The ratings are in and the future for American Idol is... cloudy.

In a closely watched premiere, American Idol's twelfth season debuted to the inconclusive number of 17.9 million viewers. On the one hand, that's a 19% drop from the 11th season premiere in January 2012. At the same time, it was still enough to put Fox in the number one spot for the night and remains a bigger number than The Voice (to say nothing of The X Factor) attracted last fall. So give this round to the network... with an asterisk attached.

In another sign that Breaking Bad is really, truly ending this year (commence your sobbing now), Betsy Brandt has been cast as Michael J. Fox's spouse on the actor's upcoming sitcom that's loosely based on his own life, in that he plays a newscaster with Parkinson's disease rather than an actor with Parkinson's disease.

Speaking of endings, Syfy has declined to give its X-Men knock-off Alphas the network's traditional five-season run, cutting it short after two years. This news comes as Syfy gears up to debut its highly anticipated (and expensive), TV series/massively multiplayer online game Defiance. And if that fails, there's always another Canadian import about some hot chick with special powers that they can license.

Nashville takes advantage of its country music capital setting by recruiting two actual recording stars Chris Young and Brantley Gilbert to cross paths with the show's fake country legend Rayna at an industry shindig. Countdown to the Billy Ray Cyrus cameo starts... now.

Glee's Heather Morris has confirmed to reporters that Brittany and Santana are never ever getting back together. (Like, ever.) Gee, a Ryan Murphy show completely forgetting about a good storyline? That never happens!

The Great Escape may have escaped into cancellation, but TNT is taking another chance on a reality series, this one from Jerry Bruckheimer. Marshal Law: Texas will follow a group of Houston-based U.S. Marshals as they track and capture dangerous crooks. The main difference between this and Cops? Bruckheimer won't be able to use "Bad Boys" as the theme song.

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