Bravo is reportedly shedding some of their Housewives dead weight, thank god. Also today: two Buffy alums find themselves in comedy pilots, Josh Radnor is the hardest working man in showbiz, FX cancels a critically lauded show, and Skins wins.

  • Well, what we long suspected would happen has indeed happened. Bravo has canceled their much-maligned Real Housewives of D.C. disaster series after one withered season. Nobody liked or watched the show, so this is not a surprise. Well, to us anyway. Maybe it's a surprise to the horrible wraithwomen who populated the series? Obviously I'm speaking mostly of the two most hated women, Tareq and Michaele. Though, in their own mind-world that they create and operate, they've already won Oscars and are the co-presidents of the United States, so they're probably unfazed. "Oh, we'd be upset, but you know, we're doing our sold out international tour and we have so much business on the moon to tend to, so it's really OK. Really. Do you like our house? It was built by Marie Antoinette and then flown here to the Virginia wine country by a pack of white doves." They're untouchable, those crazy ladies! [Radar, so granted it might not be true]
  • So that's some good TV news, and now for some bad TV news. MTV's Skins, a show about a group of aging television executives who didn't want to admit to each other that they don't know what kids do these days so they kept on upping the ante and agreeing with everything until they'd made a show that makes no sense nor bears any resemblance to actual kids today whatsoever, had some of its highest ratings this week. The season finale episode earned 1.2 million viewers, the highest numbers the show has posted since way back in early February. So does this mean it will get picked up for a second season, thus damning us all to another year of child porn-tainted cablewaves? Well, not necessarily. But it means it has a chance, which means America's children do not. [NYT]
  • Yet another bit of cancellation-related news. FX's Lights Out has been T.K.O'd and will not return for a second season. Too bad. The critics liked this one and it had a good cast (Pablo Schreiber!) and I once knew a guy who worked on it and he was very nice. Oh well. With this and Terriers, FX has not had a good run of it lately with new shows, huh? [EW]
  • The first of several casting items is upon us. Eliza Dushku is following in the footsteps of her Buffy costar Alyson Hannigan and taking a stab at a multi-camera CBS sitcom. The Tru Calling star has signed on to act opposite Damon Wayans in a pilot about a sports radio show. Hm. Dushku isn't exactly what you think of when you think "CBS comedy," she seems more the sci-fi buttkick type, but whatever. To be fair, when you think "CBS comedy" you mostly think of an old clown getting pie after pie thrown in his face while he weeps, and no one actor really fits that bill. Well, Josh Radnor maybe. [THR] Oh and speaking of Buffy people, Anthony Stewart Head has joined the cast of the sitcom pilot Free Agents, reprising the role he played on the British version of the show. Of course he'll later be replaced by Matt LeBlanc. [THR]
  • Well here's a backhanded compliment. "Hey, Ed Harris, you've been cast in a big role in an HBO movie! As John McCain." Great, you have a lead in Game Change, a buzzed-about movie about the '08 election, and yet you're playing America's grampa who got really nasty and senile in the past few years because he realized he was dying and it made him scared and angry. A double-edged sword! A mixed blessing! A whatever this is! (I will never not laugh when I look at that crazy picture. What was going on back then, guys?) Ed Harris is an interesting choice for this role. On the one hand, I see it. On the other, I have a hard time believing that an old wispy haired lizard wasn't available to play the role. [Deadline]
  • Ah, Josh Radnor, we meet again. The HappyThankYouMorePlease writer/director/actor (and HowIMetYourMotherPlease goober) is currently in pre-production for his second directing/writing/starring effort, Liberal Arts. It's about a mid-30s guy who still yearns for college and who begins an ill-advised romance with a young college student, played by mysterious third Olsen sister Elizabeth. I tell ya, you gotta admire this guy's work ethic. Writing and putting together financing for a movie while filming a TV show then shooting the movie on the TV show's hiatus. Meanwhile, I write one TV recap and I'm spent for the week. Ur motivashun, gib it to me. [THR]
  • The other day I mentioned Téa Leoni as a good casting idea for HBO's Aaron Sorkin cable news show pilot. Well, it looks like HBO has other plans for her. They've ordered a pilot called Spring/Summer about Leoni and another woman working in the fashion industry in New York. So, OK. Good for her. But I want her on that news show, dang it! I just think it's a better choice. Does anyone else share my concern for Téa Leoni's career? [Deadline]

[Photo via Getty]