Living in a JUSTIFIED World 
There may have been bigger stars present at TCA, but the one panel that seemed to take everyone’s breath away was for JUSTIFIED.  Clearly a favorite amongst the press, the entire room appeared to be in awe of the cast and were anxious to express their united love for the show; even the fact that star Natalie Zea will be working on two series simultaneously barely registered as it was taken with aplomb and graciousness.  So fans can look forward to seeing Natalie in both JUSTIFIED and THE FOLLOWING this season, along with the clearly enamored press.  (JUSTIFIED airs Tuesday nights at 10PM on FX.)

 
Meeting THE AMERICANS 
The new FX series THE AMERICANS starring Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys had everyone’s attention from the very first word.  For one, it is startling to hear Matthew Rhys, who is Welsh transition so smoothly between an American accent and a Russian accent in rapid succession.  Another startling revelation was hearing that Keri Russell scares the crap out of Matthew – and I believe him, for after seeing the ease which she kicked a stuntman’s head through a wall and the way she wields a kitchen knife, I have no doubt she would scare any man.  She’s come a long way from FELICITY.  For those unaware, THE AMERICANS is not your average spy story; it challenges viewers to root for the enemy, as the heroes are the Russian sleeper-agents who live seemingly idyllic lives in suburban America.  That is until a CIA-agent moves in next door and their sleeper-status is revoked and they are put on active duty. From the excitement and enthusiasm of the cast about their show, not to mention the seductiveness of the first couple episodes, there should be nothing “sleeper” about this show.  It should be an out-of-the-gate hit.  (THE AMERICANS premieres Wednesday, January 30th at 10PM on FX.)
 
PRETTY LITTLE LIARS Shockers 
We kind of suspected that the younger demograph was lurking on the internet, but it was not until PRETTY LITTLE LIARS that it was proven beyond a doubt when it accounted for 52% of all Twitter activity for its third season premiere.  Is there another show on television can boast those kinds of numbers?!  Another fun shocker was hearing that the show had planned for Toby to be a member of the “A” team all along.  According to the executive producers, it was hinted at from the very first moment Toby was introduced; but it was due to the sheer likability of star Keegan Allen that fans forgot that he could be a villain.  Hence the outrage with that juicy reveal.  That’s what happens when you cast a super nice actor in a dubiously evil role – everyone forgets he’s supposed to be playing the bad guy! (PRETTY LITTLE LIARS airs Tuesday nights at 8PM on ABC Family.)
 
Who Doesn’t Love a Good SCANDAL
When inviting two bus-loads of press to visit a popular TV show set on a studio lot, it never hurts to invite them to pose for pictures in the faux Oval Office with the show’s reigning President.  As if the sneak peek preview of an upcoming episode did not get everyone excited, being offered a personal photos with President Grant (Tony Goldwyn) certainly did.  Having established himself as an on-screen heartthrob, the press were practically swooning while in his presence – and if you’ve been watching the show, you know exactly why.  (SCANDAL airs Thursday nights at 10PM on ABC.)
 

Long Live the GOLDEN BOY
It is with much acclaim that Greg Berlanti’s latest television drama makes its entrance into the TV arena.  But after seeing the preview clips and meeting the cast, it is easy to see that it deserves every bit of it.  Starring British heartthrob Theo James and the hilarious Chi McBride, GOLDEN BOY lives up to its illustrious moniker.  Even the more resistant press seemed to thaw after an up-close and personal look at the show and its fun cast. (GOLDEN BOY premieres Tuesday, February 26th at 10:00 p.m. on CBS, then moves to Fridays on March 8th at 9PM on CBS.)
 
It’s ELEMENTARY My Dear 
One of the break-out sensations from this season, the new series ELEMENTARY rests comfortably on the shoulders of its stars Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu.  It may have met with skepticism when first announced as a pale comparison of the British series SHERLOCK.  But there is nothing pale about ELEMENTARY as it continues to sizzle its way up the ratings charts and lures in more viewers each week.  Clearly fans are discovering this fine show and embracing it all on its own.  Even the on-the-fence press seemed to have finally joined the ELEMENTARY fan club.  (ELEMENTARY airs Thursday nights at 10PM on CBS.)
 
Ryan Gosling’s Many Talents 
For the new Showtime series RAY DONOVAN, they tapped on the multi-talented Ryan Gosling and his band Dead Man’s Bones for their promotional song.  The show about a Hollywood fixer with a dark personal history matched perfectly with Gosling’s musical sound and, if anyone remembers anything, it will be that this is the show with Ryan Gosling’s music.  Even the musically curious may be tempted to check out the show just for that. (RAY DONOVAN premieres on June 30th at 10PM on Showtime.)
 
Long Live THE ORIGINALS! 
With the long-running success of the CW’s supernatural series THE VAMPIRE DIARIES, it was only a matter of time before they decided to spin-off some of the characters in hopes that it retains that core audience and can successfully launch a companion series.  It was therefore with much giddy glee that fans found out that the CW had greenlit the pilot for THE ORIGINALS, which would star Joseph Morgan along with THE SECRET CIRCLE’s Phoebe Tonkin.  Given Morgan’s massive popularity, this was a no-brainer.  (If picked-up, THE ORIGINALS will hopefully air starting in Fall 2013.)
 
