Friday TV: Portlandia S.3 Premiere, Merlin S.5 Premiere, Blue Bloods & More

News & Notes

Tonight, PBS has the third season premiere of Need to Know.

Over on cable, Cooking Channel has the series premiere of Taste in Translation, Discovery Channel has the third season premiere of Bering Sea Gold, E! has a Fashion Face-Off: 2013 Celebrity Style Special, IFC has the third season premiere of Portlandia, Lifetime Movie Network has the TV movie premiere of Cold Spring, Reelz has the second season premiere of True Justice, Syfy has the fifth season premiere of Merlin, TLC has the second season premiere of Say Yes to the Dress: Randy Knows Best, and USA Network has the two-hour Over/Under “Pilot,” which they didn’t pick up to series.

In late night, BBC America has The Brit List: Most Outrageous Celebrities U.S. vs. U.K. special.

Prime Picks

Last Man Standing (ABC): New. Eve gets suspended from school. Ryan buys a motorcycle. Runs 30 minutes.

Arrow (The CW): Repeat. The “Pilot” episode replays.

Blue Bloods (CBS): New. It looks like a sniper is taking out people driving low gas mileage vehicles. One of Danny’s sons is injured in a bicycle accident.

Other Options

• Merlin (Syfy): Season Premiere. King Arthur’s search party runs into some danger looking for men that are disappearing from the frozen north of Camelot. Plays again later.
• Portlandia (IFC): Season Premiere. Two new episodes play. In the first, Spike and Iris attempt to take back MTV from the tweens. In the second, the Portland Mayor has sent Fred and Carrie to recruit new residents from Seattle. Both play again later.

Sports Notes

• ESPN has doubleheader NBA action with the Chicago Bulls at the Miami Heat followed by the Los Angeles Lakers at the Los Angeles Clippers.
• ESPN2 has college basketball action with Memphis at Tennessee.
• FOX has college football action with the Cotton Bowl with Oklahoma vs. Texas A&M.

Friday TV Marathons

Cold Case (ION): Has 11 episodes.
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (USA Network): Five episodes today.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (USA Network): Six episodes tonight.
Merlin (Syfy): Has 12 episodes.
Touched by an Angel (gms): Five episodes tonight.

What will you watch on Friday TV?