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The
Student Newspaper of Wake Forest University
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Established
1916
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TV premieres: a guide to the best that's on
By Ryan Eanes
Old Gold and Black Reporter
The networks are glutted with fall premieres and you're not sure what to watch. Lean on my insight: the "Best Television Picks of the Week," featuring at least one show for every evening. Settle into the couch, grab a bowl of something unhealthy and let's watch some TV! FOX holds sway over the remote control on Sundays. Aside from NBC's new dramatic offerings American Dreams and Boomtown, FOX is offering its immensely popular lineup consisting of Futurama, Oliver Beene (my pick for "most likely to be cancelled"), The Simpsons, King Of The Hill, Malcolm In The Middle and The Grubbs (which I'm guessing will be so bad it's good). You really can't go wrong with any of the networks on Sunday night ­ honestly, it's just a matter of what you want to watch. If you want drama, stick to NBC; if you want action, flip over to the WB, but otherwise leave the tube on FOX. Monday's television selection is a little bleaker. The most notable addition to Monday night's schedule is CSI: Miami at 10 p.m., CBS's spin-off of the immensely successful CSI. Aside from this new entry, which looks different enough to attract an audience of its own, Monday nights don't have much to offer in terms of new programs. Some oldies-but-goodies like 7th Heaven, Boston Public and The Drew Carey Show are all making returns. Tuesday night used to be the haven for programs bumped out of Thursday's "Must See TV" slots, but now it's a very busy and very full night of television. ABC, still struggling to repair its ratings following the demise of Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?, knows this and is attempting a comeback with its most successful format ­ family-oriented, half-hour sitcoms a la Full House. We'll see if offerings like 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter (starring John Ritter) and Life With Bonnie, a quasi-improvised sitcom starring Bonnie Hunt, can snag suitable ratings. If family fare is too sappy, try NBC; Just Shoot Me! has moved to Tuesday nights, with Frasier and Hidden Hills (which gets my vote for "least likely to actually be funny"). Tuesdays catch the WB at 9 p.m. for Smallville, one of the most entertaining programs on television. NBC will probably dominate Wednesdays, considering its hefty lineup of The West Wing and Law & Order. But UPN's growing-in-popularity Enterprise at 8 p.m. is slowly drawing a larger audience. Enterprise often beats out most of its timeslot opponents (including Ed and the fading Dawson's Creek). Thursday night has long contained the crown jewels of television, most likely due to NBC's continued coup from the Cosby Show on. It almost seems that the other networks are surrendering (read: UPN's two-hour block of WWF Smackdown). The Peacock will run the final season of Friends and continuations of Scrubs, Will & Grace and the new offering Good Morning, Miami, not to mention ER. The only real competition comes from CBS at 9 p.m. with CSI, although the WB's new sitcom Family Affair starring Tim Curry seems unique enough to carve out a niche. What seems like the ninety-third installment of Survivor will also run, but the series' ratings continue to plummet. College students don't watch TV Friday nights and the nets know this; most of the night's programming targets high-schoolers or the over-30 bracket. Case in point: Dateline NBC, 20/20, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and a smattering of WB sitcoms (including Sabrina the Teenage Witch) all run Fridays ­ hardly anything to keep you from the frats. But is there anything to at least set the VCR for? FOX's John Doe seems intriguing enough, and the WB's Greetings from Tucson looks interesting enough for a glance. As for Saturday, both NBC and ABC are running films from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. FOX is taking the traditional route by airing back-to-back COPS followed by America's Most Wanted, while CBS once again caters to the over-50 crowd with Touched By An Angel and The District. NBC and ABC might end up saving you the cost of a Blockbuster rental, but with both networks' hit-or-miss past movie schedules, you might be better off to spend the to rent something on your own. There's a lot to look forward to this fall on television. We'll see how many of these promising series will last ­ cancellations come quickly, leaving us to wonder about many shows that might have become great. In the meantime, set your VCRs or TiVos and enjoy. |
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Copyright 2002, WFU Publications Board. All rights reserved. |
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