Sizzling Season Premiere of The Shield and Other Watercooler TV
SATURDAY, JANUARY 7
Skin (SoapNet, 10 p.m. ET)
Cable Premiere. A critical favorite when it debuted on Fox in October 2003, Skin is a decidedly adult serialized drama that revolves around teen lovers from two dramatically different families. Jewel
is the white daughter of a powerful man who runs a multi-million dollar pornography empire; Adam is a young Latino whose father is a district attorney fighting to take Jewel's dad down. In the opener, Jewel and Adam make love for the first time, setting in motion a drama that has been described as a modern-day Romeo and Juliet. Skin was cancelled after only three
episodes aired, but SoapNet will run all eight that were produced. D.J. Cotrona, Olivia Wilde, Ron Silver, D.W. Moffett, Kevin Anderson and Laura Leighton star.
Caved In: Prehistoric Terror (Sci Fi Channel, 9 p.m. ET)
Premiere. Christopher Atkins (The Blue Lagoon) stars in this action-thriller about treasure hunters on an expedition
into an abandoned mine who are stalked by monsters that have guarded the territory for thousands of years. Colm Meaney and Angela Featherstone co-star.
Celebrity Fit Club (VH1, 9 p.m. ET)
Lovers of trash television won't want to miss this: The now-chubby and temperamental Jeff Conaway (Grease, Taxi) pitches a fit in what may be looked back upon twelve months from
now as one of 2006's most memorable television meltdowns.
The L Word (Showtime, 10 p.m. ET)
Season Premiere. Bette and Tina visit a sex therapist as they continue rebuilding their relationship; Helena buys a movie studio and takes an interest in Alice; Kit realizes she's experiencing menopause; crazy
Jenny returns to Los Angeles with a new girlfriend and Lara discovers a lump on Dana's right breast as Showtime's erotically charged lesbian soap opera begins its third season. Mia Kirshner (the murderous Mandy
from 24), Jennifer Beals, Pam Grier and Katherine Moennig star.
Campus Ladies (Oxygen, 10 p.m. ET)
Series Premiere. Two middle-aged housewives (one widowed, one divorced) try to reclaim their lost youth by enrolling as freshmen at a Midwestern college and enjoying a life of perpetual partying in this new
comedy series. Campus Ladies is largely improvised in the manner of HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm. Cheryl Hines, who portrays Larry David's long-suffering wife on that show, is one of the executive producers of this new Oxygen effort. Carrie Aizley and Christen Sussin star.
MONDAY, JANUARY 9
Emily's Reasons Why Not (ABC, 9 p.m. ET)
Series Premiere. Heather Graham stars as Emily Sanders, a successful publisher of self-help books who is unable to help
herself in her quest for a fulfilling relationship. So she devises a list-making system that she thinks will guide her in determining which guys to date and when to dump them and move on. The very funny supporting cast in this lightweight comedy includes Khary Payton as Emily's gay pal Josh and Smith Cho as
her scheming office rival, Glitter. Victor Webster and Mark Valley guest star.
Frontline: Country Boys (PBS, check local listings)
Premiere. First of three parts. Documentary filmmaker David Sutherland (The Farmer's Wife) chronicles the lives of two teenaged boys coming of age in Kentucky's Appalachian hill country, a remote
region about which most people know very little. Sutherland filmed Chris Johnson and Cody Perkins from age 15 to 18 as they struggled with the typical physical, emotional and social demands of adolescence, while also dealing with poverty and family dysfunction. (Chris and Cody both appeared at the summer 2005 Television Critics Association tour at the Beverly Hilton last July and
could not believe that their lives had taken them to Beverly Hills. Significantly, both reported that while they were enjoying their visit to Los Angeles they looked forward to returning home.) This is a powerful, thought-provoking production that will do much to put the lives of most viewers in perspective. Parts Two and Three will be telecast on Tuesday Jan. 10 and Wednesday Jan. 11 (check local listings).
