TV News

CHICAGO – The trend of vampire culture in movies and television seems to be continuing strong in the entertainment and pop culture world. The HBO hit series “True Blood,” which is currently on the air in its fourth season, has been renewed for a fifth season set to begin production later this year. The fifth season is scheduled to debut in the summer of 2012.

CHICAGO – Fans of the 1987 film “Dirty Dancing” may need to dust off their dancing shoes and get ready to have the time of their life again. Kenny Ortega, the choreographer of the original “Dirty Dancing” as well as the director of the “High School Musical” films and the Michael Jackson documentary “This Is It,” has been in contact with Lionsgate about directing a remake of the Patrick Swayze/Jennifer Grey original.

CHICAGO – Release schedules keep rolling in lately with the Television Critics Association press tour heating up, now giving us a date to circle for the hottest new show of last season. NBC’s hit reality singing series “The Voice” is set to start season two on one of the most watched nights of television, Super Bowl Sunday.

CHICAGO – While the entire story has not been fully revealed, the fact still remains that AMC’s hottest series has lost its showrunner. Frank Darabont, head writer and producer of AMC’s “The Walking Dead” as well as director of films such as “The Shawshank Redemption” and “The Green Mile,” has walked away from the hit zombie series after only one completed season.

CHICAGO – The CW announces a relatively aggressive Fall 2011 schedule with details on four new shows, one every night for the majority of the work week. With stars like Sarah Michelle Gellar, Rachel Bilson, and Mario Lopez making their way to the struggling network, perhaps this is the year that The CW turns it around.

CHICAGO – Well, it’s official. We batted 1.000 on NBC and The CW (and missed no more than one on any network and three overall), as the latter has announced in advance of their full schedule presentation on Thursday that they will bring “Nikita” and “One Tree Hill” back for another season but that “Hellcats” is officially done.

CHICAGO – We will know the full schedule tomorrow but CBS has been revealing it by bits and pieces all week, canceling “Mad Love” & “The Defenders,” renewing “Blue Bloods” & “Hawaii Five-0,” and giving us one of each today, canceling “Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior” and giving “CSI: NY” another year.

CHICAGO – The New York Times is reporting (but nowhere else yet so we’ll call it a “rumor”) that CBS will announce that three programs from the 2010-11 season will get a shot at breaking the sophomore slump — “Blue Bloods,” “Hawaii Five-0,” and “Mike & Molly”.

CHICAGO – While the other networks have been allowing renewal and cancellation news to leak out, CBS had been quiet until this afternoon when they made perhaps the least-surprising announcement so far, canceling “Mad Love,” “$#*! My Day Says,” and “The Defenders”.

CHICAGO – We said earlier this week that ABC would have to choose one of their three comedies — “Happy Endings,” “Mr. Sunshine,” and “Better With You” and we predicted/hoped that “Happy” would be the favorite. We were right.