How can we tell Fox's decision to cancel Pittsburgh-set "Back to You" was a surprise? The network's publicity department sent out Wednesday's season finale for review, something they wouldn't have done if they knew the show was toast.

In a phone interview today, "Back to You" executive producer Steven Levitan said he'd been assured as recently as Friday morning that the show would be picked up. Friday night they were told the show had been canceled.

"We were surprised, but not shocked," he said. "Nothing surprises me with [Fox Broadcasting] anymore."

Levitan conceded that "Back to You" was never a good match for Fox, something TV observers have been saying since first seeing "Back to You" a year ago.

"We've been on the wrong network from the start," he said. "We got talked into it. That was our blunder."

While in development, CBS and ABC had also expressed interest in airing "Back to You."

"Fox had the better deal and lots of big promises they didn't keep," Levitan said. "And the one person who didn't bid on it was Kevin Reilly at NBC, and then he came over to run Fox."

Levitan and the Fox studio, which produced the show for sister-company Fox Broadcasting, are now shopping the series to other networks, particularly CBS, where it would seem to be a natural fit.

"It's always a long shot, but they took 'JAG' from NBC and that turned out to be a hit for them for years," he said, "so it's not unprecendented. But it is a long shot."

(Although ABC is poised to pick up NBC's "Scrubs," there's corporate financial incentive for ABC to do so: ABC's sister-studio produces "Scrubs." That sort of connection doesn't exist in the "Back to You"-to-CBS scenario.)

Although I've had my issues with some aspects of "Back to You," I've enjoyed the show more than I haven't, not because of the Pittsburgh connection, but because it's just a good comedy with two hugely talented stars in the leading roles. I hope CBS will seriously consider giving the show another chance.

Levitan acknowledged that "Back to You" is probably a more expensive show to produce than its lower-rated lead-in, " 'Til Death," which did get renewed, but he said Fox Broadcasting executives never asked them to reduce the show's expenses.

"Back to You" was hurt by pre-emptions during the writers' strike and Fox's decision to move the show to different time slots and never air more than five episodes consecutively.

"We were on a network that appealed to a different kind of people than we're aiming for," Levitan said. "Fox has a lot of people who tune in for 'American Idol' and then they tune out."

In its place, Fox will announce Thursday it has picked up a sitcom called "The Inn" from "Back to You" writer and Washington, Pa., native Abraham Higginbotham. Levitan said he thinks the network saw "The Inn" as more compatible with "'Til Death" than "Back to You."

"I'm very happy for him. In fact, we helped him with his show, so if it's gonna go to somebody, I'd rather it go to him," Levitan said.

"Back to You" goes out on a high note Wednesday (8:30 p.m., WPGH) with a strong, consistently funny episode about news anchors Chuck Darling (Kelsey Grammer) and Kelly Carr (Patricia Heaton) telling their newsroom colleagues that Chuck is the father of Kelly's daughter, Gracie (Lily Jackson). Their plan is complicated when the station unveils a new promotional campaign with a tag line that becomes a dirty joke with the revelation about Gracie's paternity.

Levitan said the recent recasting of Gracie was the network's call.

"They thought [the first actress] was 'too TV,'" he said, reluctantly, not wanting to hurt the actresses' feelings. "I think the new girl we have is really great and the old girl was really great."

As for the decision to dump weathercaster Montana (Ayda Field), Levitan said they initially cast an Hispanic actress in the part but replaced her the week of filming the pilot last year. He said Field is not Hispanic and producers always intended to reveal Montana wasn't a minority either, which came out in her swan song episode last week.

"Basically, we were having trouble writing for that character," he acknowledged of the decision to phase her out. Their intent was to make the new station manager, Ginger Ko (Suzy Nakamura), a series regular.

"The network really wanted us to bring in another minority character," he said. "We love Ayda, but our cast was a little homogeneous. ... All these changes came from the network, and we did everything they asked us to do, sometimes begrudgingly, but sometimes we thought if we don't do it, it will give them an excuse not to pick us up."

CBS will announce its fall schedule Wednesday, although CBS executives could ponder picking up "Back to You" beyond this week.

"If we had been on Monday nights on CBS at the start, we'd be in a different place right now," Levitan said. "We have bruised shins from kicking ourselves about this all weekend."

Meanwhile, a fan campaign to save the show has begun with a petition and discussion about the campaign on a message board.

