Thursday, September 4th, 2008
Best Bets
New episodes of Some Assembly Required (Discovery, 7pm and 11pm, 7:30pm and 11:30pm)
Brian Wilson, Martha Wainwright, and Teddy Thompson on Live From Abbey Road (Sundance, 9pm)
Season finale of Reality Bites Back (Comedy Central, 9:30pm)
New The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (Comedy Central, 10pm and midnight)
Adam Brickley, Rep. Ron Paul on The Colbert Report (Comedy Central, 10:30pm and 12:30am)
News & Notes
Today is my husband Kevin’s birthday– Happy Birthday to him! You guys may know him from my occasional mentions here; these days he usually is the first to read my picks and will point out anything that needs fixing. He put together the original “timezone switcher” script for this site a few years ago and has also helped with the occasional other bit of technical stuff. It’s handy having a computer programmer around the house. ‘Course he’s awesome in many ways and I’m thrilled and proud to have him as my partner in all things.
Wondering what shows have their season or series premieres next? Here’s what’s coming up this weekend and next week:
Series premiere of True Blood (HBO, Sunday night)
Season premiere of Entourage (HBO, Sunday night)
Season premiere of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (FOX, Monday)
Series premiere of Fringe (FOX, Tuesday)
Series premiere of Privileged (CW, Tuesday)
Season premiere of ‘Til Death (FOX, Wednesday)
Series premiere of Do Not Disturb (FOX, Wednesday)
Series premiere of Hole in the Wall (FOX, Thursday)
Season premiere of Don’t Forget the Lyrics (FOX, next Friday)
Saturday Night Live (NBC) and Mad TV (FOX) both return on Saturday, September 13th.
Daytime
U.S. Open coverage continues on USA.
Primetime Grid
| Day | 7:00 | 7:30 | 8:00 | 8:30 | 9:00 | 9:30 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ABC | Ugly BettyRerun | Grey’s Anatomy Rerun | Republican National Convention | |||
| CBS | Big Brother 10 | CSI Rerun | Republican National Convention | |||
| NBC | NFL: Washington at New York starts at 6pm | Republican National Convention | ||||
| FOX | Kitchen Nightmares Season premiere | Local Programming | ||||
| CW | 90210 Rerun of series premiere | Local Programming | ||||
| USA | U.S. Open Tennis: 2nd Round | |||||
Primetime
CSPAN, CNN, MSNBC, PBS, and other stations air coverage of the Republican National Convention starting tonight. CSPAN starts their coverage at 4pm, CNN starts coverage at 5pm, MSNBC begins their coverage at 6pm, and PBS coverage starts at 7pm. ABC, CBS, and NBC have coverage at 9pm. There’s coverage all over the place.
Tennis: U.S. Open (USA, 6pm) coverage continues with the men’s quarterfinal.
Four more episodes of Jeremiah (Sci-Fi, 6pm – 10pm).
Special Thursday edition of NBC’s Sunday Night Football; it’s a game between Washington and New York. Start time of 6pm.
Chef Gordon Ramsay revisits six restaurants to see how they’ve fared since he helped them in the season premiere of Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares (FOX, 7pm – 9pm).
If you missed the series premiere of 90210 (CW, 7pm – 9pm) and are curious about it, here’s a second chance to see it. I thought the show was merely “okay” and nothing special at this point, whether this show is worth watching depends a lot on what comes next. I liked the debuts of The O.C. and Gossip Girl more than this, but then Gossip Girl improved a lot as its season went on– one can hope that will happen with this show. Fans of Beverly Hills, 90210 may want to tune in just to see the Peach Pit and the return of the characters played by Jenny Garth and Shannen Doherty. I’m pleased that there are storylines for the adults as well as the teens, but I’m not sure any of the storylines thus far for anyone are all that interesting. I think it was very easy in the first episode to find oneself comparing it to both The O.C. and Gossip Girl which did this show no favors. How does it compare to the original series that it’s based on? I have no idea, I’m one of the few folks my age who never watched that show. (If you are a fan of the original series, I’d be curious to hear what you think of this new show. Tell me what you think!)
Two new episodes of Some Assembly Required (Discovery, 7pm and 11pm, 7:30pm and 11:30pm). Brian Unger hosts. The first episode covers washable crayons and pipe organs; the second features cast-iron cookware and canoes.
College Football Live (ESPN, 7pm) is followed by College Football: South Carolina at Vanderbilt (ESPN, 7:30pm).
Rerun of the “Milk Made” episode of Good Eats (Food Network, 7pm and 2am).
Two new episodes of Blog Cabin (DIY, 8pm and midnight, 8:30pm and 12:30am). They work on a patio and on landscaping in these episodes.
New episode of Destroyed in Seconds (Discovery, 8pm and midnight). An earthquake destroys an old church, a rocket explodes and showers Cape Canaveral with flaming debris, a tornado devastates buildings in Oklahoma, and Hurricane Iniki.
Sadly there is no Burn Notice on USA tonight because of their coverage of the U.S. Open. The next new episode of the show doesn’t debut ’til Thursday, September 11th.
Flashpoint is also not on tonight and it also doesn’t return ’til September 11th.
Chuck and Gadget devise ways to stop a hijacked tractor trailer on a new Smash Lab (Discovery, 9pm and 1am).
The “Baby, It’s You” episode of Law & Order (TNT, 9pm) is one of the crossover episodes with Homicide: Life on the Street (TNT, 10pm). Episodes air back to back so you can see the crossover the way it should be seen. Excellent!
New episode of Tabatha’s Salon Takeover (Bravo, 9pm, 10pm, midnight, 2am).
Guest judges for the season finale of The Gong Show with Dave Attell (Comedy Central, 9pm) are Ron White, Jim Norton, and JB Smoove.
New Glam God With Vivica A. Fox (VH1, 9pm, 10:30pm).
Two new episodes of Jacked: Auto Theft Task Force (A&E, 9pm and 1am, 9:30pm and 1:30am).
Brian Wilson, Martha Wainwright, and Teddy Thompson (son of Richard & Linda Thompson) on a new episode of Live From Abbey Road (Sundance, 9pm; also on Friday at 8pm and 1am).
A single mother wants to move closer to her family on a new House Hunters (HGTV, 9pm and 1am).
There is, as you might’ve imagined, a “ridiculous mash-up of challenges” on the season finale of Reality Bites Back (Comedy Central, 9:30pm).
Late Night
It’s possible that coverage of the Republican National Convention will run a little long on the networks and push the local news and some late night talk shows a little late.
Guest still TBA for a new episode of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (Comedy Central, 10pm and midnight) from St. Paul, Minnesota.
Debut of the third episode of The Cho Show (VH1, 10pm and 11:30pm; with lots of additional airings). The official website for the show is the place to go for more info on the show.
Adam Brickley, Rep. Ron Paul on The Colbert Report (Comedy Central, 10:30pm and 12:30am).
Robin Williams, Shannen Doherty (of 90210), Duffy on The Late Show with David Letterman (CBS, 10:35pm).
Howie Mandel, The Game on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (NBC, 10:35pm).
Dr. Phil McGraw, Adele on Late Night with Conan O’Brien (NBC, 11:37pm).
Kal Penn (of House), Paulina Porizkova (of America’s Next Top Model) on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (CBS, 11:37pm).
Aaron Eckhart, Metro Station on Jimmy Kimmel (ABC, check your local listings).
Marissa Miller, Jasper Redd, Ben Harper on a rerun of Last Call with Carson Daly (NBC, check your local listings).
