ABC Renews Grey's Anatomy, Castle and Four More – But Not Desperate Housewives?

ABC kicked off its portion of the Television Critics Association midseason press tour by breaking a little news: The network has officially renewed six series — Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, Castle, Modern Family, The Middle and Cougar Town — through next season.

Conspicuously missing from the pickup list are Sunday staples Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters. Although Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry has a deal in place for two more seasons, the show’s core quartet — Teri Hatcher, Felicity Huffman, Marcia Cross and Eva Longoria — will see their contracts expire at the end of the current season. As Entertainment Weekly reported earlier this month, negotiations are already underway on new pacts that would keep them on Wisteria Lane for another season or two.

Brothers & Sisters, meanwhile, remains firmly on the bubble. Encouraging ratings this fall led ABC to increase the drama’s episode order from 18 to 22, but insiders say there’s a 50/50 chance the Walkers will bow out in May.

Cougar Town‘s pickup comes as the Courtney Cox comedy is about to relinquish its time slot to Matthew Perry’s Mr. Sunshine. ABC president Paul Lee told reporters at the press tour that he’s pleased with the show’s creative direction and ratings performance, but added that the cushy post-Modern Family perch serves as a “great launch pad for [new shows]… But we’re very pleased with [Cougar Town]. It’s really found its voice.”

Richard Chamberlain Doesn’t Advise Leading Men to Come Out, in The Advocate Interview

When he was a hot, young leading man on television’s Dr. Kildare then later on such classic miniseries as The Thorn Birds and Shogun, actor now openly gay actor Richard Chamberlain remained firmly in the closet.

In a new interview with Brandon Voss for The Advocate, the now 76-year-old Chamberlain surprisingly advises gay actors who are leading man types to do in 2010 what he did in the 60s, 70s, and 80s: stay in the closet!

“It’s complicated,” he says. “There’s still a tremendous amount of homophobia in our culture. It’s regrettable, it’s stupid, it’s heartless, and it’s immoral, but there it is. For an actor to be working is a kind of miracle, because most actors aren’t, so it’s just silly for a working actor to say, “Oh, I don’t care if anybody knows I’m gay” — especially if you’re a leading man. Personally, I wouldn’t advise a gay leading man-type actor to come out.”

Brandon follows up by asking: “When can a leading man come out – when he’s 69 and promoting a memoir?” (As Chamberlain did in 2004 with Shattered Faith)

“I have no idea,” the actor says. “Despite all the wonderful advances that have been made, it’s still dangerous for an actor to talk about that in our extremely misguided culture. Look at what happened in California with Proposition 8. Please, don’t pretend that we’re suddenly all wonderfully, blissfully accepted.”

Arrrg! With the success of such openly gay stars as Neil Patrick Harris, John Barrowman, Alan Cumming and others who can play straight or gay roles, this is exactly the kind of attitude that will never change things.

I wish Chamberlain, who will be guest-starring on ABC’s Brothers & Sisters as a love interest for Saul (Ron Rifkin), were more encouraging of actors coming and working to help change this viewpoint. Maybe Brothers & Sisters cast member, the openly gay Luke Macfarlane, can talk some sense into him!

To read the rest of Brandon’s interview with Chamberlain, go to Advocate.com.

Brothers & Sisters Exclusive: Richard Chamberlain Joins Cast as Saul's ex?

Another skeleton is about to come tumbling out of Saul’s closet on Brothers & Sisters, and this one is fairly iconic: It’s Dr. Kildare himself, Richard Chamberlain!

The 76-year-old acting vet is joining the ABC drama for a multi-episode arc as “someone who comes back from Saul’s past and complicates things for him in ways he can’t expect,” reveals Brothers & Sisters showrunner David Marshall Grant.

The news comes as Chamberlain is enjoying a bit of a career renaissance. In addition to guest-starring on Leverage earlier this year, Mr. Miniseries (The Thorn Birds, Shogun) recently booked an arc on NBC’s Chuck. The latter gig finds him playing a ruthless international spy who becomes one of Operation Bartowski’s most dangerous foes yet.

Assuming Chamberlain is in fact playing a love interest for Saul (it’s possible they’re just pals!), this would be the second high profile romance for Ron Rifkin’s character this fall. In this Sunday’s episode, former 7th Heaven reverend Stephen Collins guest stars as an old acquaintance who makes a love connection with Saul.

Brothers & Sisters' Kevin and Scotty are Going to Have a Baby!

As last night’s episode of Brothers & Sisters drew to a close, Kevin and Scotty were laying on their bed looking at books of baby names. They even kissed!

What is the world coming to? Reality, I'd say!

Brothers and Sisters creators and writers have allowed the relationship and now marriage of Kevin (Matthew Rhys) and Scotty (Luke Macfarlane) to grow over four seasons into the happiest and most solid of all of the Walker siblings.

