By Jamie Ruby

FOX's mega-hit reality series, American Idol, returns Wednesday, January 7th, for its fourthteenth season. The special three-hour two-night event will continue the following night. Returning are host Ryan Seacrest, as well as last seasons three superstar judges: Jennifer Lopez, Harry Connick, Jr., and Keith Urban.

Urban recently talked to the digital media about the upcoming season.

The singer talked to SciFi Vision about some of the changes to American Idol this season. "There're a few things we've changed up. Certainly, the most recent one for me that really stood out, was once we narrowed down our list - we sent over 200 people through to Hollywood, and then we narrowed it down, of course, and then even further down to get to our top 48. Those 48 guys and girls we took it into the House of Blues in Los Angeles to put them into a live club setting where the band was set up. They got up on stage and did a song each in front of the audience in that club. We've never done that before."

By Jamie Ruby

In FX's hit series American Horror Story: Freak Show, actress Kathy Bates stars as Ethel Darling, the bearded woman. The actress recently talked to the media about her work on the show.

Bates talked to SciFi Vision about the part of Ethel that she identifies with the most. "[It's] her authenticity and her strength, her struggle, and also, since I’m a cancer survivor, although she certainly had the liver cancer, I really identified with that scene in the doctor’s office."

The actress also talked to the site about roles that she has played that stayed with her for years. "I did a play on Broadway that won the Pulitzer Prize called ‘Night, Mother in 1983, so doing the math probably 20, 25 years ago. That role of Jessie Cates has stayed with me, probably will until I die; it just gets in your marrow. And Dolores Claiborne—it all has with time and not the time in between—what I mean is, it’s like anything that you take time to create, and we don’t take time. You work so fast, and those things that you have made and taken time to make are the ones that stay with you.

By Jamie Ruby

Tomorrow FOX's hit series, Bones, hits a new milestone as it premieres its 200th episode. As with other milestones episodes, this one is a break from the normal structure of the show. The episode pays homage to Alfred Hitchcock and reimagines the series as a film from the 1950s. The episode was directed by series star, David Boreanaz, and written by executive producer, Stephen Nathan. Nathan talked to the press earlier in the week about the special episode, as well as season ten and beyond.

Nathan talked to SciFi Vision about coming up with the style of the 200th episode, as well as how they chose which roles the characters would play. "I think coming up conceptionally with this, we wanted to go back to something that was classic, because after ten years, we’re moving into the classic category; not many shows last for 200 episodes. I think there have only been 24 dramas in the history of television, from what I’ve been told. We wanted to do a classic examination of the show and of the romantic nature of the show. This style, this time, really sets it apart and allows us to highlight that aspect of our series in a way no other time really could.

"We also got a chance to reintroduce Booth and Brennan, see the initial attraction and the blossoming of their romance, again, in new circumstances.

By Jamie Ruby

Friday NBC airs the midseason finale of Grimm, "Chupacabra." During the episode, as Rosalee, played by Bree Turner, and Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell) prepare to finally leave for their honeymoon, they are once again threatened because of their mixed Wesen marriage.

The actress talked to the media recently about the episode and what fans can expect moving forward on the series for her character.

Turner talked to SciFi Vision about who she would like to get to work with more often on Grimm. "It’s almost like there’s three separate worlds happening in Grimm. There’s the Adalind world, and the procedural world, and then there’s the Wesen world. And up until now I would have said it would have been Claire [Coffee], but we had that nice arc with her last season, so really Reggie [Lee] is such a beautiful actor and person that the few moments we’ve shared, our time together,  has always been super enjoyable, but as you can see we’re on a trajectory with him in the loop and a part of the Scooby gang and I’m really looking forward to more screen time with him."

By Alyssa Grillo and Jamie Ruby

Tonight FX's hit series Sons of Anarchy comes to a close. In preparation, Jimmy Smits, who plays Nero Padilla on the show, recently talked to the digital media about his work as on the series.

