News Round-up: Zano, Dattilo, Santer, Kirkwood, McClain

EASTENDERS' executive producer Diederick Santer being replaced with HOLLYOAKS' Bryan Kirkwood
EASTENDERS executive producer, Diederick Santer, is to leave the BBC1 soap after more than three years, with HOLLYOAKS senior executive Bryan Kirkwood signed up to take over in the new year.

Santer, who sits on the board of BBC drama production, has been executive producer of the BBC1 show since October 2006. He will exit in February, after EASTENDERS celebrates its 25th anniversary.

Kirkwood spent three years producing Channel 4's HOLLYOAKS. Since late 2008 he has been producing spin-off HOLLYOAKS LATER. He previously spent a decade working on ITV's hit drama CORONATION STREET as a storyliner.

Dattilo puts smarts on line for charity
Is Bryan Dattilo smarter than a fifth-grader? Viewers of the television program ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A 5TH GRADER? are about to find out. The Kankakee native plays the daunting role of the adult contestant, facing the panel of 11-year-olds. The show allows him to earn money for "Autism Speaks," a charity with a special family connection: His 9-year-old son, Gabe, is coping with autism.

INTERVIEW: MELROSE PLACE's Nick Zano
"He’s a person who enjoys life. He lives every day to [its fullest]… I just literally walked out of a meeting with [exec producers] Darren Swimmer and Todd Slavkin. They were very specific about how they’re going to change the direction of the show. In TV, you usually don’t get a chance to fix anything. It’s always easier to cancel something than fix it. And The CW clearly has a passion for the show, because it’s still on the air. And all of these people are making a very concentrated effort to improve the show and I’m happy to be a part of it."

Morgan Freeman down with Dirty
Warner Bros. is pre-emptively picking up an untitled comedy spec by Josh Cagan and Greg Coolidge to which former ANOTHER WORLD actor Morgan Freeman is attached to star and Peter Segal is eyeing to direct. The script, which had a working title of Dirty Old Men, revolves around an aging playboy who finally meets the love of his life and his best friend and wingman for the past 40 years (Freeman) who does everything to break up the new couple

TNT Adds NBC's SOUTHLAND
TNT has picked up NBC's SOUTHLAND, which was cancelled by the network before the launch of its second season. The cable net will have rights to the seven episodes of the police drama that aired last season, and another six un-aired installments shot for this season. Starting in January, the show will run on Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on the cable channel, which is co-owned with Southland producer Warner Bros. Television. TNT will wait to see how the show performs before making a decision about whether to order new installments.

VIDEO: A Look Back at DALLAS
Harry Smith of THE CBS EARLY SHOW takes a time machine back to 1979 when DALLAS ruled the airwaves.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW: EDGE/AMC/OLTL actress Pamela Donnelly
Donnelly is starring in "Polyester The Musical" at the Actors Forum Theatre in North Hollywood.

INTERVIEW: ATWT's Cady McClain (Rosanna)
"I think there are a lot of other issues that can be dealt with in an interesting and unique way, and people would tune in for that. The Luke and Noah story is freaking huge. And now they have a gay story one One Life to Live. It's about time. I still wonder, though, where are all the Black people? There are no Chinese people. There are no Jews. Why aren't they represented? Not everybody's a Protestant -- not that there's anything wrong with it. The United States is made up of a lot of other kinds of people. Again, I think it's condescending to have your token Asian person or token African-American person. Families interacting, dealing with each other. The melting pot. Everybody has the same dream. White trash and the rich. Culture clashes. That's the stuff that makes up daytime TV and the stuff daytime can do better than primetime."