In a nod to last year's "Jericho" nuts campaign, fans plan to send bottled water to CBS executives, encouraging them to pick up "Back to You." On last week's episode of the sitcom, the new WURG station manager slashed the budget, including bottled water.

UPDATE: Deadline Hollywood Daily reports a fan memorial was erected outside the Fox studios in L.A. Series star Kelsey Grammer stopped by for a visit.

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The eighth book in author Charlaine Harris' "Southern Vampire" series, "From Dead to Worse" ($24.95, Ace), is now in stores chronicling further adventures of telepathic, Bon Temps, La., barmaid Sookie Stackhouse.

Harris will be in town to sign copies Saturday at 10 a.m. at Mystery Lovers Bookshop, 514 Allegheny River Blvd., in Oakmont.

And coming in the fall, specifically Sept. 7, Harris told me, is the premiere of "True Blood," the new HBO series based on the Sookie novels. I asked Harris about the future of her work on TV.

Rob: What was your first reaction when you heard someone wanted to make the Southern Vampire series into a TV show?

Charlaine Harris: Well, it wasn't the first offer. I'd had others. I'd had a movie option before and when that was about to expire, I had three more choices waiting on the table. The idea wasn't new to me, but when I found out it was Alan Ball, I was very excited.

Rob: Ball created "Six Feet Under" and wrote the film "American Beauty." Were you a fan of those?

CH: Oh, yes.

Rob: What did you think of the casting for the TV series, which stars Anna Paquin as Sookie, Stephen Moyer as Bill Compton, Ryan Kwanten as Jason Stackhouse and Sam Trammell as Sam Merlotte.

CH: Well, some of them I had not heard of before and some of them I was a little surprised, but I thought Alan Ball is an expert at casting. If he thinks they can do it, then they can do it.

Rob: Have you seen the pilot?

CH: Not yet. I'm going to pretty soon, I hope. They're actually filming the eighth episode now. I visisted the set last week.

Rob: What was that like?

CH: It was wonderful. I got to meet a lot of the production people and I got to see how the location area was organized a little bit and got to see Alan again, which is always pleasant because he is the nicest guy. And I got to meet a few of the actors. It was a great day. I filmed an interview with HBO for the "Making of" feature they run before their shows.

Rob: Were you on the set in Los Angeles?

CH: No, they were shooting on location in Lake Bistineau, La.

Rob: Do you have a sense if they'll follow the story you've plotted in the books or if they'll do what "Dexter" did and use the characters but take the story in a different direction?

CH: It's my feeling that they're going to follow the story fairly closely but, of course, the books are in the first person so they're going to have to expand the other characters and invent new things for them to do to fill up the hour.

Rob: If they do follow the books, how much will be covered by the show's first season?

CH: I believe the first book is the first season.

Rob: Did they ask for your input on the scripts?

CH: No, that's not my area of expertise. Alan doesn't tell me how to write my books and I don't tell him how to write scripts.

Rob: When you're in town, will you be reading from your latest book?

CH: Usually I don't do a reading from the book because I hate to do that. I will if people really want me to, but I usually do a question and answer session before a signing.

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Hollywood trades -- Variety, The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline Hollywood Daily -- are reporting that Fox has canceled the Pittsburgh-set sitcom "Back to You" after a single season.

That decision comes as a surprise. Fox renewed lead-in sitcom "'Til Death," even though it got lower ratings. "Back to You" regularly improved on the household ratings of its lead-in.

Despite some midseason tinkering with the cast -- one actress was let go, another role recast -- Fox seemed high on "Back to You," which starred Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton, was created by Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd and was directed by James Burrows. The trades suggest it was those marquee names on-screen and behind-the-scenes that pushed the show's cost up to a point that even its ratings superiority relative to "'Til Death" no longer mattered.

No comment from Fox. I'm attempting to reach Levitan, but not optimistic that he'll be eager to talk about the cancellation.

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I don't think I've ever enjoyed "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" more than the first half of Thursday night's episode, scripted by the writers of the CBS comedy "Two and a Half Men."

I wrote last week about the writers of "Two and a Half Men" and "CSI" trading writing assignments for an episode. Monday's "Two and a Half Men" was OK, but the comedy went down better in the drama than the drama did in the comedy.

"Men" writer Chuck Lorre worked on "Roseanne" and "Cybill" and it's clear he brought his experiences to bear on this script, which begins as knowing fun but veers off into unrestrained Chucklesville before the end.

