Wyle will play the leader of a resistance soldiers and civilians as they struggle against an occupying alien force.

The project will be executive-produced by Spielberg, along with DreamWorks Television’s Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank and screenwriter Robert Rodat. Rodat, who earned an Oscar^® nomination for his screenplay for Saving Private Ryan, is writing the script for the pilot from an idea he co-conceived with Spielberg.

The pilot opens shortly after aliens have wiped out most of the human population. They are now going about the task of rounding up the few survivors.

“Noah Wyle is an incredibly talented actor and also an extraordinary person, so we’re proud to work with him again,” said Michael Wright, executive vice president, head of programming for TNT, TBS and Turner Classic Movies (TCM). “It’s also great to collaborate with an amazing production team headed by Steven Spielberg on what is certain to be a compelling and provocative series.”

Wyle said, “I am overjoyed to continue my association with TNT on this new project.  We have a longstanding relationship spanning four projects, and I couldn’t feel more at home. I also have the pleasure of re-teaming with Steven Spielberg, who was behind the creation of ER, my home for the last 15 years, and look forward to working with the DreamWorks Television team.”

What do you think? Are you ready for Noah Wyle to return to television? Does the pilot interest you?

Image: Bauer-Griffin

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Sometimes life isn’t fair. Or at least that’s what shallow and beautiful model Deb (Brook D’Orsay, How I Met Your Mother) thinks when she dies in an accident and her soul resurfaces in the body of a brilliant, plus-size attorney Jane (Brooke Elliott) in Lifetime Television’s new comedy Drop Dead Diva.

Drop Dead Diva will premiere on Sunday, July 12 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Will Deb be able to accept her new life as Jane? Can she cope with having to use her brains, instead of her looks, to get her by? Or can she incorporate both to get her way? Is the boyfriend from her former life only love her outer beauty?

Here’s a preview which gives a look at the new show which will air on the same night as Lifetime’s popular series Army Wives.

Margaret Cho will play Jane’s loyal assistant Teri. Others starring include Jackson Hurst (The Tree of Life), Kate Levering (Cashmere Mafia), April Bowlby (Two and a Half Men), Josh Stamberg (Lie to Me), Brooke D’Orsay (How I Met Your Mother) and Ben Feldman (The Perfect Man). 

Guest stars throughout the first season of Drop Dead Diva include Rosie O’Donnell, Tim Gunn, Sharon Lawrence, Kathy Najimy, Jorja Fox, Teri Polo, Elliott Gould, Chuck Woolery and Diedrich Bader.

It will be interesting to see the direction this new show will take as it relates to stereotypes. One aspect is seeing through Deb’s eyes how the world treats Jane, an average woman. Not everyone can look like a model and not everyone can be the smartest person in the room. Do people view beauty over brains or brains over beauty? I think this show will take a look at how the world looks at people - on the outside and the inside.

In partnership with women’s non-profit organizations, including Step Up Women’s Network and The National Association of Women Lawyers, Lifetime will guide a public discussion about stereotypes, work/life balance and being healthy at every size.  In collaboration with self-esteem and body image expert and author Jess Weiner, viewers will be driven each week to mylifetime.com for “toolkits” that will lead “positive, entertaining and informative discussions about the issues that each episode raises. 

Image: Kannie Yu LaPack, Lifetime

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Lancelot will arrive in Camelot on a new episode (1.5 “Lancelot”) of Merlin on NBC at 8 p.m. CST Sunday.

In this episode,Merlin (Colin Morgan) barely escapes the attack of a magical winged creature when a young man, Lancelot (Santiago Cabrera) appears and fights the creature away, saving Merlin’s life.

Grateful, Merlin rushes Lancelot to Gaius (Richard Wilson) to treat his wounds.

Lancelot confides in Merlin his dream of becoming a knight and protecting Camelot.

Merlin sets out on a mission to convince Arthur (Bradley James) of Lancelot’s nobility and great fighting skills.

Meanwhile, Uther (Anthony Head) and Arthur visit a village that has been terrorized by the magical winged beast and Arthur prepares his men for battle.

Will Lancelot prove to be worthy of becoming a Knight of Camelot?

Here are more photos from the episode:

NBC Photo: Nick Briggs

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Out of more than 400 entries, Autie has won the giveaway – winning a nice Royal Pains prize package valued at more than $300 from USA Network in celebration of the new show’s debut!

I hope this makes our winner’s Fourth of July weekend extra special! (The winner has been contacted via email and needs to respond by Thursday, July 9.)

