Undercovers and Lonestar

Having had a quick look at the offerings from NBC and Fox at this years upfronts the two shows that I am most anticipating are Undercovers and Lonestar. Undercovers is the new spy caper from JJ Abrams that mixes romance, action and comedy, as I have previously said the Abrams stamp on a show will at least mean that I will watch the pilot and will most likely mean that I will fall in love with the show:

Lonestar will air on Fox and tells the story of a con man, which Fox exec Kevin Reilly referred to as being 'a modern day Dallas'. It stars Jon Voight as the head of a multi-million dollar company whose daughter (played by Friday Night Lights' Adrianne Palicki) is married to Bob Allen, the con man of the piece who leads a double life. This does look like it could be a bit soapy, something that I normally watch shows like Gossip Girl for but I was definitely drawn in by the promo:

Fox mid season will be launching the sci-fi adventure Terra Nova that has Steven Spielberg at the helm and may or may not be starring Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights) as the father of a family who travel back to prehistoric times. This was referred to as being "one of the most ambitious shows ever created for television" so I am looking forward to what might come from this, after all I will need something to fill the giant Lost hole that will be created at the end of this Sunday.

Chuck renewal and other TV news

So this is a super busy week in TV land with finales, pick ups, renewals and cancellations happening all over the place, the one cancellation that I have been worried about as I was last year was Chuck, but word is that NBC are renewing it for a fourth season! The official word from NBC has not been stated though sources say that there has been an initial order for 13 episodes, this is all coming exclusively from Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello and many of the other TV websites have all but confirmed this, including my very own favourite (and huge Chuck fan) Alan Sepinwall. The official word will likely come on Sunday when NBC announces their schedule for the autumn.
Sepinwall has suggested that the best pairing for Chuck this year would be the new JJ Abrams spy show Undercovers which is one of the new series that I am most looking forward to as I am a sucker for anything with the Abrams stamp on it. This is also the first pilot that Abrams has directed since Lost and considering how much I love Alias I am confident that this will be another good show. Fox have picked up the other show  that I am excited for is the comedy Running Wilde which stars Will Arnett and Keri Russel with Arrested Development creator Mitch Hurwitz attached as well. This looks promising so lets hope it is a success and isn't cancelled too early like the aforementioned Arrested Development which also aired on Fox, lightening can strike twice just ask Joss Whedon.
The slew of cancellations this week has gone up, with ABC announcing yesterday that Flashforward is a goner. Out of all the other cancellations this is the only one that I watch and whilst I thought the show was kinda stupid it has definitely had its moments and I really like the cast. I expect that because they have wrapped before this cancellation that it will be left pretty open ended which I'm sure will be irritating. Where will the cast of Lost and British actors in Hollywood now go? ABC also ditched Scrubs and Better Off Ted, the latter being a show that I quite wanted to see after hearing nothing but good stuff, the former really should have just ended last year. The big cancellation rumour yesterday came courtesy of the peacock with word coming down that the twenty season long Law and Order was ending, no official word on this though, this is the longest running drama on TV so will be weird if it is over, I'm sure there will be reruns forever though. For any updates the best place to go is to Michael Ausiello's 'Renewal Scorecard' page as he is always up to date and a good source for exclusives.
Other than that I just finished watching The Vampire Diaries finale which was so so good and needs an entire post of it's own which will be up later. Bones this week was also a strong lead in to next weeks finale with the Gravedigger going to trial and I'm just about to settle down with part one of the Fringe finale, hoping that it continues the streak of excellence.