News & Notes

On cable tonight, BBC America has the first season finale of Primeval, Lifetime has the TV movie premiere of Coco Chanel, and Sci Fi has the TV movie premiere of Ba’al: The Storm God.

In late night, FOX has the 14th season premiere of MADtv followed by the third season premiere of Talkshow With Spike Feresten and NBC has the 34th season premiere of Saturday Night Live. Read my interview with Spike Feresten.

Prime Picks

Chuck (NBC): Repeat. Sarah seems a bit jealous of Chuck’s new relationship and Morgan starts a new relationship, in “Chuck Versus the Imported Hard Salami.”

Law & Order: Criminal Intent (NBC): Repeat. A person that looked like the target of an assassination turns out to be a suspect in the death of someone else, in “Assassin” from this past season on USA.

Law & Order: Criminal Intent (NBC): Repeat. Everyone in the community is a suspect when a body is found in a nearby creek, in “Neighborhood Watch” from this past season on USA.

Solid Selections

NCIS (CBS): Repeat. The team finds that a body tagged as a John Doe is actually a career felon that has ties to some really bad people, in “Identity Crisis” from last season.

48 Hours Mystery (CBS): Repeat. A story of money, greed, power and sex in Alaska, in “Love and Death in the Wild.” Runs two hours.

Cable Choice

Coco Chanel (Lifetime): Premiere. Shirley MacClaine stars as Coco Chanel at the time of her comeback in the 50s after a 15-year exile. When her line flops, she harkens back to how she got to where she is. In doing so, she remembers why she did what she does and created another line that was a huge success and she stayed there until her death in 1971. Barbara Bobulova (In Love and War) plays Coco in her younger years and is positively radiant on screen. It also stars Malcolm McDowell. The acting is a cut above your average TV movie and if you like bio-pics, then this is probably your best choice on the night. It plays more like a big screen movie than a small screen one. It is a little slow for my taste, but interesting nonetheless. Runs three hours. It plays twice tonight and again tomorrow and Monday nights.

Other Options

• Primeval (BBC America): Season Finale. ???. Plays again later. The previous episode replays right before.

Sports Notes

• ABC has regional college football action and later Saturday Night College Football with Ohio State (5) at USC (1).
• CBS has college football with Georgia at South Carolina.
• ESPN has three college football games with Oklahoma (3) at my Washington Huskies capping off the day.
• ESPN2 has four college football games.
• FOX has MLB action with FOX Saturday Baseball.
• FOX Sports regional networks have college football all day.
• NBC has college football action with Michigan at Notre Dame.
• Versus has college football action with UCLA at BYU.

Late Night

• MADtv (FOX): Season Premiere. Jerry O’Connell (Crossing Jordan) of FOX’s new not very funny comedy Do Not Disturb joins in on the fun.
• Psych (USA): Repeat. Last night’s episode, “Gus Walks Into a Bank,” replays. This episode also replays earlier in the day followed by last night’s Monk.
• Saturday Night Live (NBC): Season Premiere. Eight time gold medalist at the Summer Olympics Michael Phelps hosts with musical guest Lil Wayne.
• The Shield (FX): Repeat. This past Tuesday’s episode, “Snitch,” replays.
• Talkshow With Spike Feresten (FOX): Season Premiere. The guest this week is new American Idol Judge Kara DioGuardi. Check out my interview with Spike.

TV Marathons

Bravo has seven episodes of Project Runway.
CMT has seven episodes of Nanny 911.
Comedy Central has five episodes of MADtv early.
Spike has 13 episodes of The Ultimate Fighter.
Travel Channel has seven episodes of Food Paradise.
truTV has six episodes of Dominick Dunne: Power, Privilege & Justice.
USA has the last five episodes from this season of Burn Notice including this past Thursday’s episode.