The happy couple has been trying to have a baby via surrogate and on Sunday’s episode, found out that they are going to become daddies!

This is a beautiful thing and such a contrast to how poorly ABC daytime handled the relationship between Oliver (Scott Evans) and Kyle (Brett Claywell) by writing them off One Life to Live just as they welcomed Oliver’s baby daughter into their lives. The show blamed the gay storyline for a rating plummet but now ratings are even lower.

It’s just so nice to have things being handled differently in ABC primetime.

Rob Lowe Leaves Brothers & Sisters Behind

Rob Lowe is bidding farewell to his TV family on hit show Brothers & Sisters after announcing he's quitting the series.

According to Deadline Hollywood, the actor felt he was being underused as Senator Robert McCallister on the show, and requested to be released from his contract.

America's ABC network executives agreed, and there are now plans to make Lowe the lead in his own series.

ABC president Stephen McPherson tells the website, "We would like to keep Rob at ABC; we feel he should be anchoring his own franchise. We are in talks now.”

Lowe will depart Brothers & Sisters at the end of season four, which is set to air in February.

Fall TV Premieres: Sunday Night

As the official Fall TV premiere comes to a close we have several of our favorites coming back to another season of love, betrayal, laughter, and mysteries...and that's only what "Desperate Housewives" has in store for us.

Here are the new and returning shows for tonight.

THE AMAZING RACE (CBS 8:00 pm): Contestants in The Amazing Race's 15th installment begin their frenzied spirit around the world from Los Angeles and immediately jet off to Tokyo, where things get rather spicy. The 21-day race offers an array of contestants including Harlem Globetrotters, female professional poker players, a man with Asperger's syndrome and of course, a highly combustible husband/wife tandem.

AMERICAN DAD (FOX 9:30 pm): Dad's fifth season his hard on Son Steve, who goes to a Vietnam War restaging and gets a case of Post-Traumatic-War-Reenactment Stress Disorder. On the Christmas episode, CIA agent Stan Smith spends the end of the holidays trying to rescue his wife Francine from the Antichrist.

BROTHERS & SISTERS (ABC 10:00 pm): Another health crisis kicks off season four and all bets are on Nora (Sally Field) to be the won stricken by the crisis. In other story lines, Kevin (Matthew Rhys) and Scotty (Luke Macfarlane) pursue parenthood via surrogacy; Kitty (Calista Flockhart) and Robert (Rob Lowe) try to mend their marriage; Sarah (Rachel Griffiths) gets luck with a stud (Gilles Marini); and Nora and Holly (Patricia Wettig) lock horns over planning Justin (Dave Annable) and Rebecca's (Emily VanCamp) wedding.

CALIFORNICATION (Showtime 10:00 pm): With Karen (Natascha McElhone) away, Hank (David Duchovny), who takes a job teaching writing at a university, will play with three women: a twentysomething student/stripper (Eva Amurri); his thirtysomething teacher's aide (Diane Farr); and the fourtysomething head of the English department (Embeth Davidtz), who's married to the college dean (Peter Gallagher). It will be an interesting third season.

THE CLEVELAND SHOW (FOX 8:30 pm): Family Guy's Cleveland Brown and his son, Cleveland Jr., return to their hometown of Stoolbend, Virginia where he marries his first love, Donna, who has two kids of her own. This show will tell the story that "The Brady Bunch" never told.

COLD CASE (CBS 10:00 pm): Season seven finds Detective Rush (Kathryn Morris) off her game. Things will go haywire in her life. A military-academy official (Daniel Baldwin), who almost killed Rush, will remain a thorn in her side. And as she reconciles with her father (Raymond J. Barry), she'll have mixed feelings about her new found step mom and half siblings.

DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES (ABC 9:00 pm): Season six's central plot stems from an attack on a "beloved character" in the premiere. Suspects will include the Bolens, Wisteria Lane's newest clan headed by Drea de Matteo (The Sopranos) and Jeffrey Nordling (24) who are running away from something. In other story lines, Lynette (Felicity Hoffman) will hide her pregnancy from boss Carlos (Ricardo Antonio Chavira), Gaby (Eva Longoria Parker) will battle with niece Ana (Maiara Walsh), and Bree (Marcia Cross) will discover her sexuality in a major way through her affair with Karl (Richard Burgi). Plus, last season's cliffhanger of who is Mike (James Denton) marrying, either Susan (Teri Hatcher) or Katherine (Dana Delaney), will be answered in the first minute of the premiere show.