Jake in Progress (ABC, 9:30 p.m. ET)
Season Premiere. As season two opens, perpetually over-stressed New York City publicist Jake (John Stamos) realizes that he
still has feelings for his former fiancée Annie when he learns that she is now engaged to someone else, and Naomi (Wendy Malick) deals with the challenges of new motherhood. Charlotte Ross (NYPD Blue) joins the cast as Annie.
The Bachelor (ABC, 10 p.m. ET)
Season Premiere. Thirty-three year old Nashville doctor Travis Stork is the man who will work his way through twenty-five
eager young women, all of them looking for love via reality television, as the eighth round of this romance-driven series begins. The Bachelor is rapidly growing stale; if anything can give it a charge it's
ABC's decision to set this cycle in Paris, a city that never looks less than beautiful on film.
Vote for Best Television Series: Drama (Based on Golden Globe Nominees)
TUESDAY, JANUARY 10
People's Choice Awards (CBS, 9 p.m. ET)
Live. Craig Ferguson (CBS' The Late
Late Show) hosts the 32nd Annual People's Choice Awards live from Los Angeles.
Anything to Win (GSN, 9 p.m. ET)
Series Premiere. GSN's new weekly documentary series will tell the stories of highly competitive people who gained some degree of fame through their pursuits. They include chess player Bobby Fisher,
California governor and former competitive bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger, skating scandal queen Tonya Harding and the members of the MIT blackjack team who devised a system of team card counting with which they won millions of dollars. Anything to Win will also explore infamous controversies, including the Pennsylvania Lottery scandal and the Breeder's Cup scandal. Tonight's
opener focuses on the story of Rosie Ruiz, the young New Yorker who in 1980 was the first woman to cross the finish line at the Boston Marathon but was stripped of her title after race officials discovered that her presence had not been noted at any of the marathon's official checkpoints.
Beyond the Bull (TLC, 9 p.m. ET)
Series Premiere. This ten-part series follows three men through the demands and dangers of the 29-city PBR Built Ford Tough
Series tour, in which 45 individuals engage in bull riding competitions with an eye on a million dollar prize, a championship title and avoiding grievous injury.
Boston Legal (ABC, 10 p.m. ET)
Michael J. Fox begins a three-episode arc as Daniel Post, a wealthy and powerful CEO battling stage-four lung cancer who pulled strings to ensure that he did not receive a placebo in a promising anti-cancer
drug test and is now being sued by another participant in the study. Post retains the services of Crane, Poole & Schmidt and ends up in a relationship with Atty. Denise Bauer (Julie Bowen). Meanwhile, Denny is drawn to an attractive woman on the hunt for a wealthy husband. Joanna Cassidy guest stars.
The Shield (FX, 10 p.m. ET)
Season Premiere. Season five begins in grand manic style with striking back-to-back sequences, the direction of which must be remembered when the Emmy nominations are compiled later this year: A brutal brawl at a funeral and a riot that begins in a high school cafeteria and spills into the parking
lot. And then the real trouble begins for Detective Vic Mackey, with the arrival in Farmington of Internal Affairs investigator Jon Kavanaugh, charged with looking into the death of former Strike Team member Terry Crawley (who was murdered by Mackey in the first episode of this series back in March 2002). One might think The Shield would seem somehow compromised by the departure of Glenn Close, who played so central a role in its storylines last season, but new cast member Forest Whitaker, as Kavanaugh, immediately fills that
void. His performance in the first two episodes alone is deserving of Emmy recognition, as are those of Michael Chiklis as Mackey (who won an Emmy for this role in 2002) and Kenneth Johnson as Lemansky, the Strike Team member with a conscience who is targeted by the soft-spoken but ruthless new investigator.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11
South Beach (UPN, 8 p.m. ET)
Series Premiere. Two Hours. Jennifer Lopez is one of the executive producers of this sexy soap opera about two buddies from Brooklyn beginning new lives in Miami who are drawn into a world of beautiful
models, glamorous resorts, hot clubs and the city's criminal subculture. Marcus Coloma, Chris Johnson, Vanessa Williams, Lee Thompson Young, Odette Yustman and Giancarlo Esposito star.
