· You know that a newly minted Fox News contributor leans a wee bit right when Bill O'Reilly feels obligated to defend (or at least play devil's advocate for) President Obama. That's what happened during Sarah Palin's debut as a Fox News analyst on The O'Reilly Factor last night, as the former Alaskan governor fired back at her critics, took a few swings at Nancy Pelosi and knocked the current administration. [YouTube]
Kathy Bates sneaks into NBC to finish off its prime time schedule once and for all, J.J. Abrams casts the new Felicity, and more TV Bites after the jump.
· J.J. Abrams has cast two unknowns to carry his upcoming NBC pilot Undercovers; Boris Kodjoe (Soul Food) and British actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw will star as the married couple at the center of this series, being described as a cross between Mr. & Mrs. Smith and The Bourne Identity. [Reuters]
· ABC has gone ahead and ordered Matthew Perry's pilot, Mr. Sunshine, about an aging manager of a local sports stadium in San Diego who reevaluates his life on his 40th birthday. [Reuters]
· Add Southland star Ben McKenzie to the long list of people pleased that The Jay Leno Show failed. [Zap2It]
· For the fourth year straight, ABC has earned the most nominees for media awards from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation with its contenders including Brothers & Sisters, Modern Family and Grey's Anatomy. [THR]
· Chris Harrison is responding to Rozlyn Papa's claim that she did not engage in a physical relationship with a Bachelor producer: "Other girls on the show saw it. The producer confessed more than once [and] to more than one person. I cannot make it any clearer." [People]
· Kathy Bates will visit NBC prime time later this month -- not to bark her protest of Jay Leno's Tonight Show do-over but to lend her Oscar-winning chops to The Office as the CEO to Dunder Mifflin's new parent company. [THR]