new summer show roundup

Though the summer isn’t bringing any break out shows that are a must to Tune In for , there’s enough new fluff out there for almost everyone to find something to occupy their time or at least Stay Tuned to see if it comes into its own. For the rest of you there’s always Netflix, or I guess you could turn off your tv and go outside… crazy talk…

  • 18 to Life (CW) Tune Out – Next door neighbors, young love, totally opposite families does not always equal hilarity, there just isn’t anything fresh about the situation or characters.
  • The Big C (Show) Stay Tuned – Aug 16, always worth checking out a new Showtime series, though clearly cancer is depressing, that rarely stops good drama.
  • The Bridge (CBS) Canceled – This latest Canadian import tried to bring us a sweeping drama of a regular cop taking care of police corruption, almost an interesting show but the over the top presentation of our hero and his moral choices just didn’t quite gel.
  • Children’s Hospital (Toon/Adult Swim) Stay Tuned – A web series import, has lots of perfect over the top comedy mocking all things medical drama, but what’re moments of hilarity may or may not make a sustainable series.
  • Covert Affairs (USA) Stay Tuned – She may not be the next Sydney Bristow but she’s close enough for me to tune in to see the latest caper, her support team who we may or may not trust, and of course the mystery of the lost love.
  • The Gates (ABC) Tune Out – Pull every cliched device, vampires, werewolves, witches, and of course murder, into a private community with a new big city police detective in charger and… apparently I’ll stop tuning in, not good enough or good/bad enough to be cheesy fun.
  • The Glades (A&E) Stay Tuned – Another fish out of water detective show, big city cop hits Florida and tells us he doesn’t play by the rules, but he closes cases and has a smarmy charm that no one is sure whether to buy or not, I’m engaged enough with the characters and the detecting.
  • The Good Guys (Fox) Tune Out – The latest odd couple buddy cops are almost interesting enough to keep me watching but the cases and the characters just didn’t do it, and I have to say the fine line between bumbling and successful is hard to walk, do these simple cases really turn into the big mysteries that they solve each week?
  • Haven (Syfy) Tune Out – It may be based on Stephen King’s Colorado Kid, but what it is seems to be the supernatural freak of the week mystery, of course set in small town up state New England, and the lead isn’t quite charismatic enough for me to care about her personal slant.
  • Hot in Cleveland (TVLand) Tune Out – The ladies from sitcoms gone by aren’t delving into any new territory or cutting edge laughs, but it doesn’t sound like anything more than that is needed, and the laughs are reportedly from a genuine studio audience.
  • Huge (ABCFam) Stay Tuned – I caught the first show of this and it’s not a bad family show, and I have to give it some extra credit for trying to show more than one kind of ‘fat’ kid, but it wasn’t either good enough or cheesy enough to make me tune back in, not necessarily a fault for an ABC Family show.
  • Louie (Fx) Stay Tuned – Louis CK does a Seinfeld-esque show, where he plays himself as a stand up comedian, showing some comedy and some slice of life, the difference is that both are dirtier and much more awkward than Seinfeld, he’s funny but after each show I can’t quite love it.
  • Melissa & Joey (ABCFam) Stay Tuned – Aug 17, this kind of looks like Who’s the Boss.
  • Memphis Beat (TNT) Tune Out – I’m a Jason Lee fan, and I do think he’s got the charisma to pull off one of these quirky detective roles, but the characters here and the show overall just couldn’t keep me engaged.
  • Persons Unknown (NBC) Stay Tuned – This series of folks kidnapped and trapped in a fake town, and their less interesting counterparts in the outside world trying to find out more, will undoubtedly be a mystery that is unfullfillingly resolved, but with the summer miniseries format I’m just hoping they resolve it.
  • Pretty Little Liars (ABCFam) Stay Tuned – I’m a sucker for a good cheesy soapy teen drama, and this one is cheesy and soapy enough to make up for the fact that it’s maybe not all that good, even though only half of the teens look young enough to be in high school, I keep tuning it to see whose secrets will be revealed next.
  • Rizzoli & Isles (TNT) Stay Tuned – The summer trend continues with more detectives, one is tough as nails detective and the other is maybe pays too much attention to her nails coroner, though not elevating the genre, Angie Harmon gets enough to do to keep it interesting.
  • Rubicon (AMC) Stay Tuned – This conspiracy series set in the world of code cracking is intriguing but enough on the slow side that I’m not sure whether I want to keep seeing where things are going.
  • Rookie Blue (ABC) Tune Out – Dubbed the Grey’s Anatomy of the detective world, I feel less safe on the streets with these rookies and since I also don’t care who is sleeping with whom I’m taking a pass.
  • Scoundrels (ABC) Tune Out – I like a good con family, but this family is not, good that is, in either execution or interest, as they try to go straight after the patriarch goes to jail.

