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The most-watched show in Syfy history, Warehouse 13, has unsurprisingly landed an official pickup order for its third season. Season 3 will be comprised of thirteen episodes, and will be overseen by current showrunner Jack Kenny, who’s signed a development deal with Syfy for more new properties.
Warehouse 13 scored 3.4 million viewers in its second season on average, with 1.5 million viewers in the all-important 18-49 demographic. The third season will air sometime in 2011.
So there’s finally been a decision about what Starz‘ production of Spartacus: Blood and Sand is going to do, since title star Andy Whitfield is unable to resume his role, due to the return of his Non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
The happy news: The show must go on! Spartacus will move forward with long-held plans for a second season and presumably, beyond.
The sad news: Unsurprisingly, since Whitfield can’t resume his role, the show will recast the part of Spartacus with a different actor. It’s an unfortunate reality of the business that as much as the show wanted to retain Whitfield’s services — and even delayed production on Season 2 by a year to wait for his recovery — if the show dissolves, so do a lot of people’s jobs.
That’s about all that’s currently known. There’s no word yet on who might be on the producers’ short list for taking over the role. Or when production might resume.
Production is underway right now on the prequel miniseries Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, which is expected to air early next year.
Usually the live-action stuff on Cartoon Network doesn’t register on my radar, because it’s pretty forgettable stuff. But this one has piqued my interest because of the creative talent involved: Paul Dini, who’s written for Lost, and Glen Morgan, best known for his work on The X-Files and Millennium.
Tower Prep, an hour-long mystery/drama, is the story of Ian Archer, who wakes up one morning to find himself at a mysterious academy for teens with special abilities. When none of the school’s faculty will answer his questions, and he finds himself unable to escape the academy or even contact the outside world, Ian forms a secret group with three fellow students to figure out what this strange place is and why they’re there.
Dini created the show, Morgan is executive producing along with Bill O’Dowd, and the pilot was directed by Terry McDonough, best known for his episodes of Breaking Bad. Tower Prep stars Drew Van Acker as protagonist Ian Archer, along with Ryan Pinkston, Elise Gatien, and Dyana Liu. It debuts on Cartoon Network Tuesday, October 19th, at 8:pm EST.
The premise is intriguing, and the involvement of Dini and Morgan means it will be intelligent entertainment. Setting my DVR… now.
Andy Whitfield, who stars in Spartacus: Blood and Sand in the title role, has announced that he won’t be returning to the show — at least not for its second season. Whitfield was diagnosed with cancer in March of this year, after which he was treated and declared in remission. But now his doctors have reported that his cancer has returned, and ordered him to enter “aggressive treatment” for it.
While Whitfield was being treated this Spring, when the show was scheduled to be in production again, the producers came up with a creative plan to keep the show going — they filmed a prequel series called Spartacus: Gods of the Arena. Starz has not yet announced its plans for the second season of the popular show, though Gods of the Arena will air this coming January.
Conan O’Brien has just announced the name of his new late-night talk show on TBS. Watch the video to find out what it is.
Okay, okay, you don’t want to watch the vid? I’ll just tell you.
Are you sure?
Last chance!
The name of Conan’s new show is…
Conan.
I know, earth shattering, right? Conan debuts on November 8th.