If you're staying home tonight to clean the toilet paper out of your trees hand out candy to trick-or-treaters, there's plenty of Halloween-themed TV to keep you occupied while you wait for the doorbell to ring. Here's a handy list of some of the major macabre marathons on various channels, from horror movies on such channels as AMC, Cinemax, TCM, Bravo, and Spike to real-life ghost stories on Biography, the History Channel, and the Travel Channel. Scariest of all (though probably not on purpose) is Fox Reality's The Search for the Next Elvira (pictured). Eek!
We don't know what the contents of Barack Obama's half-hour prime-time special tomorrow night at 8 p.m. will be (though we can only hope it's as entertaining as what SNL came up with, below). But we do know that it will air on almost all of the four major broadcast networks. (Even Malia Obama was worried that her dad's cross-network airtime buy would preempt her favorite shows, according to mama Michelle, who says she reassured her daughter that her favorite Nickelodeon and Disney Channel programs were safe.) The only one of the four not airing the program will be ABC, which will have to make do with a new episode of its struggling second-year series Pushing Daisies. It's not clear why the senator's campaign didn't buy airtime on ABC as well as NBC, CBS, and Fox; maybe they figured ABC was already airing a show about a young, inexperienced guy who's accompanied by a blunt-speaking older fellow, whose mere touch frightens people, and whose cheery, twinkly, flower-power style many viewers find annoying and weirdly creepy. Or, for the sake of fairness, how about this: Maybe they wanted to give equal time to a show about a guy who wants to grow the pie bigger, whose female companions are a pretty young brunette he can never touch and a brittle blonde with a pasted-on smile, and who is constantly surrounded by death and corruption.
By the way, The CW will be airing America's Next Top Model. Insert your own joke about a show featuring a contest whose fiercely ambitious aspirants must meet arbitrary media-imposed standards that no healthy and sane person could live up to.
There’s been a fair amount of blogchatter (some of it right here on PopWatch) about whether or not Bravo is trying to sabotage this season of Project Runway after losing the show to Lifetime. (NBC Universal, which owns Bravo, recently won an injunction that may prevent the show from moving). There was the lack of buildup buzz, the uninspired challenges, the mediocre talent level. But today brings another blow that adds even more weight to the theory that Bravo is throwing its onetime star show under the train: The finale is up against the Presidential debate.
We know, we know. The show had this time slot long before the debates were scheduled. But why is Part 2 of the finale coming right after Part 1? Where’s our reunion episode filled with laughs, tears, and gratuitous Kenley bashing?
A colleague of mine raised the point that much of PR's core fan base cares a lot more about wedge heels than wedge issues. But even so, the debates are bound to take a huge bite out of PR's live-viewing audience, leaving the show with record low numbers for its send-off from the channel that created it. (If only we could combine the two and have, say, Michael Kors moderate the debates while McCain and Obama try on the designers' outfits. How can we know if our candidate can handle the American Empire until we see if he can handle an empire waist?)
Your turn, PopWatchers: Is this just a bad coincidence? Or is Bravo really sabotaging the show? And most importantly, which showdown will you watch tonight?
As I write this, my DVR is a few short hours away from taping The CW's Privileged and CBS's The Mentalist and not Fox's Fringe at 9 p.m. ET. I have my reasons, but I've been second-guessing the decision all day. Were I a sane person, it wouldn't matter: I know I can watch Fringe tomorrow on Hulu, and I'm not a Nielsen family, so I don't have to feel guilty for affecting the show's ratings and betraying Joshua Jackson. Still, I feel... anxious. What if at 9:15 p.m I realize I made a mistake? It'll be too late to change the channel. I'll still have to watch Fringe tomorrow.
Here are my questions for you:
1. Now that so many episodes are available online the day after they air, do you still find yourself stressing over timeslot traffic jams?
