Tag: Michael Ausiello

Professors Cox and Turk, at your service

Over at EW.com, the great and powerful Michael Ausiello managed to score the scoop from Bill Lawrence on what’s going on with “Scrubs” come its return for its semi-unexpected ninth season. (I’d be sad that he got the exclusive and I didn’t, but, frankly, I’m still riding on the high from a past interview with Mr. Lawrence where he actually said, “I can’t remember if it was you or Mike Ausiello that I said this to before.”) The talk had always been that the show was going to reinvent itself if and when it came back to the airwaves, and so it will: Dr. Cox (John C. McGinley) and Dr. Turk (Donald Faison) are going to become med-school professors.

Said Lawrence to Ausiello:

“It’ll be a lot like Paper Chase as a comedy. It’s going to be a different show. It’ll still be life-and-death stakes, but if the show is just ‘Scrubs’ again in the hospital with a different person’s voiceover, it would be a disaster and people would be mad. Med students in their first three years have to spend anywhere from 10 to 50 percent of their time at a hospital. And that’s when you’ll see some of the [original cast members]. Continuity-wise, Sacred Heart will still exist with those people still working there.”

Ausiello also confirms that Zach Braff, Sarah Chalke, Judy Reyes and Ken Jenkins will be making guest appearances, and that Neil Flynn, a.k.a. The Janitor, will not be popping up for the foreseeable future, due to his commitments on his own new series (“The Middle”). Beyond McGinley and Faison, however, the majority of the cast will consist of freshman folk, though Lawrence teases in the article that the network is putting the screws to the show to hire a semi-big name as one of the new faces. Who will it be? Time will tell…

Is Charlie coming back for more “Lost”?

That seems to be the new rumor going around the ‘net today following the release of a new ABC promo featuring Patrick Dempsey, Ed O’Neill, Courtney Cox-Arquette and ex-Lostie Dominic Monaghan. While TV spoiler guru Michael Ausiello has received word from a network insider that “There’s obviously a lot of ABC talent in the promo… It doesn’t necessarily mean that Dominic is returning to Lost,” it’s hard to argue otherwise considering the promo ends with Dempsey telling Monaghan “You’re so dead,” and Monaghan coyly replying, “Actually, I was.”

The fact that fellow cast member Emilie de Ravin was just announced as returning to series regular status for the final season, it would certainly open up the opportunity for Monaghan to return as well. Whether it’s as a ghost or a real person (what if Juliet really did change the past?) is uncertain, but whatever the case, I know that lots of fans (myself included) would just be happy to have him back. We’ll have to wait until January 2010 to find out, but for the time being, it’s definitely worth speculating about.

UPDATED: As it turns out, the rumor was just that — an unfortunately untrue rumor. Mr. Ausiello has gotten the real scoop, and it involves Monaghan joining another hour-long show on ABC. Any guesses? Ausiello’s comment section is already filling up with suggestions, including one I like (“V”) and one I don’t (“Grey’s Anatomy”).

“Kyle XY” canceled, “Leverage” renewed, “Friday Night Lights” ratings

TV.com reports that ABC Family has elected not to renew “Kyle XY” for a fourth season, but did pick up “Lincoln Heights” and “Greek” for additional seasons.

The news of Kyle XY’s cancellation first hit the Web via a report from EW.com’s Michael Ausiello, who believes that Kyle’s slumping ratings may have done it in. The show, ABC Family’s first original program, was one of the main reasons ABC Family has turned itself into a promising off-shoot of Disney and ABC. But now with other ABC Family shows–such as The Secret Life of the American Teenager–raising the bar, it appears that Kyle XY is the odd-man out.

I didn’t watch “Kyle XY,” but this has to be heartbreaking news to fans of the show. “Greek” makes for good summer viewing, so I’m happy to see it was picked up for another season.

In other news, TNT renewed “Leverage” for a 15-episode second season.

The early-December debut of Leverage drew an impressive 5.6 million viewers, and over its first nine episodes has averaged 3.2 million viewers.

“Leverage” has been sailing along, though it is pretty unbelievable at times. It has a sense of humor and doesn’t really take itself too seriously (except when it takes itself too seriously). The characters are diverse and strong, and though the humor can be a little “shticky” at times, it’s a pretty funny show.

“Friday Night Lights” fans have to be wondering how the ratings have been since the show debuted on NBC. Well, the show averaged 4.17 million viewers over its first three episodes, which is down from 5.61 million last season. Michael Ausiello says that the show “will be back provided all (or most) of the 4.6 million people that tuned in for last Friday’s season premiere … stick around for the entire season. And they’d be fools not to.”

Hopefully, “Friday Night Lights” can stay above the 4.0 million level so that NBC is getting enough out of the show to continue to co-own the rights with DirecTV.

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