TVSquad

FX held panels for Archer and Sons of Anarchy on Friday morning, but by then press tour fatigue had set in, and the energy in the room was low for both. It was especially low for Archer, a Adult Swim-esque spy cartoon by the creator of Sealab 2021 that most of the critics hadn't yet seen. The panel seemed to be more content with answering with wise-ass remarks that made themselves laugh but the just served to make us tired masses annoyed.

Things perked up, though, when the network presented five of its show-runners to talk about what it's like to develop edgy dramas for basic cable. But since the theme of the week has invariably been "Leno at 10," the questions often came back to the fact that NBC with one fell swoop wiped out five hours of scripted drama per week. And the show-runners took every opportunity to bash the Peacock for it.

And it got ugly: "I feel they should take the American flag down in front of the building and just put up a white one," said Rescue Me's Peter Tolan, "because they've clearly given up."

If you were speculating about whether Timothy Olyphant's character of Wes Krulik was coming back for season three of Damages, it's looking like he's not.

The edgy star's been tapped to play the lead in an FX drama pilot based on Elmore Leonard's short story "Fire in the Hole" (looking forward to the pairing of Leonard and Olyphant). The show revolves around U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (Olyphant), who returns to his hometown of Kentucky.

Creator and executive producer Graham Yost describes the character this way: "He has a certain jaggedness, but he also loves his job. He is like an anachronism: He wears a hat, cowboy boots and a holster on his hip. It's a little bit like he was born 100 years too late."

'Tis the season to kiss television networks' butts. January is a big month in Los Angeles, when writers and producers are pitching their show ideas to all the networks. This week, networks placed their orders for a whole bunch of new dramas, including some created by well-knowns such as J.J. Abrams and Ridley and Tony Scott. Here is a list of some shows we know about so far:

• Six Degrees, J.J. Abrams (Lost, Alias), ABC: stories of six strangers in New York intertwine.
  
• Jericho, Jon Turteltaub, CBS: social, psychological, physical chaos ensue when a small town is cut off from the rest of the world after a nuclear disaster.
  
• Orpheus, Ridley & Tony Scott, CBS: a man's girlfriend is involved in a cult.
  
• Faceless, Joe Carnahan, FOX: prosecutor goes undercover to an underworld organization (a prosecutor?).
  
• Heroes, Tim Kring, NBC: everyday people discover they have super hero powers.
  
• Seeing Red, Graham Yost, NBC: a cop talks to dead people to solve cases.
  
• Untitled Alicia Keys project, Alicia Keys, UPN: inspired by the life of Alicia Keys, the show is about a 24-year-old musician who grew up in Hell's Kitchen.
• Underfunded, David Breckman & Rob Abrash, USA: a brilliant agent for the Canadian Secret Service solves cases despite the agency's severe lack of funding.

So... which of these shows do you think we'll actually see on the air next fall?

[Via The Hollywood Reporter]