And if the new shows aren’t doing it here are the somewhat fluffy returning series on my summer schedule:

Burn Notice (USA), The Closer (TNT), Drop Dead Diva (Life), Eureka (Syfy), Leverage (TNT), White Collar (USA).

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new and noteworthy tv: 5/31-6/6

Most of the network shows are off but there’s always some cable action to keep you entertained. Procrastinator picks are underlined.

Monday

  • The Best Thing I Ever Ate (Food, 9pm) Season Premiere – Grill it up.
  • Cake Boss (TLC, 9pm) Season Premiere – They cake for others they cake for themselves.
  • Brett Michals Life as I Know It/Dad Camp (VH1, 10pm) Series Premieres – A preview into the series that will look at Brett at home which I fear is not just l a lot of rest for him then some new dads get some training.
  • True Beauty (ABC, 10pm) Season Premiere – Ten folks are judges on their inner beauty, whilst thinking they are competing on their outer beauty.

Tuesday

  • America’s Got Talent (NBC, 8pm) Season Premiere – Howie Mandel replaces the Hoff at the judges table for the latest crop of random ‘talent’,
  • Hell’s Kitchen (Fox, 8pm) Season Premiere – More competing, more yelling.
  • One Big Happy Family/The Little Couple (TLC, 9/9:30/10pm) Season Premieres – People do things.
  • Jersey Couture (Oxy, 10pm) Series Premiere – Getting on board with the Jersey reality trend we follow a family who runs a dress shop.
  • Losing It With Jillian (NBC, 10pm) Series Premiere – The bitchy trainer from Loser takes on families where they live.
  • Downtown Girls (MTV, 11pm) Series Premiere – Another reality look at folks not doing stuff, this focuses on girls in downtown NY.

Wednesday

  • Are We There Yet? (TBS, 9pm) Series Premiere – Ice Cube takes this film of blended family to the small screen.
  • Ghost Hunters Academy (Syfy, 9pm) Season Premiere – How many ghost hunting series are there?
  • Tosh.0 (Com, 10:30pm) Season Premiere – Hosting another round of web comedy whatnot.
  • Half Pint Brawlers (Spike, 11pm) Series Premiere – Little person wrestling.

Thursday

  • Burn Notice/Royal Pains (USA, 9pm) Season Premieres – More spy shenanigans and medical machinations.
  • NBA Finals (ABC, 6/8:30/9pm pst) – Let the games begin, followed by a special post show, and special Kimmel.

Friday

  • Scripps National Spelling Bee (ABC, 8pm) – Can you use the word in a sentence please?
  • Flashpoint (CBS, 9pm) Season Premiere – The Canadian SRU tactical team is back for another season of saves.
  • The Neistat Brothers (HBO, 11:59pm) Series Premiere – The series follows the brothers and their short films.

Saturday

  • Three Rivers (CBS, 8pm) – Dusting off this canned show for a little burn off.

Sunday

  • Bridezillas (WE, 8/9pm) Season Premieres – Goth and Vegas weddings.
  • Drop Dead Diva (Life, 9pm) Season Premiere – Our funny model protagonist now in a lawyer’s body faces disbarment.
  • Ice Road Truckers/Top Shot (Hist, 9/10pm) Season Premiere – New truckers and then shooters.
  • MTV Movie Awards/The Hard times of RJ Berger (MTV, 9pm) Series Premiere – Aziz Ansari hosts and then the latest scripted offering, a coming of age story of a gentleman who is well endowed.
  • The Next Food Network Star (Food, 9pm) Season Premiere – Who is camera ready?
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new and noteworthy tv: 1/18-1/24

Midseason is rolling right out… procrastinator picks are underlined.

