TVSquad

This is Spoilers Anonymous, a weekly column here at TV Squad where we supply you with the dirt on some of the more popular shows on the air. We'll never put spoilers up here on the main page in order to help the reformed stay unspoiled. If you have anything to add to the group, feel free to step up and let yourself be heard, either with our tips form or by emailing us at tvsquad at gmail dot com, or call and leave a message at (775) 640-8479. Your anonymity is guaranteed, if you wish to remain as such.

This week we have spoilers for: 24, 30 Rock, Damages, Desperate Housewives, House, Lost, Melrose Place, Private Practice, and Ugly Betty. (SPOILERS FOLLOW!)

Hewes & Associates is getting bigger.

FX announced yesterday that season three of Damages, which returns to FX in January and begins filming today in New York, has added four big names to the cast. Martin Short and Campbell Scott have both signed on as regulars and Lily Tomlin and Keith Carradine are joining as guest stars.

This news has me really excited. Last season, after William Hurt, Marcia Gay Harden, John Doman, and Darrell Hammond all signed on, I said it was arguably one of the finest casts ever assembled for a TV drama. With these new names added to the roster, this season is shaping up to be just as good, if not better. The only thing missing from this news? Confirmation that Ted Danson will return for at least a few eps to reprise his role as Arthur Frobisher - hopefully, he'll be back as well.

(S01E01) Never ever, ever go into work on your day off. It could just cost you your job. Especially if in doing so, the man who's name on the building dies and it in any way can be blamed on you. Just a friendly tip from the blogosphere. In these tough economic times, because I just had to start an article about a show set in the Hamptons with that, there's nothing better for people struggling to make ends meet than a show about people whose biggest struggle is ... well nothing, really.

I went into this show kind of expecting to be too annoyed by the fact that it's in the Hamptons to enjoy it, but dammit, I really started liking it. A big part of that is thanks to the dynamic between Mark Fuerstein and Paulo Costanza. Fuerstein, as Hank Lawson, is our lead who did the whole guy dying losing his job thing. And Constanza as his brother Evan, is the kind of guy who can breeze into a German Consulate's party with a bad accent and a fake ID.

Remember all that stuff about Six Degrees coming back? Never mind! ABC has pulled the show yet again. The show returned recently on Friday nights (which was a big surprise in itself), but almost no one watched. The show got terrible ratings. The move takes effect immediately. Something tells me this isn't a good sign for a second season.

So we have The Black Donnellys being pulled in favor of a reality show (The Real Wedding Crashers), and you're probably wondering what will replace Six Degrees in the time slot? That's right, a reality show! But this one is even more hard to take: they're replacing it with reruns of Wife Swap. Gah!

In other shows-going-on-hiatus news, David E. Kelley's The Wedding Bells has stopped production, though the remaining episodes will probably air. But don't hold your breath for a renewal.

A love triangle, a hidden pregnancy, Josh Charles, and a quickened plot is what awaits viewers who tune in to Six Degrees when it returns tonight on ABC at 9 pm. The series was pulled from the scheduled way back in November when it wasn't holding on to the Grey's Anatomy audience on Thursday nights. Created by J.J. Abrams, the drama is about six New Yorkers and how their lives intersect. The ensemble cast includes Bridget Moynahan, Campbell Scott, and Erika Christenson.

Only, in my opinion, it was slow. And boring. And apparently ABC thought so too, because it gave the executive producers a few mandates for the next seven episodes.

Mentioned briefly at the end of this story about the pregnancy of Bridget Moynahan, ex-girlfriend of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, is the fact that the writers of Six Degrees have no intention of writing her pregnancy into the series.

Whaaaa?

Yup, according to a Moynahan's spokesman, she is currently in New York City finishing up filming of Six Degrees. I really have no idea what this means, since the show hasn't been on in a while and it looked like it was a goner. I would say it's one of two things: everyone has contracts and the networks have made deals and they have to finish filming, or the show will come back to run the remaining episodes, either on TV or online, even though it's been canceled.

If a show that's been forgotten can come back from the dead, maybe they're filming new episodes of Eyes right now too?

Interesting piece in Slate today, on all of the TV shows on ABC that writer Troy Patterson calls a "nauseating lineup of yuppie dramas."

Which shows is he talking about? You can probably guess: Men In Trees, Brothers & Sisters, What About Brian, and Six Degrees. I think that Patterson's whole viewpoint can be summed up with this paragraph:

These shows share a view of the human mind modeled on Dr. Phil's and an aesthetic sense shamelessly cribbed from a Pottery Barn catalog. When you watch them, you're mostly watching people feel bad over beverages. Despite it's pseudo-literary ambitions, the genre's got a certain soap-operatic streak, and the soap's an orange-lavender bath wash.

Ouch.

I tried, I really tried.

I wanted to review Six Degrees, the new ABC Thursday night drama, but I couldn't even get through the second episode. The show is just too damn boring. I don't agree with the entire set-up of the show, as I mentioned in last week's review, and I still think there is exactly one story I'm even remotely interested in, and that's the plot involving Campbell Scott's messed up photographer character.

I'm not sure how much input executive producer J.J. Abrams has in the writing of the show, but there's nothing here that even remotely comes close to Alias, Felicity, or Lost.

I find myself drifting back to ER, even though I swore I wouldn't watch that show either after so many years of watching it. Those of you who are watching Six Degrees, is there something I'm missing?

(S01E01) This, by far, is the most disappointing new show of the season.

And it pains me to say that, because I like J.J. Abrams and I like stories with lots of characters set in New York City, but this show starts with a concept that turns out to be pretty damn bogus to start with and then does nothing with it.

Here's what's wrong with it.

That's the buzz from "insiders" at CBS News. FOX News is reporting that CNN's Anderson Cooper could become the new host of the morning show, along with NBC's Campbell Brown, who is unhappy that she didn't get the Today gig when Katie Couric went to host The CBS Evening News.

It's not such a crazy idea, since Cooper is already working on 60 Minutes. But what would happen to Anderson Cooper 360? He'd have to give that up. Maybe Harry Smith can take that job if Cooper goes to CBS. Nah, Harry Smith 360 just doesn't have the same ring to it.

What do you think? I think Anderson Cooper is good, but would he want to give up the harder news that he does at CNN to host a morning show again, especially after early morning gigs on World News Tonight and American Morning? I'm not convinced, though I think it would finally give CBS' morning program the personality it needs.