royalpains

This week on TV: First shift ends for 'Nurse Jackie,' a 'Royal Pain' of a love triangle and Vince calls in the security big dogs on 'Entourage'

MONDAY, AUGUST 24
'Nurse Jackie' (10:30PM, Showtime) 1st season finale
The good news, of course, is that the series, one of Showtime's most successful premieres ever, will be back for a second season. But sadly, we have to bid a temporary adieu to Jackie (Edie Falco) and her shenanigans, as she ends the season in trademark chaos. While she tries to juggle her schedule to meet Kevin for a little romance and be there for O'Hara when her mother arrives, there's also a problem with Eddie, who gets drunk – at Kevin's bar! – and comes to the hospital to throw a hissy fit.

A lot of times, the news about ratings isn't good. Or not good enough, so shows that you care about have to hope for the kindness of TV executives to give that show more time to improve or find a new time slot or something ... just to survive. That's why it's such a pleasure that Burn Notice did great in the ratings for the summer season finale last Thursday. According to the numbers, 7.6 million total viewers were glued to the set, the most eyeballs for any scripted TV shows that night.

Things are really cooking at the USA Network. Not only has the new show Royal Pains been renewed for a second season, but Burn Notice is also coming back for a fourth. Law and Order: Criminal Intent is on the verge of being re-upped, and now In Plain Sight has just gotten a pick-up for Season Three.

Wow! Talk about a winning formula. This part of the Universal family, as opposed to NBC, seems to have figured out how to make dramas work and work well.

Lauren Lee Smith is leaving the scene of the crime. The actress, who joined the cast of 'CSI' last season, will not return as a regular for the show's upcoming 10th season.

Also in the news today: Shawn Pyfrom exits 'Desperate Housewives,' while USA Network renews 'Burn Notice' and 'Royal Pains.'

See more of today's top TV headlines after the jump.

USA has to be rather pleased. Last week, the top rated show on cable was Burn Notice. And their newest series Royal Pains is hanging in there impressively in fourth place, creating a powerful Thursday night lineup. As a reward, word has it that USA has renewed both Burn Notice and Royal Pains.

I first fell into Royal Pains because I have this bizarre fascination with the Hamptons. I hadn't even heard of it until a few years ago, and now it's just fascinating to me. Here's a place full of people I will never get to mingle with, living and partying somewhere that I will never go. It's Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous with a plot.

Burn Notice I've not watched because I didn't jump in when it first started (regular readers may remember that I have a thing about that), though I should probably just get over it and check it out. It has Bruce Campbell in it, and he's always a blast and I've heard nothing but good things about it. Regardless, it's more good news for cable broadcasting while the networks keep crying away the summer.

Apparently, there are a lot of medical emergencies in the Hamptons - deflated boobs, dying socialites, hemophiliac kids. And apparently, there is also a shortage of doctors in the area that is so bad everyone is clamoring to be attended to by a visiting doctor from out of town who has just been conveniently ostracized for having let a hospital trustee die in his care.

That's the basics of Royal Pains, USA's latest edition to its "characters welcome" line-up. Unfortunately for Doctor Hank Lawson, the physician in the center of this maelstrom of health issues, none of his patients are particularly interesting, which means I didn't care if they lived or died or if any of their wounds were healed properly. Nor did I care if the overly ambitious would-be doctor's assistant Divya got her wish that Lawson hang his shingle in the Hamptons. Or if his brother found a way to get laid.

Meg Ryan books an episode of HBO's 'Curb Your Enthusiasm,' Julianne Hough will join fellow TV star Chace Crawford on the big screen, 'Scrubs' goes to school and more TV news.

Summer TV continues to heat up the small screen with USA's new dramedy series 'Royal Pains.' The show stars Mark Feurestein ('Good Morning, Miami') as a down on his luck Manhattan doctor who heads for the Hamptons with his brother, played by Paulo Costanzo. After a few freak accidents, Hank suddenly finds himself with a new life, career and -- most of all -- a new home.

So far critics have been mostly kind to 'Royal Pains,' which airs Thursdays at 10 after 'Burn Notice.' The NY Post called the premiere "perfect, mindless, summer fun," while the Chicago Sun Times said 'Royal Pains' is "just what the doctor ordered for a shameless seasonal fling."

(S01E01) Never ever, ever go into work on your day off. It could just cost you your job. Especially if in doing so, the man who's name on the building dies and it in any way can be blamed on you. Just a friendly tip from the blogosphere. In these tough economic times, because I just had to start an article about a show set in the Hamptons with that, there's nothing better for people struggling to make ends meet than a show about people whose biggest struggle is ... well nothing, really.

I went into this show kind of expecting to be too annoyed by the fact that it's in the Hamptons to enjoy it, but dammit, I really started liking it. A big part of that is thanks to the dynamic between Mark Fuerstein and Paulo Costanza. Fuerstein, as Hank Lawson, is our lead who did the whole guy dying losing his job thing. And Constanza as his brother Evan, is the kind of guy who can breeze into a German Consulate's party with a bad accent and a fake ID.

The heat of summer is matched only by the hot new TV shows we'll be seeing this season.

We've got the scoop on the return of familiar faces ('Nurse Jackie''s Edie Falco), the next cable hits ('Hawthorne'; 'Hung'), the new reality shows ('The Bachelorette'; 'Kendra') and more that will have everyone talking.

See all of this year's new shows in our 2009 Summer TV gallery.

Sing with me: here's a story about a doctor who is busy caring for rich folks in New York... Okay, it doesn't have the bouncy tune of a Sherwood Schwartz theme song, but this new USA show sounds like fun.

USA has picked up Royal Pains, a new summer series starring Mark Feuerstein as Hank Lawson, M.D., a doctor who is on-call to some of the most demanding patients around, the richie-riches who live in the fashionable Hamptons of Long Island.

There are a few reasons to be psyched about this new drama. For starters, it's coming from the same network that brings us Psych, not to mention Burn Notice, Starter Wife and In Plain Sight. In other words, USA has been doing very well in developing idiosyncratic, interesting comedy-drama series. There's no reason to think that Royal Pains will be a dud.

USA has recruited Mark Feuerstein for one of its new projects. The actor was recently cast as the lead in Royal Pains, a 90-minute pilot for the cable network. As Bob reported back in March, Royal Pains is one of four upcoming series that USA is currently developing. Feuerstein will play Hank Lawson, a former ER doctor who reluctantly takes a job as an on-call physician to wealthy residents of the Hamptons.

Jace Alexander, the director behind the pilot episode of USA's Burn Notice, has signed on to direct the Royal Pains pilot, which is encouraging news for the series.