More TV renewals and pick-ups for you today.  This round is brought to you by The CW.  Here are the headlines:

• Renewals:  Nikita, starring Maggie Q, will be around for a third season with an unspecified number of episodes.  The Rachel Bilson-starrer Hart of Dixie will see 22 episodes in its second season.  Gossip Girl has been renewed for a sixth-season, which may be its last.
• Pick-Ups:  The Green Arrow-centric series, Arrow; the Sex and the City prequel, The Carrie Diaries and the reboot of the 1980s series, Beauty and the Beast have all been picked up by the network.  Medical drama, First Cut, starring Mamie Gummer and mystery series, Cult, are other new additions.
• Cancellations:  Freshman series Ringer, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar and the bewitched The Secret Circle have been dropped.

Hit the jump for more.

WonderCon 2012 has announced its programming schedule and attendees are in for some good stuff.  In addition to the wide variety of panels devoted to comic artists and writers, beloved genre figures, and career tips, there are some exciting movie and TV presentations lined up.  On the film side, there will be presentations for Resident Evil: Retribution (along with other Screen Gems films) Sound of My Voice (very cool that a Sundance indie flick is making an appearance), Battleship, Snow White and the Huntsman, Lockout, plus surprise presentations for upcoming films from 20th Century Fox (if there’s a sneak peek of Prometheus, the price of your WonderCon pass was worth it).

On the TV side, there will be presentations for Community, Fringe, Alcatraz, Person of Interest, The Secret Circle, Once Upon a Time, and more.  WonderCon, you had me at “Community”.  Hit the jump for the dates and times of the convention’s major highlights.  WonderCon 2012 will be at the Anaheim Convention Center and runs from March 16 – 18th.

WonderCon (Comic-Con’s little brother, if you will) moves from San Francisco to Anaheim this year, and a few of the first panels have now been announced. Warner Bros. Television will be hosting panels for Fox’s Alcatraz and Fringe, as well as the special Cartoon Network programming block DC Nation. Stars Sarah Jones, Jorge Garcia, Jonny Coyne and Parminder Nagra are poised to appear on the Alcatraz panel alongside executive producers Jennifer Johnson, Daniel Pyne, and Jack Bender. From Fringe, John Nobel, Seth Gabel and executive producers J.H. Wyman and Jeff Pinkner will take part in the panel.

The DC Nation panel will include talent from DC Nation: Young Justice and Green Lantern: The Animated Series. Additionally, the studio will host exclusive screenings for The Secret Circle and Person of Interest. I attended my first WonderCon last year and was pleasantly surprised by the experience. It’ll be interesting to see what talent shows up this year, as the convention is being held much closer to the bigger studios. Hit the jump to read the full Warner Bros. Television press release, which includes details on the panels and signings. Expect more WonderCon 2012 info in the coming weeks as more panels are announced. WonderCon will run from March 16 – March 18th.

On the popular CW drama The Secret Circle, actor Gale Harold plays Charles Meade, a powerful lawyer who lives in the small town of Chance Harbor, Washington. His daughter is the sweet-natured teenager Diana (Shelley Hennig), who happens to be a witch, just like her mysterious and often sinister father.

During an interview to promote the mid-season finale on November 10^th (the show will return on January 5, 2012), Gale Harold talked about the appeal of this role, the appearance of Charles’ mother on the show (played by Stepfanie Kramer), the continued power-play between Charles and Dawn (Natasha Henstridge), and how his character would like to be in charge of his own actions and decisions. He also talked about how he would love to try a comedy role, at some point. Check out what he had to say after the jump:

Continuing to make themselves the dominant force in streaming etnertainment to users, Netflix, Warner Bros. Television Group and CBS Corporation have just signed a four-year deal that will bring all prior seasons of The CW’s current scripted series and future shows to Netflix. That means all previous programming, and anything between now and the 2014-2015 season will be made available to watch instantly by Netflix users. The deal includes all drama series on the network’s 2011 schedule like Ringer, Hart of Dixie, The Secret Circle, The Vampire Diaries, Gossip Girl, 90210, Supernatrual, Nikita and One Tree Hill.

All the previous season of The Vampire Diaries, Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill and Nikita will be available on October 15th while episodes of Supernatural and 90210 won’t arrive until January 2012. As for all the episodes airing on The CW this season, they will be made available in the fall of 2012, before the next season starts. However, any new series that appear on The CW after this point, will be made available through a commensurate window during that current season. Good news for anyone who likes them some programming from The CW and those who are eager to see Netflix continue to dominate the online entertainment market. Read the entire press release after the jump.

