So as we enter the holiday season let's us be thankful for what we have and for those around us. I for one am happy for my family and the good health of my wife and other relatives and friends. Happy Holidays to all.

On the TV front FOX has announced their Winter/Spring schedule. New shows Human Target, Sons of Tucson, Our Little Genius (Reality TV), and Past Life are the mid-season replacements. Lie To Me gets a full season pick up finally, but doesn't return until very late Spring. Glee goes on hiatus from December 9th until April 13th. On a positive note Glee wasn't to return till next season originally.

Human Target a live action starring Mark Valley kicks off the new shows with a viewing on Sunday January 17th after the NFC Divisional Playoff then moves to its regular night Wednesday at 9/8C (Glee's old spot) after American Idol. Past Life about detectives who explain the unexplainable (sounds familiar) opens with a two hour premiere on Thursday February 11th then taking Fringe's spot in the schedule at 9/8C until April 1st when Fringe returns.

Sons of Tucson joins Animation Domination in the plum spot between The Simpsons and Family Guy Sunday March14th at 8:30/7:30C bumping The Cleveland Show to American Dad's spot which goes on hiatus for the rest of the season.

As for Friday's, Chef Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares returns Friday January 29th and once Dollhouse ends will be led in by Bones and House reruns.

American Idol returns January 19th preceding the initial showing of Our Little Genius which will be on Tuesday at 9/8C and stays until Glee returns in April.

OK, are we sufficiently confused yet? TVbythenumbers and Variety among others have similar explanations in more or less detail and TVbythenumbers actually tries to make some semblance of this with an actual schedule by days.

I'm not really sure what this makes of most shows other than to say that Til' Death will eventually play out its shows and probably Brothers as well. Dollhouse schedule has already been announced and completes in January.

Thanks for reading...

Jeffery

Interesting doings on the TV front. After their initial strong openings both for FlashForward and V numbers have been settling lower and lower. For FlashForward the numbers have gone from above the average ABC show rating to well below the average in the last few viewings. Generally each network has a tolerance line and they use an average of viewers across the whole network to set a standard average. V on the other hand has been experiencing falling ratings from week to week. From their original lofty opening numbers to a 29% drop the 2nd week to a 3.7 which is still great to another 16% drop to a 3.1 the third week. The point is where the dropping numbers finally stop and how soon.

On the other side of things Modern Family, Cougar Town, and Castle all got full season pickups and each has seen some stable numbers or upticks recently. Cougar Town had a season low on 11/4, but came back up with yesterdays numbers. Modern Family reruns at 8/7C are beating Hank's number even in repeats. For those that like The Middle, it seems to be doing better as well with the Modern Family lead in.

On Castle, Alyssa Milano is set to be a guest star on the show. She will be a love interest and former girlfriend of Castle's and will make Beckett actually a little jealous. Milano's mid-season sitcom "Single with Parents" show order has been canceled. I guess there are creative differences with the producers and writers. It was suppose to be like a female version of Everybody Loves Raymond. So now there's a hole in ABC's mid-season replacements.

As far as Eastwick was concerned the replacement of In the Spotlight got better numbers than Eastwick's last episode I guess vindicating ABC's cancellation of the program. We'll see.

Ever wonder what happened to Tim Matheson? Well he has been directing episodes of Burn Notice for USA as well as "Person's Unknown" for NBC and Covert Affairs for USA. He has been tapped to direct a new series on FOX called "Jack and Dan" starring Diana-Maria Riva as Detective Katherine Anderson who is Jack and Dan's boss. Colin Hanks (Jack) and Bradley Whitford (Dan) star as buddy detectives one who is by the book detective and another a former hero who is hanging on. Sounds like an Odd Couple cop show staged in Los Angeles.

When it rains it pours. I finally started a new job this past week and had training the first three days this week. I am independent contractor in a new unrelated industry from what I have done for a living the last thirteen years. In the last week I received a number of calls and e-mails with companies approaching me with jobs in the IT industry with benefits etc.. We'll see what happens. In the meantime I will pursue the current engagement until I am convinced the economics of the situation make sense.

Here's a picture of the ice flow falling off Hubbard Glacier in Alaska when my wife and I went for our 25th Anniversary. This was taken with a fixed lense Panasonic Lumix model DMC-F230.

Thanks for reading...

Jeffery

Information comes from the network as well as TVbythenumbers, Variety, THR.com, and TVsquad.com among others.

THR.com along with a few others is announcing that Dollhouse has been officially canceled. They are producing number eleven currently and will shoot through the thirteen ordered and then they are done.

Per TVbythenumbers.com here is the final schedule run off of shows.

12/4 2 episodes 8/7C - 10/9C, 12/11 2 episodes 8/7C - 10/9C , 12/18 2 episodes 8/7C - 10/9C, 1/8 1 episode @ 9/8C, 1/15 1 episode@ 9/8C, 1/22 The final episode @9/8C.

Per ABC they have stopped production on Hank. They are in the middle of finishing the tenth episode and that will be it. ABC has shown five and has no plans to show the final five at this time.

On a funnier note, EW.com reports that Producer Maggie Friedman is pretty upset that Eastwick has been canceled. Really! Not very surprising. To parphrase, she said that because they are in the middle of finishing the thirteenth and final episode they won't be able to put any closure to the show.

Now it's not funnier that Eastwick was canceled. It's just funny the producer would vent like this. Like this hasn't happened dozens of times every year before this one.

The only positive I can come up with out of all this is Jaime Ray Newman can go back to Eureka where she was an intregal part of that cast.

All of this can be found reported on a number of sites. ABC press release, EW.com, THR.com, and TVbythenumbers.com.

Thanks for reading...

Jeffery