new and noteworthy tv: 8/23-8/29

Monday

  • Miss Universe Pageant (NBC, 9pm) – Hosted by Bret Michaels and Natalie Morales, and it looks like Sheila E will be one of the highlights.

Tuesday

  • Made: The Movie (MTV, 10pm) – Based on the reality series this scripted version of band gal goes cheerleader.

Wednesday

  • Ghost Hunters (Syfy, 9pm) Season Premiere – Shadows, voices, noises…
  • Who the (Bleep) Did I Marry (ID, 10pm) Series Premiere – Is your spouse hiding a shocking secret?

Thursday

  • Family Style (Food, 10:30pm) Series Premiere – Planning aphrodisiac apps for a speed dating event.

Friday

  • The Gulf is Back (CW, 8pm) – Hasselhoff follows up his roast with a hosting event, a tribute to Gulf Coast residents.
  • Beyond Survival with Les Stroud (Disc, 10pm) Series Premiere – The guy from Survivorman hobnobs with indigenous locals to learn survival skills.
  • Blood Dolphins (AnPl, 11pm) Series Premiere – For those of you who appreciate Whale Wars.

Saturday

  • Persons Unknown (NBC, 9pm) Series Finale – Persons become known?

Sunday

  • Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day (CBS, 9pm) – Kicking off the US Open is the annual charity event featuring tennis greats and some random teenybopper bands.
  • Emmy Awards (NBC, 7/8pm) – From the arrivals to the awards, Jimmy Fallon hosts.
  • Border Wars (NGC, 9pm) Season Premiere – Another look into illegal immigration.
  • Amazing Wedding Cakes (WE, 10pm) Season Premiere – Another show that looks at the cakes.
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new and noteworthy tv: 8/16-8/22

Monday

  • Weeds/The Big C (Show, 10/10:30pm) Season/Series Premiere – A couple ladies who find some funny and some drama in their tough situations.
  • Hardcore Pawn (Tru, 10/10:30pm) Series Premiere – How many pawn shop reality shows does this make?

Tuesday

  • Melissa & Joey (ABCFam, 8/8:30pm) Series Premiere – Our old school sitcom stars together at last, or again… well they’re together, it’s like Who’s the Boss.
  • Big Lake (Com, 10/10:30pm) Series Premiere – A new sitcom where big city failure comes back home to smalltown crazy.

Wednesday

  • Surviving the Cut (Disc, 10pm) Series Premiere – Candidates for elite military schools.
  • She’s Got the Look (TVL, 10:30pm) Season Premiere – This is the modeling competition for ‘old’ women.

Thursday

  • Pitchmen (Disc, 6pm) Season Premiere – What will the inventors propose this season?
  • Extreme Cuisine with Jeff Corwin (Food, 8pm) Season Premiere – Starting off in New Zealand with what can only assume are weird foods.
  • Nightline Prime (ABC, 10pm) – Start of a four part series on the brain.
  • You’re Wearing That?!? (WE, 10/10:30pm) Series Premiere – Mother daughter makeover show.
  • WCG Ultimate Gamer (Syfy, 11pm) Season Premiere – Something about gamers…

Friday

  • Death Comes to Town (IFC, 7pm) – An eight part miniseries brought in by the comedic troupe Kids in the Hall.

Saturday

  • Persons Unknown (NBC, 8pm) – After watching tonight’s episode be sure the catch the next one online only before the two hour finale next week.

Sunday

  • Tennis (CBS, 9am) – The finals of the Western & Southern Masters in Cincinnati, following earlier coverage on ESPN2.
  • Delocated/Children’s Hospital (AdSw/Cart, 10/10:30pm) Season Premieres – These odd series return with made for tv episodes.
  • Swamp People (Hist, 10pm) Series Premiere – The latest reality follows folks in the swamp lands of Louisiana.
  • Family Style (Food, 10pm) Series Premiere – Siblings open an eatery in Carlsbad.
  • Keeping Up with the Kardashians/The Spin Crowd (E!, 10/10:30pm) Season/Series Premiere – The Kardashians and then we follow the opening of a PR firm.
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new and noteworthy tv: 8/9-8/15

Monday

  • Teen Choice Awards (Fox, 8pm) – Katy Perry hosts this latest surf board giveaway.
  • Bachelor Pad (ABC, 8pm) Series Premiere – All the smarmiest do a Big Brother-esque live in the same house and compete for money kind of thang.
  • Too Fat for 15 (Style, 8pm) Series Premiere – It’s like that Huge show but with real kids.
  • Wild Nights (NatGeo, 9pm) Series Premiere – Starting with New Orleans nocturnals.
  • Dating in the Dark (ABC, 10pm) Season Premiere – Can you build a real connection without seeing the other person, and when you see them will the connection break?

