— ITV has commissioned a third series of Downton Abbey. Vision TV will re-air the first series during the week of November 21st while the second series, which is currently airing in the UK, will premiere on PBS in January.
— Charisma Carpenter has been cast on The Lying Game…and I’ve got the feeling she’ll be playing Sutton and Amanda’s (Alexandra Chando) bio-mom when the show returns in January. Those Canadians who didn’t get a chance to watch the show this summer online, can catch it when Corus launches ABC Spark in 2012. The former Buffy and Angel star recently guest starred on Supernatural along with James Marsters (Spike).
— Alex Borstein told Digital Spy that she’d love to do a Family Guy movie.
— I still have to catch up on Parenthood, but Monica Potter (Kristina) is the one who pitched the postpartum depression plot. Meanwhile, Jonathan Tucker (The Black Donnellys) will join the show as Kristina and Amber’s (Mae Whitman) boss. His character, Bob used to work as an intern for Kristina in the past and is now running for his own political campaign.
— Mary Steenburgen (who appeared in the original Parenthood film — how’s that for a segue?) will guest star on 30 Rock as Avery’s (Elizabeth Banks) mother.
— Lucy Griffiths (Robin Hood) will appear in the next season of True Blood as Eric’s “sister” (she was also turned by Godric).
— The final season of One Tree Hill will premiere on Wednesday, January 11th at 8 p.m.
— Missing General Hospital‘s Jax? Well, Ingo Rademacher will guest star on an upcoming episode of Hawaii Five-O. I guess sometimes they don’t come back, do they Garin Wolf?
— No surprise here, Fox has renewed The X-Factor for a second season.
— One Life to Live creator Agnes Nixon will appear on the soap as Agnes Dixon, the creator of “Fraternity Row” (the soap within the soap) during the week of January 9th. Nixon previously appeared on OLTL in 2004 as God.
— My picks for tonight:
On The Vampire Diaries (7 p.m. on CTV2, 8 p.m. on The CW): Damon (Ian Somerhalder) tries a new approach to get through to Stefan (Paul Wesley) while Elena (Nina Dobrev), Bonnie (Kat Graham) and Alaric (Matt Davis) try to figure out the meaning behind the ancient message that’s on the wall about the originals. We also get a flashback about the originals.
On Community (8 p.m. on NBC and Citytv): Pierce (Chevy Chase) throws a party when his Hawthorne Wipes become popular, but he gets a visit from his overbearing father (Larry Cedar).
On Parks & Recreation (8:30 p.m. on NBC): A local Pawnee group predicts that the world is coming to and end, forcing Leslie (Amy Poehler) and the others to contemplate their own lives. Tom (Aziz Ansari) throws a party while April (Aubrey Plaza) helps Andy (Chris Pratt) with his bucket list.
On The Office (9 p.m. on NBC and Global): Dwight (Rainn Wilson) installs a “doomsday device” to help with office efficiency.
