The new season of Saturday Night Live kicks off tonight. What will the show be like with the smaller cast? Will “Weekend Update” be funny with Seth Meyers replacing Tina Fey behind the desk? Will the sketches be funny? Will I laugh? Will I groan? Will I fall asleep? All these question and more will be answered tonight when I watch the show.

Prime Picks

Saturday Night Football (ABC): Ohio State takes on Iowa in this battle of No. 1 vs. No. 13 in the latest AP Poll as both team try to stay undefeated. The kickoff will be a little after 8:00 p.m. Eastern and will run about three hours or so. This season has seen some pretty great games and the season is still young.

Solid Selections

The Class (CBS): Repeat. The “Pilot” replays. Given the competition of Dateline NBC and Cops this is the best you can do and that isn’t saying much. This was probably the least funny thing I have watched in a long time. Well at least until Ted Danson’s Help Me Help You earlier this week. This show makes ‘Til Death on FOX a laugh riot in comparison.
The Class (CBS): Repeat. The second episode wasn’t any better. CBS is hoping to garner a little more interest in this new show. Show the first two episodes again will not help them towards that goal. I say bring back The King of Queens now instead of midseason.

Jericho (CBS): Repeat. The second episode replays. Now this is a show that you should probably give a look to if you have not watched it yet. The first episode was pretty good. I fear thought that it will be this year’s Invasion as it may make it through the season barely but not be picked up for another.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (NBC): Repeat. This is an old episode where Det. Fin’s son gets mixed up in a case and looks like a suspect.

Cable Choices

50 Most Outrageous TV Moments (E!): Repeat. See some outrageous moment from TV. Runs two hours.

Trading Spaces (TLC): Repeat. See Frank and Hildi help some skate shop owners do some designing and decorating.

Sports Notes

• ABC has third round coverage of the American Express Championship golf tournament followed by college football and later more college football.
• CBS has college football with Alabama at Florida.
• ESPN has college football with Tennessee at Memphis early and later Michigan at Minnesota.
• ESPN2 has Wisconsin at Indiana early and later has Houston at Miami followed by Georgia at Mississippi in college football action.
• FOX has MLB Baseball coverage.
• FOX Sports has college football.
• NBC has Purdue at Notre Dame in college football action.
• OLN has college football with Boise State at Utah.
• TBS has USC visiting Washington State in college football action.
• TNT has NASCAR Racing with the Yellow Transportation 300.

Late Night

• MADtv (FOX): New. Efren Ramirez gets involved in some sketches.
• Saturday Night Live (NBC): Season Premiere. Hosted by Dane Cook with musical guest the Killers. I just hope they don’t do the Target sketch again as the Dane Cook hosted episode last season is where it made its debut. At least the monologue should be funny.

What will you be watching tonight? Will it be Saturday Night Live?

The “Pilot” of the NBC show Heroes replays tonight on the Sci Fi Channel before the new season of Doctor Who gets started tonight. Also kicking off tonight is Paula Deen in her new cooking show were she gets to use that personality to entertain her audience while she shows them how to cook up some delicious southern food. Makes me hungry just thinking about it.

Prime Picks

Grey’s Anatomy (ABC): Repeat. Last night’s episode where Cristina meets Burke’s parents and Meredith is trying to decide between McDreamy and McVet all while the interns try to get Izzie reinstated.

Men in Trees (ABC): New. Since Marin has been away from New York for a little while now a rumor starts circulating about that she has died. This causes a myriad of problems for her.

Numb3rs (CBS): New. A crazy woman on a crime spree has taken Megan hostage and Don and the team search for her.

Solid Selections

Justice (FOX): Repeat. The “Pilot” episode replays tonight. The first episode was pretty good. Yet the show loses a little something trying to keep up the same pace each week.

Close To Home (CBS): New. A woman who claims she killed her husband in self-defense is tried.

Law & Order (NBC): New. A photo appearing on the Internet of what looks to be a murdered woman prompts many people to call 911 and the detectives to investigate.

Cable Choices

Take Home Chef (TLC): New. Watch as they cook up some crab and vegetable spring rolls with Pad Thai noodles. Plays again later.
Take Home Chef (TLC): New. In this one they cook up tuna tenderloin and a crab and mango salad. Plays again later.

