Today's News: Our Take

CBS reportedly will announce on Wednesday the pick-up of six new series for the 2008-09 TV season, including no less than four new dramas. Among that bunch are The Ex List (nee The Mythological Ex, a title you knew wasn't going to play in Peoria) starring Grey's Anatomy's Elizabeth Reaser; The Mentalist, starring Simon Baker; Jerry Bruckheimer's Eleventh Hour (in which a science professor advises a government agency; and Harper's Island (a murder mystery set at an island wedding).

CBS two new comedies are Worst Week of My Life, chronicling the days before a young couple's wedding (because Big Day blew the roof off the place) and an untitled laffer starring Jay Mohr as a recent divorce.

As reported earlier by Ausiello, CBS is expected to bring back The Unit and How I Met Your Mother, though Moonlight and Old Christine remain question marks. — MWM

More Fall TV news:
• Eli Stone Renewed! October Road Axed! Moonlight Dead?
• Reaper Is Renewed
• It's Official: Scrubs to ABC!
• CW's Game for The Game, Tyra Banks' Stylista
• More Boston Legal Suits ABC
• CW Officially Picks Up 90210
• 'Til Death Lives On, Back to You Won't Be Back
• Fox's New Amsterdam Immortal No More
• CW Axes Aliens in America

Hey You Guuuuuuyyyys! PBS is powering The Electric Company back up starting in January.

The 1970s-era educational show — whose regulars included Morgan Freeman, Rita Moreno and Bill Cosby — starts production on new episodes this week and is geared, as always, to the six-to-nine year-old set.

The series was originally developed for kids who graduated from Sesame Street. As was the case in the original series, music videos, sketch comedy, animation and short films will be used specifically to close the literacy gap between low and middle-income families and teach kids that reading can be fun. — J.R. Whalen

What stands between a man and his true love? Mom, of course.

Momma's Boy, premiering on NBC in the fall, focuses on a group of mothers trying to find "a nice girl" for their complacent sons.

Mothers and their eligible bachelor sons will be housed together with the potential brides-to-be.

Ryan Seacrest is executive producing the reality series. "Like it or not, I am a true Momma's Boy," Seacrest says. "She is the most important woman in my life and she is never short of opinions. This series throws Mom right in the middle of all the drama." — J.R. Whalen

Boston Legal beauty Saffron Burrows has joined the cast of My Own Worst Enemy, an NBC drama premiering this fall.

As previously reported, Christian Slater plays a suburban father who comes to realize he moonlights as a spy. Burrows plays the father's psychiatrist and girlfriend of Slater's alter ego. — J.R. Whalen

More Fall TV news:
• It's Official: Scrubs is Moving to ABC!
• Eli Renewed! October Road Axed! Moonlight Dead?
• CW's Game for The Game, Tyra Banks' Stylista
• More Boston Legal Suits ABC
• CW Officially Picks Up 90210
• 'Til Death Lives On, Back to You Won't Be Back
• Fox's New Amsterdam Immortal No More
• CW Axes Aliens in America

Sunday's numbers:

8 pm/ET
The finale of Survivor: Micronesia — Fans vs. Favorites: The Pussycat Dolls Present: Miami (Crime Scene Investigation) topped the hour with 12.9 million total viewers, a 14 percent decline from the China closer. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition placed second with 11.9 mil (up 440K). Chris and the freshly canceled Aliens did a typical 1.24 and 1.12 mil, respectively.

9 pm
Housewives (15.23 mil) bested the back half of the Survivor finale, but was down 1.4 mil. Doing about 2.7 mil, NBC's Office repeats delivered 72 percent of the audience that Psych was getting.

10 pm
Brothers & Sisters' season-ender (11.03 mil) edged out the Survivor reunion show, and was up 180 thou week-to-week.

Related:
• Survivor: Micronesia finale recap
• Survivor Q&A: Erik discusses his million-dollar blunder
• Cheers & Jeers vs. Brothers & Sisters
• Ask Matt takes on Brothers & Sisters' latest twist

Confirming the worst-kept secret in television, NBC today officially introduced comedian Jimmy Fallon as the network's newest late-night host.

The SNL alum will start as host of Late Night (Weeknights, 12:30 am/ET) when Conan O'Brien takes over the Tonight Show for Jay Leno in 2009.

Ironically, O'Brien's show was the first talk show Fallon appeared on after joining SNL in 1998.

Fallon, 33, told a news conference he has been destined to host a late-night talkfest since he was a kid. "In my kindergarten yearbook, they wrote 'Most Likely To Take Over For David Letterman,'" he said.

Exactly when Fallon will make his debut next year is still up in the air, and appears to be hinged on where Jay Leno lands after the Tonight Show. "Everyone wants Jay Leno to stay part of the NBC family," said SNL boss Lorne Michaels, who will also executive produce Fallon's show. "And that's a big part of what's going on now."

Fallon joked once he starts, he's in it for the long haul. "NBC gave me the same contract as Willard Scott — 150 years." — J.R. Whalen

Eric Stoltz (Mask, almost Back to the Future) has been added to the cast of Caprica, the Battlestar Galactica prequel TV-movie/backdoor pilot.

Per the Reporter, Stoltz will play Daniel Graystone, a computer engineer who, in the wake of a family tragedy, uses his technological prowess to alter the future of Caprica. Alessandra Toressani (Malcolm in the Middle) will play his daughter, Zoe. — MWM

More Capricasting news:
• Esai Morales Cast as Adama's Father
• Deadwood's Trixie Inhabits Sci Fi's Caprica

How I Met Your Mother co-creator Craig Thomas says that not only is Britney Spears "better" in tonight's encore than she was in her first cameo on the CBS sitcom, but her latest appearance will actually advance storyline. "[Her] return answers a larger mystery set up earlier in the series," Thomas tells the Reporter. "So there's a good plot reason why she's there."

