The Ausiello Files: January 23, 2008

House cures its ''Chameron'' problem

Jennifer Morrison and Jesse Spencer's HMO must have finally caved, because next season — at long last — the in-love Drs. Cameron and Chase will once again be making regular rounds on House.

''Significant, potentially game-changing stuff [occurs] in the last half-dozen episodes this season,'' hints executive producer David Shore. As a result, the actors — who have only popped up sporadically in far-flung corners of the hospital since Dr. Crankypants fired them and hired new underlings — will be reintegrated in a big way. ''I haven't been happy with [their lack of face time],'' says Shore. ''The quality is still there, it's the quantity I'd like to see more of.''

He'll get no argument from ''Chameron'' fans, many of whom have taken their frustration out on Olivia Wilde's Thirteen, because they feel she's shanghaied the show with her romance with Foreman (Omar Epps) and struggle with Huntington's disease. (They've even taken to deriding House as ''The Thirteen Hour.'') ''It's unfair,'' says Shore. ''One definitely has nothing to do with the other.''

For her part, Morrison admits that although the last two years have been creatively...er, stifling, she never doubted that her patient load would grow. ''There was a point at which Robert Sean Leonard wasn't working very much, then by the end of season 4 he was in every scene,'' she muses. ''So there are always going to be ebbs and flows in terms of how much we're all working.'' Spencer, meanwhile, is more blunt: ''It's due time that they brought us back in more often.''

ASK AUSIELLO

Q: I'm looking for a juicy Jim/Pam spoiler. Can you help me? —Kayla
A: I can indeed. The Office's Jenna Fischer tells me that there are ''some big Jim and Pam moments'' in the post-Super Bowl episode on Feb. 1. ''Pam gets some news that's pretty shocking, and it's something she and Jim have to deal with together,'' she teases. Rumor has it that ''something'' concerns Pam's never-before-seen father.

Q: Is it true that Melissa George is leaving Grey's Anatomy? —Joel
A: It is true, but the reason is a little murky. A Grey's insider insists George's exit was a creative decision made by the producers, adding that her arc as Mer's maybe-gay BFF will come to ''a natural end'' later this season. But George claims she checked herself out. ''It was my choice,'' she says. ''I love the show so much, [but] I want to do something else.'' In other Grey's news, Mommie Dearest herself, Faye Dunaway, drops in this February as a renowned Seattle Grace doc.

Q: Got any good intel on Heroes, specifically Sylar? —Edward
A: The forthcoming ''Fugitives'' arc will introduce the baddie's real father, played by Smallville's John Glover. ''He was the perfect choice,'' gushes TV son Zachary Quinto. ''The only downside was that we shot our scenes outside in a tarpaulin shack and it was pouring rain for two days, so we were literally slogging through mud. The logistics weren't that great, but the experience was. It traded off in the end.''