By Carson Blackwelder
Television Contributor
Every Friday, Rachel recaps the week’s major TV-related news, announcements and gossip! This week, Carson fills in.
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TOP STORIES
• The third presidential debate between President Barack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney drew the smallest audience of them all, coming in at 59.2 million viewers.
• AMC finally settled its dispute with Dish Network. Now we will no longer have to sit through those commercials while we’re waiting for Breaking Bad, Mad Men and The Walking Dead to come back.
• Only four episodes into Homeland‘s second season, Showtime renewed the Emmy hit for what’s sure to be an epic third season.
• Following lead Kate Walsh‘s declaration that this will be her final season of Private Practice, ABC is pulling the plug on the medical drama.
• And the most popular scripted series of the season so far among adults 18-49 is … ABC’s Modern Family!
• ALERT: Carl Weathers is returning to Netflix’s Arrested Development. He will join Ron Howard, Judy Greer, Mae Whitman, Liza Minnelli, Henry Winkler, Scott Baio and Jeff Garlin as guest stars coming back to the comedy.
SHOW BIZ
• Fox renewed The X Factor for a third season. Judges Britney Spears and Demi Lovato apparently injected enough life into the reality singing program for execs to believe in another go-around.
• The new season of Fox’s American Idol will bow Jan. 16 and 17.
• The CW ensured freshman series Arrow will be around for a whole season (I’m thrilled!). CBS also wants new series Vegas and Elementary to stick around for full seasons.
• ABC bought a drama, entitled The Clan, from Charlize Theron‘s production company. The series is “a sweeping drama set in the Highlands of medieval Scotland, where the great clans battle one another — and the Viking invaders.”
• BBC America ordered a sophomore season of its show Copper.
• ABC ordered two more scripts from newbies 666 Park Avenue and Last Resort. Similarly, NBC wants five more scripts from rookie series Chicago Fire and Guys With Kids.
• Fox green-lit a single episode of a special entitled Stars in Danger: High Diving. The show could be picked for more episodes should the first episode attract enough viewers.
• ABC Family announced that Bunheads will return Jan. 7. Mark your calendar, dance fans.
• Oprah and HBO are in talks to develop a family drama from playwright Thomas Bradshaw. The show will focus on the first black president of a tiny liberal arts college.
• Jake Johnson, of Fox’s New Girl, is working on a Fox project called The B Team. He will serve as a writer and executive producer for the series.
• ABC purchased a comedy from Zach Braff entitled Garage Bar and ordered a bar-set show entitled Mixology from the duo responsible for the original The Hangover script. Also in the works at the Alphabet network is a comedy from Kelly Ripa and her husband Mark Consuelos.
• NBC wants to keep Greg Daniels around and is ordering another project from The Office co-creator.
• The CW is developing a drama, called Reign, about Mary, Queen of Scots‘ teenage years. Looks like the someone will be taking Blair Waldorf’s mean girl status.
COMINGS AND GOINGS
• Louis C.K. is hosting NBC’s Saturday Night Live Nov. 3. Note to self: Get SNL tickets for Nov. 3.
• Funnyman Andy Samberg will star in a new cop comedy from NBC’s Parks and Recreation co-creator Michael Schur.
• Ming-Na Wen has been cast as Agent Melinda May in Joss Whedon’s S.H.I.E.L.D. at ABC.
• Jane Fonda‘s moving from HBO’s The Newsroom and joining Now What?, an ABC sitcom pilot.
• Greg Kinnear is heading back to TV to play a womanizing attorney with a questionable moral compass in a legal dramedy based on the the Australian hit Rake.
• CBS’s The Good Wife just keeps piling on the guest stars: T.R. Knight, formerly of ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy, will appear on the legal drama.
• The love triangle on ABC’s Revenge is becoming a love square: Barry Sloane (aka Aiden) is now a series regular.
• Wyclef Jean is moving to ABC’s Nashville, where he will play a record-label executive for multiple episodes.
RUMOR MILL
• Dan Stevens says he isn’t sure about returning to season four of Masterpiece Theater’s Downton Abbey. There’s no way Matthew and Mary (Michelle Dockery) won’t be together in the end, right? Right?!
• Chevy Chase stirred up some trouble on the set of NBC’s Community. I trade one Chevy Chase for one Dan Harmon.
• What would the finale of NBC’s Friends been like if Ross (David Schwimmer) and Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) were still on a break? We shudder at the thought.
COMING UP
• AMC’s Mad Men does Hawaii in these pictures from the sixth season!
• Spoiler Alert for these stills from this Sunday’s episode of Revenge.
• Check out pics from the midseason Fox drama The Following, starring Kevin Bacon and James Purefoy.
• Joe Manganiello is returning to CBS’s How I Met Your Mother. He’s supposed to look a little messy in this sneak peek, but all I see is Joe Manganiello being Joe Manganiello.
FRIDAY FUN
• In love with Nashville — or one of its leading men, at least? Check out this guide to telling the hunky stars apart.