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By Rachel Bennett
Television Editor & Columnist
Every Friday, Rachel recaps the week’s major TV-related news, announcements, and gossip!
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• The ratings for NBC’s closing ceremony at the London Olympics were up 32 percent over the Beijing Games in the coveted 18- to 49-year-old demographic.
• Following the summer Olympics, gold medalists Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte have found futures in TV: Phelps will join Golf Channel’s The Haney Project for its fifth season, and Lochte will make a cameo on The CW’s 90210.
• It has been determined that the most-watched program of the summer was NBC’s America’s Got Talent.
• After seven seasons, TNT’s The Closer attracted 9.1 million viewers for its series finale. It’s the best ratings the series has had all summer.
• HBO has ordered Family Tree, a mockumentary-style family series from Christopher Guest (Best in Show), the king of that genre. It will star Chris O’Dowd (Bridesmaids).
• AMC has renewed The Pitch for a second season and picked up two new series, as well.
• CNN anchor and chief political correspondent Candy Crowley has been selected as moderator of the second 2012 general election presidential debate. She will be the first woman in two decades to hold the esteemed position.
• After four years on NBC’s Saturday Night Live, Abby Elliott will not be returning in the fall. Elliott’s exit follows the recent departures of Kristen Wiig and Andy Samberg.
• Kristin Chenoweth (The West Wing) is leaving The Good Wife after being injured on the set of the legal drama. She was originally slated to appear in multiple episodes as a political reporter but will only be in the season four premiere.
• NBC’s Smash is staging a reunion: Emmy winner Sean Hayes will join the show’s second season for multiple episodes as a comedic film and TV star, and will presumably share some scenes with his former Will & Grace co-star Debra Messing.
• Michael J. Fox, who received best guest actor in a drama series Emmy nods last year and again this year for his work on CBS’s The Good Wife, is returning to TV — in a starring role. Not much is known about the project other than that he will be working with director Will Gluck (Easy A) and writer Sam Laybourne (ABC’s Cougar Town, Fox’s Arrested Development).
• Kathryn Erbe (NBC’s Law & Order: Criminal Intent) will reprise her role of detective Alexandra Eames in a guest stint on Law & Order: SVU. She is scheduled for one episode but is likely to return for more later in the show’s 14th season.
• Bob Odenkirk (AMC’s Breaking Bad) will return to How I Met Your Mother as Arthur Hobbs for the second episode of season eight. He was last seen as Marshall’s boss at Goliath National Bank in season six.
• New haircut, new job: Former Disney star Miley Cyrus will guest star on CBS’s Two and a Half Men as a love interest for Jake (Angus T. Jones).
• Three-time Emmy winner Tony Shalhoub (USA’s Monk) has signed on for an untitled CBS comedy, which was originally going to be titled Ex-Men. He will co-star alongside Kal Penn (CBS’s How I Met Your Mother) as a divorcé.
• John Slattery, the four-time Emmy nominee for AMC’s Mad Men, will appear in new episodes of Netflix’s Arrested Development.
• Bridesmaids‘ star Wendi McLendon-Covey will visit ABC’s Modern Family this fall. She will play a lesbian mother whose child fights with Lily (Aubrey Anderson-Emmons) on the first day of school.
• Rachel Dratch will guest star on an episode of NBC’s Up All Night, reuniting with her former Saturday Night Live co-star Maya Rudolph as a fan of the Ava show.
• Lucy Lawless (Xena: Warrior Princess) will be visiting Pawnee as a new love interest for Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) on NBC’s Parks and Recreation. She will guest star in at least two episodes beginning Oct. 4.
• AMC’s drama pilot Low Winter Sun has added Lennie James (CBS’s Jericho). James, who was also seen in the pilot of AMC’s The Walking Dead, will star alongside Mark Strong (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy).
• Castle and Beckett’s new romance may not go untested for too long: Jodi Lyn O’Keefe (Fox’s Prison Break) will guest star on ABC’s Castle in the second episode of the upcoming fifth season. She will play a WHNY entertainment reporter who shows a romantic interest in Castle.
• HBO has released out the trailer for the third season of PBS’s Downton Abbey, featuring the first glimpse of Oscar winner Shirley MacLaine as a member of the ensemble.
• A trailer for the third season of HBO’s Boardwalk Empire has been released and offers the first look at the newest member of the cast: 2012 outstanding guest actor in a comedy series Emmy nominee Bobby Cannavale (Nurse Jackie).
• Fox’s Glee co-creator Ryan Murphy tweeted a link to the first trailer for season four. The popular musical-comedy series returns Sept. 13.
• In case you haven’t gotten enough of Carly Rae Jepsen‘s “Call Me Maybe,” Glee will be covering it this season.
• The first trailer for season seven of Showtime’s Dexter has debuted.
• Oscar winner Jodie Foster (The Silence of the Lambs) will executive produce and direct the drama series Angie’s Body for Showtime. The project, written by Rob Fresco (Heroes), follows a woman who operates a family-based crime organization.
• Writer and producer Dahvi Waller (Mad Men) has secured a put pilot commitment from CBS for her series Guinea Pigs. The drama follows doctors who administer risky clinical trials at a Philadelphia hospital.
• Creator Jason Katims (NBC’s Parenthood) has gotten a put pilot commitment from Fox. His new project, which he will executive produce, is being described as “an edgy, twisted romantic dramedy set in a Chicago law firm.”
• NBC has ordered a put pilot commitment for Cleopatra, a drama about the legendary Egyptian queen. The pilot will be penned by Michael Seitzman (North Country).
• Thomas Gibson, of CBS’s Criminal Minds, will direct an episode of the drama’s upcoming eighth season. This will be his first time directing for the show.
• A&E has canceled Gene Simmons Family Jewels after seven seasons.
• A video compilation of Bravo’s Inside the Actor’s Studio shows that many of your favorite actors have more in common than just their profession.