It sounds like Sarah Michelle Gellar’s return to the network that made her a star with Buffy the Vampire Slayer has paid off with The CW announcing that a full season for three of their new drama series including Ringer as well as Kevin Williamson’s Secret Circle and Josh Schwartz’s Hart of Dixie starring Rachel Bilson. Honestly, I’m surprised that The CW is ordering full seasons for all of these new shows, but apparently they’ve all sat well on the ratings and seem to be hitting all the right demographics to stay alive. Personally, none of the shows tickled my fancy to add to my line-up every week, but surely fans will be happy to hear about the networks faith in each of these new series. Hit the jump to read the full press release.

In the CW’s new supernatural drama The Secret Circle, from executive producer Kevin Williamson and paired with The Vampire Diaries starting on September 15^th, actor Thomas Dekker plays Adam Conant, a member of the Circle. All descended from powerful witches, the Circle is completed when Cassie Blake (Britt Robertson) returns to Chance Harbor, Washington, after the death of her mother. As strange and frightening things begin to happen, Cassie quickly realizes that the residents seem to know more about her than she does about herself.

During a recent interview to promote The Secret Circle, Thomas Dekker (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) talked about his affinity for genre work, how nice it is to finally play a character that has some powers of his own, what he enjoys about the show’s love triangle, the pranks he loves to pull on set, and how he’d love to see his character turn evil, for however brief an amount of time. Check out what he had to say after the jump:

The CW supernatural drama The Vampire Diaries is one of those rare shows that just keeps getting stronger in its storytelling, making its Season 3 return on September 15^th highly anticipated for its devoted fan base. After Klaus (Joseph Morgan) proved himself to be the most powerful vampire in existence at the end of Season 2, wreaking havoc on Mystic Falls, this season will explore Klaus’ motives for wanting Stefan (Paul Wesley) on his side, the growing bond between Stefan’s love Elena (Nina Dobrev) and his brother Damon (Ian Somerhalder), and Jeremy’s (Steven R. McQueen) new ability to see the ghosts of his past loves. And, making things even better, the popular series will now be teamed up with The Secret Circle, which is also adapted from books by L.J. Smith and executive produced by Kevin Williamson.

During a recent interview, in which he discussed both series and the differences between their mythologies, Williamson talked about how the first half of the season of The Vampire Diaries will explore the Original Family, that viewers will learn why Jeremy is seeing ghosts, that Bonnie (Katerina Graham) will play a pivotal role in the story, and how, if you focus on telling an emotional story, the twists and turns present themselves. He also talked about how The Secret Circle will be more of a multi-generational story, with its own intriguing love triangle and balance of power. Check out what he had to say after the jump:

In the CW’s new supernatural drama The Secret Circle, from executive producer Kevin Williamson, Cassie Blake (Britt Robertson) moves in with her grandmother, after a tragic accidental fire kills her mother. But, in the beautiful small town of Chance Harbor, Washington – that her mother left so many years before – the residents seem to know more about Cassie than she does about herself. As Cassie gets to know her high school classmates, and strange and frightening things begin to happen, she soon learns that they are all descended from powerful witches, and they’ve been waiting for Cassie to join them and complete a new generation of the Secret Circle.

During a recent interview to promote the series, which premieres on September 15^th as a companion to The Vampire Diaries, actress Britt Robertson talked about how quickly this role came about for her, how new she is to the supernatural genre and the world of witchcraft, the challenge of working with green screen and CGI, that she’s looking forward to the moment when her character truly embraces her power, and that she would not know what to do with such power, if she personally learned that she was able to do magic. Check out what she had to say after the jump:

CW’s newest supernatural series, The Secret Circle, had a fun-filled pilot screening Saturday night in Room 6BCF. Despite a line that wrapped out of the building and by some nether-region of the San Diego Convention Center, I was shuffled through the doors in time to sit down and immediately soak the screening in. I’ll be upfront now, though: CW shows usually aren’t my thing. However, by the amount of catcalls and swoons, I can see that they have clearly worked out a niche market and aren’t going to stop in the near future. Following the pilot screening, we were treated to an all-too-brief Q&A with the stars and crew. Hit the jump for my thoughts on the pilot and a recap of the panel.