New Show Mania 
As can be expected at any kind of press tour, there were lots of new television shows to tout as the next big thing.  Some are and were obvious from the get-go.  Others have a way to go before winning over jaded and fatigued TV viewers. 
 
So new shows to keep an eye out for include:  
DECEPTION (Monday at 10PM on NBC)
THE FOLLOWING (premieres Monday, January 21st at 9PM on Fox)
THE AMERICANS (premieres Wednesday, January 30th at 10PM on FX)
DO NO HARM (premieres Thursday, January 31st at 10PM on NBC)
ZERO HOUR (premiers Thursday, February 14th  at 8PM on ABC)
GOLDEN BOY (premieres Tuesday, February 26th at 10PM on CBS)
RED WIDOW (premieres Sunday, March 3rd  at 10PM on ABC)
HEMLOCK GROVE (March 27th on Netflix)
ROGUE (premieres on Wednesday, April 3rd  at 10PM on DirecTV)
DEFIANCE (premieres Sunday, April 14th on Syfy)
RAY DONOVAN (premieres Sunday, June 30th at 10PM on Showtime)
GRACELAND (coming Summer 2013 on USA Network)
 
Serial Killers, Monsters, Aliens, and Pirates – Oh My!
Also looming on the 2013-2014 horizon are some very curious new series, offering serial killers, vampires, pirates, aliens, zombies and more things that go-bump-in-the-night. So you may want to put these upcoming TV series on your radar for later this year:
 
HANNIBAL (starring Hugh Dancy, NBC)
DRACULA (starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers, NBC)
CROSS BONES (starring Hugh Laurie, NBC)
BLACK SAILS (starring Toby Stephens, Starz)
HORIZON – USA Network (WWII alien series from Gale Anne Hurd, USA Network)
UNDER THE DOME (Stephen King book adapted for series by CBS)
PENNY DREADFUL (horror/thriller offered by Showtime)
WAYWARD PINES (thriller brought by M. Night Shaymalan for Fox)
THE VATICAN (drama brought by Ridley Scott for Showtime)
 
Limited-Run TV Series
Taking a cue from shows abroad, Fox announced that it shall offer two new limited-run series: WAYWARD PINES and BLOOD BROTHERS.  Understanding that viewers prefer to know exactly when a show will end before committing their precious time to a serialized story, Fox is dipping its toe into the limited-run TV series pool.  It is about high time too!
 
Lack of “Sampling”
From ABC to Fox, viewers just did not check out new TV shows like they had in years past.  New shows from FOX, like THE MOB DOCTOR, BEN & KATE and THE MINDY PROJECT went largely unnoticed.  The same was true for the ABC Fall crop, such as 666 PARK AVENUE, LAST RESORT and NASHVILLE; and pink-slips were soon to follow – though ABC is currently standing behind NASHVILLE in a show of good faith that it will build its audience.  It is a curious trend amongst today’s television viewers that they are just not willing to even try new TV series.  Previously, they at least “sampled” new shows.  But today, they are shrugging their shoulders and complaining that they already have too much to watch on TV.  This ambivalence has made it incredibly difficult to launch new shows for all networks. What’s the cure?  Every television executive would give a small fortune to know that answer.
 
A “Binge” Theory vs. “Water-Cooler” Desirability
By far, the one thing that truly caught my attention at TCA, was the “binge” theory offered by Netflix.  While all the other major broadcast networks were touting the need for “water-cooler” desirability for their TV shows in order to lure viewers to watch shows LIVE; Netflix has taken note of the increasing popularity of “binge” viewing made possible by DVD’s and on-demand programming. 
 
With viewers inclined to catch-up on shows they may have missed on DVD or on-demand, they have become accustomed to watching  TV shows in groupings of 3-4 episodes at a time, or even 13-22 episodes at a time.  This has become known as “binge” viewing and with the popularity of it rising, Netflix is hoping to be ahead of the curve by offering its new original content series (HEMLOCK GROVE, ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT) as “release dates” and not making its viewers wait week-to-week for new episodes.  Accordingly, for all 10-episodes of HEMLOCK GROVE being released on March 27th, viewers have the option of viewing all at once that same day, or choosing to view as many or few episodes as they chose at once. 
 
Netflix felt it was wrong to force their viewers to wait to watch new episodes when all were available.  So in an effort to lure viewers and appease their appetites for more all at once, “binge viewing” is being made possible for the new Netflix TV series.  Talk about long overdue!  This is music to any avid television viewer’s ears.  Imagine a world where you could watch at your own pace and not subject to the broadcasting whims of networks and unexpected preemptions for weather, sports and Presidential addresses?  Self-paced “binge” viewing does seem to something for networks to think about as content-makers such as Netflix begin adopting “release dates” as the new norm.
 
