…courtesy of the solo panel by CBS President of Entertainment Nina Tassler…
* “The Amazing Race” and “The New Adventures of Old Christine” will not return until mid-season.
* Tony Scott will be directing the season premiere of “Numb3rs.”
* Finally, three seasons into “How I Met Your Mother,” we will finally begin to get some hints as to who the hell “your mother” actually is.
* The season premiere of “Cold Case” will be an all-Nirvana episode, so I guess that means the case in question must take place in the early ’90s, presumably in Seattle. (Tassler hadn’t actually seen the script yet.)
* Jake, the half-man on “Two and a Half Men,” will be starting junior high.
* Writer P.K. Simonds, late of “Party of Five,” will be re-teaming with Jennifer Love Hewitt and become co-runner of “Ghost Whisperer” with John Gray; apparently, Simonds and Gray are reinvigorating the series by creating a new mythology which indicates that main characters Jim and Melinda didn’t choose the town of Grandview but, rather, vice versa. (I don’t know what this means; I don’t watch the show. I’m just spreadin’ the info.)
* There will be a “C.S.I.” / “Without A Trace” crossover this year, with William Petersen and Anthony LaPaglia appearing on each others series…and to alleviate the possibility of missing one half or the other, the episodes will air on the same night.
* On “C.S.I.: Miami,” Horatio Cane will discover that he has a biological son…and although this isn’t confirmed yet, Premium Hollywood is going out on a limb and predicting that Caine’s tip-off to his child’s identity is his red hair and stilted acting skills.
* They are in talks with Drew Carey to host “The Price Is Right,” but, then, they’re in talks with several people to host “The Price Is Right.”
* There is, at least in Tassler’s eyes, no reason to expect that “NCIS” will change dramatically in this, its first season with Don Bellisario at the helm. “It’s the natural evolution of a show that you groom your writers on your staff to take over the mantle so you can move on to develop other shows. It’s time that Don developed another show for us which is what we’re looking to do. The look of the show is not going to change, and it’s, again, a part of changes that happen on virtually — in many of the show. Personality aside, it’s time for Don to do something else for us, and the show will go on. It’s in very capable hands.”
* The network has been in talks with Rosie O’Donnell about a show. Some show. Don’t know what show. But definitely some show.
* Tassler conceded that the lengthy hiatus between the two half-seasons of “Jericho” “maybe…wasn’t good for the show.” Y’think…?
* Oh, and here’s what Tassler had to say about the whole Mandy-Patinkin-leaving-“Criminal Minds” thing: “Mandy came to us and came to me and asked to be released from the show, and we were able to accommodate that request on his part. And right now, it’s a personal issue. And, you know, I think the show is accommodating his needs. The creative on the show is very strong. The stories, as we know about the audience on ‘Criminal Minds’ — people come to that show for the ‘E ticket,’ you know, that white-knuckle ride that they’re going to get every week. And in the legacy of ‘ER’ and ‘Law &
Order,’ the show will go on. But right now, it’s personal.”
Tassberg couldn’t (or wouldn’t) provide any insight as to why Patinkin chose to make his departure from the second CBS series of his career. “I can only hope in the very near future that Mandy himself will be able to answer those very questions. I do not mean to sound like I’m avoiding the question. It is a personal issue. I wish I could say more. I just — I don’t feel that this is the forum in which I’d like to have that conversation.”
What about the fact that the CBS press release said it was “creative differences,” not “personal issues”?
“Well, I think ‘creative differences’ is a euphemism for ‘personal issues,'” said Tassberg…and then winked!
