Countdown to the Red Carpet (E! Entertainment Television, noon-6 p.m. ET)
Live. Six Hours. It's the biggest day of the year for E!, with eight hours of live programming leading up to the
telecast on ABC of the 77th Annual Academy Awards. It begins with a six-hour telecast during which E!'s roster of regular correspondents and semi-regular commentators turn out in force to report and ruminate
on the spectacle to come. E!'s on-camera talent will include Jen Schefft of "The Bachelorette," Todd Newton, Giuliana DePandi and Ted Casablanca.
Live from the Red Carpet (E! Entertainment Television, 6 p.m. ET)
Live. Two Hours. Here she comes again! Star Jones Reynolds will be poised to stop celebrities as they arrive at the
Oscars and chat them up about their gowns, their work, their nominations and, in all likelihood, Star. She will be joined by comedienne Kathy Griffin, who is slowly becoming a welcome presence on E!'s pre-award
shows. The second hour of E!'s red-carpet telecast will air without commercial interruption, which means the network
will not make it easy for viewers to check out competing arrival coverage on TV Guide Channel.
Joan & Melissa Live at the Academy Awards (TV Guide Channel, 6 p.m. ET)
Live. Two Hours. It's the first time Joan and Melissa Rivers have worked the Academy Award arrivals since their move to TV Guide Channel. They've been all over television this week promoting their Oscar
arrival show. If public awareness counts for anything, then TV Guide Channel made a smart investment in these two.
The 77th Annual Academy Awards (ABC, 8 p.m. ET)
Live. How will Chris Rock fare as host of Hollywood's biggest and most important annual affair? Given the content of the interviews he's done lately, he's looking more and more to be a controversial choice. Frankly, if
the Academy is seeking new blood and someone with broad, multi-generational appeal, who can also sing, dance and tell
jokes with the best of them, and has charisma to spare, our choice would have been master showman and box-office draw Hugh Jackman. (He kicked ass as host of the last two Tony Awards ceremonies.) Our fearless Water
Cooler predictions and preferences would normally appear here, but since our predictions are also our preferences this time around, we'll
go with predictions and satisfactory second choices: Best Picture -- Prediction/Preference:
"Million Dollar Baby." Second Choice: "The Aviator." Best Actor -- Prediction/Preference:
Jamie Foxx, "Ray." Second Choice: Clint Eastwood, "Million Dollar Baby." Best Actress -- Prediction/Preference: Hilary Swank, "Million Dollar Baby." Second Choice: Imelda Staunton,
"Vera Drake." Best Supporting Actor -- Prediction/Preference: Morgan Freeman, "Million Dollar Baby." Second Choice: Thomas
Haden Church, "Sideways." Best Supporting Actress -- Prediction/Preference: Virginia Madsen, "Sideways." Second Choice: Cate
Blanchett, "The Aviator." Best Director -- Prediction/Preference: Clint Eastwood, "Million Dollar Baby." Second Choice: Martin Scorsese, "The
Aviator."
Academy Awards Post Show (E! Entertainment Television, midnight-2 a.m. ET)
Live. If ABC's Academy Awards telecast leaves you wanting more, and you live on the West Coast, where it won't be way
past your bedtime, E! offers two more hours of live Oscar night coverage.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28
The Bachelorette (ABC, 8 p.m. ET)
Season Finale. Two Hours. This ABC reality series hasn't been generating very much buzz this time around, but the supermarket tabloids and celebrity-driven magazines still obsess over it. Tonight, if you care,
Jennifer Schefft chooses her man. If she's smart, she'll ask Trista Rehn for tips on keeping him, because Jen has already suffered one famous reality dating failure: Andrew Firestone chose her as the woman he
wanted to be with at the end of the third season of "The Bachelor," but that relationship tanked.
Summerland (The WB, 9 p.m. ET)
Season Premiere. This Aaron Spelling production was a surprise success for The WB last summer. Lori Loughlin stars as Ava, a thirty-something career-driven woman who becomes the legal guardian of
her niece and two nephews after her sister and brother-in-law die in a tragic accident. But the real star of this series is shaping up to be teen heartthrob Jesse McCartney, whose singing career is taking off faster
than his acting gig. He's front and center in the second season premiere as Ava's troubled nephew, chronic liar Bradin, who contemplates taking drugs to improve his performance on the surf team. (It's one problem
after another with this kid.) Meanwhile, Ava proposes to Simon (even though Johnny is clearly the man for her). Shawn Christian, Merrin Dungey and Ryan Kwanten co-star.
