TV Tidbits

Michael Ausiello writes at Entertainment Weekly, "Good news: A Sci Fi source confirms to me exclusively that the last half of season 4 premieres on Friday, January 16, at 10 p.m. Which, by my calculations, puts the series finale (boo-hoo!) at Friday, March 20." This means the network will not skip the three-day weekend i nFebruary as they normally have in the past, which is good news for one and all.

CBS has given a full season order to The Mentalist starring Simon Baker. The freshman series has garnered good ratings and positive reviews encouraging the Eye Network.

NBC has ordered three additional scripts for its midseason drama Medium. The peacock network may be forced to add the series to its schedule before the end of the year given some weaker than expected ratings for its lineup.

AMC has ordered a third season of the wonderful Mad Men.  Creator Matthew Weiner and Lionsgate, though, are still talking contracts with the studio hoping to sign the creator/producer to a two year deal which would encourage AMC to green-light a fourth season sooner than later.  Regardless, the second season of the award-winning drama will reach its conclusion October 26.

Brian Cox has been cast opposite Katee Sackhoff in the NBC pilot Lost and Found. He will play her character’s fractious partner Burt Macey, described by The Hollywood Reporter as "a foul-mouthed, racist dinosaur of a cop who does things the old-fashioned way: with blunt force and bigoted rants." The two are assigned to the worst possible cases after Sackhoff’s Tessa pisses off her Los Angeles Police Department superiors. Cox has also been cast for a multiple-episode story arc for the network’s midseason replacement, Kings.