Category: Television

REUTERS and THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER confirm that actor Michael Rosenbaum is leaving the CW's SMALLVILLE after seven seasons playing Superman nemesis Lex Luthor.

He will be replaced by two new villains, but might appear as a guest on the show's upcoming eighth season.

"It is time for me to start the next chapter of my life and career," Rosenbaum said Thursday. "I hope that I gave you some enjoyment over the years and that you found my portrayal of Lex Luthor to be satisfying."

Cartoon Network is getting the Hollywood scoop with the network's newest characters Jib and Crash, two oddball puppets hunting for information on the latest movie releases.

Serving as a custom promotional opportunity for movie studio marketing partners and airing as interstitial content, Jib and Crash will do everything from interview celebrities at the set of their films to feature exclusive sneak peeks of upcoming movies.

THE SIMPSONS executive producers Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein will be the executive producers on Fox's new animated comedy SIT DOWN, SHUT UP, per VARIETY.

The duo have also secured a blind script commitment at Sony Pictures Television, which is the studio behind the show.

The hires indicate Fox is close to ordering a series pick-up, something they didn't do after a table read earlier in April.

Feature film visual effects facility CafeFX produced extensive visual effects for HBO Films' epic seven-part miniseries JOHN ADAMS, which premiered on Sunday, March 16, 2008. The work is a vivid and authentic evocation of time and place, seamlessly underlying the drama that unfolds over John Adams' lifetime.

Turner Broadcasting has commissioned a local version of popular television series HI-5. Set to air on Turner's preschool channel Cartoonito, Hi-5 will be produced by BAFTA award-winning production company Darrall Macqueen.

Forty half-hour episodes of the U.K. local version will be produced, with casting to commence next month. Also partnering on the U.K. series is free-to-air broadcaster GMTV who will begin showing the series in 2009 following Cartoonito's premier in 2008.

Playhouse Disney will premiere new episodes of hit preschool series MICKEY MOUSE CLUBHOUSE and HANDY MANNY as part of a series marathon Saturday, May 10 (6 a.m.-Noon ET/PT).

In the new episode of MICKEY MOUSE CLUBHOUSE (9 a.m. ET/PT), Clarabelle needs to collect pieces of corn for her new friends, the chickens, to eat, so Mickey and his pals organize a carnival at the Clubhouse where visitors pay with kernels of corn to play games and go on rides.

TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES has been picked up for the 2008-2009 season.

The explosive, season-ending cliffhanger left Cameron (Summer Glau) rocked by a car bomb and Sarah Connor (Lena Headey) close to locating an important Skynet component. Viewers were left with unanswered questions regarding Derek's (Brian Austin Green) true intentions and John's (Thomas Dekker) fate as the savior of mankind. These questions and more will be answered in season two of TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES.

BET has purchased the rights to Marvel superhero The Black Panther, and will turn it into a primetime animated series, per VARIETY.

The network made the announcement at their upfront presentation in New York, and also announced new reality, court and dating shows.

SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS "Pest of the West" (Friday, April 11) marked the fourth Nickelodeon telecast this year to shoot to the top of basic cable among total viewers, as well as handily ranking as number one on broadcast and cable TV among kids 2-11, 6-11 and tweens 9-14.

A total of 6.1 million viewers (P2+) tuned into the half-hour "Pest of the West" special, where everyone's favorite porous pal discovers he is related to a famous Bikini Bottom Western hero.

MTV Networks International today announced the launch of Nickelodeon Poland, the latest addition to its rapidly growing portfolio of channels in Central and Eastern Europe.

Nickelodeon Poland is a Polish language channel dedicated exclusively to kids and joins the other MTVNI channel brands currently available in Poland -- MTV, VIVA, VH1 and Comedy Central, which was the first local Comedy Central service to launch outside of the US.

KidsCo, the joint venture channel owned by NBC Universal, DIC Entertainment and Corus Entertainment is offering a video-on-demand service in South Korea.

The new VOD service is a first for the channel and is the result of a major agreement between KidsCo and South Korean operator, hanaTV, the leading IPTV company in the territory.

The agreement sees leading KidsCo programming including BABAR, MADELINE, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG, CYBERCHASE, FRANKLIN and ROLIE POLIE OLIE available on demand in the region.