2. If you answered yes, which timeslot war pains you the most and which show is the casualty?
Simon Baker plays Patrick Jane, a man who pretended to be a psychic until a serial killer, known as Red John, whom he bragged about profiling for the police on TV, murdered his wife and child in their home — and left Patrick a note saying that were he a real psychic, he wouldn't need to open the bedroom door to know what had been done to his family. Hor-ri-fy-ing. That flashback was set up beautifully: Now aiding the California Bureau of Investigation, as a skilled observer (not psychic), Patrick had already established that Red John always puts the smiley face he draws in the victim's blood on the first wall a loved one will see when he or she enters the room. Why? He wants the person to see it before the body, so that he or she will experience a moment of pure dread. Cut to us watching Patrick climb the stairs to his bedroom, read the note, slowly open the door, and set eyes on a dripping red smiley face. That I had to rewatch that scene to write about it meant I slept with the lights on last night. (Even after watching The CW's exceedingly delightful Privileged to bring me back to a semi-happy state.)
Since you probably can't afford to gas up the SUV and go anywhere this Independence Day weekend, you might as well stay home and watch TV, especially since it seems every cable channel is staging a TV marathon or two. The Interesting Pile blog has a pretty comprehensive list (hat tip to TV Barn) of the many marathons airing Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. A couple I might veg out in front of watch intently: On July 4, HBO is rerunning its thematically appropriate John Adams miniseries (starring Paul Giamatti, left), which I didn't catch enough of when it premiered earlier this year. Over at Turner Classic Movies, they're celebrating on Friday night with a slate of "Americana" movies, including The Music Man (a backhanded tribute to John Philip Sousa), 1776 (more John Adams!), and Yankee Doodle Dandy. But before that, TCM is spending the day with movies directed by Hollywood's favorite British invader, Alfred Hitchcock. The staples are all here (Psycho, Vertigo, Rear Window, The Birds), as well as the underappreciated Notorious (starring Ingrid Bergman, right). Because nothing is more patriotic than spying for America by agreeing to sleep with a fugitive Nazi war criminal.
Peruse the list, PopWatchers, and tell us all which of these marathons you'll watch as they air and which you'll DVR for after the fireworks. (Doink doink.Chung-chung.)
I've been taping the morning Angel repeats on TNT, because even though I loved Buffy, I somehow didn't tune into Angel until Season 3, when I happened to be at a friend's apartment when she was watching the episode in which a certain vampire staked herself to give birth to a certain baby. (I vagued that up for spoiler-phobes.) I kept with the show through the killer fourth season (The Beast! Jasmine!), but for some reason, never made it into Season 5. I don't know why. I'm clearly enjoying it now, since I was an hour late to work yesterday because I had to watch the freshly-DVR'd "Life of the Party" episode. I knew I wouldn't have time to watch it last night after work, so I had to watch it before I went in. Right? Before you answer, remember that this is the episode where Wolfram & Hart throws a Halloween party and everyone ends up doing what Lorne tells them to do: Fred and Wesley act drunk (so well), Gunn "marks his territory," Spike thinks positively, and Eve and Angel (Sarah Thompson and David Boreanaz, pictured) "get a room."
But back to my question: Does your DVR ever make you late for work? When was the last time, or, if you're a frequent offender, what's your best story? I'm sure your boss isn't reading this. (And if mine is, the fact that I turned my experience into this blog item technically means that I was "working from home" yesterday morning, no?)
P.S.: TNT's weekday morning Angel repeats cycle back to Season 1 on March 18, with the episode titled "City Of," should you want to join me in watching from the beginning.
The 50th running of the Daytona 500, the start of the 2008 NASCAR Spring Cup season, is Sunday. Pre-race coverage on Fox starts at 2 p.m. ET. The green flag waves at 3:30 p.m. There are many reasons to tune in, besides what I imagine will be an amazing national anthem from Trisha Yearwood: Can Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch, already on probation after trading paint in a practice session, play nice? Will Ashley Judd be on pit road to support her husband, Dario Franchitti? Just how many new commercials did Dale Earnhardt Jr. (pictured) shoot? But seriously, if you haven't tuned into a race before, this is the one you want to watch. Some drivers would trade a championship just to win the Daytona 500 once. That's why you get incredible last laps like last year's, which literally had me up off the couch, screaming at willing Mark Martin to cross the finish line first. He didn't. I still haven't recovered completely.
