Connie Britton Joins ‘American Crime Story’

Connie Britton joins American Crime Story
The American Horror Story alum will reunite with Ryan Murphy, playing Nicole Brown Simpson’s friend Faye Resnick (who’s now famous for Real Housewives of Beverly Hills) on FX’s O.J. Simpson trial miniseries.

Empire had the highest-rated freshman season finale since Grey’s Anatomy in 2005
About 21.1 million watched last week’s episode, with some DVR viewership counted.

Mad Men unveils the Don Draper Bench in NYC
Fans can now take a selfie with Don at the temporary bench in front of the Time-Life Building at the corner of Mad Men Avenue and Don Draper Way. PLUS: Bryan Cranston offered Jon Hamm advice on how to let his iconic character go, and Jessica Paré welcomes a baby boy.

Contractor sues over To Catch a Contractor
Jeff Dillman is suing Spike TV, alleging “fraud, false imprisonment, defamation and violation of right to name or likeness.”

Poll: Fictional TV presidents are more popular than Obama
24‘s David Palmer holds an 89% approval rating, while The West Wing‘s Jed Bartlet was rated favorably by 82% — and even Frank Underwood topped Obama with 57% approval rating, according to a Reuters-Ipsos poll

Why San Francisco is hosting tonight’s Game of Thrones U.S. premiere
HBO wanted to connect its hit series with the tech industry especially with the launch of HBO Go. PLUS: Check out the Durham Bulls’ GoT uniforms.

Jimmy Kimmel teams with Chelsea Clinton on a “Serve a Year” initiative
Clinton will be on Kimmel tonight to announce the initiative encouraging young people to serve their communities for a year after high school or college.

Nashville announces tour dates, lineup
The eight-city spring tour kicks off April 29 from NYC.

Cleveland Browns are said to be the Hard Knocks frontrunners
The Browns are one of a few select teams eligible for the HBO series.

Parenthood boss’ next TV series lands on Hulu
Jason Katims is producing The Way, about “a family at the center of a controversial faith-based movement struggling with relationships, marriage and power.”

Jeremy Renner will tell the story of Friday the 13th with History channel’s Knights of Templar series
Knightfall will dramatize the “persecution, downfall and burning at the stake of the Knights of Templar on Friday the 13th, 1307.”

In Season 4, Girls grew past its quarter-life crisis
This season seemed headed down the drain after the first four episodes. But midway through the season, says Drew Grant, Lena Dunham’s series “did something remarkable. It not only got back it’s wit, spirit and arch brilliance, but it did what no other season had yet managed to do: show these characters actually developing into functional, loving, flawed-but-at-least-trying, adult humans.” PLUS: Order and sense reasserted themselves in the season finale, Girls finally figured out how to make Hannah grow up, and the characters’ wardrobes grew up, too.

Maron returns May 14
“The stakes have never been higher” for Marc Maron in Season 3 of his IFC series.

Smash‘s Krysta Rodriguez brings her cancer battle to Chasing Life
The actress, who revealed last month she’s been battling breast cancer, will play a cancer patient who befriends April in the hospital.

Why Looking has had trouble breaking out
The HBO series about gay friends in San Francisco is unlike its Sunday HBO neighbors Girls and Togetherness. It “never trafficked in big gestures,” says Andy Greenwald. “It is a proudly small-bore show that mines the intricacies of interpersonal relationships for maximum effect.” PLUS: Looking is hurt by being too real, HBO can only renew Looking out of the goodness of its heart, and creator Michael Lannan on the finale and being cautiously optimistic about renewal.