The upcoming final season of One Tree Hill won’t start until mid-season, but things are already gearing up, and the first exciting bit of news from Zap2It is that Tyler Hilton is coming back. Yes, the lady-stealing musician Chris Keller will once again be forcing the men of One Tree Hill to lock up their gals.

The idea of bringing back old characters to help send One Tree Hill off in style is a great one, especially because the first eight seasons have featured so many memorable characters. Obviously top on anyone’s list would be Peyton (Hilarie Burton) and Lucas (Chad Michael Murray), but besides them, I can think of plenty Tree Hill residents, past and present, I’d love to see one last time.

Here are my top 10 One Tree Hill characters I want to come back for the final season.

Karen: Now that Karen’s Café has been reopened, it’s time Lucas Scott’s mom came back to see what Haley has done to her old place.

Deb: Nathan’s mom would also be a welcome return, if only to try and seduce Skills one last time. I only hope she doesn’t come back with a perverted clown for a husband.

Whitey: The last time we saw Whitey, he was giving Dan some advice on the long road to redemption. The old school basketball coach could definitely come back for one last lesson.

Keith: One Tree Hill has never shied away from ghosts, and while Dan Scott was almost fully redeemed at the end of season 8, talking to the ghost of the brother he killed would be the best way to atone for his sins.

Owen: Sure, Joe Manganiello is busy with True Blood, but maybe he could stop by one last time to show how rehab worked very well for him, since he’s now an insanely hunky werewolf.

Tim and Bevin: If One Tree Hill wants to go back to the beginning for a nice symmetry, why not bring back this unlikely duo who got married and had a son they named Nathan? Besides, I think, if my calculations are correct, Tree Hill might have a 10-year high school reunion coming up.

Felix and Anna: The big troublemakers of season 2, I have no idea why the Tagarros would come back, but I sure would like to see if Anna ever settled down with a nice girlfriend and how military school worked out for Felix.

Psycho Derek: Matt Barr isn’t doing anything since Hellcats got canceled, so why not have a story where he gets released from prison.

Which old characters would you like to see return for One Tree Hill’s final season?

Source: John Kubicek @ Buddy TV

If you were to dream up a group of actors to band together and make an environmentally conscious, nature exploration show, I think it’s fair to assume that you would not expect those actors to be James Lafferty (“One Tree Hill”), Stephen Colletti (“One Tree Hill,” “Laguna Beach”) and Stuart Lafferty (“Death Sentence,” “One Tree Hill”).

The brothers Lafferty, Stephen and award-winning nature photographer and author Ian Shive star in a show called “Wild Life: A New Generation Of Wild,” that is all about bringing the wonders of the great outdoors to a new generation. The adventurous guys have captured exploits varying from Everglades exploration to swimming with manatees.

Hollywood Crush caught up with Ian recently to get the lowdown on their buzzworthy project and why the show is meaningful (and not just “Celebrities Gone Wild”).

“[This show is] about, ‘Let’s experience something through the eyes of people you recognize on TV, in an environment you’ve never seen them in before,” Ian explained of showcasing themselves in a non-egotistical manner. “It’s really about the experience of being outside.”

Ian went on to say that they thought long and hard about how to use James, Stephen and Stuart’s profiles in a way that didn’t open themselves up for online criticism.

“Four dudes outside is definitely a perfect meal for the internet snark,” he admitted. “We even joked around about it… The way you avoid that is by not being ridiculous about how you tell the story. A lot of reality programming overdramatizes and sensationalizes petty things,” he explained. “We’re not going to be out there like, ‘Oh my God, Stephen got bit by 64 mosquitoes! What do we do now, let’s go to the doctor!’ It doesn’t need to be that,” he said.

Ian added that their intent in creating the show is to be “the antithesis of reality programming,” and that they hope to take the show from the web to a primetime TV slot.

“We’ve had a lot of interest, and it looks good that we’re probably going to end up on TV,” Ian revealed, although they aren’t yet sure on which network the show might be broadcast. “The whole point is to reach a bigger audience and bridge barriers of what people think of the outdoors,” he said. “It’s lookin’ good.”

Source: Kara Warner @ Hollywood Crush MTV

Carina McKenzie from Zap2it tweeted that James Lafferty will be returning as a regular for One Tree Hill’s season 9. She wrote:

#OTH fans: James Lafferty IS LISTED as a regular for Season 9, BUT the release says Nathan’ll be traveling more & Haley’s life will change.

Great news! See her tweet @ @cadlymack

Ology presents the 25 best episodes ever. One Tree Hill ranked #24 with an episode in season 8 ‘Darkness On the Edge of Town’.

Source: Ology.com

Gallery link:
Projects > One Tree Hill > Season 8 > Screen Captures > 22. This Is My House, This Is My Home

The CW has renewed One Tree Hill and Nikita and pulled the plug on Hellcats.

Long-running CW soap One Tree Hill had been expected to come back for a ninth season already, so the news comes as no huge surprise. Most of the cast, including original series actresses Sophia Bush and Bethany Joy Galeotti, had signed on for another season in recent weeks. Only cast member James Lafferty, has yet to renew his contract and plans to return part-time next year, according to TVLine.

