Got a scoop request? An anonymous tip you’re dying to share? Send any/all of the above to askausiello@tvline.com
Question: The new Walking Dead trailer looks crazy good, but it was decidedly Governor-lite. How big a presence will David Morrissey have in Season 4? —Cris
Ausiello: Well, I can tell you that he’ll have a major presence in at least two Season 4 episodes, both of which are being unofficially billed as “standalone Governor” installments. No specific intel on when those episodes will air, but I hear they’ll likely fall in the first chunk of eight (premiering Sunday, Oct. 13).
VIDEO: Walking Dead‘s Andrew Lincoln Talks Romance Between Rick/Michonne
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Question: After watching your awesome Comic-Con interview with the cast and producers of How I Met Your Mother, I’m much more encouraged about this season’s “wedding weekend” structure. Any news on special guest stars? —Christopher
Ausiello: There’s a very good chance the Sept. 23 premiere will feature a Game of Thrones crossover. Of sorts. “We haven’t locked the cut yet, but there is a Game of Thrones reference in the season premiere that I hope stays in,” reveals exec producer Craig Thomas. “We reveal that in the same way that Barney is a big fan of Billy Zabka in The Karate Kid, Barney may or may not be a big fan of King Joffrey.”
Question: I missed Stephen “Little Birdie” Nathan at the Con this year! Did you at least get scoop from his Bones partner in crime, Hart Hanson? —Amelia
Ausiello: I did! Hanson — who dropped by TVLine’s interview suite (see video, below) — elaborated on the ex-priest character being introduced at the start of Season 9, describing him as Booth’s “ex-confessor when he was a sniper in the Rangers.” The new guy, whose name is Aldo Coulter, resurfaces because, as Hanson pointed out, “We left Booth with a terrible secret that he can’t tell anyone, which is that Pelant is not letting him marry Brennan. And that, in effect, is a lie for a Catholic like Booth every time he’s talking to Brennan. So he finds himself seeking out his old spiritual advisor, who now runs a bar, to talk things out. They have a very close relationship. As Coulter points out to Brennan in the premiere, he knows Booth better than she does.”
VIDEO | David Boreanaz Promises a Radically Different Booth in Season 9
Question: So, the Bones crew made a really big announcement at their Comic-Con panel: Booth and Brennan are getting married! Do you have any idea when the wedding will be taking place during Season 9? —Maria
Ausiello: I tried mightily to get an answer out of Hanson, but he wouldn’t budge. “I’m not telling you when,” he protested, before adding with a laugh, “That’s my one shred of self dignity.” I did succeed in getting HH to cough up an extremely vague detail about the type of wedding they will have, as well as an update on the possibility of a 10th season. Oh, and the show’s dreaded move to Friday night? Not necessarily happening! Press PLAY below for the complete Q&A.
Question: I was just wondering how Maggie Lawson’s role in ABC’s new comedy Back in the Game will affect her status on the new season of Psych? —Jackie
Ausiello: As James Roday maintained to me at Comic-Con, there will be a “strong Juliet presence in Season 8, no question,” despite Lawson’s new extracurricular activity. Added exec producer Steve Franks: “We found a fun way to make it work… She’s in a good chunk of the episodes. It certainly creates interesting challenges, but I think we worked our way through it.”
Question: Any Parenthood scoop on Ryan and Amber? —Kelly
Ausiello: They’ll be scouting wedding locations early in the season, so it seems like they’re pretty serious about this marriage thing.
Question: Since Comic-Con ended, that means you’ve gotta have some scoop on the best summer show ever, Under the Dome. Is it coming back for a second season? —Phillip
Ausiello: Yes. Although nothing’s official, rest assured there will be a second season of Under the Dome. The only question is whether CBS will hold it until next summer or bring it back in-season (i.e. next spring). In the meantime, in case you missed it, Rachelle Lefevre lightly spoiled the Season 1 finale, telling me at Con, “The last five minutes will contain a very, very large moment of whether or not [Barbie and Julia] have come far enough in our relationship to help one other out of a very difficult situation.”
VIDEO | Under the Dome Cast Plots [Spoiler]’s Grisly Demise
Question: OK, there’s only two episodes left of The Killing‘s third season. Can you tell us if the killer is Becker, Henderson, Reddick or somebody totally out of left field? (It’s Becker, right?) —Murray
Ausiello: Oh, Murray, spilling the identity of the culprit in a serialized crime drama breaks Rule No. 2,714 of The Spoiler Code. But I can give you three clues about Sunday’s very intense “Six Minutes.” 1) All the action takes place inside the prison where Seward is awaiting his death sentence. 2) Holder shows up with a case of beer in his car. 3) The pas de deux between Linden and Seward covers almost every color in the gamut of human emotions. (Yes, have your Kleenex handy.)
