big shots

It turns out that Charisma Carpenter will not be on the celebrity version of NBC's The Apprentice, as reported last week. There goes one of the only reasons some of us would have tuned in for Trump's show.

Not to worry, Charisma will still grace a small screen near you doing what she does best since Angel got canceled: guest star. (It's a shame that she doesn't get a regular role on a TV series... or maybe the actress prefers doing guest starring and not be attached to any specific project?)

TV Guide announced earlier today that the actress best known for her role as Cordelia Chase will appear in one episode of FOX's Back to You and has landed a recurring role on ABC's Big Shots.

It seems like Rob Thomas is going through a mid-career crisis. After his series Veronica Mars was not renewed by the CW network back in May, Thomas has been floating around the television world looking for a new venture. Back in early July he was picked to head up the new ABC series Miss/Guided. However, two weeks later he left his position as executive producer and showrunner under the "creative differences" umbrella (I wonder if I could use that line when I leave my IT position).

Now, according to our dear, dear friend Michael Ausiello over at TV Guide, Thomas has joined Big Shots (another ABC show) as a consulting producer. He will be in good company this time around as the executive producers of the show, Danielle Stokdyk and Jennifer Gwartz, were former producers on Veronica Mars.

ABC crammed in eight (!) panels today on new and returning series as the TV Critics summer 2007 press tour -- finally -- came to an end.

As predicted in my preview story about today's sessions, Shonda Rhimes (Grey's Anatomy; Private Practice) was indeed asked about ex-GA cast member Isaiah Washington, who was canned last month by ABC and then scooped up by rival NBC for a role on Bionic Woman.

A reporter wanted to know what Rhimes thought about NBC president Ben Silverman saying he was in talks with Washington prior to the actor being let go at the end of the TV season.

Today is the last day of the 2007 summer TCA press tour and one of its panels in particular is highly anticipated as ABC rolls out more shows to present to the TV Critics membership.

Shonda Rhimes is coming to the Beverly Hilton today with Kate Walsh, Tim Daly and other cast members of Private Practice to tout the Grey's Anatomy spin-off. But you just know that Rhimes will be asked about the controversial exit of Isaiah Washington from GA at the end of the season.

Where's Dr. Bailey when you need her?

If we've learned anything about ABC over the last couple of seasons, it's that they like to introduce a buttload of pilots at their upfronts every year. But the problem with that is, that leaves critics like us with a ton of DVDs to go through, and not all at once.

We got the first batch of ABC pilots pretty quickly, but we decided to hold off on this post until we got them all in. And since there are so many, we recruited a gaggle of Squadders to tackle them all. So after the jump, Jonathan, Brett, JJ, Jen, Kevin and I weigh in on every ABC pilot except for Private Practice (Grey's fans already saw that pilot in May, remember). Remember that these are early cuts of each pilot; we'll reevaluate when the final cuts of these shows come in later this summer.

Ladies and gentleman, after poring over the material given to us during the network upfronts, viewing preview clips of all the new fall shows, and reading your opinions about it all, I have one thing to say about the upcoming 2007-2008 television season . . .

Meh.

This is one of the blandest fall seasons I have seen in a long time. Sure, there are a few shows that seem promising and mildly entertaining, but nothing that really popped out at me as a clear hit, nothing that got me excited. When I thought about it further I realized why that was: the new season is lacking hype, something that last season had a crapload of.

ABC released its 2007-08 prime-time schedule this morning during a press conference conducted by Steve McPherson, president of ABC Entertainment, which I attended by phone. The changes in brief:

Returning: Grey's Anatomy, Ugly Betty, October Road, Notes from the Underbelly, Men In Trees, Brothers & Sisters, Wife Swap, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Desperate Housewives, The Bachelor, Dancing with the Stars, Lost, Supernanny, America's Funniest Home Videos, Boston Legal, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, 20/20, Primetime (specials and special series)

Out: The Nine, Six Degrees, The Great American Dream Vote, Show Me The Money, Day Break, In Case of Emergency, The Knights of Prosperity, What About Brian, George Lopez, According to Jim (maybe... finally!)

New: Big Shots, Carpoolers, Cashmere Mafia, Eli Stone, Dirty Sexy Money, Cavemen, Miss/Guided, Private Practice, Pushing Daisies, Sam I Am, Women's Murder Club, Oprah's Big Give

Moving: Men In Trees moves from Thursdays at 10 to Fridays at 8. Notes from the Underbelly and October Road (along with Cashmere Mafia) will premiere when Dancing with the Stars and The Bachelor end their seasons. Lost will begin airing in February and show no repeats, in a Wednesday time slot that's still to be determined.

Detailed descriptions of the new shows (and some notes on the schedule) after the jump.

(S07E19) That was a pretty enjoyable episode. Pulling a move that CSI hasn't used in some time, the episode began with what seemed like two completely unrelated cases, but by the end of the episode, they were completely intertwined.

Adding to the episode was the return of Method Man, reprising his season six guest starring role as club and rap mogul Drops. The guy is a good actor. I don't care what anyone says. He brings this likability to any character he plays and Drops is no exception. He's a thug, but the whole time I still found myself rooting for him to find a way out.

However, the best part of the episode was definitely the closure Greg got from the Demetrius James case. Greg finally stood up for himself. It's about time.