Ghost Whisperer Gets the Jamie Kennedy Experience
Already adept at Screaming, Jamie Kennedy is going to have to lower his voice.
The Malibu’s Most Wanted funnyman will be joining the cast of Ghost Whisperer this fall as an academic who bonds with Jennifer Love Hewitt’s supernaturally sensitive mystery solver.
Kennedy’s psych grad-student character, Eli, will ultimately be taking the place of former series regular Jay Mohr’s Professor Rick Payne, who will be heading off on sabbatical a few episodes into season four.
Recently, Kennedy, who starred in the first two Scream films before meeting a gruesome end, has had guest spots on Criminal Minds, Reaper and Mind of Mencia, and he’ll appear in the upcoming spoof flick Extreme Movie.
Jamie Kennedy a psych expert? Yes, on Ghost Whisperer
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In a move as big as his executive producing Living with Fran, Jamie Kennedy has decided to return to series television. In fact, Jay Mohr’s loss is Jamie’s gain. Jamie Kennedy has signed on to the CBS psychic drama Ghost Whisperer. It’s not a guest role or a mini-arc, he’s a regular. Yes, Jamie Kennedy will be a regular and will play a dramatic role. Okay, he’ll try to play it straight. Perhaps this will be the ultimate Jamie Kennedy experiment?
Jay Mohr was the college connection with whom Melinda consulted on Ghost Whisperer, but now that he’s getting his own sitcom on the networks, Project Gary, GW needs a new character to provide the same kind of insight. Jamie will play Eli, a college grad student.
He gets friendly with Melinda while Mohr’s character, Professor Rick Payne, exits after the first couple of shows to take a sabbatical. That’s good news for Jay, because if his show flops, he can return to Ghost Whisperer. (Having seen the Project Gary pilot, don’t be surprised if this is exactly what happens.)
Ghost Whisperer is heading into its fourth year on CBS and will continue to lead off Friday nights at 8 o’clock. Recently, the fire at Universal Studios destroyed some sets on which the show filmed scenes in the past. The damage was not serious enough to impede production, though, and the look of Grandview will continue to look the same as always.
Bad Day to Be a Vampire
The fall will not rise for Moonlight.
As first reported yesterday by Online's Kristin Dos Santos, the cult favorite vampire-detective show was one of a handful of series that didn't make the cut today as CBS unveiled its new fall schedule. Others: James Woods' Shark and controversy's Kid Nation.
Elsewhere, cable's TNT announced plans to challenge the broadcast networks with three nights of original programming by 2010, and touted several proposed new series, including an Elvis impersonator-detective show from George Clooney and a new action-crime drama from the cocreator of 24.
CBS bubble shows whose bubbles did not burst, as they were invited back, included The New Adventures of Old Christine, How I Met Your Mother and The Unit.
Befitting its image as the network most married to the script, as it were, CBS will introduce five new scripted series, more than any network so far. (Fox, the last broadcast network on the board, issues its fall schedule tomorrow.)
The new CBS shows are:
- Worst Week, a Meet the Parents-aspiring sitcom;
- Project Gary, a divorced dad comedy starring Jay Mohr;
- The Mentalist, a procedural crime show with an Aussie twist starring Simon Baker;
- Eleventh Hour, with Rufus Sewell as a "brilliant" scientist that the brilliant government waits to the last minuteaka the eleventh hourto call; and,
- The Ex List, an hourlong dramedy about a thirtysomething woman who, acting under the influence of a psychic, hunts down her ex-boyfriends to find her future husband.
Also more than any other network so far, CBS fiddled with the time slots of its returning shows. Come the fall, The Unit travels from Tuesdays to Sundays; Without a Trace shifts from Thursdays to Tuesdays; and, Christine trades Mondays for Wednesdays, where the network will try to establish a second comedy block.
Rules of Engagement will move from Mondays to the bench, where it'll remain until it's called up as a midseason replacement. CBS announced only one other midseason show: Harper's Island, a new murder mystery drama.
