TVSquad

Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.

Finally, a DVD release that I'm definitely, definitely going to buy: the new MST3K set! I'm also looking at the new Peanuts set because I don't have a complete collection of their holiday specials, but there have been a few of these collections released, so I'll have to figure out which one is the best one.

• Callan - Set 1
• Doctor Who - The Rescue/The Romans and Attack of the Cybermen
• Kath and Kim - Season 1

• At 8, ABC has a new Ugly Betty, then new episodes of Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice.
• CBS has a new Survivor at 8, followed by new episodes of CSI and Eleventh Hour.
• FOX has new episodes of Bones and Hell's Kitchen.
• The CW has a new Smallville at 8, followed by a new Supernatural.
• At 8:30, NBC has the season finale of Kath & Kim, then new episodes of The Office, 30 Rock, and ER.
• At 9, Spike has a new TNA Impact.
• At 10, Biography has a new Chris Isaak Hour.
• Discovery has a new Treasure Quest at 10.
• Food Network has a new Ace of Cakes at 10.
• Also at 10: VH-1 has a new Sober House.

Check your local TV listings for more.

After the jump, the late night talk shows.

• At 8, ABC has a new Ugly Betty.
• CBS has a new Survivor at 8, then new episodes of CSI and Eleventh Hour.
• NBC has new episodes of My Name Is Earl, Kath & Kim, The Office, 30 Rock, and ER.
• FOX has a new American Idol at 8, followed by a new Hell's Kitchen.
• At 9, Spike has a new TNA Impact at 9.
• Cartoon Network has a new League of Super Evil at 9.
• At 10, USA has a new Burn Notice.
• A&E has a new episode of The Beast at 10.
• Food Network has a new Ace of Cakes at 10.
• MTV has the season finale of Randy Jackson Presents: America's Best Dance Crew at 10.
• Also at 10: Discovery has a new Treasure Quest.

Check your local TV listings for more.

After the jump, the late night talk shows.

• At 8, ABC has a new Ugly Betty.
• CBS has a new Survivor at 8, then new episodes of CSI and Eleventh Hour.
• NBC has the special Secrets of the Furious Five at 8, followed by a new Kath & Kim.
• FOX has a new American Idol at 8, then a new Hell's Kitchen.
• PBS has Stevie Wonder In Performance at The White House at 8.
• Discovery has a new HowStuffWorks at 8.
• At 9, Spike has a new TNA Impact!
• At 9:30, NBC has a new 30 Rock, then a new ER.
• At 10, USA has a new Burn Notice.
• Biography has the series premire of The Chris Isaak Hour at 10.
• There's a new episode of The Beast on A&E at 10.
• History Channel has a new Ax Men at 10.
• At 10:30, Cartoon Network has a new Delocated.

Check your local TV listings for more.

After the jump, the late night talk shows.

• At 8, ABC has a new Ugly Betty, followed by new episodes of Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice.
• CBS has a new Survivor at 8, then new episodes of CSI and Eleventh Hour.
• NBC has new episodes of My Name Is Earl and Kath & Kim.
• FOX has a new Bones at 8, then a new Hell's Kitchen.
• At 9, Spike has a new TNA Impact.
• At 10, NBC has a new ER.
• USA has a new Burn Notice at 10.
• There's a new episode of The Beast on A&E at 10.
• Lifetime Movie Network has the movie Taken in Broad Daylight at 10.
• At 10:30, Cartoon Network has a new Delocated.
• At 12:15am, Cartoon Network has a new Xavier: Renegade Angel.

Check your local TV listings for more.

After the jump, the late night talk shows.

• At 8, ABC has a new Ugly Betty, followed by new episodes of Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice.
• CBS has the season premiere of Survivor at 8, then new episodes of CSI and Eleventh Hour.
• NBC has new episodes of My Name Is Earl, Kath & Kim, The Office, 30 Rock, and ER.
• FOX has the NAACP Awards at 8.
• Discovery has a new HowStuffWorks at 8.
• At 9, Spike has a new TNA Impact!
• Sci-Fi is showing the movie Serenity at 9.
• At 10, USA has a new Burn Notice.
• There's a new episode of The Beast on A&E at 10.
• Food Network has a new Ace of Cakes at 10.
• Discovery has a new Treasure Quest at 10.

Check your local TV listings for more.

After the jump, the late night talk shows.

You would think that a TV network that just canceled two big shows and had to pretty much take over another big show wouldn't be too happy with the company's entertainment head. But that's not what's happening over at NBC.

The network just canceled the Christian Slater spy drama My Own Worst Enemy, and Lipstick Jungle looks like it might be done too. Both shows starred big names and the network were hoping they'd stick around for a while. Meanwhile, Heroes has seen a huge drop in ratings, producers are being fired, and the show is being overhauled for its (hopeful) fourth season. But Silverman isn't being blamed for these miscues. Exec Katharine Pope was in charge of those shows (and Bionic Woman) so she is the one being blamed, according to The New York Post.

• At 8, ABC has a new Ugly Betty, followed by new episodes of Grey's Anatomy and Life On Mars.
• CBS has a new Survivor at 8, then new episodes of CSI and Eleventh Hour.
• NBC has a new My Name Is Earl at 8, followed by new episodes of Kath & Kim, The Office, 30 Rock, and ER.
• FOX has two new episodes of Kitchen Nightmares at 8.
• The CW has a new Smallville at 8, then a new Supernatural.
• NFLNet has Football at 8, the Jets vs. the Patriots.
• TBS has four excellent Friends repeats starting at 8 (in case you don't want to watch Jennifer Aniston on 30 Rock).
• Cartoon Network has a new Chowder at 8.
• At 9, Spike has a new TNA Impact!
• CNN has the special Escape From Jonestown at 9.
• At 10, FX has a new It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, then a new Testees.
  