Question: I need something on The Fosters, like, now. Obsessed. —Vona
Ausiello: The Aug. 5 finale features resolution for a number of “love triangles and love squares,” teases co-star Maia Mitchell, who adds, “There’s [also] a huge cliffhanger to do with my character. Something pretty big happens. And something big happens between Lena and Stef, too.”
Question: Is there any chance Covert Affairs will bring back Eyal this season? I just love his character so much. —Ashley
Ausiello: There’s a rock-solid chance, actually. Exec producer Matt Corman tells TVLine, “It’s safe to say [Oded Fehr’s spy] will return, it’s just a question as to when. And we want that to kind of be a secret.”
Question: Grey’s Anatomy started production on Season 10 last week, so I’m guessing you have some scoop for us, right? —Danielle
Ausiello: Can’t get anything past you, Dani. Noted extraterrestrial magnet Veronica Cartwright (Alien, The X-Files, Invasion) will appear in Grey’s Anatomy‘s two-hour season premiere on Sept. 26 as… beats the bejesus out of me. But she joins a guest star roster that also includes Bobby Campo (aka Max on Syfy’s Being Human) and Heather Hemmens (Hellcats).
Question: I know it’s super early, but is there anything you can tell me about the next season of Mad Men? I really want Peggy and Don to come to some kind of understanding. – Hayley
Ausiello: And I really want Megan to take a gig in a Siberian summerstock production of Waiting for Godot 2: Waiting… and Waiting… and Waiting…, but we can’t always get what we want. After all, as Elisabeth Moss tells TVLine, the end-of-the-season scene where Peggy calls her mentor a “monster” was pretty tough. “We’ve had so many arguments, Peggy and Don. We’ve been through a lot. There’s been a lot of ups and downs,” Moss says. “But that moment, to me, was her lowest with him. Whatever they’ve been through, this thing really broke her heart. She really sees him for who he is in that moment and really is incredibly disillusioned for the first time.” Which means Don probably isn’t getting a World’s Best Boss mug when the series returns for Season 7.
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Question: Mad Men! Anything! Give it to me! – Derek
Ausiello: How about this? Emmy nominee Linda Cardellini was as surprised as you were about the way Bob Benson’s storyline played out. “I wouldn’t let [show creator and executive producer] Matt Weiner show me the [last two episodes] or tell me about [them],” Cardellini tells TVLine. “He invited me to the read-throughs, and I said, ‘No, I don’t want to know what happens.'” So… what did she think? “The amazing thing about it is, it all makes sense, but it was never in a million years what I would have predicted. And I thought James [Wolk] as Bob Benson – he was so great, because he did nothing but be affable and nice,” she says, laughing. “And nobody trusted him!”
Question: How about some Pretty Little Liars scoop on Jake and Aria? —Jasmine
Ausiello: Jake “rides back into Rosewood” in next week’s episode, confirms exec producer Oliver Goldstick, “and their romance heats up by the latter half of the season.” He adds that the Ezra/Aria/Jake imbroglio is “a real triangle by the finale. There will be a turn of events in Ezra’s life, too, that may change his relationship with Aria. We’re editing the penultimate episode right now, which I wrote, and in it you’ll get to see Ryan Guzman show his fancy dance moves. We have a great Footloose/Urban Cowboy episode where he gets to let loose. You’ll see why Aria’s drawn in that direction.”
Question: On The Newsroom, will we be seeing any follow-up to the site hacking/death-threats-against-Will storyline from last season? My guess is the loss of the board from last week is connected to it, but there’s a distinct lack of Terry Crews… so will we learn why? —Tom Charles
Ausiello: Possibly, but not in the next two episodes. The question you should be asking, though, is: Why should I care about Neal’s silly Occupy Wall Street storyline? And the answer to that one is: It ties in (in a surprising way) to this season’s overarching “Operation Genoa” storyline.
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Question: How much time will have passed when Orphan Black‘s second season starts? —Geoffrey
Ausiello: Not much. “We pick up very quickly from where we left off at the end of Season 1,” exec producer John Fawcett tells TVLine. “Kira has been taken. It’s very difficult to not go, ‘OK, what do we do next? Kira’s gone!’ The presumption is we have to begin right there.” Adds fellow EP Graeme Manson: “There’s no ‘Two Years Later’ and Sarah’s living a bucolic life on a farm.”
That’s a wrap! Please send questions, comments, and anonymous tips to askausiello@tvline.com. (Additional reporting by Vlada Gelman and Kim Roots)
