'The Unit,' 'Privileged' and 'Earl': A list of shows that have been canceled

Legendary Pictures making a play for video games and digital

Thomas Tull is taking another stab at video games.

The CEO of Legendary Pictures, who lost a bundle on his investment in defunct publisher Brash Entertainment, has made official what many in the industry have known for months: Kathy Vrabeck, a former top executive at Electronic Arts and Activision, is joining his company to oversee a new digital division that's expected to produce video games and original content for online and mobile platforms.

 The LA Times' Technology blog has the scoop:

Tull has not detailed his plans for the newly created interactivedivision, but the film financier has an abiding interest in games.Among his film projects are movies based on Activision Blizzard'sfantasy-themed World of Warcraft game and Epic Games' Gears of Warshooter franchise. A gamer himself, Tull invested in BrashEntertainment, a company headed by Massive Entertainment founder Mitch Davis. Brash burst on the scene in 2007 promising to reinvent Hollywood's relationship with video games only to disintegrate months later amid a flurry of lawsuits.

Get all the details on Vrabeck's hiring here.

-- Ben Fritz

Photo: Kathy Vrabeck. Credit: Electronic Arts.

'The Unit,' 'Privileged' and 'Earl': A list of shows that have been canceled

It's the least fun part of this job (aside from watching most new network comedies): Telling folks what shows have bitten the dust. But in the interest of providing one-stop shopping (and one link when people ask about what's dead), here's a roundup of shows that are not coming back.

To see what shows are coming back, look at this week's posts on the fall schedules for Fox, NBC and ABC -- every network show that is returning is mentioned in those press releases. Soon I'll have longer posts up with information on what's returning on CBS and the CW.

As far as the cancellation list goes, I will keep adding to it as needed in the next day or two. And by the way, other shows that premiered in the 2008-'09 season have been canceled, but I'm assuming you don't really want to know about shows, such as "Crusoe," that bit the dust months ago. If you want charts with that kind of info, check out this LA Times page and this EW list. 

Without further ado, here are the shows that are not returning next season:

NBC: "My Name Is Earl" (theoretically another network could pick the show up), "Life," "Kath & Kim," "Lipstick Jungle," "Kings"ABC: "Samantha Who?," "Cupid," "The Unusuals," "According to Jim" (finally!)CBS: "The Unit," "Without a Trace," "Eleventh Hour," "Worst Week" CW: "Privileged," also the "Gossip Girl" '80s spinoff is dead. "Reaper," "Everybody Hates Chris" and "The Game" are unlikely to live on Fox: "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles," "Sit Down, Shut Up"

A few notes:

Compared to other upfront weeks, in my opinion, this hasn't really been a heartbreaking week for cancellations. I think "The Unit" and "Privileged" did quality work for the most part, and I know some "Terminator" fans are sad about that loss. But frankly, I expected those three shows to go. And we got renewals for "Chuck" and "Dollhouse" -- I truly never expected that both those shows will return. My condolences to fans of shows on the list above, but all in all, I think it could have been much worse this week. NBC said it was done with "Medium," but CBS is picking up the show. So it's not done for good, it is coming back. And CBS had some choice words for NBC, calling its decision to cancel the show "inexplicable."It's not yet known whether ABC's "Surviving Suburbia" will come back. Fox's "'Til Death" is officially the new "According to Jim": "Death" is coming back. Why?

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