Notes from the TCA Panel (spoilers!)

Chuck‘s TCA panel was this morning, featuring Josh Schwartz, Zachary Levi, Joshua Gomez, Sarah Lancaster and Adam Baldwin. Here’s a news round up:

From BuddyTV:

When Chuck returns, it will come back with a slew of guest stars. At the TCA press tour, creator Josh Schwartz previewed how season 2 will begin and provided some scintillating details about Nicole Richie’s guest appearance.

Schwartz said that season 2 will open with guest star Michael Clarke Duncan dangling Chuck (Zachary Levi) out a window, which segues into Chuck telling the tale of how he came to be in such a precarious predicament, providing plenty of time for exposition to catch people up. This was important because, as he described it, the show has been off the air for several years and even the fans may have forgotten what happened.

As for Richie’s character, she’s Sarah’s high school rival who will be showing up in the fourth episode as Sarah brings Chuck to her high school reunion. In addition, Richie’s character husband is played by Ben Savage, star of Boy Meets World. The episode will also feature a big fight scene in the high school’s locker room shower between Richie and Yvonne Strahovski that Schwartz promised will be quite wet.

Schwartz also mentioned season 2 will deal with the government completion of the new Intersect and Chuck’s expendability, with Casey (Adam Baldwin) put in charge of dealing with Chuck.

In terms of ratings, Schwartz also pointed out that young people are watching shows online more frequently, saying the kids going off to college don’t even bring TVs, just their laptops. He said that we live in a post-Nielsen world and “Ratings no longer necessarily reflect the success of a show.”

When asked about the fact that Schwartz’s two shows, Chuck and Gossip Girl, will be airing at the same time this Fall, he was optimistic, simply happy to have two shows on the air, though he did try everything he could to convince the networks not to do it. Zachary Levi took a joking tone about the competition, saying “People that are really into Gossip Girl will watch Gossip Girl, and the people that are really into Chuck…will leave us for Gossip Girl.” Continuing the humor, Schwartz promised a job on Gossip Girl for Levi.