Lost (ABC, 9 p.m. ET)
According to ABC, on tonight's show -- the first new episode in four weeks -- Mr. Eko questions Charlie about the Virgin Mary statue, Claire learns Charlie's secret and Jack is perturbed when Kate gives Sawyer a
haircut. We guess that means the island doesn't blow up, even though the last original episode ended with Michael unwittingly using the computer in the bunker for reasons other than resetting those freakin' numbers every hour, a seemingly innocent act that according to the missing footage
from the Dharma Corporation film would bring about immediate disastrous consequences. Or so we were led to believe.
THURSDAY, JANUARY 12
Will & Grace (NBC, 8 p.m. ET)
Live. For the second time this season the cast and crew of Will & Grace deliver a live episode. Given that the only
laughs in the previous live effort came when Debra Messing and Sean Hayes cracked each other up, we have to ask, "Why bother?" The story revolves around a birthday party for Karen.
Beauty and the Geek (The WB, 9 p.m. ET)
Season Premiere. The sometimes sweet, sometimes silly reality competition series in which eight nerds and eight babes pair
up to experience life, love and the thrill of possibly winning $250,000 begins its second season. As long as the disturbingly odd Richard from season one doesn't turn up things should go just fine. Ashton Kutcher and Jason Goldberg are the executive producers.
Flight Attendant School (Travel Channel, 9 p.m. ET)
Series Premiere. Anyone who flies on a regular basis will be interested in this new reality series that follows eight classmates who live together through a rigorous six-week training program at Denver-based Frontier
Airlines' flight attendant training center. A total of forty trainees are involved in the program, in which they are made to master emergency drills, first aid techniques and other life-saving procedures and perform them in front of demanding instructors. Those who don't meet their strict standards get the big "buh-bye."
Crumbs (ABC, 9:30 p.m. ET)
Series Premiere. The always-enjoyable television veterans Fred Savage, Jane Curtain and William Devane star in this semi-autobiographical situation comedy from executive producer Marco Pennette. Savage plays Mitch Crumb, a closeted Hollywood screenwriter who returns home to Connecticut
when his mother (Curtain) is released from the psychiatric facility she was interned at after trying to run over her ex-husband (Devane). Mitch is an uncommonly complex sitcom character: He left town for Hollywood after one of his brothers was killed in a boating accident and became a flash-in-the-pan sensation after he wrote a screenplay about the tragedy. Indeed, references to the
family's terrible loss give this otherwise nutty comedy a serious undertone. Eddie McClintock co-stars as his surviving brother, Patrick, who runs the family's restaurant.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 13
Malcolm in the Middle (Fox, 8:30 p.m. ET)
It's time once again for Cloris Leachman's
annual appearance in her Emmy winning role as hateful Grandma Ida, this time focusing her evilness on Reese.
Monk (USA Network, 10 p.m. ET)
Return. Season four resumes with
Monk investigating the death of a fashion model. Malcolm McDowell is the guest star.
Battlestar Galactica (Sci Fi Channel, 10 p.m. ET)
Deadly tensions continue to mount between Commander Adama and Admiral Cain as they orchestrate a joint attack on the
Cylon Resurrection Ship while secretly plotting to assassinate each other. Don't miss the shocking final sequence!
In the Moment: Bo Bice (CMT, 10 p.m. ET)
Premiere. Like Clay Aiken before him, American Idol runner-up Bo Bice achieved instant stardom even though he didn't
win the competition. This special chronicles Bice's life through the wild months that followed the Idol finale and the recording of his debut album. No word on whether In the Moment includes the
serious health problems Bice has suffered in recent months because of the stress of his grueling new schedule.