Monday

  • Life Unexpected (CW, 9pm, repeats Wed 8pm) Series Premiere – Given up for adoption Lux returns to find her birth parents and witty and adorable interactions are reported to ensue.
  • American Pickers (Hist, 9pm) Series Premiere – Two friends travel cross country in search of collectibles, garage sales, yard sales, barns…
  • The Buried Life/My Life As Liz (MTV, 10/10:30pm) Series Premieres – The latest reality installments follow a group trying to make their dreams, and maybe those of others, come true and then a teenager from Texas trying to ‘find herself.’
  • Be Good Johnny Weir (Sund, 10:30pm) Series Premiere – Is Weir as sparkly when he’s not performing as a figure skater, we shall soon see.

Tuesday

  • Millionaire Matchmaker (Brav, 10pm) Season Premiere – She tells you what she thinks but do any of the couples really work it out, maybe that’s not really the point.
  • White Collar (USA, 10pm) Season Premiere – Cute criminal helping out the good guys is back.
  • Paranormal Cops (A&E, 10:30pm) Series Premiere – I’m not sure if anything paranormal actually gets cuffed.
  • Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel (HBO, 10pm) Season Premiere – Football concussions, a golfer who lost a let, and more.

Wednesday

  • Being Erica (Soap, 10pm) Season Premiere – So her therapist lets her time travel to change things?
  • Toddlers & Tiaras (TLC, 10pm) Season Premiere – I don’t think this requires much explanation.

Thursday

  • The Deep End (ABC, 8pm, repeats Sat 9pm) Series Premiere – More soapy young lawyers, they’re pairing it and comparing it to Grey’s if that give you any idea of tone, worth a look.
  • Burn Notice (USA, 10pm) Season Premiere – Michael Weston, the MacGyver-y ex-spy is back in business.

Friday

  • Hope for Haiti (Various, 8pm) – A fundraiser for Haiti, please check local listings as many shows are rescheduled or postponed, Dollhouse series finale currently set for next Friday.
  • Caprica (Syfy, 9pm) Series Premiere – The Battlestar prequel may not require BSG watching but you can bet fans will be tuning in.
  • Friday Night With Jonathan Ross (BBCA, 9pm) Season Premiere – Another nighttime talk show, who could ask for more.
  • Cribs (CMT, 10pm) Season Premiere – Stars pads.
  • Spartacus (Starz, 10pm) Series Premiere – Who gets Starz?

Saturday

  • SAG Awards (TNT/TBS, 8pm) – And the award goes to…

Sunday

  • Figure Skating Championships (NBC, Sat/Sun, 9pm) – Gearing up for Olympic hopes.
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procrastinator picks – top tv of 2009

So we’ve seen what the critics gave their shout outs to, but what about me? Following are my top ten-ish tv shows for 2009. Now these may not all be the ‘best’ shows on the air but they’re the ones that I look most forward to or finish with the most joy (or anticipation for the next episode).

So here goes:

  • Sons of Anarchy (Fx) – A motorcycle club with layers and layers of drama and plenty of violence, I can’t turn away and I can’t wait to tune in to see what Jax and the others will do next season.
  • Chuck (NBC) – A wonderful balance between the spy capers, the geeky humor, and of course the romance, I’m thrilled to see Chuck 2.0 next season.
  • Glee (Fox) – My favorite newcomer, although the first season was a bit uneven (we were all so over the wife) the humor, the mix of poignant moments, and yes, the songs, made me keep coming back.
  • Bones (Fox) – Still my favorite crime solving pair, will FBI Sealy Booth and Forensic Anthropologist Temperance Brennan ever get together?
  • The Good Wife (CBS) – Another new addition to the lineup, so far it’s a great balance between the case-of-the-week and Margulies struggling with her family and potentially corrupt cheater husband, there’s more politics afoot than we know.
  • The Mentalist (CBS) /Castle (ABC) – These two guys are worth tuning into no matter where they are but both are set up as great characters with fun casts and of course the case-of-the-week.
  • Dexter (Sho) – No season has been as good at the first but it doesn’t stop me from yelling at the tv when Dexter is doing something foolish, juggling job, family, friends, and being a serial killer is a tough balance.
  • Dollhouse (Fox) – Another uneven addition to the list but as the season has progressed we see what the show could have been with its corrupt organization and complex issues of identity, too bad there are only three more.
  • Modern Family (ABC)/Community (NBC) – So I still laugh at 30 Rock, The Office, HIMYM, Parks & Rec, but the shows I was most excited to watch were the new ones, MF takes us into the new form of funny families and Community just puts together some weirdos, I don’t know, I am amused.

