Woodard moves to Wisteria Lane; Spike shows up in Smallville.

Here’s the latest (some of them spoilers, so beware) on crucial developments and cast changes on several highly anticipated returning shows — though of course, we wouldn’t dream of revealing every single morsel of news. Still, here are a few tantalizing tidbits for those who want to be in the know.

Everwood, 9 p.m. Sept. 29 on WBZL-Ch. 39, WTCN-Ch. 43: Bright Abbott (Chris Pratt) gets two new roommates, Ephram Brown (Gregory Smith), and a medical student named Reid Bardem (Justin Baldoni), who may turn out to be a love interest for Amy Abbott (Emily VanCamp).

Boston Legal, 10 p.m. Sept. 27 on WSVN-Ch. 7, WFLX-Ch. 29: Rupert Everett and Heather Locklear guest-star for two episodes when the series returns, and there are casting shakeups as well: Rhona Mitra and Monica Potter are gone, and Ed’s Julie Bowen, as well as newcomers Justin Mentell and Ryan Michelle Bathe, join the legal team at Crane, Poole and Schmidt.

NCIS, 8 p.m. Tuesday on WFOR-Ch. 4, WPEC-Ch. 12: Lauren Holly joins the cast for a multi-episode arc; she’ll play the new NCIS boss, who’s trying to keep a lid on the fact that she and Mark Harmon’s character have had a romance in the past.

The Amazing Race, 9 p.m. Sept. 27 on WFOR-Ch. 4, WPEC-Ch. 12: CBS finally unveils the eagerly anticipated new family version of the show. Teams will be composed of four relatives, some of them children.

America’s Next Top Model, 8 p.m. Wednesday on WBFS-Ch. 33, WTVX-Ch. 34: Caustic supermodel Janice Dickinson won’t be returning as a judge; Brit waif Twiggy might just have a bit of trouble filling Dickinson’s towering stilettos.

Las Vegas, 9 p.m. Monday on WPTV-Ch. 5, WTVJ-Ch. 6: Lara Flynn Boyle joins the cast as a high-living casino owner.

Lost, 9 p.m. Wednesday on WPLG-Ch. 10, WPBF-Ch. 25: We’ll find out what’s in the hatch, thank goodness. Count on Julie Bowen to return for one episode as Jack’s wife, and Michelle Rodriguez, who guested last season, also will be back. Joining the cast as new island residents are Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje from Oz and Sarah Watrous from The Drew Carey Show. And there’s this to look forward to: Co-creator Damon Lindelof told TV Guide that "By the finale of Season 2, you will know why the plane crashed."

Desperate Housewives, 9 p.m. Sept. 25 on WPLG-Ch. 10, WPBF-Ch. 25: Richard Burgi, who plays Susan’s ex, will have a more prominent role on the show, but the star attraction this fall will be Alfre Woodard, Wisteria Lane’s newest resident and someone with — who’d have thunk it? — a lot to hide. "My son and I have a lot of baggage with us and, it’s not just the stuff that we were unloading from the car," Woodard told Eonline.com. "And it might make a few people’s hair stand on end when they’re watching! There’s something very provocative that happens at the very end of the first episode, and that’s the thing that’ll make you go, `Whooooaa!’ It plays out over months."

Alias, 8 p.m. Sept. 29 on WPBF-Ch. 25, WPLG-Ch.10: Jennifer Garner (for those of you who have been living under a rock for the last year) married Ben Affleck during the summer and is due to give birth to a baby in a few months. Garner’s pregnancy will be written into the narrative (on the show, Michael Vaughn is the father), and Balthazar Getty and Rachel Nichols of Fox’s The Inside join the cast as a new undercover agent and CIA analyst, respectively. Exiting the show is Greg Grunberg, who played Agent Eric Weiss. And, if Internet scuttlebutt is to be believed, Michael Vartan, who plays Vaughn, may be leaving too — that’s the possibility the fans at www.mvcampaign.com are protesting.

Joey, 8 p.m. Thursday on WPTV-Ch. 5, WTVJ-Ch. 6: Joey will have a new pal, a fellow actor named Zach, who’ll be played by Miguel Nunez Jr., and Joey will get cast in a big summer movie. Hilarity will no doubt ensue.

Smallville, 8 p.m. Sept. 29 on WBZL-Ch. 39, WTCN-Ch. 43: Guest star Tom Wopat will rejoin his former Dukes of Hazzard co-star John Schneider for one episode of this superhero-in-training drama, and Buffy cult favorite James Marsters (he played the vampire Spike) will have a multi-episode arc as the evil Brainiac.

Numb3rs, 10 p.m. Friday on WFOR-Ch. 4, WPEC-Ch. 12: Diane Farr, the lone female firefighter on Rescue Me, joins this CBS drama when it returns, replacing Sabrina Lloyd, who left the show just before it ended its spring run.

ER, 10 p.m. Thursday on WPTV-Ch. 5, WTVJ-Ch. 6: Sherry Stringfield, who was set to appear in only a handful of episodes this season, will not return to ER, making a second exit from the veteran medical drama. Her place will no doubt be taken by some earnest young person whose name we won’t be able to remember from week to week.

Grey’s Anatomy,10 p.m. Sept. 25 on WPLG-Ch.10, WPBF-Ch. 25: There will be more shenanigans among Meredith Grey, her hot doc lover and his wife, but there’s also this tidbit on CBS’s Grey’s Anatomy Web site: "Dr. Richard Webber, Seattle Grace’s paternal but no-nonsense chief of surgery ... harbors some secrets of his own concerning Meredith’s mother." Dun-dun-dun!

Law & Order: Criminal Intent, 9 p.m. Sept. 25 on WPTV-Ch. 5, WTVJ-Ch. 6: This year, the crime-fighting duo of Chris Noth and Annabella Sciorra will appear in half of the 22 episodes; Vincent D’Onofrio and Kathryn Erbe will star in the other 11 episodes.

The West Wing, 8 p.m. Sept. 25 on WPTV-Ch. 5, WTVJ-Ch. 6: Jimmy Smits and Alan Alda return as presidential candidates Matthew Santos and Arnold Vinick; producers reportedly haven’t decided yet which side (Santos is a Democrat and Vinick’s a Republican) will win. Perhaps a rumored live debate between the candidates will help the bigwigs decide who ends up in the White House.

Veronica Mars, 9 p.m. Sept. 28 on WBFS-Ch. 33, WTVX-Ch. 34: New cast members promise to shake things up on this critically acclaimed detective show. Charisma Carpenter — an alumna of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, like previous Mars guest star Alyson Hannigan — joins the cast as a trophy wife named Kendall Casablancas (love the name), and Steve Guttenberg comes aboard as a mayoral candidate.