TVSquad

Michael Rosenbaum's departure from Smallville in season seven should have been a heavy blow to a series already suffering from flagging ratings and a bad batch of still-born stories. But the following season turned out to be one of Smallville's best, introducing a fine female successor to Rosenbaum's Lex Luthor and edging us closer into Superman territory.

With season nine on the horizon, and the show getting its best reviews and ratings in years, the big question is coming up again: Will Rosenbaum return to Smallville?

Last season we watched a disfigured Lex, played by a different actor whose face was hidden, apparently die in an explosion. Of course, fans knew instantly that Superman's nemesis was still kicking somewhere (as confirmed by exec producer Brian Peterson at Comic-Con).

It's CW day at the TCAs, and network honcho Dawn Ostroff presented her executive session in the middle of the day, after a parade of panels that included one pretty face after another, including Ashton Kutcher, Elle Macpherson, the cast of Vampire Diaries and a few alumni from the original Melrose Place. Ostroff fully admitted that the network is courting 35-and-under women with their shows, trying to build on the "one tweet per minute" success of shows like One Tree Hill, Gossip Girl, and 90210.

But what about two of the network's more veteran and male-oriented shows, Smallville and Supernatural? Does the network still believe in them? Ostroff tried to give a definitive "yes," but the rest of her panel, and the promos shown before she appeared, say otherwise.

As I said in my post about the 90210 panel, CW entertainment president Dawn Ostroff doesn't like to give us definitive answers. For some reason, she doesn't feel she has to. Problem is, that doesn't make the critics very happy. We don't like it when someone isn't being forthright with us, and we can sense it.

In her executive session, Ostroff avoided saying anything definitive on two major topics: the lack of "urban" shows on the schedule and the mechanics of the network's deal with Media Rights Capital to produce the network's entire Sunday block of shows.

What's happening on other blogs via the interweb.

• You've read our discussion of the Lost finale, now read the Hollywood Reporter's, James Poniewozik's, and Alan Sepinwall's. Also, here's news about the ratings the finale got.
• Is the head of The CW, Dawn Ostroff, on her way out?
• Is ABC already ahead when it comes to this fall's new shows?
• Another season of The Two Coreys starts on June 22. Oh, great.
• The Wall Street Journal weighs in on the American Office vs. British Office debate.
• Eddie Griffin is being sued over an incident on his new VH-1 show.
• The Sci-Fi Channel has launched a new gaming blog called Fidgit.

The CW's got some funny sitcoms both old (Everybody Hates Chris) and new (Aliens in America -- more on that later), but the network's funniest asset is Paul McGuire, executive vice president, network communications.

Before introducing Dawn Ostroff, president entertainment, The CW, McGuire fires off some zingers to get the reporters up and running.

Of the recycled tote bags that The CW gave to the press (perfect for hauling all our cable swag home), McGuire quips, "They're made entirely from recycled billboards, including some from Hidden Palms -- or as some dirt bag reporter called it -- 'Hidden Ratings.'"

You know you've moved on in the TV critics press tour from CBS to its sister network The CW by the pages -- those helpful young men and women who direct members of the press to where lunch is being served. They also bring handheld microphones to the reporters during the sessions so their questions can be heard.

I'm betting that the CBS pages are wearing the same polyester red jackets that I did way back when Murphy Brown was on the air.

The CW pages wear green coats, and the pages themselves all look like models. Many of them are hotter than the actors on the CW shows themselves. (And the stars on CW shows are pretty hot!) I wonder how many of the pages (actors, too, I'm betting) are thinking, "I should be on a show," as they're running a microphone over to a reporter.

Those of you who have been diligently sending Mars candy bars to Dawn Ostroff, head of CW programming to save Veronica Mars from permanent cancellation may want to hold off on the next shipment when you hear what creator Rob Thomas has to say. In a recent newspaper interview Thomas pretty much said that VM is over for good as a television series.

Oh, he's not upset with the fans for trying. In fact, according to the interview, he loves that the fans have been making this all-out effort to renew the show. It's just that the CW's Ostroff doesn't get to make the final call if the show stays or not. That call is made by sister company CBS. Thomas believes that head honcho Les Moonves doesn't want to continue the show.

By now I'm sure you've heard of how the amazingly successful "Nuts for Jericho" campaign went over the past few weeks. I could practically hear television network execs country-wide brace themselves for truckloads of other odd foods and trinkets from die-hard fans of shows they'd taken a hatchet to in the past year. First up: Dawn Ostroff of The CW for putting Veronica Mars on the chopping block. I sure hope for her sake that she has a sweet tooth.

A rather large band of Veronica Mars fans, who won't take the news of the show's death lying down, have started a campaign to ship as many Mars Bars to the person in charge of CW programming, Dawn Ostroff, in hopes that the gesture will force her hand not to sign the final cancellation papers for the show. How many have they sent so far? Put it this way: they've located every last remaining Mars Bar in the country and have moved onto whatever the heck left they can find that's even remotely related to the show.

In case you didn't know, the drop-dead date for any show cancellation decisions at The CW is June 15th, just five days away. Read the organizing party's website for more info on how to help.

[Thanks to the multitude of people who sent in this tip!]

The CW decided to go for the funny in its TCA press tour executive session this morning. They played a video clip of an over-eager Adult Swim-style Chyron screen (instead of white on black, though, it was yellow on the ubiquitous CW green), apologizing for technical difficulties and making some interesting jokes. They even name checked Tim Goodman of the San Francisco Chronicle, who in an ironic twist, wasn't there to see it.

The message of all this? "We're The CW! Watch us! We're doing something different!" And that was also the theme of the presentation from the network's president of entertainment, Dawn Ostroff.

From the many e-mails and comments we've gotten here at TV Squad, we know that you really want to see Veronica Mars be one of the shows that survives the merger of UPN and the WB into the CW. Many are worried, the show won't be renewed, but not star Kristen Bell:

"We've gotten phone calls and optimism from the people that we need to get it from [CW President of Enertainment] Dawn Ostroff and Les Moonves have been very involved, saying 'don't worry.' They have never hidden their support."