Tuesday

  • Flipping Out (Brav, 9pm) Season Premiere – More house flipping by some guy.
  • Swords (Disc, 6pm) Season Premiere – Hmm, I think this is swordfishing not swordfighting.
  • Hair Battle Spectacular (Oxy, 10pm) Series Premiere – Another hair cutting competition, this one is extreme.
  • IT Crowd (IFC, 7:30pm) Season Premiere – Is work advancement worth it.

Wednesday

  • Man vs Wild (Disc, 9pm) Season Premiere – What’ll Bear get into and out of this season?
  • Hard Knocks (HBO, 10pm) Season Premiere – This season we start off with the NY Jets.
  • LA Ink (TLC, 10pm) Season Premiere – New tattoos, new people.

Thursday

  • American Chopper/BBQ Pit Masters (TLC, 9/10pm) Season Premieres – Jr vs Sr and then pitmaster vs pitmaster.
  • Deadly Women (ID, 6pm) Season Premiere – Women who kill for revenge.

Friday

  • Perhaps a dvd to entertain, I might finish up Carnivale.

Saturday

  • Dew Tour (NBC/USA, sat/sun, 1pm/various) – The event also shown on USA continues the competition at this event and for the overall Dew cup.
  • Visa Championships (NBC, 8pm) – Let the gymnasts compete.
  • The Cupcake Girls (WE, 9/9:30pm) Series Premiere – The challenges of the cupcake business.

Sunday

  • The Great Food Truck Race (Food, 10pm) Series Premiere – May the most sales win.
  • Lottery Changed My Life (TLC, 10pm) Season Premiere – What would you do if you won the lottery, looking at real life people who have.
  • Roast of David Hasselhoff (Com, 10pm) – So much fodder.
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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: 8/2-8/8

Monday

  • Bachelorette (ABC, 8/10) – The pick and then after the rose…the most shocking…
  • Money Hungry/Scream Queens (VH1, 9/10pm) Series/Season Premiere – Teams of two put in their own dough to try to win the big pot by losing the most weight, then ‘actresses’ compete to scream in Saw 3d.
  • Aftermath with William Shatner (Bio, 10pm) Series Debut – Interviewing folks who’ve gone through dramatic events starting with ‘the subway vigilante’.

Tuesday

  • 18 to Life (CW, 9/9:30pm) Series Premiere – Another Canadian import… this time they’re young and in love, out of high school and engaged, oh the hilarity.
  • The Bad Girls Club (Oxy, 9pm) Season Premiere – I’m not sure what qualifies one as a bad girl but I can assume there will be some bitchiness.
  • Shaq Vs. (ABC, 9pm) Season Premiere – Nascar here we come… and perhaps a spell off with spelling bee champion.
  • The Rachel Zoe Project (Brav, 10pm) Season Premiere – Stylist, psycho, whatever…
  • 19 Kids and Counting (TLC, 9/9:30pm) Season Premiere – Duggars, Duggars, Duggars…
  • Scrappers (Spike, 10/10:30pm) Series Premiere – Scrap metal scavengers.

Wednesday

  • Wonders of the Solar System (Sci, 6pm) Series Premier – Looking into the physics and whatnot.
  • Dark Blue (TNT, 9/10pm) Season Premiere – The undercover team is still undercover.
  • Criss Angel: Mindfreak (A&E, 10pm) Season Premiere – Jump across the Grand Canyon anyone?

Thursday

  • The Real Housewives of DC (Brav, 9pm) Series Premiere – Because we need to watch more “real” housewives, and to make matters worse this has that Salahi woman who snuck into the Whitehouse.
  • The Squad: Prison Police (A&E, 10pm) Series Premiere – Cop reality shows hit the clink.
  • Stan Lee’s Superhumans (Hist, 10pm) Series Premiere – A look at real life people with supposed abilities, but maybe no costumes.

Friday

  • Gangland (Hist, 10pm) Season Premiere – Something about gangs and land or something.

Saturday

  • WWE Wrestlemania (NBC, 9pm) – The 26th wrestling extravaganza.

Sunday

  • Hoarding (TLC, 9pm) Season Premiere – Not to be confused with Hoarders on A&E.
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new and noteworthy tv: 7/26-8/1

Monday

  • Top Gear (BBCA, 6pm) Season Premiere – A Porsche, a Jaguar, and a Chrysler…
  • Bachelorette (ABC, 8pm) – The men tell all… are the men less catty?

Tuesday

  • Breakthrough with Tony Robbins (NBC, 8pm) Series Premiere – Tony tries to help out folks making changes in their lives.
  • Masterchef (Fox, 9pm) Series Premiere – More wannabe chefs compete to go pro.
  • The Colony (Disc, 10pm) Season Premiere – Another season of real folks who agree to live in a place with a fake viral apocalypse.
  • Growing Up Twisted (A&E, 10/10:30pm) Series Premiere – We tag along with Twister Sister front man Dee and his family.

