There’s big news today on The Cleveland Show front. First up, Arianna Huffington, author and syndicated columnist, is joining the cast as the wife of Cleveland’s new neighbor Tim the Bear. Arianna Huffington is one of the most forceful voices of the left and now the voice of a talking bear as a recurring role! Despite some earlier doubts, it looks as though Seth MacFarlane is still set to voice Tim. Arianna Huffington joins a cast that includes Mike Henry, Sanaa Lathan, Nia Long, and Kevin Michael Richardson.
The other big story is that Fox have increased its order of episodes to a full 22-episode season. This is a real testament to Fox’s confidence in Seth MacFarlane, Mike Henry, and the show as a whole; usually a show would have to prove itself with huge ratings before being increased to a full season, but The Cleveland Show has achieved this before even hitting the airwaves.
Fox have confirmed that the spin-off has been pushed back to fall 2009 as we previously reported on Friday. With a full-season ordered this is possibly to ensure a full run of The Cleveland Show as part of Fox’s Animation Domination Sunday night line-up, and helps drum up a bit of hype for the new spin-off.