC spokesperson in a statement. [Editor: I am hoping this finally puts an end to the misread of the series' ending, as some have taken to believing that the passengers of Oceanic Flight 815 died in the initial plane crash, despite the presence of some lengthy exposition from John Terry's Christian Shephard that spelled out about the nature of the purgatory that they had created... and stated that everything that happened on the island, happened in real life.] (Los Angeles...

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. Hitfix's Alan Sepinwall has a fantastic (and lengthy) interview with Lost showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse about this week's divisive "Across the Sea" episode and the end of the series. "We told the story the way we wanted to. Like David Chase, we tried to make the show to entertain the audience. That was our primary goal," said Cuse about making the sixth and final season of Lost. "We kind of planned this episode to come at this period of time because we actually wanted to take a break after the deaths of these major characters. It felt like this was the perfect time to take a time out from the main narrative. And since this was the final big mythological episode that we were going to do, we felt like it was a good placement for it, and now we'll roll into the finale.

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. It's official: the clock has run out on Fox's serialized drama series 24. On Friday, Fox announced that Day Eight of 24 would be the series' last, with a two-hour series finale planned for Monday, May 24th. "This has been the role of a lifetime, and I will never be able to fully express my appreciation to everyone who made it possible," said Kiefer Sutherland in a statement. "While the end of the series is bittersweet, we always wanted 24 to finish on a high note, so the decision to make the eighth season our last was one we all agreed upon. This feels like the culmination of all our efforts from the writers to the actors to our fantastic crew and everyone at Fox. Looking ahead to the future, Howard Gordon and I are excited about the opportunity to create the feature film version of...

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. "Danger zone!" FX has ordered a second season of its animated action-comedy Archer, from creators Adam Reed and Matthew Thompson. The cabler has commissioned 13 episodes for the series' second season, which is set to launch next year. The order is up from the seven installments that comprised Season One of Archer. [Editor: while Archer started off rocky and is somewhat hit-or-miss, I'm actually quite enjoying its off-kilter madcap action now that the season is set to wrap in a few weeks' time.] (Variety) The Los Angeles Times' Maria Elena Fernandez talks to Lost showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse about their partnership on the show. And thanks to a video interview, you can get the words from Team Darlton themselves as they recount the events back in 2004 that lead to the duo forming one of Hollywood's strongest creative partnerships. (Los Angeles Times' Show Tracker) Spoiler! Meanwhile, TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck has an interview with Lost's Hiroyuki Sanada, who plays the mysterious temple master Dogen on the ABC drama series' final season. Look...

If you watched "Lost" on Tuesday (Feb. 16), chances are you're still processing all the events of the jam-packed, mythologically heavy and emotionally resonant episode "The Substitute."

So am I. Fortunately for me, though, I got to kick some ideas around with a couple friends -- AOL TV's Maggie Furlong and Maria Elena Fernandez of the L.A. Times -- afterward. And there were cameras there.

Our discussion became an installment of Maggie's weekly "Lost" recap show "Instant Dharma," which you can watch below. Maggie, Maria and I try to unpack some of the significance of the numbers being attached to people's names, the sideways Locke and the entity taking his form on the Island, and Ben being just as cranky off the island as on it. Have a look (and for much more analysis, be sure to read Ryan McGee's recap of "The Substitute").

Follow Zap2it on Twitter...

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. Just a few headlines to get through today, which is Presidents' Day here in the Us. (If you're lucky enough to have the day off, get out there and do something fun.) Los Angeles Times' Maria Elena Fernandez is reporting that studio 20th Century Fox Television has temporarily suspended production on Fox's 24 in order to accommodate a medical procedure for series lead Kiefer Sutherland involving a ruptured cyst. Production on the series, likely in its final season, is thought to begin again in roughly a week and will not affect scheduling for Day Eight of 24. "While Kiefer Sutherland is frustrated to miss even one day of work, he and Fox decided together that it would be best to complete this minor elective procedure now as a precaution as opposed to six weeks from now when production wraps," said Sutherland's publicist Evelyn Karamanos in a statement.

We suspect that a lot of "Lost" fans will be saying "thanks" to showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse over the next few months. They wanted to return the favor.

"As corny as it sounds, we just want to say thank you," Lindelof told the L.A. Times' Showtracker blog at the "Lost" premiere last weekend in Hawaii. He talked about how nice it feels that people have stuck with the heavily serialized show through all of its ups and downs over five seasons.

"We're about to embark on the 106th hour of 'Lost' -- that anybody still cares, especially with this show; it's required a certain amount of patience and perseverance and faith," Lindelof says. "The hardest thing to have in anybody is faith, and the idea that people trust us to sort of not let us down is at times petrifying for us. ... But there are...

"American Idol" is ringing in the New Year by giving Ellen DeGeneres a trial by fire.

The talk show host will begin her official duties in January for "Idol's" Hollywood Week, a demanding period in which 200 hopefuls who've gotten past the original rounds have to prove themselves further, so says La Times Show Tracker's Maria Elena Fernandez.

They've already gotten past Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Kara DioGuardi, so a new, encouraging face and some levity will be much welcomed.

DeGeneres, who will continue hosting her own show, signed a five-year deal with "Idol," stepping in when Paula Abdul left the show. We've always liked DeGeneres, and think she has what it takes to be a good judge.

"American Idol"  ninth season premieres on Jan. 12. DeGeneres' first Hollywood Week duties will begin airing in February.

Are you looking forward to Ellen sitting in the judge's seat?

Follow Zap2it...

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. Looks like Betty Suarez is moving again. Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd is reporting that struggling dramedy series Ugly Betty, now in its fourth season, will be rescued from the Friday night death slot and given a berth on Wednesdays at 10 pm Et/Pt, essentially creating a three-hour block of comedy programming for ABC. Meanwhile, the now vacant Friday night timeslot will be filled by the five remaining unaired episodes of Shark Tank. (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed) FX has announced a launch date for Season Three of serpentine legal thriller Damages, which will return to the lineup on Monday, January 25th at 10 pm Et/Pt. In other scheduling, Nip/Tuck will debut its final season on Wednesday, January 6th at 10 pm Et/Pt and animated comedy Archer begins on Thursday, January 14th while drama Justified will premiere in March and comedy Louie will debut later in the spring.