Wednesday

  • Plain Jane (CW, 9pm) Series Premiere – Will makeovers and dating tips make these ladies confessions of crushes a success?

Thursday

  • Project Runway/On the Road with Austin & Santino (Life, 9/10:30pm) Season/Series Premiere – First another season of competitors and then two former contestants design looks for real life ladies.
  • Jersey Shore (MTV, 10pm) Season Premiere – The gang heads to Miami and I still can’t care.

Friday

  • Say Yes to the Dress: Atlanta (TLC, 9:30pm) Series Premiere – It’s like Say Yes to the Dress, but it’s set in… Atlanta.

Saturday

  • X Games (Various) – Let the games begin… ok so it’s actually starting Thursday and running through Sunday… the X Games head to LA, so check in for lots of hours of coverage on all the ESPNs including: ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN International, ESPN.com\action, ESPN Classic, ESPN3.com, and SportsCenter.

Sunday

  • Rubicon (AMC, 8/9pm) Series Premiere – The latest drama brings some code crackers to our conspiracies.
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new and noteworthy tv: 7/19-7/25

Monday

  • Do Something Awards (VH1, 9pm) – Jane Lynch hosts the honoring of folks for accomplishments other than celebrity.
  • Rupaul’s Drag U (Logo, 9pm) Series Premiere – What’s better than a Drag Queen to get some ladies to get some style going on.
  • Fabulous Cake (TLC, 10pm) Series Premiere – Start the season by touring three top bakeries in Vegas.

Tuesday

  • I’m Pregnant And… (Health, 9pm) Season Premiere – The season starts off with a woman who has a 50-50 chance of her child being a dwarf.
  • Teen Mom/If You Really Knew Me (MTV, 10/11pm) Season/Series Premiere – Check in with the teen moms and then catch teens that are breaking down the walls between cliques.

Wednesday

  • Confessions: Animal Hoarding (AnPl, 9pm) Series Premiere – A mix of hoarding and animal rescue?
  • Pros vs Joes (Spike, 10pm) Season Premiere – NBA vs NFL in a basketball challenge.

Thursday

  • Time to catch up on some Tour, or perhaps some summer series, or perhaps a good book!

Friday

  • Your Chance to Dance (CMT, 9pm) Series Premiere – Dance baby, dance.
  • The Pillars of the Earch (Starz, 10pm) – This miniseries kicks off with an adaptation of the 1989 book.

Saturday

  • Being Human (BBCA, 10pm) Season Premiere – A werewolf, a vampire, and a ghost… what more could fans want?

Sunday

  • Tour de France (Vs, various) – It’s been a long couple weeks for these guys and it’s put some wear and tear on those watching as well, so let’s see who rides into Paris with the yellow, and white, and green, and polka dot, and of course a final sprint stage win.
  • I Survived… (Bio, 9pm) Season Premiere – This series should probably be hopeful that folks survive but I find it super creepy the things that almost kill them.
  • Mad Men (AMC, 10pm) Season Premiere – I’ve missed too many of these, on my list to check out on dvd.
  • My Boys (TBS, 10pm) Season Premiere – This show looks perfectly pleasant, but what with it starting when my cable was out I’ve never caught an episode.
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new and noteworthy tv: 7/12-7/18

Monday

  • Scooby-Doo: Mystery Inc (Cart, 7pm) Series Premiere – They’re back, and solving mysteries again.
  • Samantha Brown’s Asia (Trav, 8pm) Series Premiere – First stop Thailand.
  • The Closer/Rizzoli & Isles (TNT, 9/10pm) Season/Series Premiere – Can Angie Harmon and her new crime solving buddy follow the Deputy Chief, so far the critics say no but I’ll give it a shot.
  • Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory (MTV, 9:30pm) Season Premiere – With a skate board base camp and a budget what will this guy do next?

Tuesday

  • White Collar/Covert Affairs (USA, 9/10pm) Season/Series Premiere – Con artist and FBI agent together again, and then we meet the newest CIA operative as Piper Perabo starts her fieldwork, I’m always game to see if someone can be the new Sydney Bristow.

Wednesday

  • Lucy Must Be Traded (ABC, 8pm) – Who would have guessed the Peanuts gang would have issues playing baseball?
  • Espys (ESPN, 9pm) – Seth Meyers hosts the latest honoring of sports performers.
  • Ghost Hunters International (Syfy, 9pm) Season Premiere – The global gang looks for Robin Hood, you know his ghost.
  • Chasing Mummies (Hist, 10pm) Series Premiere – Following an archaeologist, like Indiana Jones I’m sure.
  • Psych (USA, 10pm) Season Premiere – The fake psychic and his sidekick are solving crimes for another season.