Special shout outs  for some of the cable fluff that I tended to watch first that even I’m not tempted to make the case that they’re ‘the best’: Drop Dead Diva (Life) – the dumbest premise made the cutest show, Leverage (TNT) – I love a good caper show, and this was good enough, Burn Notice (USA) – cheesy but Macgyver of this generation shouldn’t be skipped, and Greek (ABCFam) – fun plots and characters are all you need to keep you tuning in.

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summer lovin’

leverageSo we’re not quite ready for Fall season, I think we’re calling anything through August as ‘Summer’. We have had a few summer shows that have started, and now that we’ve had a chance to take a gander, what did we like (excluding reality for the sake of brevity)?

  • Burn Notice (USA, Returning) – The cheesy start won me over as I grew to enjoy the weekly capers, the MacGyver-esque tech, and the growing characters.
  • The Closer (TNT, Returning) – I like Kyra as this driven head of a special detective squad questioning suspects into submission.
  • Drop Dead Diva (Life, Premiere) – This ridiculous plot of a tiny model woman dropped into the body of a not tiny lawyer woman is somehow sweet in that Legally Blonde sort of way.
  • Eureka (SyFy, Returning) – This town of science geniuses turn out problems that apparently the only nongenius member of the town can solve as the town sheriff holds them all together.
  • Greek (ABCFam, Returning) – The light and silly tone paired with surprisingly complex characters and situations almost makes me miss college.
  • InPlain Sight (USA, Returning) – Appealing enough as the lead is as abrasive as she is caring as she tries to help her witness protection participants and her nutso family.
  • L&O: Criminal Intent (USA, Returning) – Goldblum adds a nice mix to the remaining partners as we see the criminals and the detectives.
  • Leverage (TNT, Returning) – I just love a good caper show, and although this isn’t the best, it’s pretty entertaining with the mix of experts taking down the bad guys.
  • Monk (USA, Returning) – The cases aren’t masterful but the quirky detective and his posse are amusing as the show reaches its final season.
  • Saving Grace (TNT, Returning) – Grace still has a great mix of thoughtful and just plain crazy drama and detective work.

Show that I’ve tried but just didn’t have that thing that pushed them onto the Tivo queue:

The Cleaner (A&E, Returning), Dark Blue (TNT, Premiere), Defying Gravity (ABC, Premiere), The Goode Family (ABC, Premiere), HawthoRNe (TNT, Premiere), Hung (HBO, Series Premiere), The Listener (NBC, Premiere), Make it or Break It (ABCFam, Premiere),  Mental (Fox, Premiere), Mental (Fox, Premiere), Merlin (NBC, Premiere), Michael & Michael Have Issues (Com, Premiere), The Philanthropist (NBC, Premiere), Raising the Bar (TNT, Returning), Royal Pains (USA, Premiere), Ruby & the Rockits (ABCFam, Premiere), Secret Life of the American Teenager (ABCFam, Returning), 10 Things I Hate About You (ABCFam, Premiere), Warehouse 13 (Syfy, Premiere)

And maybe I’ll catch these cable shows on Netflix:

Being Human (BBC, Premiere), Entourage (HBO, Returning), Mad Men (AMC, Returning), Nurse Jackie (Show, Premiere), Psych (USA, Returning), Rescue Me (Fx, Returning), Skins (BBC, Returning), Torchwood (BBC, Returning), True Blood (HBO, Returning), Weeds (Show, Returning)

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next week 6/1

New and notable in the week ahead… procrastinator picks are underlined.

