Highlights of the Week

• In my house, baseball is still the American pastime, and this year the All-Star Game is in my backyard. (FOX, Tue. 8pm ET).
• HBO offers up Teddy: In His Own Words, proving that there’s more to Ted Kennedy than booze … or there isn’t. Really, it could go either way. (Mon. 9pm).
• Jerry Bruckheimer takes us deep undercover with his new cop series Dark Blue, featuring Dylan McDermott. (TNT, Wed. 10pm).
• Comedy Central takes another stab at stand-up comedy with Michael & Michael Have Issues, featuring Michael Ian Black and Michael Showalter, putting on a fake comedy sketch series and having issues. Obviously. (Wed. 10pm)
• Call in sick if you have to and get up early for the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards Nominations (E!, Thu. 8:30am). Other awards include the 2009 ESPYs (ESPN, Sun. 9pm) and the AFI Life Achievement Award awarded to Michael Douglas (TV Land, Sun. 9pm).
• Graham Norton brings his British humor and charm to WE’s first foray into game show territory. Most Popular is based on first impressions with the audience voting people off; the first before any of the contestants can even speak. (Sun. 10pm).
• To try and capture a piece of Harry Potter magic, ABC gives us J.K. Rowling: A Year in the Life. Read the rest of this entry »

The Biography Channel

8:00p/7:00 Central

• Pull on your bulletproof vest and tune into the BET’s Hip Hop Awards ‘08. Actually, hopefully there won’t be any shootings at this one. The Rays are shooting themselves that they blew game one against the Phillies, but there’s always World Series Game 2 tonight on FOX to even things up.
• One contestant suffers a breakdown and food struggles continue on CBS’s Survivor: Gabon.
• Can Earl avoid being a snitch on NBC’s My Name is Earl? After that, on Kath & Kim, Kath starts planning her wedding, Kim tells her she’s too old for a fancy shindig and then both suspect their significant others of having affairs. Is this show clicking for you? It’s still a little weird for me. If you’d rather flip over to Lifetime there’s yet another Rita Rocks on. For the record, this will be a Tuesday night show once this week-long premiere ends.
• Would you rather see Lindsay Lohan return to ABC’s Ugly Betty? She needs Betty’s help to find a job. Maybe TV will work for the Lohan until she can get her shit together more. Or, on The CW’s Smallville, a serial killer may be meteor-infected (hey, remember when that was every week!). It may be Davis, too. Gasp!

Read the rest of this entry »

ABC

8:00p/7:00 Central

• The Tampa Bay Rays for the first time ever head into the World Series Game 1 and face off against the Philadelphia Phillies.
• Tonight, the ladies shoot a Cover Girl commercial on America’s Next Top Model over on The CW. At the half-hour, yet another new Rita Rocks on Life time.
• The Discovery Channel offers two new opportunities to learn how stuff look in slo-mo with two new Time Warp episodes.  Or MyNetwork TV offers up another new The Tony Rock Project.
• Mike and KITT race to stop a dam explosion on NBC’s Knight Rider, while David Arquette guests in a new Pushing Daisies on ABC, which also features an appearance by Emerson’s mom.
• CBS’s Wednseday night comedy block starts with Christine trying to convince Richard to have another baby with her now that Ritchie doesn’t want to say “I love you” anymore on The New Adventures of Old Christine. Then, Gary Unmarried watches in horror as his ex and his current start to become too chummy.

Read the rest of this entry »

We

8:00p/7:00 Central

• The ALCS Game 4 gets under way on TBS with Tampa Bay now on a roll and in control, up two games to one. But if baseball’s not your thing, maybe you’d rather watch the contestants of NBC’s The Biggest Loser face the longest challenge in show history, from sunup to sundown. For other competition fare, ABC’s Opportunity Knocks visits “The Long Island Brady Bunch,” a brood with nine children.
• Scripted options include a new Lincoln Heights on ABC Family wherein the family reels after a shooting. You can follow that up with BBC America’s Gavin & Stacey at 8:40p/7:40 Central in which the couple returns from their honeymoon and Nessa’s secret is finally revealed. Yeah, I said this was on last week, but BBC America bumped the schedule a week so it’s on tonight instead.
• Gibbs learns more about his past on CBS’s NCIS as a murder case leads to the town he grew up in. Ralph Waite guests as his father. Meanwhile, over on FOX’s House, the titular doctor’s father dies and as he reluctantly goes to the funeral we learn how he and Wilson first met. Oh, and someone almost dies and is saved at the last second.

Read the rest of this entry »

Fox Reality Channel

3:00p/2:00 Central

• It’s SEC College Football Saturday on CBS as they offer up two back-to-back battles. First up we’ve got Tennessee at Georgia (11) kicking off at 3:30p/2:30 Central.

7:00p/6:00 Central

• The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series returns to prime time on ABC at 7:30p/6:30 Central with the Bank of America 500 at the Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte, NC.

Read the rest of this entry »

NBC

8:00p/7:00 Central

• FOX programming goes on hiatus for a while now as the baseball postseason finally comes to the major networks. Well, the NLCS at least. The ALCS, starting tomorrow, is still on TBS. Tonight’s NLCS Game 1 features the Dodgers taking on the Phillies.
• NBC premieres their new Thursday night October line-up, starting with a familiar face as David Arquette guests on My Name is Earl as an injured stuntman Earl wronged. Then, the premiere of the much hyped and critically acknowledged Kath & Kim. It’s the story of a mother and daughter starring Molly Shannon as the mother and Selma Blair as the daughter. Never mind that the actresses are the same age, the UK original did that, too.
• An accident brings the police in and the detective skills of Ugly Betty out on ABC. Meanwhile, Smallville goes for the obscure bringing in DC character (even the network couldn’t call her a DC star) Maxima.
• CBS’s Survivor: Gabon goes a little early in forcing the castaways to reveal how they feel about one another by having the tribes rank each other in order of importance.

Read the rest of this entry »

MMA

6:00p/5:00 Central

• Tonight’s another baseball twofer, and the National League Division Series may both wrap-up in sweep fashion. First up, Philadelphia looks to put a nail in the coffin of the Brewers World Series hopes in the NLDS Game 3.

8:00p/7:00 Central

• As I’m from the St. Louis area, the story of Shawn Hornbeck’s shocking rescue and recovery after his disappearance for years was followed pretty closely. While he’s been mostly quiet since, recouping with family, he’ll be speaking out for the first time about his captivity on CBS’s 48 Hours Mystery.
• FOX sticks to its guns as it has for two decades, offering up back-to-back Cops. And ABC goes with the old standby of Saturday Night College Football. Let’s face it, nobody’s at home watching TV on Saturdays anymore. That’s why MyNetwork TV is having movie night at home with Walking Tall.
• So is there a difference between A&E’s Flip This House and TLC’s Flip That House? Other than one word? It seems to me like it’s the same show. I would have at least tried to get a little more creative with the name. After that, tune into (gasp!) another design show, Over Designed, featuring someone who’s obsessed with an “African King” motif.

Read the rest of this entry »