Good News: After 25 years, THE OPRAH WINFREY SHOW will come to an end on September 9, 2011. Bad News: For many Americans, who will soon be left scratching their head as to what books they should be reading and how to throw an intimate dinner party for eight on a budget. [EW]

Good News: NBC is bringing the lowly-rated TRAUMA back from the dead. Bad News: For the Peacock Network, whose desperate attempt to triage the bleeding that is their primetime lineup speaks volumes about their current woes. [TheLiveFeed]

Good News: Steven Spielberg and Stephen King are joining forces to develop a television event based on King’s just-released supernatural thriller Under the Dome. Bad News: For the writer who is hired with adapting the book for the small screen. Seriously, have you tried lifting the 1000 plus page tome?! [Variety]

Upcoming 90210 guest star Rumor Willis (pictured above) doesn’t believe she owes her ‘acting career’ to her famous parents. No really. [GabbyBabble]

From iconic big screen superhero to CHUCK guest star, you know what’s not so super? Brandon Routh’s career trajectory. [EW]

Laura Linney thinks Cancer is funny. Clearly, somebody didn’t see Funny People. [Variety]

Good News: The cast of SWINGTOWN is back working. Bad News: On other shows. [Staying In]

HER REACTION TO CHUCK’S SURPRISE RENEWAL: “The cast as a whole is completely overwhelmed with the love and the outpouring of emotions from the fans,” admitted Lancaster to the TV Addict at the recent NBC TCA party. “It’s an overwhelming thing and I’m eternally grateful.”

HER TAKE ON THE FUTURE OF ELLIE AND AWESOME: In a word — not so awesome, “Ellie essentially has two of the most important men in her life lying to her,” teased Lancaster with regards to the new season of CHUCK that the cast just recently started shooting. “Call it women’s intuition, call it whatever, but I think she’s going to start to get suspicious and we might see a crack in the Ellie/Awesome marriage.”

Good News: When we last left Chuck Bartowski he knew Kung Fu! Bad News: There’s a catch. Or as star Zachary Levi put it at NBC’s recent TCA party, “There is a hitch in the ‘giddy-up’ as they say.” Which according to co-creator Josh Schwartz is simply Levi’s way of saying that, “the new intercept was designed for Bryce Larkin super spy. Unfortunately it got into Chuck Bartowski, an emotional guy with a lot of issues. Chuck’s physical powers won’t necessarily last.” In other-words, when Chuck returns in (gulp!) March, don’t expect everything to be awesome in the land of Buy-Moria. Particularly if you’re a fan of Chuck and Sarah whose relationship (or lack-their-of) will be severely tested by the events in last season’s shocking finale. “Chuck has to channel and be able to control [the new Intersect],” teased Schwartz in a recent interview with Mo Ryan. “And who’s the one person that probably plays the most havoc with Chuck’s emotions? That’s Sarah. So in a way, she becomes his Kryptonite.” 

CHUCK returns to NBC in March.

10:15AM: JEFFSTER opens the CHUCK panel by bringing down the house with a unbelievable high energy performance following an intro video in which CHUCK co-creators Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak ‘joked’ that they had no idea what to do next now that Chuck knows Kung-Fu!

10:26AM: The genesis of JEFFSTER was courtesy of writer Allison Adler. Zach asks Vik when the CD is dropping, Vik responds, “I think we would be paid more not to sing again.”

10:27AM: In the first of many fan thank-you’s, Zachary Levi tells the audience that “we’re here because of you guys. When you have the best fans in the world who will go out and eat multiple Subway sandwiches and start grassroots campaigns and say we believe in the cast and crew. You guys are incredible. I love you so much.”

10:28AM: Josh Schwartz adds to Zach’s thank you by thanking moderator Alan Sepinwall, a hero for the show. Maureen Ryan from the Chicago Tribune, Kathy Skerry from GMMR, Michael Ausiello, Daniel Feinberg, Kristen from E!, Televisionary, ChuckTV.net and Wendy Ferrington [possibly spelt completely incorrectly] who was one of those really genius fans who came up with the Subway Footlong campaign.

10:30AM: Sepinwall asks if anyone has been fitted with a Subway uniform yet. Reponds Zach, “I’m hoping!” But in all seriousness, Schwartz says Subway’s involvement in the show has yet to be decided Adding, due to budget cuts, the show can only afford for Adam Baldwin to grunt. To wit Baldwin responds, “My inner monologue when I grunt is the name ‘Joss Whedon.’”

10:32AM: Chris Fedak teases that the story of CHUCK is not akin to Clark Kent, where he goes into the fortress of solitude and comes out as Superman. “We’re doing a story in pieces and if season one and two was how Chuck figured out how about his powers and abilities, it’s going to be really exciting for us to get in their and show how he learns, with Sarah and Casey serving as Sensais.

10:34AM: Adds Josh Schwartz, “Something very emotional and traumatic is going to happen between Chuck and Sarah. But it’s going to be really good.”

10:35AM: On whether or not he’s been ratcheted up the training regime for season three, Zach jokes that he’s been training a lot on Virtual Fighter,”It’s very intense, my thumbs are worn to the bone. The fighting thing is complicated Basically, my powers, these new kind of powers that you see with the “Chuck-Fu” well you can’t know “Chuck-Fu” all the time. It would make Chuck’s handers (Casey and Sarah) obsolete and we can’t have that. So our very talented and wise creators have structured it so that the “Chuck-Fu” and any of the other physical powers that I may have, have a window. A shelf life.

10:36AM: Explains Schwartz, “Chuck’s physical powers don’t necessarily last. The new intercept was designed for Bryce Larkin, super spy. Unfortunately they got into Chuck Bartowski, an emotional guy with a lot of issues.”