The Saturday schedule for Comic-Con has been released, and it looks to be a very big day for TV fans. However, Hall H will be having a fairly light day, with the highest profile panels being Universal’s Snow White and the Huntsman and Tarsem Singh’s Immortals. Other films taking up shop in Hall H on Saturday include Francis Ford Coppola’s Twixt, the comedy-fantasy Knights of Badassdom, the animated film Dorothy of Oz, and wrapping things up will be “An Early Evening with Kevin Smith.”

TV highlights include Chuck, Terra Nova, Being Human, Futurama, The Simpsons, Community, Family Guy, American Dad, Adventure Time, Once Upon a Time, The Vampire Diaries, The Last Airbender: The Legend of Korra, Grimm (includes pilot screening), Fringe, Charlie’s Angels, The Secret Circle, Alcatraz (includes pilot screening), Teen Wolf, Nikita, Good Vibes, Person of Interest (includes pilot screening), and Mythbusters. The day also includes comic panels with Joss Whedon and Robert Kirkman. Hit the jump for a list of schedule highlights for movies and TV.

Warner Bros. has just announced which of their television series will be making appearances at Comic-Con this year. This list of shows that will have panels includes: Fringe, The Big Bang Theory, Chuck, Nikita, Supernatural, The Vampire Diaries, Children’s Hospital, Alcatraz, Person of Interest, The Secret Circle, Green Lantern: The Animated Series, The Looney Tunes Show, MAD, Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated, ThunderCats and Young Justice.

Hit the jump to read the full press release, which includes the talent that will be appearing on each panel as well as locations and times. We’ll have many more Comic-Con 2011 announcements for you in the coming weeks, leading up to our full coverage of the convention beginning July 2oth.

We’ve already been given a closer look at the new series hitting The CW later this year along with the complete weekly schedule of all the series, old and new, airing this fall. Now the network has announced their official premiere dates for all their new and returning series for the 2011-2012 season. The new season of 90210 kicks off with a move to Tuesday nights on September 13th at 8/7c followed by the series premiere of Ringer starring Sarah Michelle Gellar at 9/8c. Wednesday marks reality competition night with H8R debuting on September 14th at 8/7c followed by a new season of America’s Next Top Model at 9/8c. Then Thursday, September 15th sees and old favorite and a new series taking off with The Vampire Diaries back at 8/7c followed by the series premiere of The Secret Circle at 9/8c.

Then the next week will have Nikita moving to a new night and timeslot on Friday, September 23rd at 8/7c along with the return of the fan favorite Supernatural at 9/8c. Finally, the following week will mark the return of Gossip Girl to its old timesplot on Monday, September 26th at 8/7c with the series premiere of Hart of Dixie coming afterwards at 9/8c. You can find the full press release after the jump along with a rundown of the premiere schedule. And if you need more information on any of the new series, be sure to check out our previous post from The CW’s upfronts presentation back in May.

We’ve already heard about the scripted series pick-ups on The CW, but today the network has released their full schedule and the official series synopses for all the brand new series. Below you can find details on the drama/thriller series Ringer which will mark Sarah Michelle Gellar’s return to television, Vampire Diaries-companion The Secret Circle, medical drama Hart of Dixie, the Mario Lopez-hosted reality series H8R, another modeling reality show called Re-Modeled and a game show called The Frame.

Details, the first images from the new series, and the full 2011-2012 schedule can all be found after the jump.

With upfronts in full swing, The CW has announced several bits of information regarding its Fall 2011 slate. First up, the good news (for the series’ involved, at least): Nikita and One Tree Hill (which will most likely outlive all of us) have both been renewed for their second and ninth seasons respectively. On the other side of things, InsideTV is also reporting that cheerleading drama Hellcats will not return for its second season.

In addition to its renewals and cancellations, The CW has also announced a number of new shows set to premiere later this year. Most notably of these is the drama/thriller series Ringer which will mark Sarah Michelle Gellar’s return to television. Ringer ends up at The CW after being passed on by its parent network CBS who claimed that the pilot didn’t align with its brand (which, for me at least, is an indication that the show may actually be worth checking out). In addition to Ringer, the network also added Vampire Diaries-companion The Secret Circle, medical drama Hart of Dixie, and the Mario Lopez-hosted reality series H8R (which may take my own personal award for “Worst Idea I’ve Ever Heard”). Hit the jump to check out official synopses for each of these new shows.