SATURDAY, JUNE 30
Opry Live (GAC, 8 p.m. ET) Live. Josh Turner, Montgomery Gentry and Nashville Star Season 4 winner Chris Young perform. Nan Kelley will interview the guys backstage.
Scoop (Food Network, 9 p.m. ET) Premiere. How hard is it to make and market ice cream? Find out tonight in this Food Network special as five viewers compete to create a new flavor for Haagen-Dazs. The winning flavor will be sold nationwide. You'll also get a look at Haagen-Dazs' research and development labs. Jim O'Connor is the host.
SUNDAY, JULY 1
Concert for Diana (VH1 and www.vh1.com, 11 a.m. ET) Live. Six hours. Today would have been Princess Diana's 46th birthday, and to mark the occasion her sons, Princes William and Harry, have organized a massive fundraising concert at London's Wembley Stadium. (If you watched Matt Lauer's recent interviews with them on the Today show and Dateline NBC you already know the details.) The concert will be telecast live in its entirety on VH1 and streamed live on www.vh1.com. VH1 Classic will run the entire concert starting one hour after the live telecast ends on VH1, and NBC will present an hour of highlights tonight at 8 p.m. ET. Among the artists scheduled to perform are Elton John, Duran Duran, Kanye West, Rod Stewart, Joss Stone, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Nelly Furtado, P. Diddy, Tom Jones, Take That and Pop Idol Season 1 winner Will Young. Proceeds will go to several charities Diana supported during her lifetime and to two of the Princes' own charities. Check out www.concertfordiana.com for more information.
The 4400 (USA Network, 9 p.m. ET) Cool guest star alert! Constance Towers, the menacing Helena Cassadine on General Hospital (and one of the nicest people working in television), plays an elderly woman who takes Promicin and develops the ability to astral project, which allows her to watch other people unseen during their most intimate moments. When the poor woman is murdered, her astral projection is stranded in limbo and must find a way to contact Tom and Diana and help lead them to her killer. Meantime, Shawn decides to start healing people again despite threats from the government and Ben and Maia return to Seattle to visit Diana.
John From Cincinnati (HBO, 9 p.m. ET) The annoying John has a rough encounter with a group of thugs, Kai connects with Butchie and Shaun's mother, an adult-film star, arrives in Imperial Beach.
Entourage (HBO, 10 p.m. ET) Billy submits Medellin to the Cannes Film Festival while Eric continues to insist that the movie needs major editing; Drama rekindles a romance with a '90s party girl and brings Turtle along as his wingman.
The Dead Zone (USA Network, 10 p.m. ET) Sarah and Johnny take JJ to hear Vice President Stillson give a speech about the new generation of space exploration, where Johnny has a vision that there is trouble aboard a private space mission 400,000 feet above Earth. If the ship re-enters the atmosphere, it will cause a national disaster, so Johnny has to work with Stillson to do whatever is necessary to bring the astronauts home safely.
MONDAY, JULY 2
Camouflage (GSN, 7 p.m. ET) Series Premiere. Roger Lodge (Blind Date) hosts this new hidden-word game show in which contestants are shown letter puzzles and must find the correct word or phrase hidden among each puzzles' decoy letters.
Kyle XY (ABC Family, 8 p.m. ET) Kyle's secrets begin to interfere with his life, Foss ramps up Kyle's training after detecting a dangerous connection to the recent murder in the woods and Declan's determination to learn what Kyle is hiding leads to trouble for Lori. Matt Dallas stars.
The Closer (TNT, 9 p.m. ET) During a funeral for one of Flynn and Provenza's former colleagues the squad discovers the dead body of an anonymous blonde woman in their old friend's casket, and when Brenda launches an investigation they realize they know more about the deceased than they originally thought. Also, a belligerent bride holds Brenda responsible for ruining her wedding.
In Conversation … The Senator Barack Obama Interview (TV One, 10 p.m. ET) Premiere. TV One commentator Roland Martin talks with Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama about issues of interest to African Americans, including civil rights, race relations, violence, poverty, immigration, education and health care, as well as the war in Iraq and genocide in Darfur.
TUESDAY, JULY 3
Tornado Intercept (National Geographic Channel, 8 p.m. ET) This repeat is worth calling attention to because how often do you get to watch a specially designed vehicle drive directly into a tornado? The super-cool Tornado Intercept Vehicle (TIV) does that in this show. It's a truck covered with 8000 pounds of protective steel plating and bulletproof glass and equipped with instruments that can calculate the speed of ground-level wind.
Coma (HBO, 9 p.m. ET) Premiere. According to the Brain Injury Association of America, traumatic brain injury affects more Americans every year than breast cancer, multiple sclerosis, HIV/AIDS and spinal cord injury combined. This provocative film from documentary filmmaker Liz Garbus seeks to shed light on the mysteries of traumatic brain injuries by chronicling the experiences of four coma survivors and their families during the course of one year at the Center for Head Injuries at the JFK Medical Center in Edison, NJ. What exactly is a coma? Is it different from a "vegetative state"? What happens when a person emerges from a comatose state? What are the chances for progress if a person remains in a coma for more than one year? Tune in for the answers to these questions and more.
Critical Situation: Hell on High Water (National Geographic Channel, 9 p.m. ET) Premiere. The 54th Sydney to Hobart yacht race in 1998 became a historic disaster when almost 100 vessels were pounded by 90-mph winds and 60-foot waves, leaving six sailors dead. Yachtsmen and members of search and rescue teams share their stories about battling the severe storm conditions.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 4
Twilight Zone Marathon (Sci Fi Channel, 8 a.m. ET)
Twenty-one hours. Sci Fi Channel periodically celebrates holidays with one of contemporary television's most
cherished traditions -- a marathon of episodes culled from one of classic television's most cherished treasures, The Twilight Zone. You cannot go wrong turning it on for a few minutes -- or a few hours.
