Tonight on the Tube: Inauguration, Privileged, Fringe & Leverage

News & Notes

Get Leverage Episodes at Amazon Video On DemandTonight, ABC has The Neighborhood Ball: An Inauguration Celebration and A Moment in History: The Inauguration of Barack Obama, CBS has Dream Big Dream: The Inauguration of Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States, FOX has the return of Fringe with new episodes, and NBC has a Dateline NBC: Presidential Inauguration Special.

Over on cable, BET has the Yes We Will!: BET’s Inauguration Celebration, E! has the first season finale of Party Montsters: Cabo, and MTV has MTV’s Be the Change: Live From the Inaugural. Also, CNN, MSNBC and FOX News will have Inauguration coverage all day.

Prime Pick

90210 (The CW): New. Annie finds out that Ty is going to audition for the new school play. Dixon is looking for some relationship advice. Ryan has a less than fun time after encountering Kelly and Silver.

Privileged (The CW): New. Will thinks Megan needs to get some separation from her family’s problems. Also, Megan meets Will’s parents for the first time. Steven Culp (Desperate Housewives) guest-stars as Will’s father.

The Mentalist (CBS): Repeat. The “Redwood” episode from earlier this season replays, where Jane thinks the prime suspect didn’t kill her best friend, even though she was found covered in blood and holding the murder weapon.

Solid Selections

NCIS (CBS): Repeat. In this season’s premiere episode, “Last Man Standing,” Gibbs thinks he has figured out why the director disbanded his team.

Fringe (FOX): New. Olivia, Peter and Walter are investigating Olivia’s abduction. Meanwhile, Olivia’s sister comes for a visit.

If you haven’t got enough inaugural coverage by the time this timeslot rolls around and a repeat of The Mentalist just won’t do, then ABC and NBC both have Inauguration specials.

Cable Choices

Good Eats (Food Network): Repeats. Alton tells you all about cheese and then cooks up some macaroni and cheese. Both play again later.

Dirty Jobs (Discovery Channel): New. Mike tries his hand at animal rendering. A repeat episode, “Dirty Presidents,” replays right before. Both play again later.

Leverage (TNT): New. The team ends up in a whole mess of trouble when a job on a plane turns into a bigger problem. It plays again later and again on Saturday afternoon.

Other Options

  • American Idol (FOX): New. Clips from the San Francisco auditions are shown.
  • Chopped (Food Network): New. Four contestants compete by cooking up something tasty from a basket full of surprise ingredients. This episode includes working with tofu and surf & turf dish. Plays again later.

Sports Notes

  • ESPN has doubleheader college basketball action with Ohio State at Illinois followed by Tennessee at Vanderbilt.
  • ESPN2 has tennis action with Day 3 coverage of the Australian Open.
  • Versus has NHL action.

Late Night

  • 10 Items or Less (TBS): New. Leslie is not able to get the rights to use “Star Trek” for a store promotion, so he decides to put on a “Star Trok” convention. Plays again later and again late night Friday. I’ve been looking forward to this episode. Listen to my interview with star John Lehr who plays Leslie Pool.
  • The Beast (A&E): Repeat. Last Thursday’s series premiere episode replays. Plays again later.
  • Damages (FX): Repeat. Last Wednesday’s episode, “Burn It, Shred It, I Don’t Care,” replays. Runs 62 minutes.

TV Marathons

Bravo has 10 episodes of The West Wing followed by five episodes of The Real Housewives of Orange County.
Oxygen has episodes of The Bad Girls Club all day.
Sci Fi has eight episodes of Special Unit 2.
USA has 17 episodes of House.

Meet the Author

Jason the TVaholic
2 comments… add one
  • daedroug (Day-Drowg) Jan 21, 2009, 11:15 am

    hey, just heard the podcast and thought i’d toss out an opinion on the possibility of losing either Life or Chuck and I just have to say that as much as I like Life I’d rather lose that then Chuck. It is a good show but I think that there are plenty of other shows that fill the same kind of niche (for instance the Mentalist) whereas I can’t think of any show that would full fill my need for a show like Chuck.

  • Jason the TVaholic Jan 22, 2009, 4:39 am

    daedroug, I would have to agree with you. If I had to choose between the two, I would go with Chuck as well.

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