American TV Series

Glee is an American musical comedy/drama series which follows the efforts of a high-school glee club called New Directions! The club is formed by the school Spanish teacher, Will Schuester, as a way to recapture his glory days in glee club. He faces opposition from the school cheerleading coach, Sue Sylvester, egos within the glee club, and he becomes torn between his wife Terri and Emma, the school guidance counselor.

Series Synopsis

Glee is set in the fictional William McKinley High School in Lima, Ohio.

Cast and Characters

Glee features an ensemble cast of 12 regular roles and a number of recurring supporting cast.

American Idol 2010 is the ninth season of American Idol, the long-running talent show. The series launched in the USA on 12th January 2010, with the early auditions stages.

Regional auditions for the show were held between June and July 2009, and the callback round was held between 5th August and 4th September 2009. During the callback phase, a series of celebrity judges joined the panel. Long-time Idol host Ryan Seacrest was in attendance during the auditions stages and returns to present the series this year.

Live shows with the Top 24 contestants began on Tuesday 23 February 2010.

FlashForward is a 2009 television series based on the novel of the same name by Robert J. Sawyer. The story centres around a mysterious global event which causes everybody on Earth to black out for two minutes and 17 seconds, during which they see visions of themselves six months in the future.

The series was picked up by ABC in May 2009 for an initial run of 13 episodes. The pilot episode was directed and written by David S. Goyer.

Plot

The series is set in Los Angeles and follows the FBI investigator Mark Benford (Joseph Fiennes) and his family, colleagues and friends as they try to come to terms with their visions while trying to find out the meaning and cause of the global event.

Cougar Town is a 2009 sitcom created by Scrubs mastermind Bill Lawrence and starring Friends actress Courtney Cox. Cox plays Jules Cobb, a recently-divorced 40 year old and mother of one who is struggling to come to terms with single life.

The phrase "Cougar" in the context of the title means a "hot older woman".

The first episode of the series aired on ABC on 23 September 2009.

Plot

Jules Cobb is a real estate agent and freshly divorced. Her colleague, Laurie, encourages her to get back in the dating game, while her friend and neighbour Ellie feels like their relationship is suffering because Jules has a different lifestyle now.

Jules's son, Travis, is generally supportive of his mother, but sometimes her dating exploits cause him embarrassment.

The Vampire Diaries is a television adaptation of the novels by L.J. Smith. The plot of the series revolves around a teenage girl, Elena Gilbert, and two feuding vampire brothers, Stefan and Damon Salvatore.

After being orphaned when their parents are killed in a car accident four months earlier, Elena Gilbert and her brother Jeremy are living with their young aunt. While Elena internalises her grief, her brother turns to drink and drugs to help him cope.

The series is set in the fictional town of Mystic Falls, which is a departure from the Vampire Diaries novels. The producers were unable to get clearance to use the original name, Fell's Church, resulting in the change to Mystic Falls.

The programme is created by Scream creator, Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec, who also serve as the programme's executive producer and co-executive producer respectively.

Firefly is an American science fiction series that follows the adventures of Captain Malcolm Reynolds and the crew and passengers of the Serenity, a firefly-class starship that undertakes any task that helps make captain and crew enough money to scrape by. Their various dealings bring the inhabitants of Serenity into contact with a number of crooked characters and difficult situations.

The series was created by Joss Whedon for FOX and he also took on the role of Executive Producer alongside Tim Minear. It premiered in the USA and Canada on 20 September 2002, but was cancelled after eleven of the fourteen episodes had aired.

The failure of the show was blamed on both the low audience share and the fact that FOX ran a number of episodes out of sequence, including scrapping the original pilot and running it as the season finale instead.

Dollhouse is a science fiction drama series created by Buffy The Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon. The series centers around an exclusive agency where humans with custom-programmed personalities are hired out. These 'dolls' or 'Actives' as they are known have their memories wiped after each assignment and remain in a peaceful state until they are activated for their next assignment.

The series premiered on 13 February 2009 on Fox. It stars Eliza Dushku as Echo, the most requested of the dolls.

The eighth season of American Idol launched on 13 January 2009. In this season, the original three judges - Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson - are joined by songwriter Kara DioGuardi. Ryan Seacrest returns as presenter for the series.

Among the changes to the show's format, there are to be fewer 'funny' auditions in season 8, and more focus on the auditionees. The show is to spend more time focussing on the contestants' histories and viewers will learn more about them.

Ken Warwick takes over from Nigel Lythgoe as Executive Producer of American Idol. Lythgoe, who has been with American Idol since the beginning, is moving on to So You Think You Can Dance and Superstars Of Dance.

The charity show, Idol Gives Back, is cancelled this year due to the economic downturn.

American Idol is a long-running reality TV talent competition that runs annually auditioning singers to become the country's next big recording artist. The entire process is televised, and after the initial auditions, the public are able to vote on the contestants' performances, leading to the elimination of the least popular acts. The show was created by British entertainment executive Simon Fuller.

Hosts

In the first season, the show was presented by Ryan Seacrest and Brian Dunkleman. From the second season on, Seacrest returned as the sole host.

Judging Panel

From 2002 to 2008, the judging panel consisted of record producer and musician, Randy Jackson, singer and choreographer Paula Abdul and British music executive and manager Simon Cowell. For the eighth season, a fourth judge was added, songwriter and producer Kara DioGuardi.

Heroes is an American science fiction drama series, created by Tim Kring. The first season of Heroes premiered on NBC on 25 September 2006 and is currently in its third season.

Heroes focuses on the lives of a diverse collection of humans who discover they have special powers and abilities. The series is produced in a comic-book style, as mirrored by the existence of a comic called 9th Wonders, produced by a character in the show who has the ability to predict the future through his drawings. The stories in the 9th Wonders comics often foretell events that the characters will encounter.

The first season ran for a full 23 episodes to great critical acclaim. The second season of Heroes was cut short due to the Writers Guild of America's 100 day strike and only 11 episodes were made.

The third season of Heroes began airing in September 2008 and is split into two 'volumes': Villains and Fugitives.