I wonder which of the celebs NASCAR got to predict Sunday's winner will be feeling that pain this year. Check out some of their picks after the jump.
According to Variety, ABCis negotiating to resurrect Circus of the Stars, NBC is planning on bringing the foreign hit Celebrity Circus to the U.S. this summer, and CBS and Fox are showing interest in Big Top-themed pitches, too. It's a great day to be a D-lister. And to update your will.
How do you feel about Circus of the Stars' proposed return? Before you "reality" cynics go off, watch Bronson Pinchot swing on the trapeze, Lynda Carter dodge knives, and The Great American Hero's William Katt master the Wheel of Death (below). Katt really is my hero now.
So NBC and CBS will simulcast the Patriots-Giants game Saturday night at 8 p.m. ET, using the NFL Network's production team (that means Bryant Gumbel and Cris Collinsworth in the booth on all three networks). Apparently, this rare synergy (it's the first NFL game to air on more than one network since the first Super Bowl almost 41 years ago) is huge news for pro football fans. Had it only been broadcast on the NFL Network as originally scheduled, most football fans across the country wouldn't have been able to see the "potentially historic game," in which Tom Brady (pictured) and the Pats try to become the first team to go unbeaten and untied in the regular season since the '72 Dolphins.
Of course, now the question becomes: Which network will you choose? Luckily, I won't have to make that call: I'll be at sports bar in State College, PA., watching Penn State beat Texas A&M in the Alamo Bowl on ESPN. But if I had to, I'd go NBC. You?
Enough! These two rivaling supershows need to stop acting like children. Big news today: American Idol will intentionally run long on Tuesday night — seven minutes, in fact — just to mess with the elimination edition of Dancing With the Stars. So from 9 to 9:07, no one at home will know what to do! Give whatever contestant slated to sing last the time of day, or sit slack-jawed for seven minutes hoping to catch a closeup of Heather Mills (pictured, with Jonathan Roberts)?
Right now I'm picturing two toddlers in a colorful, plastic sandbox who refuse to share the "huge crowd of unconditionally smiling people" toy. Idol baby has a fun, generic, geometric patterns-okay-corporate-logos-BAD onesie on, whereas Dancing baby looks terrif (swathed in a giant pink ruffle exposing her sexy midsection), but is sadly drowning in a pit of glitter she dug herself. I don't know why Idol toddler is being so selfish with the huge crowd of unconditionally smiling people toy, because his My First Ford pickup is just outside the sandbox, and he hasn't ridden by the video camera in it for like seven minutes. Time is of the essence, Idol toddler! Let's wrap this up!
My goodness, PopWatchers, if you weren't in a helpful mood this morning. Aside from making the groundbreaking suggestion that I not watch the morning talk shows (whaaaa?), you managed to come up with countless helpful suggestions to resolve tonight's 8 p.m. network TV clusterfrack! Here are the options for each...
Friday Night Lights: SHOULD NOT BE IN THIS TIME SLOT TO BEGIN WITH, NBC; Should be watched live by all those with Nielsen boxes at all cost, even if you have to train your dog to turn on the TV at 8; can also be seen on NBC's website tomorrow morning, with an iTunes season pass, or in reruns on Bravo, Fridays at 6 p.m. and Saturdays at 4. THE BEST SHOW ON TV DESERVES BETTER, NBC.
Survivor: Should be watched live to avoid being spoiled; can also be seen on CBS's high-quality InnerTube site tomorrow, or via OnDemand. Or it could also allegedly be "let go." Thank you for trying to save me, Ellipsian... but that's unlikely.
