The Blog is back on October 1st

Living puts on lippy

Living have bought Lipstick Jungle from NBC. Due to debut early next year its based on a book by Candace Bushnell, creator of Sex and the City. Brooke Shields and Kim Raver among the stars after the series went through retooling and recasting after initally piloting a year ago.

Ugly Betty returns to Channel 4 on Friday October 5th and the emmy winning 30 Rock will partner up with Californication on Channel 5 from October 11th. And if you have not yet heard, Tony Almedia will back alongside Jack Bauer in 24 in January. The fact that they seemingly killed him off clearly not an issue.

The USTV on UKTV blog is now off for a couple of weeks, back in October with reviews of some of the new shows from the US set to land on UK screens.

Lots of premieres

Here's a round-up of a whole bunch of shows starting or coming back.

The Tudors are coming to BBC2. This X-rated re-versioning of Henry VIII starts on Friday October 5th at 9pm and runs for ten weeks.

The Riches starring Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver will start the same week when the new Virgin 1 channel takes to the air.

A few already cancelled shows are also taking to the air. The Paul Haggis drama thje Black Donnellys will premiere on ITV2 on Thursday 27th at 9pm, you can see the brand new third season of Entourage at 10.30pm that same night. Also cancelled, Justice starring Victor Garber airs on Living from Friday 28th September at 9pm.

Finally the new channel Zone Romantica are screening Snoops. This shortlived David E Kelley detective drama stars Gina Gershon and Paula Marshall among others.

Openings, closing and casting news

A network closes. ABC1 is the first big multi-channel to fall off the EPG. The Disney owned network will shut down after failing to make an impact. They blame the fact they could not get a full time slot on Freeview, I blame Hope and Faith. ABC1 will be rememebered for giving us the chance to see the second series of Once and Again - but not a lot else.......Showtime have renewed Californication for 12 episodes, the first season starts on Channel 5 next month....BBC4 premieres the HBO comedy series Flight of the Conchords at 9.30pm on September 25th. Its preceded by a concert film a week earlier......Former Soprano Edie Falco will appear in 30 Rock, upcoming on Channel 5, while Craig T Nelson will be in several episodes of My Name is Earl next year.....Virgin 1, which goes to air next month, has added the news CBS series Moonlight to its collection. You can check it out below.

Californication

Channel 5 will premiere the new Showtime comedy series Californication on October 11th. David Duchovny returns to television in this new show. Check it out