-ABC Family has given Melissa & Joey a season three backorder of 10 additional episodes set to air 2014, bringing the season episode total to 20, while renewing the show for a fourth season of 20 episodes. The show, which returns on May 29th, will be the first ABC Family original comedy to pass the 100 episode threshold.

-Mariah Carey and Tim McGraw are scheduled to perform on NBC’s annual Macy’s Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular, airing 8-10 p.m. on Independence Day. The special will be hosted by Nick Cannon, host of America’s Got Talent and Carey’s husband.

-Comedian Jim Norton and blogger Lindy West will be guests on Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell Thursday, May 30th at 11:00 p.m. on FX. The topic: the on-going debate between censorship and artistic freedom.

–CSI producer Anthony Zuiker, ABC, and Hyperion Books have collaborated on a series of books based on upcoming reality show Whodunnit?. The first book in the series, titled “Whodunnit?: Murder in Mystery Manor,” introduces a figure that will be important in the television show and centers on ten people gathered at a luxurious mansion before finding out that one of them is a killer. Whodunnit? premieres Sunday, June 23rd at 9:00.

-The third season finale of CBS’ Mike & Molly, delayed by the tornado in Oklahoma, is set to air Thursday, May 30th at 8:30. The Chuck Lorre comedy was left off the network’s fall schedule and will return sometime midseason.

-Comedy Central has renewed sketch series Inside Amy Schumer for a second season, which will premiere sometime in 2014. The April 30th series premiere was the network’s highest-rated series launch of 2013.

-Rob Lowe has agreed to play President John F. Kennedy in upcoming National Geographic telemovie Killing Kennedy. Based on the book by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard, the two-hour film will follow two men on a collision course and one event that changed a nation forever. Co-starring are Ginnifer Goodwin as Jacqueline Kennedy and Michelle Trachtenberg as Marina Oswald.

–Being Mary Jane, a BET movie starring Gabrielle Union as a single newscaster looking to find love, will premiere Tuesday, July 2nd at 10:30 following the midseason finale of The Game. The movie will then morph into a weekly one-hour series, which will debut in January 2014. Here’s the first sneak peek.

The post News Roundup: Cassadee Pope to Return to The Voice on June 4th appeared first on TVHackr.

Get ready to stay up late.

Well, if you don’t do that already. If you do, I guess get ready to stay up later.

FX has ordered an additional 13 episodes each of late-night talkers BrandX with Russell Brand and Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell, with the new cycle for each beginning early next year.

BrandX, which features Brand in the role of “traditional” talk show host (monologue, celebrity interview, audience segment),will air its final 2012 episode on Thursday, November 29th at 11:30. The show will return Thursday, February 7th at 11:30 in an expanded one-hour format; the two previous “cycles” of BrandX have been half-hour, leading out the FX comedy bloc this summer and airing after Totally Biased currently.

Totally Biased, co-executive produced by Chris Rock, finds comedian Bell extolling on social and political issues, including religion, sex, and race in live guests and taped segments. The show will air its final episode of 2012 on Thursday, November 29th at 11:00; the episode features The Daily Show writer/correspondent and Community actor John Oliver. Totally Biased returns Thursday, January 17th at 11:00.

Both shows mark FX’s attempt to break into the world of late night television; though neither has yet to completely breakthrough, each has garnered a fair amount of attention, given FX an idea of what to expect when launching late programming, and improved along the way. BrandX and Totally Biased will be joining critically-acclaimed animated comedy Archer on the FX winter 2013 schedule, though the latter doesn’t have a concrete premiere date yet. Currently, they’re airing along with the eighth season of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and the fourth season of The League.

Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell airs Thursdays at 11:00 on FX, with BrandX with Russell Brand following at 11:30.

Have you been watching either BrandX with Russell Brand or Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell? Do you think either have improved since their initial run of episodes earlier this year? If so, will the additional episodes help fine tune their voice even more?

The post FX: BrandX and Totally Biased Renewed appeared first on TVHackr.