LOS ANGELES (thefutoncritic.com) -- The latest development news, culled from recent wire reports:
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BLADE (Spike TV, New!) - A small-screen version of the successful Wesley Snipes-led film franchise - about a half-vampire, half-human vampire slayer - will reportedly be the network's first scripted drama since making the transition from TNN to Spike TV. Full details however weren't specified during Spike's upfront presentation this week, however neither Snipes nor writer/director David Goyer is expected to be involved.
CHAPPELLE'S SHOW (Comedy Central) - The cable channel has once again postponed the show's third season launch from Tuesday, May 31. No official reason was given for the delay as the network only released this brief statement: "Comedy Central has suspended production on the third season of 'Chappelle's Show' until further notice. All parties are optimistic that production will resume in the near future. The third season will not premiere on May 31st as originally scheduled." New episodes of "Chappelle's Show" have been absent from Comedy Central's schedule since April of 2004. Said run averaged a stellar 2.2 million viewers among adults 18-49 in the Wednesday, 10:30/9:30c slot.
THE COLBERT REPORT/UNTITLED ADAM CAROLLA PROJECT (Comedy Central) - The cable channel is adding two more talk shows to its roster - its previously announced Adam Carolla project and a new pseudo-"The Daily Show" spin-off featuring correspondent Stephen Colbert. Both half-hour series were given formal pick-ups during Comedy Central's upfront presentation on Tuesday. Colbert's project, which is set up at Jon Stewart's Busboy Productions, will be a parody of such personality-driven opinion shows as "The O'Reilly Factor" and "Hannity & Colmes." Stewart, Colbert and Ben Karlin are executive producing "Report," which is expected to bow in the third quarter, most likely following "The Daily Show" itself. As for Carolla's project, the series will feature the comedian's take on the pop culture events of the day and include live viewer phone calls and person-on-the-street segments. The untitled series is set up at Carolla's Jackhole Productions, where he along with partners Jimmy Kimmel and Daniel Kellison will executive produce. Like "Colbert," the Carolla project is expected to bow in the third quarter of this year. Meanwhile, fellow talk show newcomer "Weekends at the D.L." has a launch date. The D.L. Hughley-hosted series will kick off its Friday-Sunday, 11:00/10:00c run on July 29.
FX SUMMER ORIGINAL SERIES (FX) - The cable channel has confirmed the Morgan Spurlock-created reality series "30 Days" will premiere on Wednesday, June 15 at 10:00/9:00c. "Days" will run in said time period for six weeks, after which Steven Bochco's new drama "Over There" is expected to take over on July 27. The following month, FX is will launch its two original comedies "Starved" and "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia." It's not clear however where the network plans to schedule said projects.
MONK (USA) - The fourth season of USA's original series is set to premiere on Friday, July 8 at 10:00/9:00c. Much like the past two seasons, "Monk" is expected to split its run into two separate stints with the first nine episodes in the summer and the back seven beginning in January.
Sources: Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Reuters
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