FX has ordered 13 episodes for season four of its Emmy® Award-winning hit drama series Justified, announced Nick Grad, FX Executive Vice President of Original Programming. Six all new episodes remain in season three, airing Tuesdays at 10 PM ET/PT, with the third season finale airing April 10.
“Justified is one of television’s best series and this season has reinforced that excellence,” said Grad. “Graham Yost and his writing team continue to deliver compelling material and richly drawn characters brought to life by the brilliance of Timothy Olyphant and our terrific ensemble cast. Their work is validated by universal acclaim, awards, and ratings that have grown every year. We look forward to many more seasons to come.”
Developed for television by Graham Yost and starring Timothy Olyphant, Justified (TV-MA) is based on the popular Elmore Leonard character “Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens” from his short story Fire in the Hole and some of his other novels.
"There are many reasons all of us on Justified are grateful to get a chance to do another season,” said Yost. “We get to do more work with amazing actors, writers, producers, directors, musicians, editors and a jaw-droppingly talented crew. We get to keep doing a show that appeals to a wide demographic: people in Harlan, retired US Marshals, criminals (we honestly did hear that), and, most happily, our guide, our muse, Elmore Leonard. Best of all, we get to keep doing a show on FX (and while that may sound like craven ass-kissing, when you look at their roster, you can't help but feel grateful to be on that list)."
“Graham’s modern day take on the western and masterful storytelling have helped bring the genre to the forefront,” said John Westphal, Senior Vice President, US. current programming, Sony Pictures Television. “The storytelling and performances brought to life by Tim Olyphant, Walton Goggins and the rest of the cast, continue to elevate the series season after season.”
Through seven weeks, first-run episodes of season 3 of Justified are averaging 4.3 million viewers (+8% vs. season 2) and 2.1 million Adults 18-49 (+8% vs. season 2). The weekly multi-run average viewership for the season 3 is 7.0 million total viewers and 3.4 million Adults 18-49.
Justified airs its eighth episode tonight, titled “Watching the Detectives” (10 PM ET/PT). A shocking murder forces Raylan to confront his past mistakes. Boyd grapples with Harlan's corrupt sheriff.
The series co-stars Walton Goggins as Raylan’s old nemesis/friend “Boyd Crowder,” Nick Searcy as Givens longtime friend and boss “Chief Deputy Art Mullen,” Jacob Pitts as “Deputy Marshal Tim Gutterson,” Erica Tazel as “Deputy Marshal Rachel Brooks,” Joelle Carter as “Ava Crowder,” and Natalie Zea as Raylan’s ex-wife “Winona Hawkins.” After Margo Martindale won an Emmy Award for her guest-starring role in season two as the evil matriarch “Mags Bennett,” this season brings Neal McDonough as Detroit businessman “Robert Quarles” and Mykelti Williamson as the mysterious “Limehouse” to Face Off against Raylan Givens.
Yost wrote the pilot and serves as Executive Producer/Writer on the series. Leonard is an Executive Producer on the series along with Sarah Timberman, Carl Beverly, Michael Dinner and Fred Golan, and Olyphant is a Producer. Justified is produced by FX Productions and Sony Pictures Television.
FX is the flagship general entertainment basic cable network from Fox. Launched in June of 1994, FX is carried in more than 98 million homes. The diverse schedule includes a growing roster of critically acclaimed and award-winning hit dramas series including Sons Of Anarchy, Justified and American Horror Story, and acclaimed hit comedy series It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, The League, Louie, Archer and Wilfred. Its library of acquired box-office hit movies is unmatched by any ad-supported television network. The network's other offerings include the acquired hit series Two and a Half Men and How I Met Your Mother,and live sports with college football and the UFC.
SOURCE: The Nielsen Company, NHI (Live+7)
Fox has decided not to proceed with a second season of science fiction series Terra Nova, effectively canceling the struggling show. 20th Century Fox studios, which produces the series, is keeping a small amount of hope alive by attempting to shop it to other networks, but chances of a pick-up appear slim at this point.
Terra Nova's cancellation was somewhat expected, given its mediocre ratings and hefty production costs. Fox has also recently filled up its roster of dramas with new high profile shows Alcatraz and Touch, which they expect will outperform the cancelled dinosaur drama.
Some bad news for Blue Mountain State fans today. Spike has cancelled the comedy after three seasons on the air. The move aligns with the network's strategy shift to focus on reality programming rather than scripted shows.
Blue Mountain State premiered on Spike in January 2010 and ran for 39 episodes, airing its finale on November 20, 2011. The series followed the lives of a group of college football players at the fictional Blue Mountain State University.
(Source: Zap2it)
The producers of long-running Fox series House have announced that the show will conclude at the end of this season - its eighth. On the air since 2004, the series will have aired 177 episodes by the time all is said and done.