• Bravo has a new Tim Gunn's Guide To Style at 10.
  
• VH-1 has a new Celebrity Rehab at 10.
• Also at 10: Sundance has a new Iconoclasts, with Venus Williams and Wyclef Jean.
• At 10:30, Comedy Central has a new Sarah Silverman Program.

Check your local TV listings for more.

After the jump, the late night talk show listings.

Interesting piece in The New York Times that asks the question: where the hell is 30 Rock?

The third season of the show won't bow until October 30, but you would think that the show would want to launch a week or two earlier because of all of the attention that Tina Fey is getting for her Sarah Palin impersonation on Saturday Night Live, her Emmy win, and her new mega-million dollar book deal. So how come the show hasn't premiered yet? They must have an episode or two done for the new season.

(S01E01) We're friends here, aren't we? So, I can be honest with you. I mean, some of you have been utterly, brutally honest with me to the point I cry into my pillow at nights. The least you can let me do is allow some truthiness spill over to you. Okay? Okay.

I went in blind to the premiere of Kath & Kim. Not blind in the sense that I didn't know who the stars were. My late 20s and early 30s were spent watching Molly Shannon on Saturday Night Live and I had knowledge of Selma Blair's work over the last few years. What I'm talking about is that I knew nothing about this NBC comedy or the Australian hit it was based on. The upside to this was that I was coming into the show like any other viewer. The downside was that I was coming into the show like any other viewer.

I probably should have come in a little more knowledgeable.

• At 8, ABC has a new Ugly Betty, then a new episode of Grey's Anatomy and the series premiere of Life On Mars.
• CBS has a new Survivor at 8, followed by the season premiere of CSI and the series premiere of Eleventh Hour.
• NBC has a new My Name Is Earl at 8, then the series premiere of Kath & Kim, then a new episode of The Office, then the series premiere of SNL Thursday Weekend Update, and a new ER.
• FOX has Game 1 of the National League Championship, the Dodgers vs. the Phillies at 8.
• The CW has new episodes of Smallville and Supernatural.
• At 8:30, HGTV has a new Myles of Style, followed by a new Rate My Space.
• At 9, History Channel has a new Modern Marvels.
• TLC has a new American Chopper at 9.
• At 10, FX has a new It's Always Sunny..., then the series premiere of Testees.
• Food Network has a new Ace of Cakes at 10.
• At 10:30, Comedy Central has another new episode of The Sarah Silverman Program.

Check your local TV listings for more.

After the jump, the late night talk show listings.

If you've been watching NBC's Olympic coverage, you must have seen all of the promotion they have been doing for their fall season. New shows My Own Worst Enemy, Crusoe, Knight Rider, Kath & Kim, and America's Toughest Jobs have all had plenty of play. As have the returning Chuck and Life. Given that the latest Olympiad is closing in on becoming the most watched television event of all time, you might think those promo spots were pretty valuable.

Apparently, not so much. The Hollywood Reporter runs down the record for the network promoting new shows during past games. In 2004, the Athens games led to one show, Joey, making it beyond its first season. Likewise for the Sydney games in 2000, which brought us Ed, and nothing else. Things were a little better in 1996 from Atlanta. Profiler, The Pretender, and Suddenly Susan all lasted another four years. Not a stellar track record and it leaves you thinking that those precious spots might have served the network better pitching more beer. It has the makings of a good poll though. After the jump, place your vote for the one new show that will make it out of season one.

Today was the very last day of the press tour here in Beverly Hills. It was "TCA Day," with members of the association (including me) going to the Warner Brothers lot to visit the sets of ER, Pushing Daisies, and Chuck, where we spoke to cast members and producers (Oh, we went to the set of America's Best Dance Crew, but let's just forget I mentioned that one). Then we bused it over to the Fox lot, where Joss Whedon showed us around the set of Dollhouse, and the entire cast of King of the Hill gave a table read of their 250th episode. All this fun will be in upcoming posts later this summer.

Despite some of the griping you may have seen from me, it's been lots of fun. It's just a very tiring experience. Case in point: On Monday, NBC decided to close out the press conference portion of the tour by having us sit through ten panels, five of them after lunch. Here's a wrap-up post that goes over some of what went on yesterday that I haven't already covered.

Virgin America, the newest start-up airline in these United States, has inked a deal with Sundance Channel to create a customer in-flight channel for it's passengers.

The new channel, Sundance Channel for Virgin America (catchy, ain't it?) will feature a collection of the cable network's feature films and documentaries as well as original programming such as Iconoclasts and Kath and Kim. In addition, Sunny Virgin (which I think is a much better name for the in-flight network) will air original episodes of the new documentary series Nimrod Nation three weeks before they air on the cable network. Nation, which will focus on the town of Watersmeet, Michigan and their obsession with their high school basketball team (the Nimrods) will air on the in-flight channel on November 1st, while it will air on the Sundance Channel on November 26th.

This morning's Very Short List has a story about the Australian TV comedy Kath & Kim. The producers who oversaw the transformation of the UK Office into the stateside Dunder-Mifflin team are busy recreating Kath & Kim for American audiences.

The Aussie half-hour is a faux reality show about suburban mom Kath and her self-involved, lay-about adult daughter Kim. The show's been called "Absolutely Fabulous without the fabulous." The Sundance Channel will be playing a 90-minute Kath & Kim made-for-TV movie on December 24th and plans to air the Aussie version's third season. The American take is set to debut in 2007. If The Office's translation is any indication, this could be good news for comedy fans. Anyone other there familiar with the show? Personally, I'm happy to get behind any series that smacks of Ab Fab.