Smits talked to SciFi Vision about the changes in Nero in the latest episode that caused him to seem more concerned with saving Jax than Gemma. "I think that that particular line I tried to give it a little bit of weight, so that it really means both, because we all know that in the episode prior to that, when Nero starts talking about, you know, what you're thinking about doing is kind of like one of the biggest sins that you could impose upon yourself, and the weight that that's going to put on you. So knowing that that was a possibility, that was part of where that line was coming from, and tried imbue with all of that, but I don't think that he meant discard Gemma or there wasn't that thing going on; and I hope that didn't read like that, because the love that he has [for her] - you did see him in the next subsequent scenes in the bedroom. And I think that reinforced that even though the events that transpired have transpired, that he still has a profound kind of love and emotional connection with the Gemma character. So it's like everything that Kurt writes it's not just one thing. It's layered in many, many, many different ways."

By Jamie Ruby

Fox's hit series, Sleepy Hollow, is getting closer to its midseason finale, and in preparation, Nicole Beharie, who stars as Lieutenant Abbie Mills, recently talked to the digital media about the series.

Beharie talked to SciFi Vision about how Hawley (Matt Barr) is slowly changing his ways as the season progresses. "The nature of Hawley’s character is he’s an arms dealer. He’s like a black market dealer, so he should expect to be paid for his time. But I think that slowly the witness pair, Crane (Tom Mison) and Abbie, are both working on pulling on his heartstrings. He has warmed up to Crane. I think you all saw in Club Twerk, when the succubus actually took him over and then took him back to the docks, he realized that there are much bigger things at stake, and that the money isn’t actually going to save him.

"Then when it comes to Abbie, I think they have just a really strange but kind of saucy relationship, where she knows what he wants, and he knows what she wants, and they just barter and bargain to both get at least a semblance of what they are looking for."

By Jamie Ruby

Actor Nicholas D'Agosto joins the cast of FOX's Gotham, starting Monday, November 17th, as Harvey Dent, who will eventually become the villain Two-Face.

The actor recently sat down with the media to talk about his time working on the series.

D'Agosto talked to SciFi Vision about his research into the character and how he tried to differentiate his version from previous ones. "I would say that I didn’t go watch a lot of the movies, because in my past experience, I haven’t found that watching other actors do the role has been really valuable, because part of the problem with that, is that you start to think that that version of the character is in the version that’s in front of you, and it’s not. They’ve written a new character, and he has new stakes and ambitions and things driving him, so I try not to go just watch other people. But what I did do was just do as many Google searching of different comic sites and history sites and go through the arc of, the condensed, essentially Cliffs Notes versions of all the things that Harvey Dent has done and all the different iterations of Batman.

Recently it was announced that Syfy's new hit series, Z Nation, was officially renewed for a second season. The show follows a group of survivors in a zombie apocalypse, who fight not only to stay alive, but also to deliver a possible cure to a lab in California, in the form of a man, Murphy, who is the only one to survive a zombie bite.

The actor, who stars as Murphy, Keith Allan, recently sat down with Jamie Ruby of SciFi Vision in an exclusive interview to talk about his role.

Allan was working as a stage manager for The Asylum before he got his big break. "I'm an actor and have been for many, many years, and sometimes you're working as an actor, and sometimes you're not. There were a few years where I was needing work, and so I needed to get a day job, because I wasn't making a living as an actor.

By Jamie Ruby

In preparation for the newest episode of Grimm, "Dyin' on a Prayer," which airs this Friday on NBC, Silas Weir Mitchell talked to the digital media yesterday in a conference call.

Mitchell talked to SciFi Vision about how other Wesen aren't going to like Monroe and Rosalee being married, and how that will affect them. "One of the things that these writers are able to do, is marry the world that we live in, you and I, with the world of Grimm, where you can paint these psychological social issues with a kind of richer brush than you can if you're completely bound to reality or our reality.

"So this mixture that they've come up with allows for this type of storytelling, and I think that it will be complicated for us as characters, because that's true to life. Even though we're in this imaginary world, I think one of the things the writers do really well, is use benefits of [that]."

Last month, FX premiered it's newest installment in the anthology series, American Horror Story, with American Horror Story: Freak Show. The series follows a group of sideshow performers in 1952 in the town of Jupiter, Florida, one of the last remaining freak shows in America. Angela Bassett stars as Desiree Dupree, a woman with three breasts.

The actress recently talked to the media about her newest role on the series, including working with Michael Chiklis, who plays her husband, Dell Toledo, the challenges of wearing prosthetic makeup for the series, and more.