DEXTER (Showtime 9:00 pm): Showtime's crafty drama, about a Miami police blood-splatter analyst who satisfies his own sociopathic blood lust by killing murderers on the side, returns for season four with Dexter (Michael C. Hall) facing down his biggest nemesis yet...fatherhood and an intriguing mass murderer Arthur aka the Trinity Killer (John Lithgow).

EXTREME MAKEOVER: HOME EDITION (ABC 8:00 pm): Season seven will bring more celebrities on the "Get on the Bus" campaign, including Patricia Heaton, Mary J. Blige and Ashley Tisdale.

FAMILY GUY (FOX 9:00 pm): During the eighth season, Family Guy's creator will have a "Spies Like Us" reunion with Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase, the return of James Woods, and an "Empire Strikes Back" spoof.

THE SIMPSONS (FOX 8:00 pm): The 20th anniversary of the longest running prime-time cartoon series stars with Homer getting a whipping from a personal trainer (Seth Rogen) in order to get him into shape to play a big-screen superhero. Later int he season Bart also gets a girlfriend (Sarah Silverman), an older prankster (Jonah Hill) serves as a cautionary tale to Bart, and Krusty finds romance when a princess (Anne Hathaway) joins the show.

All show times are based on Eastern Time.

ABC Hands Out Early Pickups for 2009/2010 Season

ABC doled out some good news to producers Thursday morning, giving early pickups to its top primetime performers.

Others weren’t so lucky — yet — although momentum is building for the returns of "Samantha Who?" and even "Scrubs," which was originally expected to close shop after the season.

There weren’t many surprises in the Alphabet’s renewals, which included key series "Desperate Housewives," "Grey’s Anatomy," "Brothers and Sisters," "Private Practice" and "Lost," which had already been given a go-ahead and will now complete its final season next year.

Biggest news was probably a firm go-ahead for another season of bubble show "Ugly Betty," but ABC execs had been hinting for months that the show wasn’t in danger.

On the unscripted side, staples "Dancing With the Stars," "The Bachelor," "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," "America’s Funniest Home Videos," "Wife Swap" and "Supernanny" are a lock for 2009-10.

Speculation continues to grow that the Alphabet may find a way to bring back "Scrubs" for a ninth season after all.

Although not on Thursday’s pick-up list, "Scrubs" has had enough of a creative streak this season — and ABC still lacks much in the way of half-hours — that a deal to bring the show back is now quite conceivable.

According to insiders, talks continue about ways to lower the show’s license fees and bring back most or all of the cast, including star Zach Braff (who would perhaps do at least a portion of the episodes).

The other real question mark on ABC’s sked remains "Samantha Who?"

Once a solid Monday night performer and shoo-in for renewal, "Samantha" struggled on Thursdays — so much so that the show was pulled two weeks earlier than expected, with seven episodes still in the can.

That means "Samantha" remains on the bubble, although insiders believe the show will ultimately get another season on air.

Also among half-hours, there remain fans inside ABC of "Better Off Ted," which has earned strong reviews even though its ratings haven’t reflected that.

"Surviving Suburbia" hasn’t made any friends with critics, but if producer MRC offers to bring back the show at a lower license fee, it might still find a way to return next season. Then there’s "In the Motherhood," which is now off the air — likely for good.

On the drama side, bubble shows include midseason hours "Castle," "The Unusuals" and "Cupid."

Alphabet was said to be hopeful about "Unusuals," giving it a Tuesday night showcase this week in addition to its Wednesday home. But that experiment fell short, likely hurting the show’s chances. With "Cupid" not making much noise that gives "Castle" the best shot of the three to return next season.

Back to the returning shows: Pickups make it season six for "Desperate Housewives," "Grey’s Anatomy" and "Lost." It’s the fourth season — bringing it close to off-net sale time — for "Brothers and Sisters" and "Ugly Betty." "Private Practice" is entering its third year.

Among the reality shows, "America’s Funniest Home Videos" will hit its 20th season this year; "The Bachelor" is back this fall with its 14th cycle; "Dancing With the Stars" will return with its ninth set of celebs; "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" is back for a seventh season; and "Supernanny" and "Wife Swap" are both back for their sixth year.

The complete 2009/2010 fall season for all networks will be announced in mid-May.

L Word, Milk And Housewives Land Big Honors at GLAAD Media Awards

Lesbian drama The L Word, hit movie Milk and Desperate Housewives all picked up major honours at the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) Media Awards in Los Angeles on Saturday.

Comedienne Kathy Griffin was presented with the Vanguard Award and Ellen DeGeneres was honoured with the Outstanding Talk Show Episode for the program she dedicated to her same sex marriage to actress Portia De Rossi.

The L Word won a Special Recognition prize, Milk was named Outstanding Film and Desperate Housewives Outstanding Comedy Series.

The Outstanding Drama Series honour went to Brothers & Sisters.