I understand that you have a number of fine television programs to squeeze into the schedule each and every week. And I know that American Idol currently sits in the middle of that week like a giant inflatable rat blocking out the ratings sun. But there must be something that your smart, pretty programming execs can do to avoid the problem I am facing tonight, Wednesday, at 8 p.m.:
How, I ask you, am I supposed to watch Survivor, Bones, Friday Night Lights, and America's Next Top Model all at the same time?
That's horrible, Television Networks. Just mean.
My master plan after the jump...
What? Four new shows premiere tonight and I didn't DVR any of them. I am such a disgrace. No, really — to myself, for being an irresponsible entertainment blogger. And also to society, for actually considering my DVR negligence a problem. I mean, there are people who can't afford TVs. And weirdos like this girl who choose not to have one. Gross! I hate her for making me feel like a loser... and because she would be absolute zero fun in my house, where the hot topics are currently the smoothness of Charles Nelson Reilly's pipe-smoking on Match Game and how on Top Model, Renee's "cool" new haircut has turned her from the worst girl ever to the hottest worst girl ever, and why does this make her suddenly tolerable?
Anyway, tonight! You've got the Conan O'Brien/Andy Richter project Andy Barker, P.I. at 9:31 p.m., and NBC can go to hell for making that the start time. Raines (starring Jeff Goldblum, pictured) begins at 10 — PARDON ME, 10:01 — on the same channel, and so does October Road on ABC. There's also HBO's Addiction kickoff at 9. (More info about all these, here.) Which shows, if any, are you most excited about? Which will you watch as they air, and which will you record for later? Ooh, and tomorrow morning, let's use this post as a low-rent TV Watch for all four, and you can just complain your little hearts out in the comments, because honestly. Let's not get our hopes up.
So much TV, so little time, and most importantly, not enough space on my faux-TiVo. (Thank goodness the networks have started streaming their shows the next day on their websites.) Seeing as a "wintery mix of snow and rain" is predicted for Manhattan this evening, here's my plan for staying warm and entertained for the evening.
8 p.m.
How cute and adorable was America Ferrera at the Golden Globes? I've been a fan of hers since Real Women Have Curves, and I fully admit to bawling my eyes out during her climactic scene in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. She's the frumpy heart of ABC's Ugly Betty, and the main reason for tuning in tonight -- plus, the masked woman is finally unswathed! Over at NBC, however, Dwight is still out, and Oscar is (back) in at The Office -- which is sure to sure to result in some typically painful/glorious moments that you'll watch to savor.
Watch: Ugly Betty Stream: The Office Record: The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News (with guest Stephen Colbert; see below)
9 p.m.
Was there a more sappy and "aw"-worthy TV moment last week than Alex telling Addison he screwed up McSteamy's latte because he was rude to her? I think not. (Trust me on this -- my roommate made me rewind and watch the scene over and over four times). This week, Grey's upteenth romantic triangle gets a new twist when we find out about... an aborted baby? I can't wait. But hold on, ABC, the other networks aren't going down without a fight. In the tradition of Buffy and The Simpsons, NBC's Scrubs is offering its own all-music-all-the-time episode, as Avenue Q's Stephanie D'Abruzzo checks into Sacred Heart. And over at CBS, Liev Schreiber (pictured, with Marg Helgenberger) joins the cast of CSI as Michael Keppler, a seasoned agent temporarily taking the place of Grissom as William Petersen takes some time off for a teaching sabbatical.
11:30 p.m.
Bill "Papa Bear" O'Reilly takes on the Colbert Nation as he and Stephen Colbert swap guest appearances for the evening. Can he handle the truthiness? Who knows -- but whatever happens, tonight's Colbert Report (Comedy Central) will definitely be one to remember.
REMINDER: Tonight's premiere of Scrubs marks the first of NBC's four-comedies-in-a-row Thursday nights. Starting at 8, it'll go My Name Is Earl, The Office, Scrubs, 30 Rock. I just watched Scrubs, and was delighted by the presence of the Blue Man Group (pictured, with Zach Braff), Pop Rocks, and multiple dance parties set to Turk's new "Bye Bye Bye" ringtone. And don't worry, Dr. Cox's fro remains as intense as an '80s teenage girl's. That's quite a relief.
