"When We Left Earth" on Discovery, "The Lost Pyramid" on History and More TiVoWorthy TV for the Week of June 22

 

 

Disney’s deluxe Camp Rock Weekend continues tonight with the broadcast premiere of the Disney Channel’s hot new franchise on ABC, preceded by the debut of the Rock soundtrack at 7 p.m. on Radio Disney’s Planet Premiere. It will also be seen on ABC Family Sunday at 8 p.m. and on Disney.com on Monday. Rock isn’t as polished as the High School Musical movies, but it’s grand fun for the young ones just the same, and we can safely assume it will be the television event of the summer for kids, in particular tween and younger teen girls. In those demo groups, nothing else is going to come close. The storyline, for the few who haven’t heard by now, centers on Mitchie Torres (Demi Lovato), a girl who attends a prestigious music camp (where her mother works as the head cook) and tries to pretend that she is the daughter of a wealthy family so that she can fit in with the “cool” girls. Further complicating her already complicated camp life is her growing attraction to rock star Shane Gray (Joe Jonas), a former camper forced by his label and his band-mates (Nick and Kevin Jonas) to work as a counselor to bring his raging ego under control. Maria Canals-Barrera, Alyson Stoner, Jasmine Richards and Julie Brown co-star. Read a review of Camp Rock by JackMyers teen contributor Maya Motavalli here.

 

If you missed it last night at the end of the Camp Rock premiere on Disney Channel you can catch the new Jonas Brothers music video Burnin’ Up on ABC tonight, along with an exclusive behind-the-scenes featurette on the making of the video.

 

It’s Marian’s first day as an official Outlaw – and Gisborne has sent Allan to track her down. Meanwhile, an assassin who blames Robin for the death of his beloved brother infiltrates the gang and takes his revenge. Jonas Armstrong and Lucy Griffiths star.

 

Here’s a rerun worth catching: Tina Fey is the host and Carrie Underwood is the musical guest.

 

 

 

 

Thirteen Hours. Science Channel today will run 13 episodes of the classic Emmy and Peabody Award-winning science series Cosmos, each of them digitally re-mastered and enhanced with state of the art computer graphics. The series chronicles the evolution of Earth and mankind’s ongoing efforts to determine its place in the universe, and each episode focuses on a specific aspect of such mind-expanding topics as life, consciousness and time. Throughout the day Science Channel will telecast exclusive new interviews with Ann Druyan, who co-created Cosmos with her late husband, Carl Sagan. The interviews were recorded at their home in upstate New York.

 

Steven Weber and Shanna Moakler are this week’s celebrity contestants. (A note to CBS: This show is too good to be recruiting C-list talent!) Regis Philbin is the host.

 

Series Finale. Discovery Channel’s striking series about the history of NASA concludes tonight with two new episodes: The Shuttle and A New Space Age. The Shuttle reviews the development of the reusable shuttle, which led to bigger spacecraft and allowed six or seven astronauts to fly into space at one time. Also, the 1986 Challenger tragedy (NASA’s worst disaster ever) and the devastating 2003 Columbia accident are recalled. A New Space Age is all about the Hubble Space Telescope and the historic servicing mission to repair a defective main mirror that captured the public’s imagination. Note: Discovery will repeat the first four installments of When We Left Earth beginning at 5 p.m. ET, so you can actually watch the full six-hour series in one blast.

 

Premiere. Sela Ward narrates this fascinating documentary about a girl named Lakshmi, who was born with eight limbs. Even though she lived in one of India’s most remote villages her story became a global sensation. In fact, some people thought she was the Hindu goddess of wealth and fortune incarnate! This program utilizes CGI and Lakshmi’s X-rays to reveal details of her corrective surgery, the likes of which had never been attempted in India.

 

The soap continues to bubble as Pamela and Chase’s daughter Katie portrays Joan of Arc in a school play, Roxy’s son Finn develops a crush on Claudia Joy and asks her out on a date, and Michael tries to teach his daughter Emmalin to drive a stick shift. Kim Delaney, Catherine Bell, Wendy Davis and Drew Fuller star.

 

Dave Foley plays Horst Vanderhoff, an annoying agent who acts as the go-between for an extremely dangerous hit woman known only as Lola. Mary and Marshall take him into their care, and face mortal peril, after Horst is forced to give testimony against Lola in exchange for a chance at joining the Witness Protection Program. Mary McCormack and Frederick Weller star.

 

Premiere. Two Hours. Steve Carell, David Duchovny, Harrison Ford, Brendan Fraser, Summer Glau, Kim Kardashian and Tila Tequila are among the celebrities who will appear on the second annual Guys Choice Awards, taped on May 30 at the Sony Studios in Culver City, CA. Also, Playboy editor-in-chief and chief creative officer Hugh Hefner will receive the first-ever Alpha Male Award and Disturbed will perform their latest single, Inside the Fire. Categories include Biggest Ass Kicker, Most Dangerous Man, Luckiest Bastard, Hottest Girl on the Planet, Guy of the Year and Sexiest Siren. All winners were determined via fan voting at guyschoice.spike.com.

 

Season Premiere. Two Episodes. Washed up Eighties C-listers Corey Feldman and Corey Haim are back for a second season of self-exploitation. At the end of Season 1, you may recall, the fellas had a wicked falling out. In the two episodes that open Season 2, Feldman’s wife Susie and his manager Scott convince him to attempt reconciliation with his former best bud, but the big reunion does not go well. It is so explosive, in fact, that the Coreys decide to see a therapist to try and work through their problems and, we’re sure, keep this observational reality series going.