Thursday

  • Mary Knows Best (Syfy, 9pm) Series Premiere – What professional are we not following with a reality series? Psychic.

Friday

  • The Jensen Project (NBC, 8pm) – A family from a secret genius society tries to thwart evil, this looks like either a made for tv movie or a series that wasn’t picked up.
  • Man, Woman, Wild (Disc, 9pm) Series Premiere – A couple faces dangers like snakes in the amazon.
  • DC Cupcakes (TLC, 10pm) Series Premiere – Isn’t there already a cupcake baking reality series?

Saturday

  • Celebrity Ghost Stories/My Ghost Story (Bio, 9/10pm) Season/Series Premiere – ‘Famous’ and not famous folks share their stories of ghosts.
  • Pit Boss (AnPl, 10pm) Season Premiere – The dog savers are back.

Sunday

  • 24 Hour Restaurant Battle (Food, 10pm) Series Premiere – Competing by opening a restaurant in 24 hours.
  • Strange Sex (TLC, 10/10:30pm) Season Premiere – It’s what it sounds like, a series about sex, first stop older women, younger men, then a woman thinking herself into her own climactic moment.
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new and noteworthy tv: 7/5-7/11

Monday

  • The Bachelorette (ABC, 8pm) – I saw a promo and Vienna cries so the breakup talk must be serious.
  • Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations (Trav, 10pm) Season Premiere – Tasting travels.

Tuesday

  • Warehouse 13 (Syfy, 9pm) Season Premiere – Supernatural artifacts can be trouble in the wrong hands.
  • Primetime (ABC, 10pm) Season Premiere – Family secrets.

Wednesday

  • Come Dine With Me/The Choir (BBCA, 9/10pm) Series Premieres – A competition to see who is the hostess with the mostess, or something, and then it’s like Glee but real.

Thursday

  • Big Brother (CBS, 8pm) Season Premiere – I still can’t believe this show is still going.

Friday

  • Eureka/Haven (Syfy, 9/10pm) Season/Series Premiere – The quirky characters take their science to the next level and the sheriff who tries to keep them all in check, and then a new supernatural FBI agent series based on King’s Colorado Kid.

Saturday

  • The Bridge (CBS, 8pm) Series Premiere – I haven’t heard anything about this latest crime series, oh except it’s Canadian, I’ll check out an ep.
  • How Do I Look? (Style, 8pm) Season Premiere – The Jersey styling continues, or un-Jersey styling in this instance.

Sunday

  • Ochocinco/The TO Show (VH1, 9/10:30pm) Series/Season Premiere – Some guy from sports and Dancing with the Stars looks for love and then some sports guys deals with sports guy things.
  • The Glades (A&E, 10pm) Series Premiere – A Chicago cop is exiled to Florida, who knows which is the cop drama that’ll stick.
  • Children’s Hospital (Adult Swim, 10:30pm) Series Premiere – This Rob Corddry created web series is getting a run on cable including some new episodes, now I need to find out if I get AdultSwim.
  • Kid in a Candy Store (Food, 10:30pm) Series Premiere – A look at sweets wherever they may be.
  • Russel Simmons Presents: Stand-Up at the El Rey (Com, 11;30pm) Series Premiere – Comedy showcase.
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new and noteworthy tv: 6/28-7/4

Monday

  • Huge/Make It or Break It (ABCFam, 9/10pm) Series/Season Premiere – The family network brings us kids at weight loss camp and then another season of gymnastics.
  • Intervention/Obsessed (A&E, 9/10pm) Season Premieres – Stepping in with addicts and psychological issues.

Tuesday

  • Rescue Me/Louie (Fx, 10/11/11:30pm) Season/Series Premiere – Fire drama returns and then cringe worthy Louie plays a version of himself that tries to make us laugh, either with or at him.

Wednesday

  • Locked Up Abroad (NGC, 10pm) Season Premiere – The season opens with the ‘real’ midnight express.
  • Man Shops Globe (Sund, 10pm) Season Premiere – Thailand markets.
  • The Real World (MTV, 10pm) Season Premiere – Eight strangers, blah, blah, blah… New Orleans.

Thursday

  • Ace of Cakes (Food, 10pm) Season Premiere – 100 episodes and a rollercoaster cake.

Friday

  • America Celebrates July 4th (ABC, 9pm) – It may seem weird that this is showing on the 2nd but it was taped June 6. June

Saturday

  • Tour de LanceFrance (Vs, multiple times) – Starts now through July 25, tune in for another year of drama (and let’s hope it’s all in the race).
  • Wimbledon (NBC, 6am) – Saturday and Sunday bring the women’s and men’s finals following a week of network coverage.

Sunday

  • Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular (NBC, 9pm); Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular (CBS, 10pm); A Capitol Fourth (PBS, 8pm) – Pick your fireworks spectacular.
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