I'm personally psyched about NBC returning to its '90s-esque comedy block. I mean, yeah, I'll have to set two separate DVRs to record four different networks and then spend eight hours watching all the shows, but I can sleep when I'm dead. What about you? Is the all-star Thursday stunt getting to be a bit too much, or will you remain faithful to your faves and just watch them over the weekend, before you die? Remember, there's no Julie Cooper in heaven. (Go to hell.)
Remember, just because the network bigwigs chose to create a pile-up of Grey's Anatomy, CSI, and the season premiere of The O.C. (all airing tonight at 9) doesn't mean you need to throw your TiVo into a tizzy. As it turns out, tonight's O.C. is streaming online here and at Fox affiliate websites like this one, up until about an hour before showtime and then again starting tomorrow morning. (Next week's ep should be posted by then as well. Oh, by the way, it's a PC-only party; no welcome to the O.C., bitch, for you Mac users.) Plus, Grey's is re-airing again tomorrow night at 8 (and streaming at ABC.com after tonight's broadcast), and CSI should be available online at CBS.com by tomorrow as well. So watch at your leisure, and keep an eye on PopWatch for future updates on TV traffic snarls.
Here's the traffic report for tonight's TV: ABC's Dancing With The Stars results show will paso doble smack into America's Next Top Model at 8 p.m., but the CW will rerun ANTM on Sunday. Fox's House is a rerun, so ABC's Lost premiere is up against nothing special at 9 p.m. There's a new Project Runway at 10 (in which Heidi name-checks EW.com!) on Bravo, opposite ABC's debut of The Nine and NBC's Kidnapped, but PR will go into rerun mode at midnight and for several days thereafter, while The Nine and Kidnapped will stream at their networks' websites. So that leaves you free to watch the season premiere of South Park on Comedy Central at 10, though that will also show up in countless repeats throughout the week. Drive safely.
Today on The View, Joy Behar asked Rosie O'Donnell if filming her heterosexual sex scene with Julian McMahon for tonight's episode of Nip/Tuck was an experience akin to making a foreign film. Rosie's reply was along the lines of: Honey, I've been to that country before, and I've returned safely. I'm not sure what this voyage into seldom-charted waters will be like for brave Nip/Tuck viewers, but for some folks, at least, this is Must See TV. If only it didn't conflict with Smith on CBS...
Fortunately, PopWatch's TV Traffic Jam report is here to tell you that, if you miss the 10 p.m. airing of Nip/Tuck on FX, you can catch it as a rerun immediately afterward at 11 -- and since it's cable, ad infinitum thereafter. Similarly, if you want to catch the pilot of NBC's acclaimed Friday Night Lights, but you have an 8:00 conflict with either Dancing With the Stars (ABC), baseball playoffs (Fox), or Gilmore Girls (CW), you can at least catch Friday at another time, as it'll be streaming for a week at NBC.com. Also, tonight's CBS lineup (NCIS, The Unit, and Smith) should be streaming by tomorrow on CBS.com.
Hope that helps you make your programming/recording choices for the evening. Stay tuned to PopWatch for further TV traffic updates.
This season, there are so many good TV series on at the same time, it's hard to watch them all, or even to program your TiVo to record them all. At least the networks have started helping you catch up via reruns airing on their sister cable channels and streaming on their websites. Still, it's tough to plan your evening of viewing, recording, and streaming if you don't know where to find all the alternative ways to catch tonight's shows.