Monday

  • I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here (NBC, 8pm) Season Premiere – Well the term celebrity is once again being loosely applied, with folks like Janice Dickinson, Sanjaya, and a lesser Baldwin, among others, will folks tune in to vote them off? 
  • Medium (NBC, 10pm) Season Finale – This is Medium’s last night on NBC but CBS has picked Allison up for another year of visions.
  • The Tonight Show (NBC, 11:35pm) – Conan takes the reins…

Tuesday

  • According to Jim (ABC, 8/8:30pm) Season Finale – I wasn’t sure this show was still on, though apparently this season is its last.
  • Earth 2100 (ABC, 9pm) – Bob Woodruff reports on where things could be going.
  • Inside the Obama White House (Tues/Wed, NBC, 9pm) – Brian Williams kicks it and shows us some dish.
  • Law & Order: SVU (NBC, 10pm) Season Finale – The negotiations continue with Benson and Stabler but regardless next year the show will go on.
  • Man vs. Wild (Disc, 10pm) – Will Ferrell joins for a real life adventure through the frosty wild, but reportedly does not drink his own urine.
  • Paris Hilton’s My New BFF (MTV, 10pm) Season Premiere – I guess last year’s winner isn’t her BFF anymore, maybe she is hanging with Nichole Ritchie.

Wednesday

  • Law & Order (NBC, 10pm) Season Finale – Are these stories still ripped from the headlines, if so watch out for charity folks.

Thursday

  • Jimmy Kimmel Live/NBA Countdown/Finals Game (ABC, 6pm) – We kick off the finals with some Kimmel and some basketball, Kimmel starts before in the East and after in the West.
  • Burn Notice (USA, 9pm) Season Premiere – Will Michael’s life improve now that the people who burned him are going to leave him alone, I doubt it, and catch up on the earlier shows marathon-style starting with the pilot Tues at 6am.
  • The Listener (NBC, 9/10pm) Series Premiere – If a paramedic can hear your thoughts would he be entertaining?
  • Royal Pains (USA, 10pm) Series Premiere – Brothers hit the Hamptons, one becomes a reluctant concierge Dr and the other is trying to make him less reluctant.
  • Tosh.0 (Com, 10pm) Series Premiere – Comedian Daniel Tosh riffs on crap you find on the web.

Friday

  • Privileged (CW, 8pm) – The show may not go on but you can watch season one again, or catch it for the first time.
  • Ghost Adventures (Trav, 9pm) Season Premiere – Not so much ghostbusters as wananabe ghost recorders.
  • Whale Wars (AnPl, 9pm) Season Premiere – Another season of folks in a boat trying to protect whales.

Saturday

  • Tennis (Fri, Sat, Sun, 7/6am) – Catch the French Open finals this weekend, following more weekday play, to see if Serena can take number 1 from Safina and if Roger can triumph over Nadal on his best surface.
  • Game Show Awards (GSN, 8pm) – Isn’t winning a game show award enough?

Sunday

  • Tony Awards (CBS, 8pm) – Neil Patrick Harris hosts this year’s best of Broadway.
  • Bridezillas/Amazing Wedding Cakes (WE, 9/10pm) Season Premieres – More real life wedding drama.
  • Gene Simmons Family Jewels (A&E, 9pm) Season Premiere – Can a girl get a simple sweet sixteen party on this reality drama.
  • Brooke Knows Best (VH1, 10/10:30pm) Season Premiere – This one is the daughter of Hulk Hogan.
  • Army Wives (Life, 10pm) Season Premiere – The ladies are back for another season of drama.
  • Kendra/Denise Richards (E!, 10/11pm) – More reality for the former playmate and the ‘actress’.
  • Z Rock/Ideal (IFC, 11/11:30pm) Season/Series Premiere – Clearly there need to be even more reality shows.
  • Next Food Network Star (Food, 9pm) Season Premiere – Who will be the next Martha Stewart, or at least the next whoever won last season.

* Times noted are PST.

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next week 1/19

New and notable in the week ahead… procrastinator picks are underlined.

Monday

  • Australian Open (ESPN2, 12:30am, through next week*) – The open continues!
  • Electric Company (PBS, 3:30pm*) – A new generation of whatever it was this show did.
  • House (Fox, 8pm) – If you’re not a season pass sort of person you should note the new time and rumor has it we will eventually see more of the original casties Cameron and Chase.
  • Will Work for Food (Food, 8:30pm) Series Premiere – Next Food Network star competitor Adam Gertler checks out food related jobs.
  • Momma’s Boys (NBC, 10pm) Season Finale – Will the mommas and the boys agree on their romantic choices?

