CW Calls Up Sarah Michelle Gellar, Rachel Bilson and a Coven of Cute Young Witches

Get your first look at SMG's return to TV, plus more inside scoop from the CW upfront!

By Jennifer Arrow May 19, 2011 5:45 PMTags

What can we say? The CW people are our people, and the network couldn't have picked two stars we'd more rather see again than Sarah Michelle Gellar and Rachel Bilson, both of whom will be headlining new shows for the See-Dub this fall. 

And these two actresses feel right at home: Sarah Michelle Gellar, who stars in the dark Hitchcockian drama The Ringer (which was originally developed at CBS) took the stage at the network's upfront to say she was excited to be on a network that she actually watched, quipping, "Maybe now I can finally get some Gossip Girl spoilers." And Bilson told us, "[My producer Josh Schwartz] is family. Literally. He's married to my best friend. He had to put me back on TV." Yay! Now, what else did we learn about the CW's new lineup today at Time Warner Center, including what show will never again have a "normal" season?

NEW SERIES

  • Our beloved SMG headlines The Ringer in the dual role of twins, one a recovering junkie with a dark past, one a rich bitch with a dark present. Gellar teased that even if we thought we understood the confusing premise, we were wrong. Ioan Gruffudd costars as the rich twin's husband.
  • Rachel Bilson reunites with her The O.C. producers Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage for Hart of Dixie, a wholesome small-town drama about a NYC doctor who moves to a small-town in the rural American South to become a general practitioner. She discovers regular folk who actually need her help, some unexpected family ties and a mess of damn fine Southern boys just waiting to become her boyfriend. It looks adorable.
  • The Secret Circle is a series about witches that is (a) based on source material from the same author as The Vampire Diaries, (b) produced by the same team that produces The Vampire Diaries, and (c) airing on the same night as The Vampire Diaries. But it's about witches, which is different, and it's set in Washington state instead of in Virginia. So...different.

NOTES

The network also confirmed that next year's 13-episode run of One Tree Hill would be the long-running soap's final season; the series will return in January 2012 for that final run.

Tyra Banks told us that the all-star season of Top Model will have the same lineup of judges (even though they've seen these girls before), but they will add guest judges like Nicki Minaj into the mix, and the girls will be challenged to present themselves as multihyphenate celebs and not just models. Tyra also said there would never again be a "normal" season of ANTM. It's stunts from here on out, kids!

Kaylee Defer of Gossip Girl told us she would "love" if the series went a few more seasons. She also told us that she was the only one besides the producers who knew the truth about Charlie and she had to keep it close to the vest for six straight months.

Plus, hang tight for videos of our interviews with Nikita stars Shane West and Maggie Q, and The Vampire Diaries stars Ian Somerhalder, Paul Wesley and Nina Dobrev!

NEW SCHEDULE

Monday, 8 p.m.: Gossip Girl
Monday, 9 p.m.: Hart of Dixie

Tuesday, 8 p.m.: 90210
Tuesday, 9 p.m.: Ringer

Wednesday, 8 p.m.: H8R
Wednesday, 9 p.m.: America's Next Top Model

Thursday, 8 p.m.: The Vampire Di\aries
Thursday, 9 p.m.: The Secret Circle

Friday, 8 p.m.: Nikita
Friday, 9 p.m.: Supernatural

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