Exclusive 'Chuck' boss on who's in, who's out, and what's next!

I don’t know about you, but NBC’s official renewal of Chuck has been the highlight of upfront week for me. (ABC’s cancellation of According to Jim finishes a very close second.) But it’s time to bring the victory celebrations to a close and get down to business — the business of asking questions. Will a tighter budget lead to a less awesome (and populated) show? Does the massive Subway deal mean an end to Sarah’s yogurt shop? Will the midseason launch kill the show’s momentum? Will Chuck and Sarah start dating for real? Will exec producer Josh Schwartz answer all of these and then some in the following exclusive Q&A? I can tackle that last one: Yes!

NBC said the show’s budget will remain unchanged from last season. I’m hearing different. What’s the deal?
JOSH SCHWARTZ: I can tell you that [Warner Bros.] asked us to make budget cuts to meet a decrease in the NBC license fee. That’s how it was presented to me. That’s as far as I know. My job is to then be able to produce the show at the number the studio is able to deficit it for.

How will the cuts affect what we see?
SCHWARTZ: Hopefully, you won’t be able to tell. I don’t think the look
of the show is going to change. We might have certain episodes where
Chuck’s mission is such that we don’t get the opportunity to go to the
Buy More [as much]. We love our cast and, obviously, we want to use
them as much as possible in as many episodes as possible.

I heard Julia Ling [Anna] might not return. True?
SCHWARTZ: No. We have plans for Anna to return.

Has she been taken off contract?
SCHWARTZ: We actually haven’t finalized all of our actor deals yet.
It’s all being sorted out. But, like I said, we’re going to do whatever
we can to try to keep the ensemble together.

Will the show’s central trio be in every episodes?
SCHWARTZ: Yes. Chuck, Sarah, and Casey are in all episodes.

Will Sarah be working at a Subway next season?
SCHWARTZ: [Laughs] You
know, I don’t know the full details of the Subway integration yet.
I know it will be significant. Chuck is a show that happens to be well
positioned for effortless product integration, especially because Chuck
works at an electronics shop in a strip mall. If Sarah or someone
worked at a Subway it would hopefully be no more intrusive or
unrealistic than Liz Lemon working at NBC.

Are you concerned at all about the show being off the air for 10 months?
SCHWARTZ: It was really a tough choice that the network faced: Put us
on Friday or [hold us until] midseason. I really believe Chuck is the
little show that could. Our fans are clearly passionate, clearly loyal,
and hopefully all we’ll do is get them more and more [excited] for our
return. And we’ll come up with fun ways of stoking the fans throughout
the fall. We also have something very, very fun planned for Comic-Con
this year.

How about a season 3 spoiler in honor of the show’s renewal?
SCHWARTZ: The biggest thing, obviously, will be dealing with the
ramifications of how we ended the season. What does it mean for Chuck
[and] how will it manifest itself? And I think for anyone who is
concerned that he’s no longer going to be the Everyman, or an
accidental hero, fear not.

Will Chuck and Sarah start the season off as a full-fledged couple?
SCHWARTZ: I don’t want to give anything away, but obviously, Chuck
having the Intersect in his head will severely complicate their ability
to be a couple. Oh, here’s something: Look for… [the rest of this
answer will run in this week's Ask Ausiello, posting tonight.]

Really? For who?
SCHWARTZ: [The rest of this answer will run in this week's Ask Ausiello, posting tonight].

Male or female?
SCHWARTZ: Gosh, isn’t it more fun to tease?

I guess.
SCHWARTZ: Teasing is what you’re good at.

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