Tuesday

  • Inauguration (Check Your Local Listings*) – This looks like it goes on all day and night but as I understand it the actual oath taking and inaugural address happen around noon DC time.
  • Tour Down Under (Vs, 1pm*) – Lance is back and you can check him out in this tour that runs through Sunday.

Wednesday

  • Lost (ABC, 8/9pm, repeats Saturday) Season Premiere – Recapping the previous seasons at 8 then the two hour premiere at 9, I’m kind of curious as to when we’ll be and whether we’ll be doing flash backs or forwards.
  • Lie to Me (Fox, 9pm) Series Premiere – If you’re down with The Mentalist, Monk, and/or Psych, this latest guy with great observational skills put Tim Roth in the lie detector seat.

Thursday

  • Winter X Games (ESPN, 6pm, ESPN2, ABC*) – The stars of snow compete in Aspen through Sunday.
  • Bones (Fox, 8/9pm) – New time slot for our crime solving duo and the squints.
  • Burn Notice (USA, 10pm) Season Premiere – Our ousted spy is still trying to get answers while helping people in this mostly cheesy but fun caper show.

Friday

  • Wolverine and the X-Men (Nicktoons, 8/8:30pm) Series Premiere – Nothing much going on a friday night so I have stooped to noting cartoons.

Saturday

  • Gone Country (CMT, 8pm) Season Premiere – Non country folks like Justin Guarini and Micky Dolenz try out their country chops.
  • Miss America Live (TLC, 8pm) – Being on The Learning Channel I might think Miss America would teach me something.
  • US Figure Skating Championship (NBC, 9pm) – If you’re down with the tiny girls spinning around…

Sunday

  • SAG Awards (TNT, 8pm) – Film and TV actors honor each other.
  • The Last Templar (NBC, 9pm) – The miniseries continues on Monday as Mira Sorvino and Scott Foley do the sort of find the secret museumy, archaeological kind of thing.

* Check your local times.

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next week 12/29

New and notable in the week ahead…

Monday

  • Greatest Holiday Moments (NBC, 8pm) – Think funniest home videos holiday style. 
  • Bromance/The City (MTV, 9/10pm) Series Premiere(s)– A couple kids from The Hills spin off their own gigs, first Brody Jenner looks for a new beaux Paris Hilton style and then Whitney Port leaves the west coast to make it in the big apple.

Tuesday

  • Burn Notice (USA, 6am-4pm) – This fun campy no-longer-a-spy spy show set in Miami gives a little marathon to catch you up.
  • Kennedy Center Honors (CBS, 9pm) – Caroline Kennedy host the honoring of Morgan Freeman, George Jones, Barbra Streisand, Twyla Tharp, Pete Townshend and Roger Daltry.

Wednesday

  • Dick Clark’s Primetime New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest (ABC, 10pm) Ryan and Dick bring along Fergie and Kellie Pickler to help correspond with all the activity.
  • New Year’s Eve with Carson Daly (NBC, 10pm) – Will this be more or less rockin’ than Dick and Ryan’s?
  • New Year’s Eve Live (Fox, 11pm) – Spike Feresten and Mark Thompson don’t even get their names in the title.

Thursday

  • Tournament of Roses Parade – Check your local listings for the various showings of this flower filled parade.

Friday

  • If you’re desperate Lipstick Jungle is new, I’m not that desperate…

Saturday

  • Game Show in My Head (CBS, 8/8:30pm) Series Premiere – Folks are foolish in public by following instructions via earpiece.

Sunday

  • Rock of Love Charm School (VH1, 7pm) – It’s the reunion show which might be good for some hair pulling.
  • Confessions of a Teen Idol (VH1, 8pm) Series Premiere – 80s and 90s teen idols give us a little insight, or something.
  • Rock of Love (VH1, 9pm) Season Premiere – Still no love for Bret, so this season the ladies are going on tour with him… will he find ‘the one’, or are we just casting for another Charm School?
  • Superstars of Dance (NBC, 9pm) Series Premiere – Folks from all over the world compete.
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my schedule

Well another year of television and almost everything has started. Until they cancel more stuff, move stuff around, or we get to midseason changes here is where things seem to be settling in for me.  I wouldn’t recommend it all but it’s what I watch, or at least what I tend to tivo (I am still trying to narrow this down to no more than two shows per timeslot).

