'Glee': No nationals this season, tour coming together

"Glee" spent 13 episodes before the show choir at McKinley High School got to its first big competition, and it's not going to rush things when it comes back either.

Co-creator Ryan Murphy said Monday (Jan. 18) that the remaining nine episodes of the season will focus on New Directions' preparations for the regionals -- where they'll come up against their nemesis, Vocal Adrenaline.

"The back nine is the road to regionals, and the last episode, the finale, is regionals," Murphy told reporters on a visit to the show's set. Nationals, if the glee club makes it that far, would come into the picture in season 2, he says. Vocal Adrenaline won't make it easy: Murphy also says that an earlier allusion to Adrenaline cheating to win will come back around in the second half of the season.

"Oh yeah. We have a line bout them using human growth hormone -- anything to win," he says. "Sue [Jane Lynch] should be coaching them. They're ruthless, and that's the fun about them. Half of them are probably 25."

- The show will be off the air for the summer, but fans will get a chance to see the "Glee" cast live on tour.

Murphy first mentioned the tour in the fall, and he says that plans for it are coming together. An announcement of dates and locations could come in the next few weeks.

The show finishes filming in April, and the cast could hit the road by June.

- Jennifer Lopez may be on "Glee" this season, but a deal isn't done yet.

Murphy says he's meeting with Lopez soon, and she's a fan of the show, but nothing is settled yet. He reiterated that he'd love to have her play "a really great cafeteria lady that Kurt [Chris Colfer] makes over into like a Susan Boyle sensation or something."

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Photo credit: FOX