With the onslaught of news coverage and millions of Twitter tweets sent out during the 14-day press tour, there is surely a lot more to be gleaned, but these were the standout highlights.  It will be fascinating to learn what new and innovative ways to broadcast and consume television shows will be available in 2013.  And that’s a wrap on the TCA Winter 2013 Press Tour!

In anticipation of what we’ll thankfully be calling tonight’s summer finale of BUNHEADS, theTVaddict.com thought now might be as good as any to share our brief one-on-one with star Sutton Foster, who we recently had the pleasure of catching up with at this past July’s ABC All-Star Party during the Television Critics Association Press Tour in Hollywood.

As we head towards the end of the season is there anything you can tease about your character Michelle’s trajectory?
Sutton Foster: [Laughs] I can’t tell you anything! Well, except… what brought her to Paradise was this guy… he died! She’s there, now she’s like, “Okay, I’m going to stay here,” and I think she’s just starting to lift her head up. I think she’s had her head down for a while, sort of coping with everything and now she’s starting to lift her head up, be a little more at home, at ease, and while there’s definitely potential for love, her husband just died and it’s a little soon. So what she’s going to start to have is a little fun.

The curious thing about this ABC Family series is that so much of the focus has been on Michelle’s relationship with Kelly Bishop’s Fanny. To fit in more so with ABC Family’s younger demographic, will future episodes of BUNHEADS shift towards Michelle’s relationship with her students?
That’s where we’re heading now. Fanny has left her in charge of the dance studio, but the problem with Michelle is that she doesn’t want to be in charge. She doesn’t want to be an authority figure, she doesn’t want to be an adult, and she’s fighting it with every fibre of her being. Between these two generations I think she probably wants to be more of one of the girls than she wants to be like Fanny so it’s this constant struggle. But yeah, she’s going to be spending more time with the girls as the show progresses.

I know actors don’t like to pay that much attention to things they can’t control (ie. ratings), but what have you heard from the Network?
[Editor's Note: This question was asked well before ABC Family picked up BUNHEADS for the rest of the season!] The only think I’ve heard is positive stuff. In my heart of hearts I feel like our story isn’t done and I hope that we’ll be around for a while.

Having built a name for yourself on Broadway, what surprised you most about your first television experience?
Maybe it’s because it’s Amy’s [Sherman-Palladino] world and her world is a little fantastical and theatrical, the transition has been easier than I expected. Just like New York, you work your ass off — not that I didn’t expect to work hard — it’s just very similar in that the idea is that you work hard, hope that you put good work out there. I guess the surprise for me is that it’s more similar than I expected.

And finally, one SMASH related question if I may. Have you seen the show and how true to life is it to the Broadway experience?
You know I haven’t watched SMASH. I’ve watched the first couple of episodes, I have a lot of friends on it and it’s actually on my iTunes to watch. I’m going to watch the first season before the second season comes out.

BUNHEADS Summer Finale airs Monday August 20th at 9PM on ABC Family (ABC Spark in Canada)

Despite being billed as a ‘limited series event,’ a second term for USA Network’s sizzling summer series POLITICAL ANIMALS remains a distinct possibility. Or at least that was our takeaway from a recent one-on-one with creator Greg Berlanti during this week’s Television Critics Association Press Tour that saw us muster every ounce of journalist integrity (Read: Refrain from gushing over EVERWOOD and JACK & BOBBY with the brains behind two of our all-time favorite shows) to ask a serious and far more pressing question.

“POLITICAL ANIMALS was only called a ‘limited series’ because we knew we were only capable of making six in that first year,” explained Berlanti during a media scrum following Monday’s panel touting his latest fall offering ARROW. “Because the series happened so fast — having gone from casting in February to shooting in May — USA Network’s experience with THE STARTER WIFE led them to frame ANIMALS to the audience in such away that they wouldn’t expect a complete ten episode season.”

That said, if the show’s passionate fan base has any hopes of lobbying the Network to grant the show a second term in office on the schedule, it’s probably going to take a little grassroots campaigning from its loyal constituents.

“I would encourage anyone that’s a fan to (a) tell a friend and (b) tell the network,” said Berlanti, who is is all-too-aware that the show hasn’t exactly attracted the number of eyeballs to warrant a second season of what is surely not the most affordable series to produce. “But what’s so great about USA is that they knew they hadn’t programmed anything on a Sunday night before, realized it was a slightly different kind of show for them and have embraced all of that. I think are really smart about it being a slightly longer game and my hope is that when they make a final decision on the show they keep all of that in mind. We’ve certainly loved making it and would love to make more.”

POLITICAL ANIMALS airs Sundays at 10PM on USA Network (Bravo TV in Canada).

Shirley MacLaine’s Experience on the Show
Commenting on what it was like working on the English television series, Shirley ruefully admitted, “It definitely creeps into your pores.  There is no doubt about it.  And I am so happy to be with my family again.  It was an extraordinary experience for me also in stamina and in work ethic, because we were shooting outside in the rain and in the wind with our formal gear on and nobody seemed to notice. So I quickly just stepped right in there and acted like I didn’t notice either.  But I had a fabulous time.  I will never forget it.”
 
