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This week in television brought us renewals, cancellations, casting, news, and everything else that indicates the television season is officially in swing (even if a couple late bloomers haven't begun yet). In ratings news, Tuesday's NCIS continued to dominate as the most watched TV show of the week, bringing in an impressive 19.8 million viewers. Fox's Glee stayed stable at 7.3 million viewers, while the rest of the Wednesday shows saw a slight dip in viewers. Monday's Castle, a show that I love, had slightly higher ratings than usual, bringing in a comfortable 11.3 million viewers. On the other end of the spectrum, Heroes continues its fantastic crash-and-burn from being a TV powerhouse into bringing in a wimpy 5.3 million viewers. Hopefully NBC will soon realize it is time to take Heroes out to pasture.

Indulging my favorite shows, I want to start with House. The FOX medical drama delved into remarkable ethical and moral questions on its latest show. With guest star James Earl Jones, who never disappoints, the show tackled a question most of us would hope to never face: If given the option, would you save a genocidal dictator?

In what already seems to be this season's Kings, Dollhouse is suffering from horrific ratings but is truly finding its own. Tonight's episode, which deals with the mind of a serial killer in the already complex story line of Echo, Eliza Dushku, who is in tune with many of her past "minds." Not only is the episode extremely compelling, but it demonstrates a fascinatingly original concept that continues to expand as it goes on. This show is wonderful and criminally under-viewed. I know, it's in the Friday Night Death Slot (9:00 PM), but it deserves your DVR time or, at the very least, your "Saturday morning/midday I don't-want-to-do-anything" time.

The Simpsons has shocked fans again. After finally releasing a movie that felt like it was 20 years in the making, it may have felt like they had transformed the ultimate fantasy of a Simpsons fan into a reality. Apparently, my mind was in the network appropriate fantasies of fans, because The Simpsons have now taken us beyond a feature length film. It was announced that none other than Marge Simpson, blue haired matriarch of the Simpson clan, will bare it all on this November's issue of Playboy. She will not only be the cover girl, but will have a 3 page spread. It should be an interesting interview to read.

I won't lie in stating that South Park is a guilty pleasure of mine and, despite the fact that the last couple of seasons may have been comparatively weak, I refuse to turn my back on Matt Stone and Trey Parker. Thankfully, the season premiere of South Park managed to be humorous and not bathed in underlying meaning. Sure, the blatant lampooning of the horrendous show Ghost Hunters as well as The Sixth Sense and everything Zelda Rubinstein has been in, but underneath it all, South Park was simply funny. A return to the random, but at least a little culturally relevant, humor of the earlier seasons was seen. South Park most definitely shines when it isn't trying to make a point, and hopefully, as this season continues, it will continue on this path.

WATCH COMMUNITY! This NBC show is hilarious and this week was moved from its Thursday 9:30 PM time slot to 8:00 PM.  This showed in the ratings, as Community dropped from 5.8 million to 5.1 million viewers. While NBC decided that the humor was appropriate for the 8:00 PM time slot, it appears that they failed to realize a few of their viewers were brought in from The Office and, frankly, the mostly soulless Parks and Recreation isn't strong enough to lend any hand to Community.

Laura Graham has been cast to take the place of Maura Tierney on NBC's Parenthood. Tierney left over the summer when she was diagnosed with and treated for breast cancer. The show has been pushed back and will not premiere until after NBC shows the 2010 Winter Olympics.

The second fatality of the Fall season was announced this week, and it is none other than NBC's Southland. Southland leaves with a distinct honor, though, as it is possibly the first major problem in scheduling since NBC decided to scrap using 10 PM for original programming.

"I'm disappointed that NBC no longer has the time periods available to support the kind of critically-acclaimed series that was for so many years, a hallmark of their success," Producer John Wells told The Hollywood Reporter. "We remain extremely proud of 'Southland' and are actively looking for another home for the series."

The network allegedly decided that the material wasn't appropriate from the 9PM time zone so, despite critical acclaim, Southland has fallen to the evil chin that Leno has cast on NBC original programming.

Several new shows have been picked up for full seasons. ABC has decided to keep both Modern Family and Cougartown around, further diversifying their programming to include two more comedies with stable ratings (on top of dramas, science fiction, reality, and variety shows). CBS announced that they will be picking up The Good Wife and the top rated freshman show of the season, NCIS: LA. HBO announced that they will be picking up Jason Schwartzman's new comedy Bored to Death after it saw it's highest ratings ever last week. The show has seen steadily rising viewer numbers since premiering, and doesn't show any signs of the trend changing.

In what could be the greatest reality casting news ever, the smarmiest disgraced politician of the last year, Ex-Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has been cast in the upcoming season of NBC's The Apprentice. Seeing as though he'll be meeting his most formidable opponent yet, a richer version of him, with matching toupee and douche personality, it should be interesting to see how quickly it takes for him to show viewers exactly how shady he is regarding business. Great decision, Blagojevich.