 

 

 

 

Start your week with this rousing rendition of Baby Got Back as you have never heard (or seen) it performed before!

 

The Middleman and Wendy travel to the underworld to stop an ancient warrior who has been brought back to life and seeks to bring about a hail of fire that will rain down on the Earth for 1000 years. Meanwhile, Roxy hires Lacey as her assistant. Matt Keeslar and Natalie Morales star.

 

Premiere. This documentary examines the prestigious past and perilous present of West Baltimore’s Frederick Douglass High School. It was once the school of choice for the city’s middle-class African-America families and counts Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and jazz great Cab Calloway among its alumni, but FDHS today is part of an inner-city community mired in poverty and suffers an alarming 50-percent dropout rate. On the upside, the school has an award-winning music program, its basketball team was state champion two of the last three years and its debate team consistently wins trophies at the Baltimore Urban Debate League.

 

Premiere. You probably know that Egyptians built the three Great Pyramids of Giza (named Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure) 4500 years ago and that they are widely considered to be the most incredible structures the world has ever known. But are you aware that in 1902 the French explorer Emile Chassinat discovered what turned out to be a fourth Great Pyramid (named Djedefre) that had been forgotten for thousands of years? Actually, it was forgotten for an additional century after that, but a few years ago the director of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities and his team of experts set about uncovering it. You can see the latest footage from this project tonight.

 

As if she hasn’t played with enough fire (literally and figuratively), now that wacky drug-dealing arsonist Nancy goes and gets herself involved in international drug running! Back home in smoldering Agrestic, Celia suffers the indignities of prison life. Mary-Louise Parker and Elizabeth Perkins star.

 

Series Premiere. Original broadband programming from atom.com is showcased in this new series. Now you can watch Stickman Exodus, Benny, Escaped Convict, Border Patrol, Steven and Stephen and other popular Web series on TV!

 

 

 

 

Series Premiere. Al Roker hosts this contemporary adaptation of the classic game show, in which four celebrity families compete to win money for the charities of their choice. Tonight’s players include Ice T, Joan Rivers, Raven-Symone and Wayne Newton, along with various relatives of each.

 

Live. D.L. Hughley hosts the 8^th annual BET Awards, telecast live from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. The BETs honor outstanding achievements by African Americans in music, movies and sports. Performers include Alicia Keys, Usher, Kanye West, Rhianna, Ne-Yo and Chris Brown. Al Green will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award.

 

Series Premiere. If you have been watching ABC with any regularity the last few weeks you are probably tired of the promo for this show, in which a jolly young fat woman suffers one indignity after another while attempting to navigate an over-the-top obstacle course. Wipeout doesn’t appear to be anywhere near as engaging as Ninja Warrior or Ultimate Banzuke on G4, but we’re willing to give it a try. There will be 24 new competitors in each episode and the obstacle course will change every week. The only constants will be hosts John Anderson (SportsCenter), John Henson (Talk Soup) and Jill Wagner. Let’s face it – the Japanese are masterful at this sort of thing, which brings us to the other new series making its debut on ABC tonight:

 

Series Premiere. Ten Americans travel to Tokyo to compete in a grueling Japanese game show, the likes of which are seen here on G4. One player will be eliminated each week and the last contestant standing at the end of the season will win $250,000.

 

Two Hours. The auditions continue. If you weren’t moved by the rousing performance at the end of last week’s show by aspiring opera singer Neal E. Boyd you must have ice water in your veins. Piers Morgan, Sharon Osbourne and David Hasselhoff are the judges, Jerry Springer is the host, and together they make a remarkably effective team.

 

Mini-Sodes Premiere. Sadly, this will be the first summer without new episodes of Rescue Me since the show premiered in 2004, but FX is hoping to ease the inevitable pain with a series of ten “mini-sodes” featuring Tommy Gavin and the gang from Ladder 62. As the label suggests, each “mini-sode” is only a few minutes in length. In tonight’s opener, Sean is trying to fast and finds his willpower sorely tested by Lou’s homemade doughnuts. Rescue Me will return in spring 2009.

 

A mother of two adopted sons who was herself adopted as an infant and strongly believes that children should not be raised by same-sex couples moves in with male domestic partners and their four adopted sons and volunteers with an advocacy group for children with same-gender parents.

 

First, take another look at distraught teenager Chris Crocker’s dramatic plea to the press to stop hounding a certain beleaguered pop tart.

 

Then check out Seth Green’s impassioned plea on behalf of Chris, as seen on The Soup.

 

 

 

 

Two Hours. The Top 16 dancers try to dazzle the judges.

 

Series Premiere. Okay, we’re really enjoying two of NBC’s summer reality series: Nashville Starand America’s Got Talent. We’re enjoying them so much, in fact, that we can’t quite believe the same network is bringing us this time-waster, in which five teenage couples from around the country test their relationships and their maturity levels by taking on the responsibilities of adulthood, including setting up homes, taking full time jobs and caring for infants. Incredibly, five couples volunteered to allow their little ones to be utilized in what NBC refers to as “a unique social experiment.” Our hearts go out to those babies. We’re guessing this show will go away really fast.