Monday chuck.jpg

  • 8pm: NBC – Chuck (CBS – The Big Bang Theory/How I Met Your Mother) (CW – Gossip Girl)
  • 9pm: NBC – Heroes (CBS – 2 1/2 Men/ABC – Samantha Who?)

Tuesday

  • 8pm: Fox – House
  • 9pm: CBS – The Mentalist (CW – Privileged)
  • 10pm: NBC – Eli Stone (NBC – L&O: SVU)

Wednesday bones_main.jpg

  • 8pm: Fox – Bones (ABC – Pushing Daisies) (CBS – The New Adventures of Old Christine/Gary Unmarried)
  • 9pm: NBC – Life
  • 10pm: ABC – Dirty Sexy Money (NBC – L&O)

Thursday

  • 8pm: NBC – My Name is Earl
  • 9pm: NBC – The Office/30 Rock (ABC – Grey’s Anatomy)
  • 10pm: ABC – Life on Mars

Friday life.jpg

  • 9pm: CBS – The Ex List (CW – ANTM encore)
  • 10pm: CBS – Numb3rs

Saturday

  • Nothing

Sunday

  • 9pm: CW – Easy Money

But wait there’s more… known midseason and cable picks: Breaking Bad (AMC), Burn Notice (USA), Celebrity Rehab (VH1), The Closer (TNT), Dexter (Show), Eureka (SciFi), Flight of the Conchords (HBO), Greek (Fam), Lost (ABC), Project Runway (Bravo), Reaper (CW), Saving Grace (TNT), Scrubs (ABC), Sons of Anarchy (FX).

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next week 9/15

New and notable for the week ahead, procrastinator picks are underlined.

Monday

  • The Closer (TNT, 9pm) Season Finale – I now have this entire season saved on tivo.
  • Weeds (Show, 10pm) Season Finale – This show is still in my queue but some catching up on other shows first.

Tuesday

  • The Biggest Loser (NBC, 8pm) Season Premiere – The families are back, you people who love the joyous transformations get ready.
  • House (Fox, 8pm) Season Premiere – I dig the curmudgeonly doc and am curious to see if they find a better balance between new and old supporting docs.
  • Lincoln Heights (ABCFam, 8pm) Season Premiere – The preview looks like a young couple suffers a melodramatic robbery turned hostage situation.
  • Big Brother (CBS, 9pm) Season Finale – Someone wins…

Wednesday

  • Ultimate Fighter (Spike, 10pm) Season Premiere – 32 fighters try to win a UFC contract.
  • Manswers (Spike, 11/11:30pm) Season Premiere – I stumbled upon an old episode of this show and learned how to beat a drug test, not that I need that information.

Thursday

  • Smallville (CW, 8pm) Season Premiere – I watched this show for the first season so I am totally out of touch with Clark and his new superfriends.
  • Supernatural (CW, 9pm) Season Premiere – Two generic good looking brothers fight the supernatural, you’d think I’d be interested but I never was.
  • Burn Notice (USA, 10pm) Season Finale – Whatever sort of fix will Michael get forced into this week, I’m actually usually looking forward to seeing him get out of it.
  • It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (FX, 10/10:30pm) Season Premiere – This super un pc show, this week it’s about cannibalism, actually made me laugh though it didn’t hit the tivo season pass so over time I sort of dropped it.

Friday

  • Davis Cup (Vs, 9am, fri-su) – US vs. Spain, will typically hit singles on Friday/Sunday with doubles on Sat.
  • Dog Whisperer (NatGeo, 9pm) – 100th episode brings back some now well behaved doggies and looks back at the not so well behaved doggies.

Saturday

  • Primeval (BBCA, 9pm) Season Premiere – Anomalies and dinosaurs or something.

Sunday

  • Beach Volleyball (Fox, 11:30am) – The granddaddy of all tournaments in Manhattan Beach, can Misty and Carrie get their mojo back?
  • Emmy Awards (ABC, 8pm) – I admit I don’t really watch this awards show and this year the reality hosts don’t make me want to change my mind.

* Check your local listings, live events typically noted as PST.

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