One Tree Hill pulled in 1.3 million viewers for its most recent new episode last week.

Freshman action-drama Nikita has also gotten the green light for another season. Starring Maggie Q, the update of the La Femme Nikita story drew 1.94 million for its season finale Thursday.

The CW’s other first-year scripted series, Hellcats, has been canceled. The cheerleading drama had been struggling on Tuesdays, bringing in 1.18 million viewers for its last new episode. Star Ashley Tisdale weighed in on the series’ ominous future on Saturday. “I feel with anything else in life if it’s meant to happen, [it will],” she told TVGuide.com. “If not there’s something else and I think it was such a learning experience.”

Are you excited One Tree Hill and Nikita are coming back? Will you miss Hellcats?

Source: TVGuide.com

The CW announced its new fall schedule today, but “One Tree Hill” wasn’t on it. The locally filmed series will be held for midseason. And according to a CW release, season nine will be the show’s last.

The CW has ordered 13 episodes, and while the release doesn’t specify that the final season will only be that long, it’s unlikely more episodes will be ordered. Though with this show, never say never.

Filming of the new season will start in Wilmington this July. If there are only 13 episodes, and “OTH” doesn’t need to replace any failed new series early, the show will completely wrap filming by the time the ninth season starts.

Here’s what the CW says will happen in the final season: “In season nine, how will Brooke and Julian juggle parenthood and their very young careers? With Nathan traveling more as an agent, how will Haley’s life change with a second child, an increasingly independent Jamie, and a busy café to run? Is a wedding in store for Quinn and Clay? Or Mouth and Millicent? And what’s to become of Alex and Chase and their burgeoning romance? Following a fictional four year jump in time, “One Tree Hill” has now spent four seasons exploring the experiences of twenty-somethings. Season nine will continue to grow and break new ground, as the show approaches the rarified air of 200 episodes.”

Does “Nathan traveling more” mean that James Lafferty will only make limited appearances, as has been rumored? Which couple do you think should get married next?

Here’s the new CW schedule:

MONDAY
8 pm Gossip Girl
9 pm Hart of Dixie (new show)

TUESDAY
8 pm 90210
9 pm Ringer (new show)

WEDNESDAY
8 pm H8R (new show)
9 pm America’s Next Top Model

THURSDAY
8 pm The Vampire Diaries
9 pm The Secret Circle (new show)

FRIDAY
8 pm Nikita
9 pm Supernatural

Source: Jeff Hidek @ Star News Online

With Tuesday’s news that “One Tree Hill” will be around for a ninth season, activity is beginning to pick up at EUE/Screen Gems Studios’ Wilmington campus.

“People have started sticking their heads in the door,” Bill Vassar, Screen Gems executive vice president, said Wednesday afternoon. “We’ve been seeing people with smiles on their faces that they’re coming back to work.”

Among those are John McIntyre, who has been a crew member with the series all eight seasons.

“I worked full-time on ‘One Tree Hill’ as an assistant cameraman for the first four years and part-time as a day player the last four years,” he said. “Having a series in production anchors the town and gives the crew base here stability.

“I’m relieved and excited to hear of the season 9 pickup. It’s been a long-running job in a clean industry that has tremendous economic benefits for North Carolina.”

Production offices for “One Tree Hill” will open in June, and filming will start by the middle of July, Vassar said.

The renewal comes amid optimism about the possibility of two other series that shot their pilots here – ABC’s “Revenge” and The CW’s “Hart of Dixie – continuing to film in this area. Both have been picked up for production, but locations have not been determined.

Local officials have their fingers crossed.

Guy Gaster, production services executive with the N.C. Film Office, said the state’s recently enhanced incentive package has played a leading role in putting North Carolina back on the map of the studios.

“Each and every production, in addition to our well-established crew base, will tell you that the incentives is what’s drawing them to North Carolina,” he said. “Then when they get here, they’re blown away by our locations and other amenities.”

The new incentive program, which went into effect in January, increases the potential rebate amount from 15 to 25 percent. Just as important to the studios, the 6.9 percent corporate income tax on the incentive also was eliminated. The new program also increases the per-project cap from $7.5 million to $20 million.

But television productions are not subject to the cap, Gaster said.

North Carolina gave out $7.15 million in filming incentives for 2009, with “One Tree Hill” earning about $5 million of that on expenditures of nearly $33.4 million in the state.

But with all the film activity potentially headed for Wilmington, is there enough money in the program to meet all of the productions that could qualify?

Yes, because the program doesn’t have a set cap, Gaster said. Plus, officials have said in the past, more production activity means more economic activity. That means there would also be more tax revenue, meaning there should be more money to pay for the incentives.

Either way, it would be a nice problem to have – just like tight sound stage space at Screen Gems.

Vassar said the studios can handle up to five productions at once and that each job has different requirements, with some needing less stage space than others.

“We’ve never, ever not been able to accommodate work in this town,” he said.

As details about the TV shows await ironing out, local filming of the movie “Piranha 3DD,” which stars Gary Busey and David Hasselhoff, continues.

Vassar also said “Home & Away,” a made-for-TV movie for NBC begins shooting locally Monday.

Source: Judy Royal & Gareth McGrath @ Star News Online