USA launched the premiere of Royal Pains, the network’s newest original scripted series, on Thursday, June 4 at 10/9c. Royal Pains stars Mark Feuerstein as Hank Lawson, a young E.R. doctor who, after being wrongly blamed for a patient’s death, moves to the Hamptons and becomes the reluctant “doctor for hire” to the rich and famous. (Read a review of the pilot episode). The show has been doing pretty well in ratings and seems to have a good following. Many have described it as something different and fun for the summer (and a twist on the standard medical show).

Here’s a list of what our winner won (aren’t you jealous? I am):

ROYAL PAINS SUMMER TOTE

A perfect bag is a perfect prescription for fun! Filled with all the essentials for a lazy summer weekend, the Royal Pains tote is just what the Hamptons ordered!

-First Aid Kit

-Travel Scrabble

-“Cure Your Royal Pains” T-Shirt

-Prescription “Candy” Bottle

-Hamptons Magazine

-Oversized Beach Blanket

-Royal Pains Red Band-Aid Box with Custom Band-Aids

-The Hamptons Dictionary

-Tate’s Cookie Carton

-Kiehl’s Summer Lotions Kit

-Playing Cards

-Inflatable Inner Tub

Visit the official site at www.royalpains.usanetwork.com, follow Royal Pains on Twitter www.twitter.com/RoyalPains_USAand be a fan on Facebook www.facebook.com/RoyalPains

If you didn’t win this giveaway, don’t forget to enter the other New to TV giveaways.

Photo courtesy Electric Artists/USA Network/Royal Pains

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From watching the five clips below, the show really pulled me in. A lot of it is because of my love of Larry Miller’s comedic skills. Miller plays single dad and OB/GYM Walter Stratford who moves from Ohio to Southern California with his two teenage daughters Kat and Bianca. What makes it extra special is that Miller played the same role in the movie!

Walter is overprotective and is so funny in some of these clips as he tells them, “It’s the first day of school, don’t get pregnant” and “boys just want to put a baby in you.”

Kat (Lindsey Shaw) is a feminist with a sharp tongue (played by Julia Stiles in the movie) who is smart and cares very little about the world of high school and fitting in. She’s in no hurry to date, which works in her father’s favor.

That’s the totally opposite of her pretty blonde-headed sister Bianca (Meaghan Martin, Camp Rock) who is a social butterfly ready to strategize her way up the social ladder as fast as she can. But dad says she can’t date until her sister does, and that doesn’t look like it’s happening anytime soon.

There’s also the Heath Ledger character Patrick Verona, played by Gregory Peck’s grandson Ethan Peck. His deep voice in the last clip really does bring that dark brooding, mysterious character to life. According to what I’ve read, he won’t have many lines in the first few episodes, though he will be talked about plenty.

Also on the cast is Chastity Church (Dana Davis, Heroes) who plays the head cheerleader and queen of popularity, and Cameron (Nicholas Braun), the “nice guy finishes last’ who falls fast for Bianca.

Here are a few more clips:

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In this episode, the remaining designers (Rico, Daniella, Anna, Johnny, Merlin and James-Paul) are challenged to create loungewear to compliment designer Fernando Sanchez’s top selling luxury robes. The winning creation will be sold at Saks Fifth Avenue and that designer will have an advantage in the elimination round. Personally, I think this part of the competition will be fun. I can’t wait to see their designs.

Fitting for the title of the episode, the contestants are whisked to a Tarot card reader who predicts their future in the competition. They come to find that this experience will have more of an effect on their resulting design than they originally imagined. I wonder what they will have to design though? Rico cracks me up with his comment about going to the psychic reader.

Vivienne Tam will be the guest judge.

As always, the winning design will be available for purchase on BravoTV.com.

If you want some entertaining reading, read The Fashion Show blogs and see what the designers really think.

Bravo Photo: Barbara Nitke

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The show starring Jada Pinkett Smith airs at 8 p.m. CST on TNT.

Christina becomes attached to a brain aneurysm patient (special guest star Malcolm-Jamal Warner) when his dementia leads him to believe she is his wife. This becomes an issue when the patient starts relying on Christina’s opinion over Dr. Wakefield’s. Kelly gets stuck caring for a cantankerous patient (special guest star Cloris Leachman) for whom nothing she does is satisfactory. After being punched and losing his overtime pay, Ray becomes convinced the hospital is out to get him. And Bobbie continues to be hesitant about pursuing a relationship with handsome paramedic Nick.

TNT and HawthoRNe are currently recognizing Nurse Heroes in Your Life: http://www.tnt.tv/series/hawthorne/heroes/

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Teddy Rist (James Purefoy, Rome) is a billionaire playboy who loves money, women and power yet is still grieving for the loss of his 6-year-old son.

