NBC is putting their hopes on “The Cape”, a show about a cop turned masked hero, for the mid-season.

The show’s star David Lyons (“ER”) recently explained that his character, Vince Faraday, doesn’t have any special powers but, after he is framed and assumed to be dead, he goes underground and is adopted by a carnival troupe/band of thieves led by the mysterious Max Malini (Keith David, “Death at a Funeral”).

After joining the troupe, he takes on the persona of his son’s favorite comic-book character, The Cape, and begins using his cape as a weapon. The show also stars Summer Glau (“Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles”) as Orwell, who’s fighting crime in Palm City, and James Frain (“The Tudors”) as a billionaire who has his hands in much of the city’s corruption.

The show debuts with a two-hour premiere on Sunday, Jan. 9 and moves to Mondays the following night.

Check out a behind-the-scenes look at the show and its characters below!

According to Deadline.com, Claire Danes may be returning to the small screen. Reportedly, Danes is in talks for the female lead in Showtime’s drama pilot Homeland. The psychological thriller, which is being produced by 24 showrunner Howard Gordon, would be Danes’ first series since the ’90s cult classic, My So-Called Life, for which she earned a Golden Globe and an Emmy nomination.

Michael Cuesta (Dexter) is set to direct Homeland, based on the Israeli format Hatufim aka Prisoners of War, it tells the story of a U.S. Marine Sergeant, Scott Brody, who is recovered during a drone strike 10 years after going missing during the invasion of Baghdad.

It also centers on Carrie Anderson (whihc will be Danes character) , a smart, driven CIA case officer who tracks down threats to homeland security coming from the Middle East. She receives a tip from an informant that the American POW enjoying a hero’s welcome home has been turned and he is leading the next big strike against the American homeland. The series chronicles Anderson’s efforts to expose Brody and uncover the truth.

Danes also starred in the HBO biopic Temple Grandin, which earned her an Emmy Award, last year.

Yesterday, NBC announced some major changes to their mid-season schedule, including premiere dates for four new series; the dramas “The Cape” and “Harry’s Law,” the comedy “Perfect Couples”, and the reality show “America’s Next Great Restaurant.” The lineup also includes time slot changes “Law & Order: Los Angeles,” “Chase,” “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and “Parenthood.”

The announcement also included returning the returning series, “Parks and Recreation,” “The Biggest Loser: Couples,” “Who Do You Think You Are?,” “Minute to Win It,” “The Marriage Ref” and “The Celebrity Apprentice”.

Here’s the complete updated schedule:

Monday

8-9 p.m. – “Chuck”
9-10 p.m. – “THE CAPE” will premiere with a two-hour episode on Sunday, January 9 (9-11 p.m.). New episodes start in its regular time period on January 17 (9-10 p.m.)
10-11 p.m. – “HARRY’S LAW’ (beginning January 17)
9-10 p.m. – “The Event” (returns on February 28, 9-11 p.m.; resumes in its regular time slot March 7)
10-11 p.m. — “Parenthood” (debuts in this slot March 7 with all originals)

Tuesday

8-10 p.m. — “The Biggest Loser: Couples” (beginning January 4)
10-11 p.m. – “Parenthood” (beginning January 4 for four episodes)/ “Law & Order: L.A.” (beginning Feb. 4)

Wednesday

8-9 p.m. — “Minute to Win It” (beginning January 5)
9-10 p.m. -”Chase” (beginning January 12)
10-11 p.m. – “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” (originals beginning January 5 with two-hour episode, 9-11 p.m. ET)
9-10 p.m. – “AMERICA’S NEXT GREAT RESTAURANT” (beginning March 16)

Thursday

8-8:30 p.m. – “Community”
8:30-9 p.m. – “PERFECT COUPLES”
9-9:30 p.m. – “The Office”
9:30-10 p.m. – “Parks and Recreation”
10-10:30 p.m. – “30 Rock”
10:30-11 p.m. – “Outsourced”

Friday

8-9 p.m. — “Who Do You Think You Are?” (beginning January 21)
9-11 p.m. – “Dateline NBC” (beginning January 7)

Sunday

7-8 p.m. – “Dateline NBC”
8-9 p.m. – “The Marriage Ref” (beginning March 6)
9-11 p.m. – “The Celebrity Apprentice” (beginning March 6)

Rumor has it Fox may be picking up Christian Slater’s half hour comedy “Breaking In”, which could mean the end for “Running Wilde”.

