J.J. Abrams’ new drama Fringe has managed to pick up a full-season order, becoming the second to receive one after 90210. It has been given an additional 9 episodes to take the first season to 22. Ratings for the drama have improved since their so-so premiere, averaging 10.7 million viewers.

This could be because of the help of another FOX show, House – which is its competition in Australia.

Meanwhile, Ten has pulled 90120 from its schedule after airing five episodes. Its plans to move it to Friday nights have also been axed, but TEN has said that it will return later in the year – most likely during the Summer Non-Ratings Period, where the channels usually put shows that they don’t want to lose their share during the official ratings period.

Ten has replaced it, according to TV Tonight, with The Bourne Supremacy for next Friday (October 10), and United 93 on October 17th.

Meanwhile, the ABC’s latest popular show, The Gruen Transfer, has been licensed to Dutch production giant Endemol to create a Dutch version. The Gruen Transfer is a show about advertising, and is to be showcase at MIPCOM by ABC Commercial.

Today Tonight will have a new face next year as host Anna Coren has decided to leave the show and the network, Channel Seven, to become a news anchor and reporter for the U.S. cable news channel CNN. She is due to begin in December.

Following on-going difficulties and problems, including the court case involving Mercedes Corby, she took a screen test in the US last July. Now, we get to see who will replace her, after she replaced Naomi Robson after her credibility was eroded after the Wawa-gate incident in 2006.

Samantha Armytage is rumoured to take over Coren, but after gossip that Seven was seeking Nine’s Karl Stefanovic, there is suggestion that the network could be assessing other hosts for the position. According to the Sunday Telegraph, howver, Armytage is believed to be the frontrunner after signing a two-year contract before her contract expired in three months.

The deal also saw her salary bumped up by 60 percent. Armytage is currently the summer host for TT, the same position as Coren had held before being bumped up to a permanent role.

The CW Network in the US has added an additional nine episodes to its current order of 13 episodes, giving it a total of 22 – making it the first series in this year’s fall season to gain a full season order, after 3 episodes have aired. While it gained 4.9 million viewers on its premiere episode, the second airing saw viewing numbers drop but it managed to recover to 3.3 million on its third episode.

In Australia, the show is broadcast on Channel Ten – gaining huge numbers in the teen demographic, except on the second episode, as it saw 0.3 million viewers. But this was because it was aired in Sydney and Brisbane only. Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth will be airing episodes two and three next week because it was preempted by Ten’s broadcast of the Brownlow Medal.

Olympic Gold medallist and Australian Swimmer Grant Hackett has signed a four year deal with Channel Nine, which will see him presenting its Melbourne’s weekend sports bulletin. He will also be part of Channel Nine’s coverage of the Olympics for 2010 in Vancouver and 2012 in London.

He will also appear on Sunday’s Wide World of Sports alongside Ken Sutcliffe and appear on What’s Good For You.

Hackett previously had a contract with Seven, which will end of this year, but turned his back on the network after being told he stay with the network and compete with Dancing With The Stars.

Channel Nine has been given the all clear by the Supreme Court to air Underbelly in Victoria, thus giving WIN and Imparja - the Nine affiliates in Victoria - the same rights to air in Rural Victoria.

Nine will air Episodes 1 and 2 this Sunday, with episodes 3 through to 5 will screen on the following Tuesday and Sunday nights. However, those five episodes have been edited so they can air in Victoria.

However, Episodes 6 to 13 cannot be aired until the courts have finished a major criminal trial.

Underbelly premiered in February on Nine, except in Victoria due to a suppression order.

Soul singer and voice of Chef on South Park Issac Hayes has died at the age of 65 in Memphis on Sunday.

He, along with Al Green, James Brown and Stevie Wonder, was one of the dominant black artists in the early 1970s; and has won several awards, including an Oscar, and was part of the record label Stax before leaving in 1975 after a dispute over royalties - the same year that Stax went bankrupt.

He is also famous for starring in the cartoon series South Park as Chef, but left the show a few years ago after he disagreed with the attacks on his religion - Scientology, in the famous episode titled Trapped in the Closet.

Source: TV.com/Reuters

The hugely popular, and not aired in Victoria yet, show Underbelly has been given another series - after overwhelming demand urged them to create another one. The show, about the Melbourne Gangland War, re-established the network as a serious ratings contender after losing last year to Seven.

The new series will be a prequel to the war, and will detail the rise of power of many of the characters in the original series - but will mainly focus on Alphonse Gangitano, who was portrayed by Vince Colosimo.

CEO David Gyngell was confident that the series will be a smash hit like its predecessor. The series will begin recording in September for 13 episodes. It is also unknown if the series will not be shown in Australia - like its predecessor.

All of Australia’s broadcasting corporations, including the public broadcasters and the regional affiliates, have announced a new initiative to follow the footsteps of similar plans in New Zealand and the UK, Freeview.

The ‘Freeview’ initiative was started in the UK to help drive the take-up of free-to-air digital television in Australia, with the ABC’s Director of Television, Kim Dalton, will chair the organization in Australia. In New Zealand, almost of all of their stations are apart of their version of ‘Freeview’; and it has exceeded expectations with installed receivers in over 100,000 homes.

In Australia, Freeview will contain all the free-to-air stations and their respective HD channels. As well, it will air ABC2, SBS World News Channel and the commercial stations’ new SD channels - bringing to to 15 channels.

Ten has confirmed that Big Brother has been axed by the network, in a decision supported by the board at the network.

The axing is set to free up 120 hours of programming per week, and $30 million in production funding. The programming is more likely to be filled with international imports by CBS Paramount Television and 20th Century Fox. But, programming chief David Mott has said they will invest the money into local productions.

Channel Ten has axed the TV reality show Big Brother, according to several reports - including being mentioned on Rove.

behindbigbrother.com is also reporting that Channel Ten is holding a media embargo on the announcement of the axing until midnight tonight. As well, their sources have said that it was unexpected as the producers were trying to save the show.

The ratings for the show have been declining since the show replaced previous host Gretel Killeen with radio jocks Kyle and Jackie O - the show was even beaten by the Budget speech made by Wayne Swan.

However, ratings have bounced to more than 1.4 million with the appearance of Pamela Anderson.

The news comes after an administrator for the forums at the official Big Brother website said that the show won’t be returning.

"I can confirm Big Brother won’t be renewed on Channel 10 in 2009," ‘Lulu_b’ wrote on the forums.