Shirley’s History With Maggie Smith
When asked if at any point in their long and varied careers their paths ever had occasion to cross, feeling a bit impish, Shirley saucily said, “Oh, God.  Should I tell this story?  Well, we were lovers in another life. [Laughter] No, [Maggie] told me that we had met 40 years ago backstage at the Oscars next to the catering table, and I was up for something, and there was this big chocolate cake on the catering table.  And whatever I was up for, I lost, and somebody else won.  And Maggie said, ‘You know what you did, dear?  You tucked right into that chocolate cake and said, ‘Fuck it.  I don’t care if I’m thin ever again!’”
 
Discovering Exactly Who Cora Crawley Is
When it was noted that the character of Cora has been quite ambiguous from the beginning, Elizabeth McGovern noted, “It’s interesting that we’re talking about who Martha Levinson is because I felt that I really didn’t know who Cora was until I met Shirley. And suddenly it all came clear. I realized that for two years I was in a bit of a fog.  But I think that there is a light that mothers hand on to their daughters, which I think Shirley gave Cora in her aura and everything and the story that she tells simply by being on the set, which is one of great strength and humor and resilience and flexibility.  And it became very clear to me the journey that Cora had undertaken to go from Shirley to the countess of Downton Abbey — or Martha Levinson.  And I think that she’s a kind of icon that has gone out of fashion in the decade of the ’90s because we started to fall in love with women who were towers of strength and in a very muscular sort of way, sort of like, ‘I’m a material girl,’ etc.  And she’s a more old?fashioned idea of women’s strength, which is somebody who is extremely flexible and resilient and can roll with the punches and is strong in a quieter, more self?effacing way.  And it’s nice to resurrect that idea of female strength, because I think that that has churned the wheels of history for many centuries, that quiet, strong woman that just sort of connects all the dots in the family.  And that, to me, is Cora, I suppose.”  But when asked what qualities she shared with Cora, Elizabeth readily admitted, “None. It’s all an act.  I’m a raving lunatic!”  As the laughter roared, it was fun to see that Shirley is not the only one who can bring down the house with ad-lib quips!
 
Then to help illustrate how pivotal the addition of Shirley as Cora’s mother and how that informs the characters, Julian explained, “One of the key elements that Shirley brings into the show is sort of, as Elizabeth said, to remind us that Cora’s upbringing was not the same as Robert’s.  And during the years of the first years of her marriage, to a certain extent that’s all been suppressed, and she’s had to get on with it and do it the way they do it.  But as things start to change and the kind of plates are shifting and we are reminded what Cora’s come from, Cora is less afraid of the future than Robert is.  She’s much less afraid of change.  And now you’ll start to see more and more of that because she’s less afraid of expressing that.  We have had moments of dissidence in the first two years when she refuses to think ill of Matthew because he has a job.  She doesn’t like him taking her money, but she’s not prepared to criticize him for having a job.  And there are various other things.  She’s dismissed when Mary says, ‘You’re American, Mother’ or ‘ Mama, you don’t understand these things’ and so on.  Now that’s all changing because if anyone understands the world that’s coming, it’s Cora.  And in a way the bringing in of Martha ushers in that new era by reminding us [that she] comes from a different past.”
 
About Mary’s Transformation
On going from the bitchy bad girl to a woman of substance, Michelle Dockery revealed, “I think Mary started out as a bit of a brat.  I mean, she was certainly far colder in the beginning, and the way I see it is that the incident with Pamuk kind of softened Mary in way and that something actually happened to her which made her much more vulnerable.  Then from then on ?? initially I thought she would be the kind of Kristin Scott Thomas type of character in ‘Gosford Park’ when I read those first few scripts — and then I realized that she actually becomes far more sympathetic and sensitive.  And I’ve really enjoyed that journey that I wasn’t expecting.”
 
Julian also thoughtfully added, “The risk of scandal makes her vulnerable.  She was invulnerable before that.  And I think Mary is one of those people who does not want to give in to society and to have ?? she’s a very strong personality, but she’s not a rebel.  She doesn’t want to live outside society.  She wants to just about negotiate the rules so that she can stay inside, and that is, you know, Mary’s struggle, really, if you like — which I think Michelle has done very well –and the Pamuk incident, which she thought she would get away with, of course, haunts her.  It has given her an Achilles Heel, and people know about it.  And yes, to a certain extent, maybe she’ll get past it, and the world is changing, but she can never to herself feel the superiority of being perfect again.”
 
Then Gareth Neame chimed-in to add, “I think all of that was really well articulated through the story in the Iain Glen character in the second season, that you saw this woman whose life is already completely compromised, and there’s a chilling scene, I thought, where he was dissatisfied with the progress of their relationship, and he really almost pushes her up against the wall and says, ‘Don’t ever disobey me again.’  And I think the way you played that scene really stuck with me, the way that Mary sort of listened to. She’s effectively sort of assaulted by him, but she doesn’t respond because part of her knows that that’s her lot.  She has to accept that.  I found that a really pivotal moment.”
 