Deadline.com is reporting that Fox is in negotiations with Sony Pictures TV for a midseason order of the series. Even though the show’s pilot tested well in May, the network passed on the series for the fall. But, they did keep the project alive by ordering two scripts in June. Sony then extended the options on the cast, which means they should all be available if Fox decides to go ahead and order more episodes.

“Breaking In” is a single-camera workplace sitcom about a digital security firm. Insiders expect Fox to use the show as a replacement for the chronically underperforming “Running Wilde” in the 9:30PM ET slot on Tuesdays.

This will be the third series for Slater in as many years. He also starred in “My Own Worst Enemy” on NBC in 2008 and “The Forgotten” on ABC in 2009, both of which were canceled after only one season. Slater, who will play the lead role, signed on for “Breaking In” back in March.

Gwyneth Paltrow doesn’t seem satisfied with just being an Oscar award-winning actress, it looks like she’s ready to take over the country music industry too.

The actress made her live country singing debut last night when she performed “Country Strong” at the 2010 Country Music Association Awards with Vince Gill. The song is the first single from the soundtrack for her upcoming movie, “Country Strong”, in which she plays a washed up country star ready to make a comeback.

After she performed, she received a standing ovation from the crowd and decent reviews from critics, many of whom admitted they were ready to pan the performance before it even started.

Entertainment Weekly critic Ken Tucker said that even though Paltrow appeared nervous, her vocals were stong. “Strumming an acoustic guitar, looking a little nervous but singing the movie’s title song in an expressive, surging tone, she didn’t really need the assistance of the wonderful Vince Gill, there to give a polite country-industry imprimatur to Paltrow’s efforts,” Tucker wrote.

New York Times music reviewer Jon Caramanica added, “The surprise was that she didn’t need [Gill]‘s steadying hand nearly as much as some of the night’s other performers.”

Meanwhile, New York Post writer Jarett Wieselman said he was waiting for a “car crash,” but changed his mind after seeing Paltrow’s full performance. “Gwyneth delivered a very solid — if not sensational — performance,” he said.

Singer Miranda Lambert agreed with the critics telling USA Today that she thought Gwyneth did a great job. “She sounded really country, I think. She seems very genuine,” Lambert said.

You can see Gwyneth’s performance on the CMAs below:

Recently, it was announced that Mary Hart was leaving Entertainment Tonight after close to 30 years as the show’s host. And yesterday her replacement was finally announced: Nancy O’Dell.

O’Dell told People magazine, “I remember watching ‘Entertainment Tonight’ when it first premiered and dreaming about working for the show some day. … I am honored to be the one chosen to fill a TV legend’s seat and I hope I can do her proud!”

As the announcement was made, Hart added, “Leaving this job was not an easy decision, but knowing I will pass the baton to Nancy O’Dell makes that decision much easier. … Nancy is a talented and respected entertainment correspondent. We have spent many years working on opposite sides of the celebrity battlefield and I know the show will flourish with Nancy as co-anchor.”

O’Dell will join the show in January as a special correspondent and after Hart finishes her final season on the show in May, O’Dell will step into the role of co-host alongside Mark Steines.

O’Dell previously hosted the rival  show Access Hollywood for 13 years before quitting  last December. She will also be hosting Fox’s New Year’s Eve programming in 2011.

Conan O’Brien returned to TV last night with the debut episode of his new TBS show, Conan.

The show opened with a pre-record video montage called “Last season on ‘Conan’” which shows Conan getting fired at NBC, getting turned down at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce (by Jon Hamm!), doing a short stint at Burger King and finally meeting with Larry King who had just two words for him: “Basic cable.”