TUESDAY, MARCH 1
The Amazing Race (CBS, 9 p.m. ET)
Season Premiere. The seventh run of television's most ambitious and consistently thrilling reality series features two participants best known for their work on another reality series: engaged couple "Boston Rob"
Mariano and Amber Brkich. Rob competed on "Survivor: Marquesas" and was the runner-up on "Survivor: All-Stars." Amber was first seen on "Survivor: The Outback" but went on to win the $1 million grand
prize on "Survivor: All-Stars." It was on the live finale of "All-Stars" that Rob proposed to Amber. With unnerving memories of Jonathan and Victoria and the other quarreling couples on the last edition of
"Amazing Race" still fresh in viewers' minds, we'll see how well Rob and Amber get along under consistent intense stress. Among the other ten couples racing this time around are a former POW in the Iraq war and his
girlfriend, a gay couple from West Hollywood and, for the first time in the history of this series, a mother and son.
NYPD Blue (ABC, 9 p.m. ET)
Series Finale. After 12 years one of the very best dramas in television history ends its run tonight. Dennis Franz' Detective
Andy Sipowicz may be leaving, but he'll never be forgotten. A one-hour retrospective, "NYPD Blue: A Final Tribute," hosted by former
series star Jimmy Smits will air at 9 p.m. The final episode follows at 10.
Ramsay's Boiling Point (BBC America, 9 p.m. ET)
U.S. Premiere. Temperamental UK chef Gordon Ramsay, now known to BBC America audiences for his explosive exploits
on "Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares," sets out to win the most prestigious culinary honor in Europe in this new reality series. Cameras
document Ramsay's every move during eight stressful months as he finances and opens a new restaurant, deals with a lawsuit filed by the management of his former restaurant and does his damnedest to dazzle
the president of Michelin. "Boiling Point" may remind some viewers of NBC's "The Restaurant," but it actually aired in
Britain before the NBC series was filmed.
Nashville Star (USA Network, 10 p.m. ET)
Season Premiere. USA Network's country music version of "American Idol" begins its third season tonight. The
remaining eight shows this season will be telecast live, but tonight's premiere is taped and was available for preview, so we know that something happens during one of the performances that has never
happened on a televised talent show. Grammy winner Leann Rimes joins the show as host. The three judges are Bret Michaels of the heavy metal band Poison (to which we say, "huh"?), country singer Phil Vassar
and talent manager Anastasia Brown. "Nashville Star" originates from the BellSouth Acuff Theatre in Nashville. Previous winners include Buddy Jewell, whose debut CD entered the Billboard Country Albums chart at No. 1, and
Brad Cotter, whose debut CD entered the chart in the top five.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2
America's Next Top Model (UPN, 8 p.m. ET)
Season Premiere. Thirty-five aspiring models compete to become the final fourteen model wannabes in the fourth season
premiere of UPN's hottest show. Tyra Banks returns as the host and diva at the center of it all. Photographer Nigel Barker, stylist Nole
Marin and the irrepressible, irreplaceable Janice Dickinson are the judges.
THURSDAY, MARCH 3
Law & Order: Trial By Jury (NBC, 10 p.m. ET)
Series Premiere. Does the world need another "Law & Order" series? You be the judge. The focus in this one is on defendants, defense attorneys, judges and jurors, and it's not bad. Bebe Neuwirth, Amy
Carlson and Kirk Acevedo star, with Fred Thompson appearing as D.A. Arthur Branch, the character he also plays on "Law & Order." The late Jerry Orbach also appears in several episodes as D.A. Investigator
Lennie Briscoe, the character he played on "Law & Order" for 12 years. Keep an eye out in the first few episodes for Sam
Waterston as Jack McCoy, also from "Law & Order," and former "L&O" regular Carey Lowell reprising her character, Jamie Ross, who is now a judge. Candice Bergen, busy these days as a lawyer on
ABC's "Boston Legal," recurs in "Trial By Jury" as a judge. NBC is running the first episode of "Trial By Jury" tonight. It will make its time period premiere Friday at 10 p.m. ET.
FRIDAY, MARCH 4
The Launch of ESPNU (ESPNU, 7 p.m. ET)
ESPN, Inc., will launch ESPNU, a 24-hour college sports network, at 7 p.m. ET with a two-hour live edition of "ESPNU College GameDay" (a one-time expansion of ESPN's new Saturday series "College
GameDay") that will be simulcast on ESPN2. How's that for synergy? That program will be followed on ESPNU by a men's semifinal game from the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament at 9 p.m. ET and a
first round men's basketball game from the West Coast Conference Tournament at 11 p.m. ET. Both games will be presented as part of this new network's Championship Week Presented by 7Up coverage. ESPNU's
Championship Week programming will include approximately 25 live conference tournament games that will not be telecast on ESPN or ESPN2.
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