The Challenges of Writing a Modern TV Show as a Time Period Drama
When queried about how tricky it is to be currently writing a television show about the life and times of a family nearly 100 year ago, Julian was forthcoming in revealing, “There is a liberation in it being original, because you can go into areas of the period that a contemporary novel would not have done.  I mean there are many subjects that we sort of range among with ?? I don’t know whether it’s women’s rights or homosexuality or whatever — which you wouldn’t find in a novel written in 1906 or whatever.  So you have that freedom.  But the discipline is to look at those subjects, but within the context of that period.  So you must be careful to try and give people reasonable reactions and emotional responses that are right for their own time and not simply someone who’s been parachuted in from 2012.  And that’s the other discipline, really.  But I think, obviously, everyone always says: Why do you think it’s so popular? And the reason or answer is:  You haven’t a clue. But I think that the decision to make it more like the modern American television series of THE WEST WING and ER and all those shows with lots of plots going on: big plots, little plots, funny plots, sad plots; so it’s all sort of plotted up together.  Seems to be right for the energy of now.  It seems to meet what the audience wants.  And with DOWNTON the fun is that it sort of looks like a classical period drama from the ’20s and everyone’s in bustles and ringing for lunch, but the energy is much more modern.  And I think that has worked for us.”
 
How Far Can the Show Go?
Thinking about the question carefully, Julian candidly admitted, “I don’t think we’ve really thought in that way, actually.  Each series takes about two years sort of, and I think we will just continue to move forward at that pace because the great thing is you don’t have to have anybody doing wobbly stick acting with gray wigs.  They can remain reasonably the same age, and the ’20s is a very interesting period to me.  Once you get into the ’30s, then, you know, it’s the Nazi?dominated, ‘Europe prepares for the war’ period that I think we’ve all seen pretty often, actually, exploited in different films and so on.  But the ’20 are a much more nebulous time.  Here you vaguely got sort of prohibition and gangland in Chicago.  We haven’t even really got that.  We’ve just got a kind of transition between the old world and the ’30s and the Second World War and the modern war happening.  And there’s this bit in the middle.  And I think it’s rather fun to be journeying through that stuff.  I mean, in the third series of you see the impact on this family of the Irish troubles, for instance, because that really started up after the end of the First World War, and actually, at the time, was much more the headline than the suffragettes or the other things.  The Irish problem seemed to be a kind of yawning difficulty for the British Empire and everything.  But again I don’t think a lot of people know about that.  It’s rather nice to go into that.  And we have different element. We always try in DOWNTON to make references to the Marconi Scandal or whatever it is, and a few people talk about it, and we never really explain it.  And what we hope in our rather simple way is that people then go off to their Internet, you know, and put in the Marconi Scandal, and they get the whole thing, and they realize it was in that year and it did happen and everything valid or whatever we were saying about it was true.  Obviously, most people who watch the show don’t bother to do that. There is this sort of vague sprinkling of events and references that, if you check them out, will work and are true.  It seems to me rather good fun to be doing that in a much lesser?known period.  So for all those reasons, I think we will be moving pretty slowly through the 1920s.”

Why Robert Crawley Is An Ideal Man
To the final question of the night on what makes his character Robert Crawley such an ideal man, Hugh Bonneville took up the challenge and candidly admitted, “’I’m not sure he is an ideal man. But, really, I think the fact is he was born into it.  His destiny was predetermined.  He was born to hand on this estate to the next generation.  That’s been his sole driving force in his life.  And let’s not forget that this marriage – when Cora and Robert were married ?? it was a business transaction.  H needed the cash — the estate needed the cash, and her family was quite keen on having a British title.  It then so happened that they fell in love and have had 20?plus years together.  So I think his overall ?? really, what I really have to say…”  And then he rips off his tie and opens his dress shirt to show off an underlying t-shirt which reads, ‘Free Bates.’ To which, Julian quipped, “A man of principle!” 
 
On the last final high-note and as the laughter continued to rumble through the auditorium, the cast and producers of DOWNTON ABBEY stood for their ovation and descended to mingle with their adoring fans.  (Hey, television critics can be fans too!)
 
DOWNTON ABBEY returns for its 3rd season on PBS in January 2013.

The next time you see a television critic, journalist or blogger bemoan their lack of life, sleep and contact with the outside world as a result of their so-called ‘job’, please, by all means, feel free to direct them to this post chronicling Sunday night’s CBS/Showtime/The CW All-Star party under the stars outside the beautiful Beverly Hilton Hotel in celebration of the 2012 Television Critics Association. Nice work if you can get it, indeed.