Hidden Palms (The CW, 8 p.m. ET)
Series Finale. Two episodes. Nobody has been watching this trashy little soap opera, so few will care that it ends its
run tonight, or that the identity of Eddie's killer will be revealed before it's over. Taylor Handley, Michael Cassidy, J.D. Pardo, Sharon Lawrence and Gail O'Grady star.
Fireworks on the Networks
You can see all of the best fireworks displays around the country tonight in the comfort of your own home without the crowds, bugs, heat, humidity and traffic jams that are part of the "fun." PBS begins at 8 p.m. ET with A Capitol Fourth, from Washington, D.C., featuring Hayden Panettiere,
Tony Danza and American Idol Season 5 finalist Elliott Yamin. NBC will offer its annual coverage of Macy's Fourth of July Spectacular in New York City starting at 9 p.m. ET, with guest stars Joss Stone, Martina McBride and three American Idol Season 6 alums: Reigning Idol Jordin Sparks, runner-up Blake Lewis and fan favorite Melinda Doolittle. Also at 9 p.m., GAC will telecast Music City July 4th: Let Freedom Sing!, a live concert and fireworks show from Nashville's Riverfront Park with performances by Rodney
Atkins, Taylor Swift and country duo Van Zant. At 10 p.m. CBS offers its annual coverage of the Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular live from the Charles River Esplanade in Boston. John Mellencamp will perform his greatest hits with the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra under the direction of conductor Keith Lockhart. Craig Ferguson is the host.
THURSDAY, JULY 5
Big Brother 8 (CBS, 8 p.m. ET)
Season Premiere. The eighth annual edition of this seemingly tireless exercise in video voyeurism begins today on two networks and a host of other platforms, so pay attention. As always, CBS will broadcast the
show on three nights throughout the week: Sunday at 8 p.m., Tuesday at 9 p.m. and Thursday at 8 p.m. The Thursday telecast will be the live weekly elimination show. CBS' corporate cousin Showtime will get into the act with Big Brother: After Dark, a live feed from the Big Brother house that will be telecast seven nights a week on Showtime's ShoToo channel from midnight to 3 a.m. (Now that sounds like the kind of racy fun the Big Brother franchise offers in other countries.) Full length episodes and highlight clips will be available online via the CBS Audience Network, allowing fans to watch the show
online and incorporate clips in their blogs, wikis, widgets and community pages. For the next three months CBS and RealNetworks will once again offer 24/7 live streaming video from inside the house at www.cbs.com or through RealNetworks' SuperPass subscription service at www.real.com/bigbrother . Also, mobile subscribers can pay to receive video clips, photos, live breaking house alerts and insider summaries on
their cell phones. (More information is available at www.cbsmobile.com.) Meanwhile, House Calls: The Big Brother Talk Show, a streaming video talk show, will begin its fourth season on www.cbs.com. Got all that? Julie Chen returns as host of the main show.
Burn Notice (USA Network, 10 p.m. ET)
Our man Michael doesn't see this one coming: His mother agrees to reveal crucial information that will bring him one step closer to learning the origin of his mysterious burn notice if he helps her
neighbor, a woman who has been scammed out of all of her money. No wonder mom makes Michael nuts. Jeffrey Donovan, Gabrielle Anwar, Bruce Campbell and Sharon Gless star.
Hey Paula (Bravo, 10 p.m. ET)
The trashiest reality series of this
reality-rich summer continues with American Idol judge Paul Abdul sure to look like a clueless fool yet again.
FRIDAY, JULY 6
Doctor Who (Sci Fi Channel, 8 p.m. ET)
U.S. Season Premiere. The third season of the BBC's contemporary continuation of the classic franchise Doctor Who (which has retained its narrative continuity throughout all of its
revivals over a period of more than 40 years) begins with a 90-minute episode titled The Runaway Bride in which The Doctor discovers a mysterious woman dressed in a fluffy wedding frock on board the TARDIS. This episode was actually a Christmas special that ran on the BBC between seasons of the show. The first official episode of the third season follows at 9:30 p.m., in which The Doctor meets his new traveling companion, pretty medical student Martha Jones, after the hospital Martha works in is transported to the Moon! David Tennant and Freema Agyeman star.
Stage Left with Keith Urban (GAC, 8 p.m. ET)
Premiere. GAC host Nan Kelley
talks with international superstar Keith Urban as he kicks off the North American leg of his Love, Pain & the Whole Crazy World tour.
Jericho (CBS, 9 p.m. ET)
CBS tonight begins its effort to appease fans who were so outraged by the network's cancellation of Jericho in May. As you know, the furious ones organized a grassroots campaign to send
thousands of bags of peanuts to the programming executives behind the dastardly decision -- and it worked. Jericho lives! The series pilot will be repeated tonight, followed next week by reruns of Return to Jericho, a special that recapped the first 11 episodes of the show after its extended winter hiatus, and episode 12, titled The Day Before. (That's the one about the last day of normalcy in the title town before all those nuclear bombs began
going off across North America and elsewhere.) The remaining summer telecasts will be reruns of episodes 13-22, and then fans will have to endure another prolonged hiatus until Jericho returns in midseason with seven new episodes. Skeet Ulrich, Gerald McRaney, Pamela Reed, Ashley Scott and Brad Beyer star.
Science of Summer (National Geographic Channel, 9 p.m. ET)
Premiere. How does your body react to sunlight? How can you make a fast recovery from an ice-cream induced brain freeze? What
does a mosquito inject into you while it drinks your blood? How many people are killed by lightning strikes every year? Who were the first people to begin surfing and how long ago did they do so? For the answer to these and other seasonal questions catch this informative, fast-paced special.