Tonight on the tube: Baseball, Daisies and Practice premiere

ABC.com

3:00p/2:00 Central

• It really says something about the state of “America’s Pastime” that its playoffs have been kicked off of network television and over to TBS. Twelve hours of baseball starts with Milwaukee v. Philadelphia in NLDS Game 1, followed by another NLDS Game 1 with Dodgers v. Cubs at 6:30p/5:30 Central.

8:00p/7:00 Central

• How many of The CW’s America’s Next Top Models have become, you know, a top model? Will dressing like a natural disaster tonight help them become that? Does that even make any sense?
• Tonight’s Knight Rider on NBC is titled “Journey to the End of the Knight.” Wanna take bets on when this Knight journey will end? Bones investigates the end of the road for an office manager on FOX, to which I say there’s plenty of middle managers. What’s one fewer?
• CBS’s comedy block of The New Adventures of Old Christine and Gary Unmarried returns with Richard needing the ring he gave to Christine back so he can propose to Christine (if you watched it, that made sense). Then Gary realizes he and his ex-wife are acting like they did when they were married.
• I have to say, and no offense to any of the above programs, but I like this competition for the return of the charming Pushing Daisies on ABC. Ned has to deal with Chuck’s growing independence and her desire to move out of their shared apartment.

9:00p/8:00 Central

• You kids with DirecTV get to tune into the third season premiere of Friday Night Lights. It’s either that or wait until 2009 for the NBC premiere. But if you catch it now you can see it extended and commercial free. Or if you’d rather watch something you’ve already seen before, The CW is re-airing this week’s 90210.
• The competition continues on Bravo’s Project Runway and comes to its conclusion on NBC with the season finale of America’s Got Talent. But don’t worry; the talent-fest will return next summer for a fourth run.
• Ratchet up your creep factor to 10 as a BBC America special delves into the world of collecting disturbingly lifelike infant dolls on My Fake Baby. Or, if that’s too disturbing, see if the Ghost Hunters will find any evidence of real specters in the Sunshine State.
• How about a double-dose of Dog the Bounty Hunter on A&E? If I had a guy like Dog posting bail for me, the last thing I’d do is run. He’s crazy and huge and his wife could smother me in her cleavage. It’s intimidating all around! They should hire him on Criminal Minds over at CBS. That way when they figure out who’s behind the latest murder they can send him in to pick them up.
• Another double-dose is on FOX. See, the executive over there decided to greenlight a little show called Do Not Disturb. Then after they saw the god-awful pilot, they switched it for another awful one and put it on the air. Surprisingly, everyone hated it and so now you get two ‘Til Death installments in a row. Don’t get me wrong, this show isn’t much better but it is on for an hour.
• What that means is you should probably watch another network this hour. How about ABC? They’re premiering the second season of Private Practice tonight in which Addison discovers that the financial situation at Oceanside isn’t as good as she thought.
• Or just forget all that crap and watch America’s real pastime on Inside the NFL. Showtime offers up the best highlights of the past week in the National Football League.

10:00p/9:00 Central

• Finally, the season finale of Criss Angel: Mindfreak on A&E means I won’t have to see his annoying ass on my TV for awhile. Which is good because I’d rather watch Part 3 of VH1’s 100 Greatest Hip Hop Songs. Also saying goodbye for awhile tonight is Lewis Black’s Root of All Evil on Comedy Central at 10:30p/9:30 Central, in which he pits “The Hills vs. Rocket Scientists.”
• If you haven’t passed out yet drunk on your couch, then you might be excited that TBS’s coverage of ALDS Game 1 with the Red Sox taking on the Angels. If you did pass out, at least you still have it on. TBS will take the ratings either way.
• Sci Fi continues seeking what is and isn’t on Destination Truth. Tonight they’re tracking a mythological creature in the Philippines.
• Nico struggles to adjust to life as a widow on NBC’s Lipstick Jungle, but this proves difficult when her husband’s former lover appears. Maybe she should track down Nora Walker for advice on this. Just don’t let the girl take over your family’s company.
• If fashion’s more your thing, you can’t go wrong with Top Design on Bravo. Maybe we can watch the designers come up with new and swankier outfits for the boys of Spike TV’s The Ultimate Fighter: Team Rampage vs. Team Forrest. Dinosaurs duke it out instead on the History Channel’s Jurassic Fight Club.
• FX’s Sons of Anarchy are “Giving Back” tonight, which can’t mean anything good really. What is good, for the viewers at least, is the addition of Jay Karnes (The Shield) as a federal agent. Probably bad news for the Sons, though.
• There’s some more product placement, so to speak, on CSI: NY as Maroon 5 guest stars. I guess since MTV won’t air their videos anymore, music artists have to appear on regular shows now so the masses can hear their music. That’s because MTV is too busy on year after year of crap like The Real World/Road Rules Challenge. This one’s on its sixteenth season already.
• ABC premiere night continues with Dirty Sexy Money, another of last season’s freshmen series that got cut short by the strike, barely earning a second year to try and find an audience. In a way they’re like new shows, or forgotten ones. Lucy Liu joins the cast permanently while Blair Underwood remains as the Darling family nemesis Simon Elder.

11:00p/10:00 Central

• Then wrap up your night with the Manswers to all your questions on Spike TV.

Clacked by Jason Hughes
on Oct 01, 2008 @ 13:00 EST5EDT