And yes, should Mother get picked up for another season (as expected), Ms. Spears could swing by again. Says Thomas, "When people watch Britney's second appearance on the show they'll see that the door is still open for her to come back." — MWM

The pre-upfronts pickups continue. The CW has greenlit a third season of The Game, which forges on despite the months-ago dismissal of its forerunner, Girlfriends.

The CW also has picked up to series Stylista, a Devil Wears Prada-esque reality competition produced by Top Model tandem Tyra Banks and Ken Mok, and dangling a job at Elle in front of 11 wannabe fashion journos. Stylista likely will be packaged with ANTM on Wednesday nights. — MWM

More Fall TV coverage:
• Ausiello's "Bubble" Show Status Report
• More Boston Legal Suits ABC
• CW Officially Picks Up 90210
• Fox's Death Lives On, Back to You Won't Be Back
• Fox's New Amsterdam Immortal No More
• CW Axes Aliens in America

ABC has ordered another round of Boston Legal, sending the legal dramed back into session this fall for a fifth season.

Doing so is believed to bring closer a series pickup for ABC's Jason O'Mara-fronted port of the BBC series Life on Mars, which to date has been shephered by Boston Legal boss David E. Kelley. — MWM

More Fall TV coverage:
• CW Officially Picks Up 90210
• Fox's Death Lives On, Back to You Won't Be Back
• Fox's New Amsterdam Immortal No More
• CW Axes Aliens in America

Not much to report here on Friday's ratings, other than to note that each of CBS' three dramas took a dip.

Delivering 8.74 million total viewers, Ghost Whisperer was down five percent week-to-week. Moonlight (7.68 mil) in turn slipped three percent, while Numbers (9.13 mil) took the Eye's biggest punch, to the tune of 10 percent.

People must have been out shopping for Mother's Day gifts...?

With the upfronts officially arriving next week, Fox is among the first to unfurl some of its plans. Per the Reporter, the network has renewed 'Til Death for a third cycle yet is not bringing back Back to You. Though the Grammer-Heaton sitcom drew good notices and decent numbers, it's reckoned that production costs ran too high (due to its marquee stars).

Also, Fox is giving a series pickup to The Inn, which is described as "Upstairs/Downstairs at a hip New York hotel." The pilot was directed by Jason Bateman (Arrested Development), and the cast includes Niecy Nash (Reno 911), Jerry O'Connell (Crossing Jordan), Molly Stanton and Jesse Tyler Ferguson. — MWM

Related:
• Exclusive: Fox's New Amsterdam Is Not Immortal
• CW Axes Aliens in America
• CW "Outsources" Sunday Night; Two Dramas, Two Comedies Coming

Barbara Walters is declining to publicly engage with Star Jones after things heated up this week between the two. On Friday, Walters said she'd rather hang on to the good memories of her and Jones' days together on The View. "Star is going through a very difficult time right now," Walters told AP Radio, alluding to the dissolution of Jones' marriage. "I don't want to add to her difficulties." Oops, too late!

Earlier this week, during an Oprah visit, Walters revealed that she and fellow View hosts lied for Jones about her significant weight loss. Jones in turns responded, "It is a sad day when an icon like Barbara Walters... is reduced to publicly branding herself as an adulterer... and speaking negatively against me all for the sake of selling a book."

Walters claimed good intentions in detailing her affair with a senator, saying, "I put it in to show in great part how race relations have changed. This was 30 years ago, it was an African-American prominent man. And it would've destroyed his career, and mine. Today it would have almost no impact."

Is Walters taking the high road, or folding in a fracas that she instigated? — Anna Dimond

Related:
• Barbara Walters vs. Star Jones: The Claws Are Out
• Watch Video: Babs Admits to Affair With Married Politician
• Feature Q&A: Barbara Walters Gets Personal in Her Audition
• Watch Video: Barbara Walters Tells Barack He’s "Very Sexy"

Nick Bollea — the son of wrestling legend Hulk Hogan — has been sentenced to eight months in jail after pleading no contest to charges of reckless driving.

Bollea crashed a car in August, 2007, leaving his best friend, John Graziano, in critical condition. The 17-year-old was also sentenced to five years probation, 500 hours of community service and three years with his license revoked. In court Friday, Bollea reportedly said, "I would like to apologize to the Grazianos and to my family for the accident.... I will never ever be able to say I'm sorry enough." Attorneys for John Graziano filed a lawsuit against Hulk and his estranged wife in March, claiming that the parents of an underage driver are liable for the accident.

Hulk Hogan (né Terry Bollea) was present during the proceedings, after which Nick was taken immediately into custody. — Anna Dimond

Related:
• Car-crash Victim Slams Hulk Hogan with a Lawsuit

Thursday's recap:

8 pm/ET
Survivor's penultimate episode drew 12.66 million total viewers, while Betty (eight mil) this week bested 5th Grader. Earl (6.08 mil) plunged 10 percent, setting up Scrubs' NBC finale (5.37 mil) for its own nine percent drop. Smallville (3.96 mil) gained 309K.

9 pm
CSI held steady at 17.82 mil, though Grey's (15.6 mil, up 500 thou) was tops in demos. NBC's Office (7.22 mil) dipped 446K, but 30 Rock's stellar season-ender gained 206 thou — and I have the study to prove it. Supernatural matched last week's 2.53 mil.

10 pm
Without a Trace surged 14 percent, to 14.6 mil. Lost placed second with 11.28 mil (slipping 291K), while ER brought up the rear with 7.6 mil, down 135 thou.