CBS/Showtime/The CW TCA Summer Party

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Taraji P. Henson of PERSON OF INTEREST

3:14PM: “I have been looking forward to it, very curious as to how they would write it, yet also terrified about it,” Jennifer Carpenter says in response to an opening salvo from a reporter asking for her gut reaction to Deb finding out about Dexter’s extra-curricular activities at the end of last season.

3:16PM: Sad But True: Dexter coming out as a serial killer does make an endgame for the series a little more palpable and imminent. At least according to star Michael C. Hall who elaborates, “I think the plan is to do this season and a final eight season and really tell the story of the two of them negotiating their relationship in this new landscape. That much time feels about right.”

3:17:PM “This is without a doubt the most fundamentally game changing development as we’ve had since we’ve started telling this story,” explains Hall. “It has been so invigorating to play these scenes and to be preoccupied in ways that Dexter has never been. In a show’s seventh season no less, it’s pretty remarkable.”

3:18PM: Jennifer Carpenter believes that dropping her script and swearing in the middle of her audition is what won her the part of Deb!

3:19PM: “I play Hannah McKay, who comes into the story in episode three,” reveals Yvonne Strahovski of her first post-CHUCK role. “She crosses paths with Dexter when she begins to help the Miami Police Department on a cold case. Suffice it to say, her dark past will slowly be revealed as the episodes go on.”

3:22PM: “This season feels as genuinely informed by everything that has come before it as anything we’ve ever done,” says Hall on how this sixth seventh season is currently shaping up. “There’s a real feeling that we’ve earned this arrival and new landscape and feels as rich as ever.” Adds Carpenter, “It’s very dangerous.”

3:24PM: While pretty much a fait accompli, Michael C. Hall won’t entirely close the door on the show continuing past its planned eight season. “I remember finishing the first season thinking we should probably just stop… what are we going to do now!?”

3:25PM: On a somewhat lighter note, Carpenter claims she would call the police right away if she ever discovered her sibling was a serial killer, while Hall would think it’s ironic given his day job!

3:27PM: “As an easy solution to his problem, the thought has to at least cross his mind,” says DEXTER executive producer Scott Buck on whether or not fans should consider the possibility that Deb’s life might be in danger.

3:28PM: “I’ve never had a better scene partner than Jennifer. Her generosity, volatility of her performance, sense of danger she brings to the dynamic, commitment. sense of investment, I’m astonished watching her.” says Hall of co-star Carpenter. ” For her part, Carpenter returns the favor by revealing that “Michael sets the tone for the entire show” when asked about what exactly the talented twosome admire about one another.

3:34PM: “I think we knew we’d eventually tell the story but because it so dramatically changes the nature of the show we didn’t want to consider it until we were closing in on an ending,” says Scott Buck on whether or not Deb finding out about Dexter was something the writers considered earlier in the show’s run.

3:37PM: “It was a little intimidating but it’s exhilarating,” Stahovski says on her transition from CHUCK to DEXTER. “I’ve watched every single episode in the three weeks since joining the show and now that I get to work with these these guys it’s a beautiful experience and I’m honored to be a part of it.”

3:39PM: In response to fans who remain on the fence about jumping back on the DEXTER bandwagon coming off what many have called the show’s most disappointing season to date, Hall has this to say, “Whatever your opinion of ranking the seasons, for my money DEXTER is never more compelling than when he is in trouble and never been deeper trouble than he is now.”

3:42PM: “He brings a real gravity, weight and complexity,” Hall says of Ray Stevenson, who joins this show this season as the heave of a European organized crime syndicate. “He’s playing a character who certainly has his darkness but uniqueness and nuance and he manages to convey it all in way that to the outside seems pretty effortless.”

3:43PM: “It’s certainly in our thoughts as we broke season seven,” was Buck’s response to the question pertaining to how much thought has gone into planning the eight and presumably final season while finishing up writing the show’s seventh.

On what went wrong with RINGER
Despite CW President Mark Pedowitz’s assertion that he loved being back in business with Sarah Michelle Gellar, a combination of story complexity and poor performance in both the online digital and social spaces was too much for RINGER to overcome. Said Pedowitz, “Sarah Michelle Gellar and I have had many discussions since Spring and the one thing we did come away with, when she’s ready, is that we’d love her to come back to The CW as an actor or a producer.”

On The CW’s sagging [overnight] ratings
Cementing our long-held belief that Nielsen ratings have never been more obsolete, Pedowitz was quick to defend his Networks viewership levels. As expected, more people than ever are tuning into The CW, they’re just doing it on the likes of hulu.com, thecw.com and the Network’s iPad app. To that end, Pedowitz recently made the decision to roll our a rebranding campaign this August that replaces the Networks’ dated tagline: TV to ‘talk/blog/tweet about,’ with ‘TV Now.’

Pedowitz proud of THE L.A. COMPLEX
“We’re big fans of the show which actually does really well for us both digitally and socially,” said Pedowtiz on the topic of how THE L.A. COMPLEX is faring on his summer schedule. “It’s a well made show with a nice sense of reality of what it’s like to try to make it in this industry. [Showrunner] Martin Gero is fantastic and I hope to be in business with him for a very long time.”

