LOS ANGELES (thefutoncritic.com) -- The latest development news, culled from recent wire reports:
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CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION (CBS) - Executive producer Naren Shankar is reportedly stepping down as co-showrunner of the veteran drama. His departure, reportedly to focus on the development portion of his overall deal with CBS Television Studios, will leave Carol Mendelsohn as the sole showrunner. Ann Donahue, Anthony E. Zuiker, Cynthia Chvatal, Jerry Bruckheimer, Jonathan Littman, Kenneth Fink and William Petersen also serve as executive producers on the series.
HELLCATS (The CW) - Ben Browder ("Stargate SG-1") has joined the cast of the presentation, a drama set in the world of competitive college cheerleading. He'll reportedly play Red Irvine, Lancer University's football coach, "a handsome rogue who never lost the boyishness of youth." He and the Hellcats coach Vanessa Hodge (Sharon Leal) share a history - they had an affair while he, then married at the time, was an assistant coach and she was cheer captain - and now he wants payback (she dumped him after he left his wife without telling her) in the form of getting her fired after one of the Hellcats (Heather Hemmens) gets hurt. Aly Michalka, Ashley Tisdale, Elena Esovolova, Gail O'Grady, Matt Barr and Robbie Jones also star. Allan Arkush is directing the CBS Television Studios/Warner Bros. Television-based project from a script by Kevin Murphy.
SEX AND THE CITY (HBO) - Comcast Entertainment Group has snagged the repeat rights to the former pay channel mainstay. The pact, financial details of which weren't released, gives Comcast siblings E! and Style access to all 94 episodes of the series beginning in January. The pair will take over for TBS, the show's off-cable home since 2004.
SOUTHERN DISCOMFORT (ABC) - "One Tree Hill" co-star Sophia Bush has joined the cast of the comedy pilot, about two grown, liberal kids who return home to live with their opinionated, conservative father (Don Johnson). She'll play Haley Dobson, the youngest of the aforementioned kids, in the ABC Studios/Sony Pictures Television-based half-hour, which also stars Mary Steenburgen as her mom and Steve Talley as her brother. Bush's casting is in second position to the CW soap. Andy Cadiff is directing the multi-camera effort from a script by Chad Kultgen.
Sources: Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Reuters
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