Currently 11 episodes remain until the series finale, which is slated to air on May 21, 2012.
(Source: TV Guide)
I, like most the viewing public, am totally obsessed with "Spartacus: Vengeance" and I'm thrilled to finally write about the genre legend Lucy Lawless who plays Lucretia. Lawless, who's character is in a desperate situation this season, gives us all a look at playing a crazy (or not so crazy) woman, doing nude scenes and what playing "Xena: Warrior Princess" has done for public perception.
"I think if she's crazy, she's crazy like a fox. She's entering a terrible -- she's going down a path with many snares and it's not going to be a comfortable life for her. She hasn't got any friends. She's got no support. No husband, no house, no baby, no lover and not a thing. Ilythia (Viva Bianca) shows up and that seems like it ought to be a good thing but it ain't."
Lawless was asked about playing "crazy" and what it takes as an actress to walk that fine line between over doing it and getting it just right. "I don't. People just suspect me. Because it's Lucretia or because it's the person who played Xena or who played the bad girl. 'She's in the bad girl role,' that we assume she's going to be totally bad. I can play it totally straight, absolutely down the line and you're going to suspect me anyway."
Lawless was asked about doing nude scenes and whether or not she'd gotten comfortable with it. "Who's comfortable?" she says. "Actually, we have to hire people who are comfortable. If you're doing a brothel scene, you can't have extras who are being prima donnas. It just holds everybody up at $100,000 a minute, or however much it is. For us, no. There is no getting used to it. It's a very funny thing."
She also says that you sort of lose your sex drive working on the show. "Those things lose their taboo. We're so sick of thinking about it, worrying about it, talking about it. The show is great for everyone else's sex drive but ours," she laughed.
I must say I was sorry to hear that statement, as anyone as beautiful as Lucy Lawless should never loose their sex drive. But if one must go down that path, I cannot think of another project worthy of such sacifice. Hang in there Lucy and keep up there great work!!!
Zachary Levi didn't get choked up with a group of reporters during filming of the "Chuck" finale in December. To hear him tell it, though, it was one of the few times in the show's last week of production that he didn't. Zachary stated "[The final day] is going to be nothing but waterworks, I'm sure. But last week, we shot pretty much all of the goodbye scenes -- all the characters saying goodbye to one another -- and when art is imitating life simultaneously in that moment, and I'm looking at my friends of five years, my family of five years, in a scene I'm having to look at them say goodbye and I really am saying goodbye? That was -- yeah."
He went on to say "It's not forever, although I'll probably never see Adam Baldwin again. That's not true. ... It's actually not even that final in the world of 'Chuck,' if it were to continue. Obviously Chuck and Morgan [Joshua Gomez] are going to be best friends the rest of their lives. Chuck and Ellie [sarah Lancaster] are still brother and sister, and therefore Awesome [Ryan McPartlin] is still my brother-in-law. And Casey [baldwin] would ... we would all still continue to see each other in some way, shape or form. But the world that has been created, and the world in which we all live and work, has drastically changed and is drastically different, and so, you know, we do say goodbyes, at least for the time being. And it's gnarly. It's really, really surreal."
Given what's happened to Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski) over the past couple episodes, with the Intersect having wiped out her memory, Levi says the finale also acts as "a reset of sorts."
"The 'will they/won't they' dynamic kind of comes back into play, particularly in the second half of the finale -- episode 13," he says. "There's a ton of homage to the pilot, to the origins of these characters and their journey together. And everyone's in it, and that's awesome, and it's been really emotional."
Levi is grateful that "Chuck," which lived on the edge of cancellation for most of its life on NBC, lasted five seasons, but he also thinks now is the right time to bring the show to a close.
"I don't think we've been shorted. I think five seasons is actually a really good amount of time," he says. "I think that oftentimes in network television, you're left with more than you really wanted. Twenty-two episode seasons, 24-episode seasons at seven, eight, nine, 10 years can eventually [make audiences] kind of go, 'All right, we get it.' ... For something like this which is definitely story arcs and serial, how many bad guys and missions can you go on before you feel like you're repeating the same thing? So I feel like we've gotten a really perfect amount of time together, and it's been special from day one."
As "Chuck" leaves the air with a two-hour finale at 8 p.m. ET Friday (Jan. 27), Levi hopes the emotion he and the cast and crew felt during the final days of production translate into what fans see at home.
"If it's hitting us that hard, I can only assume and hope that the fans, as they're watching the finale, are going to feel the same way. It's good. It's cathartic. It's therapeutic," he says. "It's not necessarily tears of joy, but it's tears of love. I hope that the fans all feel that."