$40-a-Day (Food Network): Repeat. Rachael Ray tries to eat in New York for just 40 bucks. Plays again later.
Rachael Ray’s Tasty Travels (Food Network): New. Rachael takes a culinary tour of Washington D.C. for your viewing and eating pleasure. Plays again later.

Paula’s Party (Food Network): Season Premiere. Paula cooks ala Emeril in front of a live audience. Plays again later.

Other Options

• Doctor Who (Sci Fi): Season Premiere. A “Christmas Invasion” is battled in this 90 minutes season opener. Plays again later.
• Doctor Who (Sci Fi): New. Another episode plays right after the first. In this one they board the Tardis for and visit “ New Earth.” Plays again later.
• Monk (USA): Repeat. Natalie tries to get Monk to open his own detective agency. This was a very fun episode.

Sports Notes

• ESPN has second round coverage of the American Express Championship golf tournament early and later Friday Night Baseball with the Philadelphia Phillies at the Florida Marlins.
• ESPN2 has Rutgers at South Florida in college football action.

What looks good to you this Friday night on TV?

Bobby Flay isn’t competing in the only throwdown tonight as Grey’s Anatomy and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation goes scalpel-to-flashlight for a second week. All for television supremacy and the title of most watched show on TV. Grey’s beat out CSI in the ratings last week. Can it do it again? About the same number of males watched Grey’s as CSI but female viewers were 2-to-1 in favor of Grey’s. The CW throws their hat in the ring tonight in the second hour of primetime with the season premiere of Supernatural. Once the lame Celebrity Duets is gone and baseball finished we will get the FOX premiere of The O.C. on Nov. 2nd. It will be interesting to see what kind of audience these two shows and NBC’s Deal or No Deal can draw up against Grey’s and CSI.

Prime Picks

My Name Is Earl (NBC): New. Burt Reynolds plays the owner of a strip club and he wants Catalina to come back to work for him.
The Office (NBC): New. Michael puts together a little shindig in his room at a convention that Dwight and Jan are also attending. Who else might we see there? How great were those scenes with Jim in the other office?

Grey’s Anatomy (ABC): New. Cristina meets Burke’s parents as we have seen in the commercials. Meredith is trying to decide between McDreamy and McVet. The interns try to get Izzie reinstated. Runs 61 minutes.

Six Degrees (ABC): New. Mae has decided to stay in New York and continue working for Laura. Carlos has taken on an attempted murder case. I thought this was a pretty interesting show. We shall see if it can build from there and keep us interested.

Solid Selections

Smallville (The CW): Season Premiere. Clark is trapped in the phantom zone and Zod in Lex’s body prepares to destroy Earth. How will Clark get out? Can’t wait to see.

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (CBS): New. Clues from the miniature crime scene are followed and Danny Bonaduce guest stars. Last week’s episode was kind of strange in that it wrapped up the cases early so they could introduce new ones for this week. What did you think of that?

Shark (CBS): New. The Mayor wants him to prosecute the case of an undercover narcotics cop who was killed. This could go a long way to getting in better with the cops.

Cable Choices

Emeril Live (Food Network): Repeat. Emeril whips up some grub fit for a hunter.

Iron Chef America (Food Network): Repeat. Cat Cora takes on two chefs.

Throwdown with Bobby Flay (Food Network): New. A chowder battle is boiled.
Ace of Cakes (Food Network): New. Twenty cakes are in need of decorating.

Other Options

• Supernatural (The CW): Season Premiere. One of the guys hangs between life and death as the other two take on an old adversary.
• Ugly Betty (ABC): Series Premiere. A woman of plain looks gets a job in the high fashion industry. Holy fish out of water, Batman! It is said to be really good. We shall see.

Sports Notes

• ESPN has first round coverage of the American Express Championship golf tournament and Auburn at South Carolina in college football action later.
• ESPN2 has Thursday Night Baseball with the Baltimore Orioles at the New York Yankees.
• TBS has the New York Mets at the Atlanta Braves.

What TV shows look good to you tonight?