On saying goodbye to GOSSIP GIRL
Serious credit goes to Pedowitz for showing his Network’s loyal audience (Read: The very same audience responsible for paying his Network’s bills and keeping the lights on) a refreshing amount of respect when the subject of GOSSIP GIRL’s final ten episodes comes up. “Shows such as GOSSIP GIRL with a loyal core audience deserve a proper send off for both the Network and the fans. What we did for ONE TREE HILL, we’ll do for GOSSIP GIRL and any show as long as I’m President of the Network.”

On the SMALLVILLE effect
While The CW’s bread and butter has always been about attracting that all-so-valuable 18-49 year old female audience, the Pedowitz believes The CW has to do a better job of bringing men to the table. And a big part of bringing men back into the fold is pairing ARROW with SUPERNATURAL, a one-two punch that worked so well in SMALLVILLE’s heyday and CULT. The latter of which stars Matt Davis and will premiere on the Network in midseason.

9:07AM: Finding the titular character for The CW’s latest comic book adaptation wasn’t nearly as challenging as one might expect thanks in no small part to a smarter-than-your-average casting director who didn’t only ensure that actor Stephen Amell was the first actor to auditin, but informed the proverbial powers that be that “this guy would not be around on Thursday.”

9:08AM: Multiple iterations of Spider-Man, Superman and Batman have conditioned audiences to embrace fresh faces behind the mask (or in the case of ARROW’s titular character, hood). Explains executive producer Marc Guggenheim, “Michael Keaton doesn’t affect your love of Christian Bale and Christian Bale doesn’t affect your love of Adam West.”

9:09AM: Fun Fact: In preparing for the role, Amell trained with Superman’s (Henry Cavill) body double.

9:11AM: Despite gaining inspiration from the pages of Green Arrow:Year One and The Longbow Hunters, this latest Green Arrow adaptation is taking some liberties in its translation from page to screen. Guggenheim sights the general public’s lack of familiarity with Arrow’s origins as an asset, affording the writer’s with more room to play.

9:13AM: ARROW’s darker tone will allow the show to explore the nature of vigilantism. ARROW’s twenty-two episode first season will afford the writers the opportunity to get into the rules. With the first one being, Arrow will always give the bad guy the opportunity to do the right thing.

9:14AM: While the series will initially have a very bad-guy-of-the-week feel to it, that story structure will be fleeting. At least according to the producers who promise that Oliver’s evolution as a hero will not only transition from a mission of revenge to a mission of redemption, but see him moving away from his father’s list of vengeance to starting to help people and save Starling City.

9:16AM: “Maybe,” is all Executive Producer Greg Berlanti would say as to the question as whether or not Katie Cassidy’s Dinah “Laurel” Lance will become Black Canary.

9:20AM: Every episode of ARROW will feature flashbacks with the goal of chronologically revealing what happened to Oliver on the island. “Ideally, the last episode of the series will have Oliver seeing the boat that rescues him in the pilot.”

9:21AM: Spoiler Alert! Fans shouldn’t judge Oliver’s mom Moira (Susanna Thompson) based on her morally ambiguous actions in the pilot.

9:22AM: For any fans who may-or-may-not be interested in get up close and personal with ARROW star Stephen Amell, his ‘island’ scenes are shot in Whytecliff Park just outside of Vancouver.

9:23AM: Star Stephen Amell started his bow and arrow training by watching a 45 minute video compiled by his instructor featuring all the ways in which archery has been done poorly in film and television.

9:24AM: “It’s incredibly important to be responsible,” admits Guggenheim in response to a question about how the writer’s deal with writing a show about a vigilante who takes justice into his own hands. “Of course Aurora came up in the writer’s room because we’re all human beings and it was a terrible tragedy. That said, I actually think this show has an opportunity to explore the consequences of violence in a way other shows cannot because we’re going to look at all of the different facets of vigilantism, taking the law into your own hand and I hope going forward we’ll provide social commentary alongside the action in the show.”

9:26AM: EP Andrew Kreisberg states that DC and the WB Film unit have, not surprisingly, been very supportive of the show. DC head honcho Geoff Johns offers commentary, feedback, while the WB Film unit connected the team with Oscar-winning Costume Designer Colleen Atwood for Arrow’s killer hood.

Despite Entertainment President Kevin Reilly’s hope that Fox’s unexpected renewal of FRINGE for a fifth and final season would afford his Network a little forgiveness in terms of its “checkered history with genre television,” there’s still that little issue we have with his handling, make that mishandling, of TERRA NOVA. (Translation: Still bitter!)

Which is precisely why during Sunday afternoon’s Television Critics Association Press Tour touting his newest project that sees him play Sheriff Ralph Lamb’s (Dennis Quaid) younger brother Jack on CBS character-driven period piece VEGAS, we jumped at the chance to corner Jason O’Mara alongside a gaggle of reporters in an effort to get him to elaborate on his comments from earlier in the panel that had him calling out Fox for a “taking a very long time to make what was ultimately a premature decision.”

