Whispers of the Fall

Endless debate based on sketchy info about what's happening in the fall? No, not the election, it's the annual spring exercise in crystal-ball-reading and network hint-dropping, spiced up by the ambiguous fate of many shows whose seasons were slammed by the writers' strike.

TV experts, including the folks at TV Guide and the New York Times TV Decoder, have made some interesting predictions, and I've heard some stray bits of news from my own sources; but things are always subject to change. Here's a compilation of random bits of info I've seen recently:

It's already been reported that Heroes season 3, officially confirmed in February, will be lengthened to 25 episodes; the volume title, "Villains" (originally planned as the end of season 2), reflects the fact that Sylar (Zachary Quinto) won't be the only bad guy. Kristen Bell seems a cinch to be back as the zap-girl Elle; more opaque are the fates of Nathan (Adrian Pasdar) and Niki (Ali Larter), seemingly killed off in the season 2 finale.

Pushing Daisies will return in September and build on the unplanned cliffhanger that Lily is Chuck's mother (the producers hadn't planned on that being the last episode of the season!), with Chuck and Ned both finding out. (Side note: Robert Blackman's costume work was honored earlier this year at the 10th annual Costume Designers Guild Awards.) Homeopathic remedy salesman Alfredo (Raúl Esparza, star of the recent Broadway revival of Company), Olive's suitor, will also get more screen time.

Look for Chuck to become more frenetic: executive producer Josh Schwartz is using words like "bigger," "crazier," "more gut-busting." That could be tiresome, but it's true Chuck is better shows than most at what you might call "action comedy."

After its limited run at the beginning of this year, Sarah Connor Chronicles should be back in the fall; word has it producers have quietly started preproduction despite not having the official green light from Fox.

February's Knight Rider TV movie, a back-door pilot starring Justin Bruening, got the best 18-49 rating for a TV movie since March 2005 and is therefore a shoo in for the fall. ABC Family has greenlighted a third season of Kyle XY, ordering 10 new episodes from ABC Studios, but there's no start date yet.

A few possible cancellations are hinging on the performance of new episodes yet to appear in late April and May, including Reaper, which returns with a few new episodes April 22, and Moonlight, back with new episodes on April 25. Medium, if it's not picked up by NBC, might end up on CBS, which produces the show.

The officially canceled Jericho is the subject of another fan reaction – this time focusing on getting Sci Fi Channel, which is already airing reruns of the show, to take over production. The hope is extremely faint, though, and Sci Fi/USA Networks head Bonnie Hammer is already getting letters and sunflower seeds from fans of The 4400, canceled in December in the wake of the writers' strike, budget trouble, and lukewarm ratings.

Meanwhile Supernatural and Smallville, which return with new episodes April 24 and 17 respectively, have both been confirmed for new seasons this fall, the fourth for Supernatural and the eighth for Smallville. Supernatural close-out to the third season consists of four new episodes building up to a season finale cliffhanger on the fate of Dean's soul. More on that to come.