Ever since Ryan Murphy revealed that he was trying to bring back some original castmembers for “American Horror Story’s” second season, we’ve been waiting patiently for news on who will be popping up next year. Finally, we have something!

Murphy confirmed last night to Andy Cohen on “Watch What Happens Live” that a fan favorite will be returning. So who’s coming back?

Another American is setting up residence at “Downton Abbey.”

ITV and Carnival films announced Monday that Shirley MacLaine is joining the U.K. series for its upcoming third season. The Oscar winner’s addition makes her the second American cast member (and character) on the British period drama.

She’s set to play Martha Levinson, the American mother of Lady Grantham (Elizabeth McGovern), and joins the cast as they begin shooting the new season next month.

(EW.com) — Though “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” are history, “General Hospital” — for now — is firmly ensconced in ABC’s daytime lineup.

But since ratings aren’t as strong as they used to be — the show’s averaging a 1.1 rating among adults women 18-49, down 21 percent from last year — and given how Katie Couric’s syndicated talk show is coming to ABC stations this fall, it’s still possible that the good people of Port Charles may lose their home in daytime.

But it could have a future in primetime: EW has confirmed that ABC entertainment chief Paul Lee is pondering one scenario that would allow the soap to air as an evening summer series. Not a bad thought, right?

Jamie Lee Curtis is gearing up to shake things up both romantically and professionally for Mark Harmon’s Leroy Jethro Gibbs on “NCIS” later this season.

“We haven’t touched on his personal life in awhile and we’re about to introduce a woman that’s going to get people going,” show boss Gary Glasberg told AccessHollywood.com on Wednesday at the Television Critics Association Winter Session 2012, when asked about future plans for the popular character. “Just look for Jamie Lee Curtis.”

Love is in the air for “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit’s” Det. Olivia Benson!

NBC has announced that actor and musician Harry Connick Jr. will be guest starring over multiple episodes as Executive Assistant District Attorney David Haden beginning with the Jan. 18 episode.

“I’m really excited because I get to talk like an educated person,”
Connick joked in a taped message presented at the Television Critics
Association winter press tour in Pasadena Friday.

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — NBC is funding an initiative to create musical theater programs in U.S. schools in need of arts education.

The network said Friday the effort to launch stand-alone musical theater programs will begin this month with a pilot group of 20 schools nationwide. NBC is joined on the Make a Musical project by iTheatrics, which adapts musicals for student productions and provides tools for teacher training.

The nonprofit iTheatrics’ Junior Theater Project aims to begin another 180 programs this fall, building toward a 2014 goal of 1,000 school programs reaching 1 million students, NBC said. Schools may apply for the fall program at the website makeamusical.org starting Friday.

NBC declined to put a funding amount on the initiative.

‘Smash’ (NBC, Feb. 6)
Dear anyone who has heard this is “NBC’s version of ‘Glee,’ ” please grab a Brillo pad, some bleach, and scrub out your brain. (TODAY.com is powered by msnbc.com, which is a joint venture between Microsoft and NBC Universal.)

“Smash” could not be further away in tone, style and concept than that other musical series over on Fox — and in this case, that is a very good thing, because “Smash” feels like its own fantastically unique entity. Starring Debra Messing and Katharine McPhee, and coming from creator and executive producer Steven Spielberg (heard of him?), “Smash” centers around a group of people trying to put together a Broadway musical based on Marilyn Monroe.

(CNN) — Christiane Amanpour will return to CNN with a weekday program on CNN International while continuing at ABC News as a global affairs anchor, the networks announced Tuesday.

Amanpour will begin hosting a program on CNN International in 2012 as part of a “unique arrangement” with ABC News, CNN Worldwide President Jim Walton said in an e-mail message to CNN staff.

“Christiane Amanpour has been synonymous with international reporting and with CNN for many years,” Walton said in a statement. “We could not be happier that through this unique arrangement with ABC News, her experience and global perspective are returning to a nightly news broadcast for our international audience.”

She may be 89, but that doesn’t mean Betty White has stopped making new fans. To the likely surprise of TV Land network executives and Betty herself, her show “Hot in Cleveland” apparently has a strong adolescent following.

“Twelve-year-old boys!” White told Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford Tuesday on TODAY as she shared an interview with co-stars Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves and Wendie Malick. “It’s not a joke.”

White referred to getting fan mail that read, “I’m so-and-so and I’m 12, and my grandmother and I watch this show.”

Andy Rooney so dreaded the day he had to end his signature “60 Minutes” commentaries about life’s large and small absurdities that he kept going until he was 92 years old.

Even then, he said he wasn’t retiring. Writers never retire. But his life after the end of “A Few Minutes With Andy Rooney” was short: He died Friday night, according to CBS, only a month after delivering his 1,097th and final televised commentary.

Rooney had gone to the hospital for an undisclosed surgery, but major complications developed and he never recovered.