TV Quick Hits: ‘The Americans’ season 3 confirmed; ‘The View’ reunion, Stephen Colbert chatter

“The Americans” to return – This news was inevitable, based on what we heard from FX’s John Landgraf last week at the upfront. “The Americans” has been officially renewed for a third season.

The ratings for this show are not exactly a home run, but it’s quality. When you are trying to build hits, sometimes you need to give them time to grow and improve. This is a philosophy that a network like FX seems to have, and we’ve also seen it from HBO and at times AMC (though the ratings were too terrible for “Low Winter Sun” for it to have another chance).

The next season of “The Americans” will air in early 2015.

“The View” reunion – Before Barbara Walters stops enjoying “The View,” she’ll be getting a little help from her old friends. On Thursday, May 15, which is her penultimate day before her retirement, Barbara will be joined by all of her former panelists from the show. This means that everyone from Joy Behar to Lisa Ling, Debbie Matenopoulos, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Meredith Vieira, and even Rosie O’Donnell (whose time on the show was relatively brief) will all be back to wish her well. That’s a nice gesture from the women in the show’s past, and it also leaves May 16 to be all about Barbara. We’re sure there will be all sorts of surprises saved for that.

Bill O’Reilly on Stephen Colbert’s CBS gig – Ironically, the news about “The View” isn’t over yet. While appearing on the show today, O’Reilly continued to be critical of CBS hiring the “Colbert Report” host following comments on his Fox News program that Stephen has already alienated 40% of his potential audience with his liberal leanings and satire. This time around, he simply added that Stephen needs to step up his game:

“In order for Colbert to succeed, he’s got to be better than [Fallon and Kimmel]. His show’s got to be better … That’s going to be very, very tough because Kimmel and Fallon are good. I’ve been on both of their programs; I’ve seen what they do, they’re good. So, Colbert’s going to have to come out of his little persona, where he snipes and he makes these little, snarky remarks and he’s got to be broader. That’s not going to be easy for him to do.”

We still feel like O’Reilly still feels awkward about the fact that Stephen has basically been spoofing him for almost a decade now.