Tonight marks the third season of Desperate Housewives, a new time for Cold Case, a new night for Without a Trace, the debut of Brothers & Sisters and the season finale of Three Moons Over Milford. What will you be watching? What looks good to you? Do you think Desperate Housewives will return to its first season form? Will Cold Case struggle in its new timeslot? What will win the final primetime hour of the night for scripted programming, Brother & Sisters or Without a Trace? These questions and many more will be answered tonight on the tube. Check out the Ultimate Guide to the Fall 2006 Schedule for a look at what else the fall season still has to offer.

Prime Pick

The Simpsons (FOX): New. Marge has gotten really good at carpentry and goes into business but she has to use Homer as the face of the operation.
American Dad (FOX): New. I don’t particularly care for this show but it is the best you can do tonight in the second half of the first hour of primetime.

Desperate Housewives (ABC): Season Premiere. The third season kicks off tonight with Lynette trying to deal with her new extended family while Gaby is having problems in her marriage with the baby still on the way. Runs 61 minutes.

Without a Trace (CBS): Season Premiere. Samantha has to get a young boy to give her information on his father who looks like he may have kidnapped another boy.

Solid Selections

The Amazing Race 10 (CBS): New. Teams are trying to build alliances as the pressure builds.

Cold Case (CBS): Season Premiere. Two kids in 1995 apparently killed each other after a killing spree at a mall. The case is reopened when new evidence that there may have been a third shooter comes in.

Brothers & Sisters (ABC): Series Premiere. Estranged daughter Kitty comes home after three years where the story of the Walker family begins being told on a weekly basis. Looks as if it may be good but has already endured casting changes and a change of show runners. Hopefully these changes have helped and not hurt as in the case of Commander In Chief last season.

Cable Choices

Three Moons Over Milford (ABC Family): Season Finale. Laura wants to get legally separated from Carl while Michelle Graybar tries a little online dating.

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

Angela’s Eyes (Lifetime): New. One of Leo’s old friends is investigated while Angela deals with the dishonesty of her relationship with Dylan.

Other Options

• Nip/Tuck (FX): Repeat. The “Monica Wilder” episode from last week replays.
• The Wire (Showtime): New. Much upheaval is dealt with in this episode as change is all around.

Sports Notes

• CBS has NFL Football with the big game of the day being the Cincinnati Bengals at the Pittsburgh Steelers.
• ESPN has Sunday Night Baseball with the St. Louis Cardinals at the Houston Astros.
• FOX has NFL Football including the game I will be watching, the New York Giants at the Seattle Seahawks.
• NBC has the final day of Ryder Cup golf action early and later has Sunday Night Football with the Denver Broncos at the New England Patriots.
• TNT has NASCAR Racing with the Dover 400.

Late Night

• Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (Bravo): Repeat. The “Pilot” episode replays tonight giving you another chance to get caught up before the next episode tomorrow night on NBC.

TV Show Marathons

Bravo has six episodes of Law & Order: Criminal Intent leading up to a replay of the Studio 60 series premiere.
Discovery Channel has 14 hours of MythBusters including the two-hour “Mega Movie Myths” episode twice.

Saturday night picks up a bit with some reruns of shows that premiered in the last week. If you missed any of them here is your chance to see what happened. Smith is a very gritty heist caper show in a similar vein to Thief, which played on FX last season and replays tonight. Also find Jericho, Kidnapped and Law & Order: SVU. To make sure you don’t miss anything else that premieres next week check the Ultimate Guide to the Fall 2006 TV Schedule.

Prime Picks

Jericho (CBS): Repeat. The series premiere replays tonight.

Smith (CBS): Repeat. The series premiere replays tonight.

Kidnapped (NBC): Repeat. The series premiere replays tonight.

Solid Selections

Saturday Night Football (ABC): Tonight we get a PAC-10 match up between USC and Arizona. Kickoff is a little after 8:00 p.m. Eastern. Broadcast scheduled for about three hours.

Cable Choices

Emeril Live (Food Network): Repeat. Emeril cooks with guest Paula Deen.

Chefography (Food Network): Repeat. Primetime Paula continues with this profile of the southern chef.

Paula’s Cooking Class (Food Network): Repeat. Find out how to cook some of Paula Deen’s famous signatures dishes.

Other Options

• Dirty Jobs (Discovery Channel): Repeat. The 100th dirty job is done in this two-hour episode.
• Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (NBC): Repeat. The season premiere replays tonight.

Sports Notes

• ABC has college football in the afternoon and in primetime.
• CBS has college football.
• ESPN has college football games and caps off the day with Kentucky at Florida.
• ESPN2 has college football games and caps off the day with either Boston College at North Carolina or Notre Dame at Michigan State.
• FOX Sports has college football all day.
• NBC has Ryder Cup golf action the USA trying to catch up after falling behind yesterday.
• TBS has college football with my Washington Huskies taking on UCLA here at home.
• TNT has NASCAR Racing with the Dover 200.

Late Night

• MADtv (FOX): New. Howie Mandel guests, as does rapper Chingy.
• Saturday Night Live (NBC): Repeat. Host Steve Martin with musical guest Prince.
• Thief (FX): Repeats. The first three of the six episodes of this Andre Braugher vehicle set in New Orleans plays tonight. The final three episodes play next Saturday night. This was a pretty good show. The new CBS show Smith is very similar in tone.