Fans of Cougar Town, fear not. The show's third season is still a go as far as ABC is concerned. Cougar Town is likely to return in the March, said ABC Entertainment president Paul Lee. He went on to say, “We’re going to give [Cougar Town] a really good launch pad,” adding that he thinks the show could be part of a block of “young comedies” with Happy Endings and midseason entrant Don’t Trust the B--- in Apartment 23. HE continued to say, "Nothing is set in stone, and no exact date was talked about, but things are looking good for the show's upcoming return."
The cable channel has picked up its freshman drama series "Hell on Wheels" for a second season. There's no official word yet, but Deadline reports a deal is done. Word from AMC is likely to come next week.
The series, centered around the building of the transcontinental railroad in the years after the Civil War, had a big opening in November, scoring 4.4 million viewers for its premiere. That was the second-biggest premiere for an original series in AMC's history, behind only "The Walking Dead."
Its ratings have fallen some since then, but it typically draws better than 2 million viewers per week, which is a pretty good number for AMC.
"Hell on Wheels" stars Anson Mount, Common, Colm Meaney and Dominique McElligott. Joe and Tony Gayton created it. The series has Christmas off but will return Jan. 1 to finish out its inaugural season.
Would it have been better not to have seen Daniel Shaw before he was revealed to be the mysterious prisoner the Omen virus released? Sure. The show clearly wanted it that way -- we saw his feet and body in the breakout scene, but his face was out of frame until he surprised Sarah in Castle.
But it's a testament to the show that even though those of us who saw the promos could connect the dots and realize Shaw was the one pulling the strings, "Chuck vs. the Santa Suit" still managed to be full of holiday awesomeness.
Appropriately, the return of Shaw echoed the last episode with Brandon Routh in a lot of ways: He went through Sarah to get at Chuck, he once again underestimated Chuck's abilities as a spy, and it ended with a fight in an abandoned Buy More, which wasn't as thoroughly destroyed as it was in "Chuck vs. the Ring Part II" but ended up good and trashed anyway.
Your "Chuck" Plot Hole of the Week has to do with Shaw still having the Intersect despite having been in CIA custody for the past two years, and using it to blackmail Decker into doing his bidding. You could argue that maybe Decker didn't realize Shaw was Intersect-capable at the start, and after the first flash that gave Shaw all the dirt, it was over. But let's not think too hard on that, lest it impinge on how great the rest of the hour was.
Chuck's enlistment of Jeff and Lester to crack the virus while Sarah and Casey are incapacitated (more on that in a moment) was a brilliant stroke (and excellent opportunity Subway product placement), both because it reminded us that these guys, when motivated, actually do contribute something besides comic relief and '80s rock covers, and because the show is usually always better when the whole cast is involved.
Jeff and Lester find out that Shaw unleashed the Omen not to destroy the Internet, but to channel the CIA database into his head, creating Intersect 3.0 and bringing the agency to its knees. In the meantime, he'll use his other Intersect skills to subdue Sarah and take out Chuck.
Chuck, however, uses the week's MacGuffin to remove the Intersect from Shaw's head, thereby setting up a pretty fair fight in the Buy More -- and frankly, because it was just two guys who really hate each other fighting and not two guys with near-super powers, this fight actually played better than the one in "Ring Part II." They beat the snot out of each other, and it was great. Particularly when Ellie ended it with a well-placed blow to the back of Shaw's head.
We've been on the record in the past as liking Shaw as a character, if not his actions, and it was great to see Chuck's most hated nemesis return. The episode could have spent its entire running time on their mano-a-mano showdown, and that would have been good. But the fact that it found great notes for so many of the other regulars elevated it to great.
In particular, the Casey piece of the story featured stellar work from Adam Baldwin, both comedic -- his reaction to Chuck and Morgan finding out about his Christmas gift for Alex -- and dramatic. His recording of a final message for Alex was heart-wrenching, and the fact that he then got to deliver the message in person just made us feel warm and fuzzy. If Baldwin submits an Emmy episode this season, it should be this one.
And somehow we've gotten this far into the recap without even mentioning Gen. Beckman planting a huge kiss on Chuck at the CIA Christmas party. I know Beckman wishes never to speak of it again, but I see myself laughing at that moment for a good long time.
And then -- and then! -- Shaw drops one more bomb into Chuck and Sarah's life at the end of the episode, setting up next week's Sarah-centric episode by asking if Chuck knows "about the baby." Can't wait for that, but for now we'd like to thank "Chuck" for a great early Christmas present.
Silverstone is said to be playing the part of Eden, a potential love interest for George, being played by Sisto. Apparently, Eden's "unusual" line of work even comes between George and Noah, and it's got to be some pretty powerful stuff to break up that bromance.
There has been no word yet on whether Eden and George actually hook up, so I guess we'll have to wait until it airs to see if any sparks fly between these two characters. Let's just hope that they'll do a little "rollin' with the homies" for old times' sake.
