TVSquad

I'll be the first to agree that at some point after Chris Moneymaker's World Series win, poker on TV got a little bit out of hand. For a while it seemed that you couldn't turn on the TV without stumbling over some new poker-based show. Things have settled down somewhat lately, with a few survivors remaining. For my poker watching vote, there remains a big three. The World Series, despite ESPN's screwed up scheduling, World Poker Tour, and the newcomer, High Stakes Poker.

Now it looks like two of the three could be in trouble. It seems that the expected dates for the renewals of WPT and High Stakes over at GSN have come and gone. The speculation is that the new CEO at GSN, David Goldhill, wants to move away from the interest in poker that the former CEO, Rich Cronin, brought to the network. Goldhill would instead like to get back to more traditional game shows.

• At 7, A&E has a 24 marathon.
• At 8, FOX has two new episodes of Cops, followed by a new episode of America's Most Wanted.
• NBC has a new Dateline at 8.
• CNN has a special at 8 on food safety in America.
• Also at 8: Food Network has a "fast food" night. Emeril Live is about quick, "Express Lane" cooking, Tasty Travels is about fast food, and The Secret Life Of... is about take-out.
• At 8:30, Cartoon Network has a new Bobobo-bo Bo-Bobo, then new episodes of Naruto, One Piece, and another Naruto.
• At 9, CNBC has a new Suze Orman Show.
• Lifetime has the new movie What If God Were The Sun? at 9.
• At 10, CBS has a new 48 Hours Mystery.
• The History Channel has a new episode of The States at 10.
• At 11, FOX has a new Mad TV, with Fred Willard, followed by a new Talk Show with Spike Feresten.
• At 11:30, NBC has the season finale of Saturday Night Live with Zach Braff and Maroon 5.
• At 1am, NBC has a new Poker After Dark.

Check your local TV listings for more.

With all the ruckus around the holidays I forgot to mention that NBC's new late night poker show, Poker After Dark, was starting up this week. I'm not sure of the scheduling everywhere, but we are getting it at 3AM up in the pacific northwest. That's mighty late for most folks, but with DVRs, VCRs, and the like, time doesn't matter much anymore.

I've been checking out the show in the morning before heading off to work, and I have to say, it's not bad. I think the most popular poker show going right now is probably GSN's High Stakes Poker, and Poker After Dark has taken a lot of clues from that show's success. They've brought in a a great group of pro players. This week features Phil Hellmuth, Gus Hansen, Shawn Sheikhan, Annie Duke, Huck Seed and Steve Zolotow. Because of all those great personalities, the commentators mostly stay out of the way and let the interactions of the players power the show.