What will you be watching tonight on TV?

A few more premieres tonight but not everything has. There is still a lot yet to come. For more on what else the fall 2006 TV season has to offer check out the Ultimate Guide to the Fall 2006 TV Schedule. There you will find links to primetime grids, premiere dates and reviews. What will you be watching tonight on TV?

Prime Picks

Grey’s Anatomy (ABC): Repeat. Last night’s season premiere, “Time Has Come Today,” replays.

Men in Trees (ABC): New. Marin is the host of the town’s bachelor auction. Annie meets Patrick’s mom.

Numb3rs (CBS): Season Premiere. Don and the team search for a teacher and her student who are on a violent crime spree.

Solid Selections

Ghost Whisperer (CBS): Season Premiere. Melinda ends up in a battle for the fate of Andrea after the plane crash.

Close to Home (CBS): Season Premiere. Some interesting tactics are used by Annabeth to figure out the motive for killing a woman and her children. David James Elliott (JAG) is the new assistant district attorney. Also joining the cast as detectives, are Jon Seda (Oz, Homicide: Life on the Streets) and Cress Williams (ER, Nash Bridges).

Law & Order (NBC): Season Premiere. A case involving the tabloids and a burglary is investigated and then prosecuted. Milena Govich (Conviction) is the new detective.

Cable Choices

Take Home Chef (TLC): New. A spicy kosher Indian dinner is served that includes lamb and rice. Replays later.
Take Home Chef (TLC): New. Sound like a small meal is being prepared with game hens and shrimp. Replays later.

Stargate SG-1 (Sci Fi): New. A quest for the Sangraal is begun. This is Part 1 of 2. It plays again later.

Stargate Atlantis (Sci Fi): New. Some Ancients return to the city and want the team to leave. This is Part 1 of 2. It plays again later.

Other Options

• Monk (USA): Repeats. Two episodes play tonight. First Monk bumps his head and then later he goes to his class reunion.
• Quigley Down Under (Hallmark): Released 1990. Tom Selleck as a cowboy hired to go to Australia because of his shooting ability. When shown what the real job is he won’t take the job. This was a very good movie. Runs two hours.

Sports Notes

• ESPN has Friday Night Baseball with the St. Louis Cardinals at the Houston Astros.
• ESPN2 has Northwestern at Nevada in college football action.
• USA has day one of Ryder Cup golf tournament action with the USA vs. Europe.

Late Night

• MI-5 (A&E): New. Part two of last week’s season premiere where the team must catch a mole.

TV Show Marathons

A&E has 15 episodes of CSI:Miami.

Who do you think will win the ratings battle tonight between CSI and Grey’s Anatomy? I will be watching one while recording the other. Which relationships are you most looking forward to learning more about what happened? Jim and Pam on The Office? Meredith and McDreamy and McVet on Grey’s Anatomy? Or Sara and Grissom on CSI? Let us know in the comments.

Prime Picks

My Name Is Earl (NBC): Season Premiere. Joy and Darnell are fighting and for some reason Earl takes Joy’s side.
The Office (NBC): Season Premiere. Michael outs an employee and we get to find out what the deal with Jim and Pam is. What do you think will have happened?

Grey’s Anatomy (ABC): Season Premiere. Izzie is trying to cope with losing Denny and quitting her internship at the hospital. Meanwhile Meredith has to make some decisions about her life. What do you think she will do? Runs 62 minutes.

Six Degrees (ABC): Series Premiere. Six people who don’t know each other affect the others with the decisions they make. What if the Lost flashback sequences were a show by themselves? Would you watch? That sure looks like what they have done here.

Solid Selections

Grey’s Anatomy (ABC): Clip show to get you caught up on all the goings on at Sacred Heart last season before the season premiere in the next hour. Also see and extended music video of “How to Save a Life.”

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (CBS): Season Premiere. A murder back stage at a Cirque du Soleil performance is investigated. John Mayer also performs.

Shark (CBS): Series Premiere. Sebastian Shark played by James Woods is a top defense attorney. He gets a client off for beating his wife and the guy turns around and kills her. He is shaken by this turn of events and recruited by the district attorney’s office to head up a prosecution team for high profile cases.

Cable Choices

Emeril Live (Food Network): Repeat. Emeril bakes up some delicious recipes.

Iron Chef America (Food Network): Repeat. See how Iron Chef Bobby Flay did against Chef John Dechellis in battle chicken egg.

Throwdown with Bobby Flay (Food Network): New. Watch a mixology challenge tonight.
Ace of Cakes (Food Network): New. Some amusing cakes are made tonight.

Other Options

• The Kids Are in Charge: Family Vacation (Travel Channel): New. Kids take the reins and plan the family trip.
• Mrs. Doubtfire (ABC Family): Released 1993. Robin Williams in drag as a British nanny so he can stay close to his kids without his wife knowing. Runs three hours.

Sports Notes

• ESPN has Virginia at Georgia Tech in college football action.
• ESPN2 has Thursday Night Baseball with the Minnesota Twins at the Boston Red Sox.

What will you be watching tonight?