Wednesday, September 25, 2013

TV News - ABC Renews 'Mistresses' for Season 2; Bryan Cranston to Return to 'How I Met Your Mother'; Plus 6 More Updates!

Oz vet joins ABC straight-to-order drama.

Rumer Willis makes first series regular commitment.

James Gandolfino's Criminal Justice successor is named.

Plus additional updates for ABC Family's Young & Hungry (pilot); CBS' The Crazy Ones; and FOX's Us & Them.

Hannah Montana vet Emily Osment has landed the lead role on the ABC Family comedy pilot Young & Hungry. She will play Gabi, a feisty young blogger hired as the personal chef to a young San Francisco tech entrepreneur. Not the typical polished chef, Gabi is blunt and klutzy and has an outrageous sense of style. But not only does she have a true gift for cooking, she has the ability to figure out what people want to eat.

Rumer Willis (90210, Pretty Little Liars) will co-star on the E! drama pilot Songbyrd starring Bethany Joy Lenz. She will play Mickey, Lauren's (Lenz) sister, a smart, somewhat introverted young woman who is trying to figure out what's next in her life after an "episode" forced her to drop out of law school. She now works for her sister, helping her keep her life together as she secretly works on her own singing and songwriting.

Barry Shabaka Henley (FlashForward) will guest star on an upcoming episode of CBS' The Crazy Ones. He will play a used-car-lot owner who is one of Simon's (Robin Williams) first clients.

Jim Gaffigan (My Boys) will appear on FOX's midseason comedy Us & Them. He will play a neighbor of Pam (Jane Kaczmarek) and Michael's (Kurt Fuller) who is harboring a dark secret.

Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston will reprise his role on the final season of CBS' How I Met Your Mother. He plays Hammond Druthers, Ted's (Josh Radnor) former boss. He last appeared in the second season of the sitcom.

HBO has decided to move forward with its seven hour miniseries Criminal Justice. The series originally starred Sopranos star James Gandolfini but was put on hold after the star's untimely death in June. Oscar winner Robert De Niro will now step into the leading role. The cast also includes Riz Ahmed, Bill Camp, Payman Maadi and Poorna Jagannathan. Production is eyed to start in March 2014.

Oz star Terry Kinney has joined the cast of ABC's upcoming drama series The Black Box starring Kelly Reilly and Vanessa Redgrave. He will play Dr. Owen Morely, the medical director at the hospital and Elizabeth's (Reilly) former teacher/mentor.

ABC has renewed its summer drama series Mistresses for a second season to debut in summer 2014.