This week we have two questions sent in via email and five others that people have searched for in the last few weeks. These questions include whether shows like Six Degrees on ABC and the Stargate shows on Sci Fi will play again, what happened on Criminal Minds and Without a Trace on CBS, the number of episodes of Eureka on Sci Fi, when Supernatural starts back up again on The CW and who plays that creepy kidnapper on the NBC show Kidnapped.

Mike asked: Will the Six Degrees pilot be rebroadcast or is it available for download?
Well Mike, the Six Degrees “Pilot” is not scheduled for rebroadcast on ABC anytime soon. Should the show make it, it will play again at some point. As for download, it is not presently available at iTunes . Yet if you want to see it and you have a broadband Internet connection you can watch it for free at the ABC website via streaming video. Many of ABC’s shows will be available for about four to six weeks after it airs, including Six Degrees.

Vynessa asked: When will Sci Fi Channel run the repeat of Stargate Atlantis and Stargate SG-1 that aired Friday, September 22, 2006?
Vynessa, according to the Sci Fi Channel website the answer is no time soon. It is not on the schedule through the end of October. Both the episodes in question, Stargate Atlantis: “The Return, Part 1″ and Stargate SG-1: “The Quest, Part 1,” are available at iTunes. Amazon’s Unbox has the “The Return, Part 1” Stargate Atlantis episode but has yet to post the Stargate SG-1 episode. Amazon is presently offering your first episode download free or $1.99 off your first Amazon Unbox purchase.

What happened at the end of Without a Trace season premiere?
Here is my synopsis of what happened at the end of the fifth season premiere of Without a Trace. They tracked the man to a trailer in the woods where he shot himself when corned. They then searched the surrounding area and found the boy, Daniel, in a hole the man had used before. It turned out that Daniel was not the first boy the guy had taken. He had also abducted another boy a few weeks earlier and the team found him buried in a shallow grave near where he first saw Daniel. It also turned out that the boy that had gotten away and was helping the FBI was not the man’s real son but a boy he had kidnapped 7 years ago. His real name was Max, which they found carved in the wooden door on the hole where they found Daniel. Samantha took him to the house where his mother lived at the end of the episode. The episode ended with them walking to the door hand-in-hand.

What happened in the season premiere of Criminal Minds?
Here is my short synopsis of the season two premiere of Criminal Minds. Elle was shot at the end of last season and is being worked on by paramedics and rushed to the hospital for surgery. While unconscious we see a dream state of her talking with her father who died when she was a little girl off and on throughout the episode. While she is being cared for at the hospital the rest of the team continues to search for “The Fisher King” and the girl he is holding. It turns out that the girl was his daughter. They had lived in Nevada and their house had burned down killing his wife and other children and burning him severely. Only one of his children survived and was placed in foster care and then adopted by another family. The man had been in the institute with Dr. Reid’s mother. He used to tell her stories and write her letters about his job and the people he worked with. She kept a journal, which this guy got his hands on during his stay there. He used the information in them to create his elaborate scheme. Dr. Reid tries to talk the man out when they locate his home but he blows himself up catching the place on fire. Remembering the last clue left Dr. Reid and some of the team head for the basement and find the girl. Dr. Reid had brought the key with him and used it to unlock the girl. Elle comes out of surgery and is going to be OK.

How many episodes of Eureka are scheduled in season one?
There are 12 or 13 depending on whether you count the two-hour “Pilot” episode as one or two episodes. I count that as one episode so I would say there are 12 episodes in the first season of Eureka. The 12th episode and season finale, “Once in a Lifetime,” airs next Tuesday, Oct. 3rd. The first season of Eureka is available at iTunes.

When is the new Supernatural season starting?
The new season, that being the second season of Supernatural, begins tomorrow after the sixth season premiere of Smallville on The CW.

Who played the kidnapper on last weeks Kidnapped on NBC?
Doug Hutchison plays the kidnapper, “Mr. Schroeder,” on Kidnapped. You may recognize him playing a suspect on CSI, CSI: Miami, Law & Order: SVU or as Sebastian Hulce on The Guiding Light.

Do you have a question about a favorite TV show? Ask the TVaholic, maybe we can help you find the answer or leave a comment.