That's why, as a public service, PopWatch will offer periodic TV Traffic Jam reports to help you untangle a given night's pile-up of worthy shows. For starters, tonight, how will you navigate the swamp from 8 to 9, which involves My Name Is Earl and The Office on NBC, Ugly Betty on ABC, 'Til Death on Fox, Smallville on the CW, and Survivor on CBS? Here's how: You could also catch Ugly Betty tomorrow night on ABC Family, and you'll be able to watch Survivor online at CBS.com. From 9 to 10, there's a showdown among CSI (CBS), Deal or No Deal (NBC), Grey's Anatomy (ABC), Celebrity Duets (Fox), and Supernatural (CW), but Grey's is also airing again tomorrow night on ABC. At 10, it's Shark on CBS, Six Degrees on ABC, and ER on NBC, but Six Degrees, like the rest of tonight's ABC lineup, will be streaming later at ABC.com.
Check back with PopWatch for frequent TV Traffic Jam updates.
If you're staying home tonight to 
We don't know what the contents of Barack Obama's half-hour prime-time special tomorrow night at 8 p.m. will be (though we can only hope it's as entertaining as what SNL came up with, below). But we do know that it will air on almost all of the four major broadcast networks. (Even Malia Obama was worried that her dad's cross-network airtime buy would preempt her favorite shows, 
As I write this, my DVR is a few short hours away from taping The CW's Privileged and CBS's The Mentalist and not Fox's Fringe at 9 p.m. ET. I have my reasons, but I've been second-guessing the decision all day. Were I a sane person, it wouldn't matter: I know I can watch Fringe tomorrow on Hulu, and I'm not a Nielsen family, so I don't have to feel guilty for affecting the show's ratings 
Like EW TV critic Gillian Flynn, I wasn't expecting to find CBS' latest procedural, The Mentalist, what's the word... necessary. If I want banter (and 
Since you probably can't afford to gas up the SUV and go anywhere this Independence Day weekend, you might as well stay home and watch TV, especially since it seems every cable channel is staging a TV marathon or two. The 
I've been taping the morning Angel repeats on TNT, because even though I loved Buffy, I somehow didn't tune into Angel until Season 3, when I happened to be at a friend's apartment when she was watching the episode in which a certain vampire staked herself to give birth to a certain baby. (I vagued that up for spoiler-phobes.) I kept with the show through the killer fourth season (The Beast! Jasmine!), but for some reason, never made it into Season 5. I don't know why. I'm clearly enjoying it now, since I was an hour late to work yesterday because I had to watch the freshly-DVR'd "Life of the Party" episode. I knew I wouldn't have time to watch it last night after work, so I had to watch it before I went in. Right? Before you answer, remember that this is the episode where Wolfram & Hart throws a Halloween party and everyone ends up doing what Lorne tells them to do: Fred and Wesley act drunk (so well), Gunn "marks his territory," Spike thinks positively, and Eve and Angel (Sarah Thompson and David Boreanaz, pictured) "get a room."
The 50th running of 
So NBC and CBS will simulcast the Patriots-Giants game Saturday night at 8 p.m. ET, using the NFL Network's production team (that means Bryant Gumbel and Cris Collinsworth in the booth on all three networks). Apparently, this rare synergy (it's the first NFL game to air on more than one network since the first Super Bowl almost 41 years ago) is 
The 
Enough! These two rivaling supershows need to stop acting like children. Big news today: 
What? Four new shows premiere tonight and I didn't DVR any of them. I am such a disgrace. No, really — to myself, for being an irresponsible entertainment blogger. And also to society, for actually considering my DVR negligence a problem. I mean, there are people who can't afford TVs. And weirdos like 
So much TV, so little time, and most importantly, not enough space on my faux-TiVo. (Thank goodness the networks have started streaming their shows the next day on their websites.) Seeing as a "wintery mix of snow and rain" is predicted for Manhattan this evening, here's my plan for staying warm and entertained for the evening. 
REMINDER: Tonight's premiere of Scrubs marks the first of NBC's four-comedies-in-a-row Thursday nights. Starting at 8, it'll go My Name Is Earl, The Office, Scrubs, 30 Rock. I just watched Scrubs, and was delighted by the presence of the Blue Man Group (pictured, with Zach Braff), Pop Rocks, and multiple dance parties set to 
