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The 'Monk' is in: 'Nurse Jackie' welcomes a new doctor to the ER

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Author: 
Andrew Warren / TV Media
Betty Gilpin and Peter Facinelli as seen in “Nurse Jackie”

Betty Gilpin and Peter Facinelli as seen in “Nurse Jackie”

The 'Monk' is in: The golden boy has checked himself out, but the vacancy sure didn't last long.

Showtime's "Nurse Jackie" is still keeping the exact 2015 premiere date for its seventh season under wraps, but news of casting changes has been leaking out.

The darkly comedic drama has lost Peter Facinelli ("The Twilight Saga: New Moon," 2009) -- he'll recur during the new season as he's written out of the show -- to his own new show on NBC, but a beloved actor will help fill the void that he leaves behind.

Tony Shalhoub starred in the NBC sitcom "Wings" in the 1990s, and as detective Adrian Monk in USA's "Monk" from 2002 until 2009, both much-beloved roles that helped to turn him into a household name. He'll be recurring throughout the upcoming season as a doctor new to the ER and a good friend to the titular Jackie (Edie Falco, "The Sopranos").

"Nurse Jackie" will mark the Lebanese-American actor's return to TV after starring in last season's short-lived "We Are Men" on CBS, which was cancelled after only two episodes, thanks to poor ratings. He's a movie man, too: he's starred in dozens of films, including "Spy Kids" (2001), "Men In Black II" (2002), "Pain & Gain," (2013) and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" (2014).

"Nurse Jackie" follows the life of an ER nurse working in a busy New York hospital -- with a decidedly darker take on it than most other shows of the genre. Shalhoub fans who enjoy dark and gritty comedy won't want to miss him in the seventh season premiering on Showtime in 2015.

 

'Z' is for 'zombie': With the runaway popularity of AMC's "The Walking Dead" -- it's the most watched drama in cable TV's history -- what's really surprising is that it's taken this long for another network to come up with its own take on the bodies-as-killers trope.

The Friday, Sept. 12, premiere of "Z Nation" on Syfy brought a new creature to the screen, and it may be a beast that's different enough to carve out its own prime-time audience.

In a change from most zombie apocalypse stories -- including "The Walking Dead" -- "Z Nation" isn't set during or shortly after the rotting baddies have taken over. Instead, it's set several years after the zombie hordes have devastated humanity, following a misfit band of heroes who must transport the only known survivor of the zombie virus across the country to the last remaining viral lab where, hopefully, a vaccine can be created.

Bringing this grim tale of survival to life on the screen is a diverse array of actors, some established screen veterans and other relative newcomers. DJ Qualls ("Road Trip," 2000, "Last Day of Summer," 2009), Harold Perrineau ("Lost," "Zero Dark Thirty," 2012), Tom Everett Scott ("Southland," "An American Werewolf in Paris," 1997), Anastasia Baranova ("Veronica Mars"), Michael Welch ("Twilight," 2008), Russell Hodgkinson ("Grimm") and Kellita Smith ("The Bernie Mac Show") all star.

It's a new take on a popular genre, and with 13 episodes lined up for its first season, there's a lot of time for it to grow into its own beast. Zombie fans shouldn't miss "Z Nation," airing Fridays on Syfy.

 

Grylls thrills: One of the world's most recognizable outdoor adventurers is prepping for a new TV show, only this time it's everyday people who'll be in the spotlight.

British adventurer Bear Grylls has signed up with Discovery for an exciting new show that should begin filming soon, in anticipation of a 2015 release date.

"Bear Grylls: Breaking Point" will find the outdoorsman helping everyday people get over their greatest fears in the best way he knows how -- by facing them head on, far from civilization.

Each episode in the six-episode series will find Grylls joined by two people with rather serious phobias, whether it be a common one like spiders or, perhaps a bit more bizarrely, water. With the outdoorsman at their side, the frightened folks will head out into the wilderness for a 24-hour adventure where they'll be forced to face -- and overcome -- the sources of their fears.

"Bear Grylls: Breaking Point" marks a return to the Discovery family for Grylls, who starred in "Man vs. Wild" for seven seasons, a reality program in which he was thrust into inhospitable places where he'd be forced to survive using just his wilderness know-how. He also headlined "Running Wild With Bear Grylls" on NBC this past summer.