10:37AM: Schwartz reveals that now that Awesome knows Chuck’s secret, you will start to see him submerge into the spy world. Adds Captain Awesome himself Ryan McPartline, “Much to Josh Gomez’s chagrin! I’m really excited to be in the spy world, I can’t wait. However they keep story-lines from me. Chris Fedak said on the train down that my performance is much better when I don’t know anything.”

10:39AM: Obligatory commercial break. To tide fans over until whenever the show returns (which, incidentally Schwartz promises might be soon that you might think) ChuckMeOut.com has been created.

10:41AM: Zachary can’t decide on a favorite guest star. “Scott Bakula, Tricia Helfer, and Chevy Chase. That was ridiculous, all I could think about was Spies Like Us which we get to reference on the show all the time. At the end of the day, it’s one more thing that you guys get out of the show.”

10:43AM: Zach adds Jordana Brewster, Dominic Monaghan, the Awesomes… in true comic con fashion, audience members start yelling out favorite guest stars.. Bruce Boxieitner!

10:45AM: Moderator Alan Sepinwall opens things up to the audience. When a fan asks if Chuck will have to pay a price for using his powers, like not being able to eat or walk for thiry minutes, Zach responds, “Art imitating life!” While Chris Fedak and Josh Schwartz hilariously start to take ‘notes,’ with Schwartz adding, “keep it coming.”

10:45AM: An adorable girl asks Zach who his best friend in the cast is. Audience offers up the obligatory “Ahhhhhh,” Zach says that the questioner should bottle her adorableness and says that he kind of feels like he has a different connection with everyone in the cast. “But probably Josh and I from day one, he plays my best friend on TV and we’re great friends in real life.”

10:46AM: After noticing a plethora of ‘beards’ on the panel, a fan asks if we’ll be seeing them on the cast next season. To wit Chris Fedak responds, “Yes.”

10:47AM: Only at Comic Con does an audience yell out “Klingon!” after a fan asks if Chuck’s dad possibly programmed him with any other languages.

10:48AM: A young boy named Orion (No really!) asks if there are ever going to be any action figures or video games in Chuck’s future. Says Adam Baldwin “I need another one?” as the FIREFLY friendly audience goes nuts as Zach mocks Baldwin, “Oh I’m on FIREFLY…. I hope we get action figures for no other reason so that I can have one and throw it in his [Adam Baldwin's] face…. oh look at that Jayne!”

10:49AM: When asked which superhero he would compare Chuck to, Zach says Peter Parker, explaining, “Chuck gets bit whether he likes it or not. Not by a spider, but by an email… which is on the world wide web…” And in terms of who Zach would like to play in real-life, “Deadpool but apparently Ryan Renoylds gets all the jobs.”

10:53AM: Audience member yells out, “Yvonne, you’re Hot.” To which Baldwin adds, “From the Duh Files.”

10:54AM: Another round of unexpected audience participation comes in the form of fan suggestions for possible season three guest stars, which include Adam Brody and Bruce Campbell.

10:54AM: Fedak assured the fans that the Buy More will still be apart of the show. “No matter how much action we put on, the show is never going to lose its sense of humor.”

That sound you just heard: The internets losing its collective [expetive] over this fraktastic new CHUCK poster. [Source]

1. “Pilot,” FRINGE
2. “Chuck Versus the First Date,” CHUCK
3. “Odyssey,” SMALLVILLE
4. “Lazarus Rising,” SUPERNATURAL
5. “Pilot,” WHAREHOUSE 13

Good News: There is still hope for MEDIUM and MY NAME IS EARL, with rumors circulating that CBS and FOX (the studios that produce each series) might pick up each show for their respective networks. Bad News: For the now defunct CBS series’ WITHOUT OF TRACE and THE UNIT… crickets… crickets… [Source]

Good News: UGLY BETTY will face far less competition come Fall 2009. Bad News: Which is what happens when a network decides to move your show to Friday, the night that audiences forgot. [Source]

Good News: After eight long years, ABC’s ACCORDING TO JIM is finally dead! Bad News: For FOX’s ‘TIL DEATH, which just became every TV critics new go-to example for everything that is wrong with the state of TV sitcoms today. [Source]

Mission Accomplished CHUCK Fans, your show has been saved. Or at least that is what EW’s Michael Ausiello, The Live Feed, Variety and TV MoJoe are all reporting until NBC makes it official at its UpFront event on May 19.

But before you head on out to your local Subway for a celebratory Five Dollar Footlong, we should probably warn you, there’s a catch. The 13-episode pickup was contingent on Warner Bros. (the studio that produces CHUCK) agreeing to make some sizable budget cuts. Cuts which may-or-may-not include at least one cast member getting the proverbial pink slip, two staff writers definitely being show the door, and less episodes for some of your favorite supporting players (Jeffster! Big Mike! Anna! Gulp!)

All of which naturally raise three big (or in keeping with the theme of this post, foot long) questions:

1) Is less CHUCK in every sense of the word — from number of episodes, budget, production value and characters — better than no CHUCK at all?

2) If the unthinkable should occur and down to saving Jeff or Lester, who would you choose? Have CHUCK fans just set up the show to become the next JERICHO? Or does the fandom really believe that they, alongside NBC can attract a new audience to a show that saw virtually zero uptick in viewers throughout the highly publicized “Save CHUCK” campaign that ran over the course of CHUCK’s final episodes.

3) And finally, will NBC — who has yet to meet a product placement it can’t make work — find a way to replace Sara’s cover job at “The Orange Orange” with a Subway Sandwich Shop?