If you’re enjoying all the twists and turns on The Following, you’ll appreciate this bit of news. FOX renewed the freshman hit for a second season. The show started off strong and has held it’s audience week after week. When adding DVR playback, the serial killer thriller is averaging 11.7 million viewers and a 4.0 rating in the coveted demographic. Once again, The Following will air only 15 episodes instead of the usual 22-episode order most shows receive on the big networks. Shorter seasons are all the rage these days. Just look at the success of The Walking Dead, Breaking Bad and Sons of Anarchy over on basic cable.

I have to admit, I was worried the show wouldn’t be able to sustain the action and quality found in the pilot. Every Monday night, they have proven me wrong and continue to surprise me with new plot twists. Coincidentally enough, this past weekend a few friends of mine were discussing how much we love the show, specifically the “gay couple.” We all felt a little guilty for rooting for Nico Tortorella and Adan Canto’s characters. What sane person roots for serial killers? Apparently, if they’re cute… we do ;) Find out what other shows FOX gave renewal notices to below.

find out what other shows were renewed after the jump

“Who’s that girl? (Who’s that girl?)” It’s not Jess (Zooey Deschanel) but rather Muriel Rosenberg. If you watch New Girl and wondered what the sitcom would be like without some hipster adorkable girl playing the lead, but rather a cranky senior citizen… wonder no more. New York sketch comedy group Paulilu produced a wonderfully charming parody of the hit FOX comedy with that very scenario.

Played by Helen Slayton-Hughes, the old version of Jess spews off age-appropriate pop culture references like silent film stars (Rudolph Valentino) or vintage mystery programs (Murder She Wrote). The Schmidt in the clip is bang-on with the mannerisms of original one on the show. Speaking of bang, the Schmidt in the Old Girl clip gets a bit of “schimdt” on a lucky girl’s face ;)

One of my favorite parts of the clip is when Muriel’s BFF Zelda who has bowel issues comes over. The visual of Zelda hurrying to the bathroom is hilarious. The funniest part of the clip is that I can actually see this being a sitcom. Quickly, network execs. Start working on development stat. Watch the Old Girl parody below.

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Not only did American Idol dominate Nielsen ratings for several years, but it also raked in the most revenue with their ad rates. Last year, the FOX reality show narrowly lost the crown to NBC’s Sunday Night Football when it came to asking prices for 30-second spot commercials. This year, the gap between the two shows has increased, and not in American Idol’s favor. According to Ad Age’s annual survey, American Idol’s Wednesday night rates have dropped to $340,825 from last year’s $502,900. Meanwhile, Sunday Night Football rose about $33,000 to $545,142 for each spot.

The biggest surprise in this year’s Top 10 Highest-Priced programs is the strong showing by comedies. Modern Family, New Girl, Big Bang Theory, 2 Broke Girls and Two and a Half Men all broke into the Top 10. Shocked that Zooey Deschanel’s sitcom is among that group? While the New Girl doesn’t have the same overall viewers as its competitors, its concentration of young viewers is extremely high. As we all know, that demographic is very appealing to advertisers.

Surprisingly, NBC’s The Voice didn’t make the cut. That said, it does generate a hefty sum of cash for each 30-second commercial, $239,866 and $225,337 for Monday and Tuesday night repsectively. Amongst all the new shows, FOX’s midseason series The Following reigns supreme with $194,425.

check out the highest and lowest for each night after the jump

According to the “New Girl” Season 2 promo poster, the show is using the same towels from last season. Gross ;) Not everything is being recycled from last year though. That’s especially true when it’s regarding Zooey Deschanel’s love life. Her character Jess is getting some fresh meat. Correction, some sexy new prime grade “A” meat.

Before I let you know which actor she’ll be playing tonsil hockey with, I wanted to share some other casting news for the Fox sitcom. First up is Niecy Nash. The “Reno 911″ star is playing a hooker who steals Jess’ purse. A hooker has to do, what a hooker has to do ;) Also popping by on the show is Leslie Mann from “Knocked Up” fame. She’ll appear on the season premiere as a shot girl” who Schmidt (Max Greenfield) hires for his party. Not just any party, but a celebration in honor of the removal of his penis cast. That’s right. That’s no typo. A penis cast. LOL.

find out who’s dropping by after the jump

OMFG. I really hope this casting rumor for “True Blood” turns out to be true. It would officially make the male cast of the HBO show the sexiest and most doable. Before I reveal which super studly hottie might be considering a move to Bon Temps next summer, I thought I’d share some other show-related news.

