Ricardo Chavira's Desperate Housewives character Carlos is to be rendered blind for half of the upcoming new season of the hit show.

The programme leaps five years when it returns to U.S. TV screens for a fifth season at the end of September - and Chavira's character will appear as a grey-bearded sightless father of two.

But he won't be blind for long - series creator Marc Cherry insists Eva Longoria Parker's TV husband will regain his sight later in the season.