The rest of the show was typical Conan including a couple string dances and a few cracks at NBC. “It’s not easy doing a late-night show on a channel without a lot of money and that people have trouble finding. That’s why I left NBC,” he quipped.

Conan welcomed Seth Rogen as his first guest. Rogen joked, “I’m so glad everyone else more famous was busy.” Lea Michele was Conan’s second guest and also had nothing but flattering things to say to the talk host, she even commented on his notoriously wild hair. “And your hair looks amazing,” she told him. Conan jammed with musical guest (and friend) Jack White, the two even recorded together over the summer.

Overall a solid start, but the most impressive aspect of Conan’s debut show is definitely the ratings. The show drew 4.2 million viewers and 3.3 million adults in the coveted 18-49 demographic. That’s more than 2/3 of the audience O’Brien attracted for his debut on The Tonight Show in May 2009. Conan beat out all of its direct competition, including The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (1.3 million; 690,000 in 18-49), The Colbert Report (1 million; 550,000 in 18-49), Leno (3.5 million, 952,000 in 18-49), and Letterman (3.4 million; 1.3 million in 18-49).

Last week MSNBC suspended Keith Olbermann indefinitely and without pay for making campaign contributions to three Democratic candidates during the midterm elections.

Reportedly, Olbermann gave the maximum amount of $2,400 to Democratic House Representatives Raul Grijalva and Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, and to Kentucky Senate contender Jack Conway. All three candidates had appeared on his show Countdown.

“I became aware of Keith’s political contributions late last night. Mindful of NBC News policy and standards, I have suspended him indefinitely without pay,” MSNBC president Phil Griffin said in a statement. MSNBC anchors are not barred from making contributions to political candidates, but the company’s policy states that donations must first be cleared by the network.

Some speculate this is a first step by the network toward firing Olbermann who has clashed with management throughout his time with the network.

A few former TV stars are set to return to the small screen.

First, former ‘Felicity’ and ‘The Unit’ star Scott Foley has landed  major role on ‘Grey’s Anatomy.’ He will play Teddy’s new love interest, who is also a patient at Seattle Grace. Does this remind anyone else of the Izzie and Denny storyline? Hopefully this one has a happier ending.

Menawhile, ‘That 70′s Show’ star Laura Prepon will appear on ‘Castle.’ She will play Nikki Heat, the main character in the movie they are making of Castle’s book, kind of a novel-within-a-movie-within-a-show scenerio. Her first appearance will be in the January 3 episode.

Two ‘Saturday Night Live’ alums are also headed back to TV. Rob Schneider has signed on to star in and produce a comedy loosely based on his life for CBS. The show will focus on a solitary man who marries into a big Mexican-American family.

Molly Shannon is also attached to star in a new HBO comedy about a lapsed nun who is making her way in the world after leaving the order she had been a part of for more than 20 years. ‘Simpsons’ writer/producer Tim Long is the lead on the project.

Bad news for fans of The CW’s Life Unexpected, it looks like the show may also be headed for a cancellation. The network has decided not to pick up the remaining nine episodes of the season and has opted to only air the 13 instead. They will make the official decision in May, but at this point, it doesn’t look good.

Life Unexpected executive producer Liz Tigelaar remained optimistic in a message on Facebook. “Hey peeps. It’s true, it’s real, no back nine. But stranger things have happened when people are invested. So keep watching. We still have half a GREAT season to show you and who knows!!!”

If the show isn’t picked up for a third season, fans will likely be left without a satisfying conclusion to the short-lived series.

“If we don’t get picked up, I don’t anticipate being able to wrap up these stories quickly,” Tigelaar said recently. “I’ll hopefully be able to do a satisfying last episode, but it’s not going to be where everything wraps up like a series finale. There’s no two endings for Episode 13 in case [we don't get picked up]. We barely have time to shoot one ending!”

Life’s series premiere drew 2.83 million viewers back in January but its second season premiere in September only brought in 1.65 million viewers. The numbers have continued to go down since the season 2 premiere and the series is now only averaging around 1.5 million viewers per episode. That’s not to say that the cast and crew aren’t trying. They’ve been holding Twitter chats, doing weekly interviews and even creating viral videos.