Abtastic Ryan Kwanten is doing a little moonlighting during the show’s off season. E! Online is reporting that the tasty Aussie signed on for a guest star stint on Fox’s breakout hit “New Girl“. Kwanten will appear on the show’s Valetine’s Day themed episode. Zooey Deschanel’s Jess will meet Kwanten’s character, Oliver, at a bar where he’ll drunkenly woo her. Obviously looking the way that Ryan does, Jess is initially attracted to him, but soon realizes he’s president of dullsville.

Personally, he could be as interesting as a sheet of lined notebook paper and I wouldn’t care, as long as they had Kwanten’s defined abs. I could slurp a well-balanced meal of every ridge and valley of his stomach all day long. But enough of this fantasy, let’s move on to another wet dream.

see who might be joining True Blood next season after the jump

The 2011 Fall television season is almost a month old now and I thought this would be the perfect time to look back at some of the shows’ early promotional artwork. With already a handful of cancellation notices being already delivered, plenty more shows are either waiting to receive a full order for the season or to terminate production immediately. Must be stressful to be a showrunner.

In this day and age, it’s all about instant results. Most networks are trigger happy when it comes to getting rid of shows. Either they premiere with big numbers or show growth in subsequent episodes or they’re dunzo. Long gone are the days when networks were willing to nurture a show and give it a shot. Realistically, only The CW does that nowadays because they have a smaller viewership. So you know when they cancel you early, it’s because you suck major balls. I’m talking to you Mario Lopez and your awful “H8R”.

Obviously to do well, you need the right amount of promotion and advertising dollars on your side. Great creative also helps and that’s why I decided to write this post. I scoured through most of the shows this season to pick my favorite posters. With a new show, it’s especially important to tell what the show is about with an eye-catching visual. They say a picture is worth a thousand words and these ten were the ones that succeeded in conveying their message, IMHO. See if you agree with my choices.

view my picks for best poster honors after the jump

If you had told me that Fox’s new sitcom “New Girl” was going to top “Glee” prior to last night, I would’ve said you were cray cray. Apparently, all of the network’s promotional work paid off. Over 10 million viewers sampled the Zooey Deschanel show. It’s the biggest fall sitcom premiere on Fox since “The Bernie Mac Show” 10 years ago. In the coveted 18-49 demo, the show was the top show of the night with 4.8. Coming in at second place was NCIS at 4.2. Looks like Deschanel could be this season’s breakout star. With “Two and a Half Men” premiering with over 28 million viewers on Monday night, this season is certainly off to a solid star.

What makes “New Girl’s” accomplishment even more impressive is the fact it built on its lead in- the once powerful “Glee“. For the show’s third season, the teen musical still scored 8.9 million, but represented a 32% drop from last year’s premiere. Ryan Murphy and co. certainly have their work cut out for them to woo back viewers after last year’s lackluster season. Fox’s other show “Raising Hope” matched it’s first season numbers with 6.8 million viewers tuning in. “New Girl’s” premiere was up a ginormous 52% in the same timeslot when “Raising Hope” premiered.

see how the other networks fared after the jump

Today was Fox’s turn to unveil its 2011-2012 schedule at this year’s upfronts presentation. The upcoming season is a huge one for Fox. Not only are two highly anticipated series finally making it on air (Terra Nova and X Factor), but the network is celebrating its 25th anniversary. It’ll commemorate this milestone with a star-studded retrospective special airing on Sunday April 1. It’ll feature Fox’s biggest stars from both past and present paying homage to the network.

Overall, Fox picked up nine new shows. Five of which will premiere in the fall, while the remaining four will debut midseason. Obviously with new shows coming in, room has to be made to accommodate the brand new shiny hopefuls. Gone are “The Chicago Code,” “Lie to Me,” “Breaking In,” “Traffic Light,” “Human Target.”, “Running Wilde”, “Lone Star”, “The Good Guys” and “America’s Most Wanted“. None of them are too surprising with exception to the latter.

The criminal catching series has been on the network since 1988 and still garners over 5 million viewers on Saturday. Pretty impressive for a dead television night. However, with the production costs increasing, producing the show no longer became viable and thereby canceled. That said, the show will return with four specials throughout next season. With over 1000 episodes and equally as many captures underneath its belt, it’s ironic the long running show won’t make it to FOX’s 25th milestone year.

check out the new shows after the jump