“We were just finding our feet and I think we just proved that by the season finale,” said O’Mara immediately following the VEGAS panel. “There was a lot more story to tell and I think there was an audience to watch it, certainly internationally, the show went down extremely well, huge numbers. Just domestically I couldn’t quite get there.”

So just where did O’Mara think TERRA NOVA went wrong?

“I think there was a lack of clarity in terms of when the mythology needed to kick in. The first few episodes were strangely standalone and I think the mythology needed to kick in right from that second episode and onwards,” admitted O’Mara. “We needed to commit to the fact that it was going to be a LOST-like mythological series and not apologize for it.”

And while O’Mara isn’t quite sure what a second season would have looked like — having not had that conversation with the showrunners who pitched numerous potential concepts to Fox in the hopes of securing a second season — he is sure that when VEGAS starts shooting its first season he’ll at the very least have some interesting conversation fodder with co-stars Michael Chiklis and Sarah Jones.

“I think we as actors, maybe we’ll have that in common, that we go towards slightly outside the box or genre stuff,” said O’Mara on his fellow VEGAS stars Chiklis and Jones who thanks to NO ORDINARY FAMILY and ALCATRAZ know all too well what it’s like to be involved with a genre fan favourite. “I think they’re great when they work but they don’t always work. Genre is really hard to pull off so we’ll probably commiserate about it with each other.”

9:35AM: In deference to her “competition,” President of CBS Entertainment Nina Tassler kicks of her CBS Executive Session Panel by brining out a stuffed monkey complete with HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER ducky tie. Following which Tassler rattles off a number of ones touting CBS’ continued dominance over the competition. Specifically, the fact that CBS is number one in viewers, upfront revenue, Emmy nominations, the 25-54 demographic. Equally exciting for Tassler is that CBS continues to defeat both ABC and NBC in the all-important 18-49 demographic and boasts bragging rights to last season’s number one new drama (PERSON OF INTEREST) and comedy ( BROKE GIRLS).

9:40AM: Tassler is confident that the Network will be able to reach an agreement for a ninth season of HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER, thus ensuring co-creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas will not have to scramble to finish their story in this upcoming eighth season.

9:41AM: Fully aware of the Networks’ penchant for infuriating fans of CBS’ Sunday night lineup with NFL Football overruns, Tassler claims that the network will do everything possible (read: tweet, text, Facebook) to notify their audience that shows such like 60 MINUTES, THE GOOD WIFE and THE MENTALIST will air later than usual.

9:43AM: Despite her personal affinity for CSI: MIAMI, having personally greenlit the original recipe years earlier, Tassler calls the decision to cancel the series over the NEW YORK edition a “jump ball.” Promises that NEW YORK’s earlier 8PM timeslot won’t affect the series, promising the start of the season will feature, “Big, New York-centric event stories with a little bit more humor.”

9:44AM: Tassler isn’t too concerned about the soft summer her mix of reruns and reality are having. But concerned enough to greenlight a second season of UNFORGETTABLE for next summer.

9:47AM: On the topic of moving TWO AND A HALF MEN to Thursday at 8:30PM versus using the plum-post BIG BANG THEORY timelsot to launch a brand new series. “It was a strategic move. We have the hottest comedy on the air at 8PM and it’s just smart to put a very top rated comedy behind it,” Tassler explains. “It gives Thursday a whole new boost. We’re excited at the performance of TWO AND A HALF MEN last year and looking forward to a strong performance this season.”

9:48AM: Tassler characterizes CBS conservative digital strategy as one that is first and foremost about protecting brands on the air and is in the best interest of the network.

9:51AM: “When you have an opportunity to build a show around greatest detective in all of literature you’re going to jump at that opportunity,” Tassler explains on the Network’s decision to produce ELEMENTARY hot on the heels of the success BBC America has had with SHERLOCK. “So many of the shows currently on the air owe their origins to Sherlock Holmes and Rob Doherty (Executive Producer) came in with a pitch that we immediately gravitated towards.”

9:56AM: Although Tassler is quick to point out that CBS News is not her jurisdiction, as a viewer she is excited by the changes in the morning landscape.

9:58AM: “We like premiere week and it works for us,” Tassler says when asked why CBS continues to stick with the traditional third-week-in-September premiere week. “We like the excitement, the energy and the marketing and promotional machine that leads up into the Fall. Our audience expects it and it works.”

9:59AM: Tassler doesn’t seem to be the least bit concerned with recent period flops like THE PLAYBOY CLUB and PAN AM. Calling VEGAS — a story that pits cowboy turned sheriff Ralph Lamb (Dennis Quaid) against mobster Johnny Savino (Michael Chiklis) — the story of two forces battling for the heart and soul of Las Vegas at a very key moment in the city’s history. And speaking of battles…

10:01AM: Tassler won’t comment on the ongoing legal squabble between CBS and ABC over THE GLASS HOUSE, except to say, we’re incredibly protective of our brands and creative infrastructure.”