Thought not on the fall schedule, long-running reality series Big Brother will return as a summer series.
The Moonlight faithful, meanwhile, were not taking the news of Moonlight's cancellation well. Not were they taking it lying down.
"This is absolutely not the time to stop campaign or showing love for the show," read a post on the fansite Moonlight Fans. "…We're not going anywhere, and neither should you."
While it didn't lack for ardent viewers, Moonlight apparently lacked for enough viewers. The freshman drama was the weakest link on Friday night, averaging 7.5 million viewers, nearly 1 million fewer than its lead-in, Ghost Whisperer, and some 1.5 million fewer viewers than its 10 p.m. neighbor, Numb3rs.
Shark (10.4 million) put up better numbers than any of those three shows, and better numbers than any number of renewed ABC and NBC shows. Its reward: Out after two seasons.
CBS' long-expected, if not long-gone, casualties, included: Jericho; Cane; the spring comedy Welcome to the Captain; and, the one-and-done misfire Viva Laughlin.
Not to be left out, the Turner cable networks announced a batch of new shows and projects. TNT talked up six proposed shows, including Clooney's Delta Blues, and the untitled show from 24's Joel Surnow, called the Untitled Joel Surnow Project. TBS renewed 10 Items or Less, ordered 26 more episodes of the Tyler Perry comedy House of Payne, and said it was developing six new scripted and late-night shows, including a proposed half-hour comedy to star and be executive produced by William H. Macy.
Here's a night-by-night look at CBS' 2008-09 fall schedule:
Sunday: 60 Minutes, The Amazing Race, Cold Case, The Unit
Monday: The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, Two and a Half Men, Worst Week, CSI: Miami
Tuesday: NCIS, The Mentalist, Without a Trace
Wednesday: The New Adventures of Old Christine, Project Gary, Criminal Minds, CSI: NY
Thursday: Survivor, CSI, Eleventh Hour
Friday: Ghost Whisperer, The Ex List, Numb3rs
Saturday: Crime show reruns, 48 Hours Mystery
What's the fate of your fave shows and stars? Watch With Kristin has all the scoop from the New York upfronts!
Get CBS' Fall Season Schedule!
CBS just released its 2008-'09 schedule. Click inside for the new series and new showtimes, but to start you off, the facts are these:
HIGHLIGHTS
- Without a Trace is moving to Tuesdays; the new series The Eleventh Hour will take over WAT's plum Thursday 10 p.m. slot.
- The New Adventures of Old Christine is moving over to Wednesday to anchor a new comedy hour alongside Jay Mohr's Project Gary.
- Moonlight's old time slot goes to The Ex List (formerly known as Mythological Ex), the new rom-com from Veronica Mars writer Diane Ruggiero.
- The Unit is moving to Sundays at 10 after Cold Case.
- Except for Without a Trace, all your fave procedurals are staying put. Yay! Criminal Minds Wednesday continues! This is not news, I'm really just excited about the chance of seeing Matthew Gray Gubler at the party tonight!
Want the rest of the deets? Click in!
MONDAY
8: The Big Bang Theory
8:30: How I Met Your Mother
9: Two and a Half Men
9:30: Worst Week (NEW)
10: CSI: Miami
TUESDAY
8: NCIS
9: The Mentalist
10: Without a Trace (new time slot)
WEDNESDAY
8: The New Adventures of Old Christine (new time slot)
8:30: Project Gary (NEW)
9: Criminal Minds
10: CSI: NY
THURSDAY
8: Survivor
9: CSI
10: The Eleventh Hour (NEW)
FRIDAY
8: Ghost Whisperer
9: The Ex List (NEW)
10: Numb3rs
SUNDAY
7: 60 Minutes
8: The Amazing Race
9: Cold Case
10: The Unit (new time slot)
Read up on the new series, post your thoughts in the comments, and check back later for our liveblog of the official CBS presentation!