Annabelle (Katey Sagal) is the nutjob sitcom star who treats her writers and co-star terribly. Rachael Harris plays the co-star Megan Kupowski, which sounds a good bit like "Cybill" co-star Christine Baranski.

Like Roseanne, Annabelle has a dim-witted former bartender boyfriend from middle America (clearly a gloss on Tom Arnold).

All the roman-a-clef stuff works great, but then the bad jokes begin. When the CSI team suspects a writer was hiding in a closet, Nick (George Eads) says, "Looks like a comedy writer came out of the closet."

"I doubt if it's the first time," Catherine (Marg Helgenberger)chimes in.

There are references to "Two and a Half Men" (and a blinked-and-you-missed-it cameo by the show's stars), "Valerie's Family" and a bizarre bit with a mime.

And then there are the puns:

"A mime is a terrible thing to waste."

"What we have here is a failure to coagulate."

"So the clot doesn't thicken but the plot does."

It all began as a successful trade, but by the second half of this week's "CSI," the episode veered wildly off course. Oh well, it was still a fun experiement to watch Lorre exorcise his sitcom diva demons.

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Perhaps it says something about how society is evolving that fans of ABC's "Brothers & Sisters" (10 p.m. Sunday, WTAE) are far less concerned about the gay romance and pending nuptials of Kevin (Matthew Rhys) and Scotty (Luke MacFarlane) than they are about the budding romance between Justin (Dave Annable) and Rebecca (Emily Van Camp), who until recently believed they were half-siblings. Turns out they are not related but they have behaved as if they were for the past year.

Fans are divided into two camps, those who think the idea of romance between these two is icky and those who think it's just swell. Personally, I can see both sides.

As Justin's older brother, Tommy (Balthazar Getty), notes, "It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see you two have connected."

Indeed, the actors have great chemistry and were rumored to be dating off-screen at one point. But the upshot of the writers' decision to not make Rebecca a Walker sort of invalidates much of what viewers invested in last season and requires the writers to jump through still more hoops Sunday with a new revelation that may send the show spinning into even soapier terrain come fall.

I'll admit I had no sympathy when series creator Jon Robin Baitz was let go and vented about his experience working on the show. He comes off as insufferable. In the first season "Brothers & Sisters" surely needed the more accessible and lighter touch executive producer Greg Berlanti brought to it. But I also can't help but think that Baitz would not have allowed the show's plots to veer so far from reality.

He also wouldn't have allowed Saul (Ron Rifkin) to become such an underused character, reduced to a comical coming out in Sunday's season finale.

"God, this is the gayest week of my life," Justin mutters after Saul comes out around the time of Kevin and Scotty's committment ceremony.

Perhaps it's a tribute to Baitz that the Kevin and Scotty story is the most believable and resonant on the show these days. Maybe, for that same reason, their relationship hasn't elicited the hue and cry that's greeting Justin and Rebecca

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What I enjoy most about NBC's "30 Rock" (9:30 tonight, WPXI) is the gonzo glee with which it skewers its targets. Whether it's snooty liberals who decry the spate of reality shows on TV or the ineptitudes of the Bush administration, "30 Rock" shoots down its targets with an impish joy.

In tonight's season finale, all the series regulars get a showcase: Liz (Tina Fey) has a baby mama scare; Kenneth (Jack McBrayer) applies to be a page at the Olympics; Jenna (Jane Krakowski) illustrates "backdoor bragging;" Tracy (Tracy Morgan) continues to develop his pornographic video game and Jack (Alec Baldwin) takes a job in Washington with the Bush administration that doesn't go as planned.

"I don't like to think of this president as a lame duck," Jack tells his new colleague, Cooter (Matthew Broderick). "I like to think of him as a lame eagle."

The Jack story has the most pointed jokes about administration denials of the obvious. Water drips into Jack's office, but Cooter says there's no leak ("I'll show you the study!"). When Jack complains that no one in the office has pens, Cooter gets defensive, saying quickly, "We're not in a recession!"

"30 Rock" is the sharpest satire in prime time (and before "The Daily Show").

But here's what I want to know: Why don't you watch "30 Rock"? Judging by the ratings, few viewers are tuning in (although it's been renewed for next season). Did you try it and decide you don't like it? If so, what don't you like? Or are you just too tied to "CSI" or "Grey's Anatomy" to give "30 Rock" a chance?

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