When a business trip to Nigeria turns into a life or death experience due to a severe flood in the Nigerian town he is visiting, Rist’s life is changed when he makes a split decision to save a little Nigerian boy. Going back to his regular high-profile life as a billionaire businessman, he can’t seem to get the vision of the little boy out of his mind, knowing that even though he saved him, he could do more to help the little boy and his village.

Bugging his business partner Phillip Maidstone (Jesse L. Martin, Law & Order) and the head of his charitable foundation, Olivia Maidstone (Neve Campbell) – wife of Phillip, to help him get a special care package out to the village where the little boy lives, Rist realizes he can’t just do what he was doing. He leaves in the middle of an interview to personally take the package to the boy’s Nigerian village.

Of course, that is problematic because in Nigeria things are very political and corrupt. A young Nigerian doctor helps him realize that what the villages need is a vaccine, but doesn’t think he understands what it is going to take to get it to the villages. In the beginning, Rist thinks his money and power can get him everywhere he wants to go, but it ends up being harder than he thinks. Getting shot at, snake bit and losing his shoes in the middle of the jungle, Rist is forced to use his heart and brain instead of his wallet and name. You can watch the full episode online here on NBC.com

For this Wednesday’s episode, 1.2 “Myanmar,” his company
Maidstone-Rist is outed by a human rights organization as having ties to business in Myanmar, also known as Burma, where there is oil and gas exploration using forced labour. Teddy decides the only way to conclude whether to continue their business activities in the country is to get moral advice from Daw May Lin Wai, a revered Burmese democratic leader who has been under house arrest in the country for nearly two decades. During his search for Lin Wai Teddy meets a young girl, desperately in need of a kidney transplant. The girl’s father is a suitable donor but he’s being kept at a forced labor camp and it is feared that he won’t get to his daughter in time to save her life. Although Teddy succeeds in avoiding the armed guards and breaking in to see Lin Wai, his security man, Dax, is arrested in the process. Back in New York, Philip and Olivia desperately try to explain it to his stockholders.

For Rist, the loss of his son a year ago has taken the joy out of life. But through his new found mission in life, he feels alive again. Doing good for people who can’t help themselves makes him feel alive, like a person again.

The cast also includes Lindy Booth (The 4400) as his assistant AJ who is forced to follow him around the world; Dax (Michael Kenneth Williams, The Wire) as his security man and driver; and Krista Allen (The Starter Wife) as his former wife Julia Rist. While Julia is ready to go on with her life, beginning to repaint her son’s room, her ex-husband is no where close to being ready.

Also, Rist and Olivia have a brief past together, but she moved on to his best friend, finding the “perfect” marriage and relationship that Rist probably is a little jealous of. Olivia has a calming effect on him, while Phillip serves as the man holding the business together so Rist can do what he believes he must do. But together their friendship keeps him grounded and is one of the only things in the world he holds a great deal of passion for.

The Philanthropist was filmed in South Africa, Mozambique and Prague, which makes the show pretty unique and realistic, touching on very serious subjects around the world, such as an illegal sex-trafficking ring.

The Philanthropist airs at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Wednesdays on NBC.

NBC Photo: Mitchell Haaseth

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Grace (Megan Park) is taking her father’s dad very hard, which is understandable on many levels. She’s taking it extra hard because she didn’t want to tell her dad goodbye on the phone before his plane took off. From the clips I’ve seen, Grace thinks it is her fault that her dad died because she chose to have sex with Jack (Greg Finley) and he knew she was going to do it.

In the clip below, we can see that Adrian (Francia Raisa) tries to talk to Grace, but she doesn’t want to listen to anyone:

I really feel sorry for Grace’s mom Kathleen (Josie Bissett) because she is dealing with her own grief as well as the grief of her two teenage children, Grace and Tom (Luke Zimmerman). Tom is not only blaming Grace right now, but Adrian as well, because it was her influence that led to her having sex.

Meanwhile, it seems Amy (Shailene Woodley) and Ben (Ken Baumann) are having relationship problems. And Amy’s mom Anne (Molly Ringwald) has to face the fact that she is pregnant.

It should make for an interesting episode. I just hope they don’t go overboard on Grace’s whole “it’s my fault because I had sex” storyline.

I like that at the end of the first episode last week, that instead of just using Shailene Woodley for their public service announcement about preventing teen pregnancy, they used the entire cast. Daren Kagasoff (who plays Ricky) was very convincing and provides a male’s point of view. Here’s one more clip:

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I can tell from watching the clip below, that Mary really hates it when potential witnesses don’t realize they are in the Witness Security Program for the long haul. But they just don’t get it sometimes.

The episode will air at 9 p.m. today (Sunday, June 28) on USA Network.

Here’s a few clips:

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