TV Patrol Thursday: Night for Goodbyes

Let me just clear one thing up. There seems to be a bit of hoopla over American Idol’s Tuesday night ratings. They kicked ASS!!! Plain & simple. 30.1 million viewers is awesome. CBS didn’t really hurt from it though. NCIS had 18.5 mil. viewers & The Mentalist had 18.1 mil. Not shabby at all. The show that suffered was Scrubs on ABC. It’s ratings went down 30% from last week’s premiere. They only had 4.4 mil. viewers. If these numbers don’t come up, Scrubs will be gone.

Now on to tonight’s fare!

The audience is in a coma. What should we do?

We are saying good-bye to an icon. He’s been in our lives for over 8 years. I personally, am sorry to see him go. I admired his work & dedication to his job. Tonight he will say what needs to be said before he passes the baton to the new guy coming in. I just hope that the Presidential Farewell Speech at 8pm, doesn’t interfere with our good-bye to Dr. Gil Grissom on CSI (CBS) in his final episode. William Peterson is leaving “because I’ve become too comfortable in my work”. Lawence Fishburne (Cowboy Curtis) will replace him as Dr. Raymond Langston who is working with the CSI crew on a serial killer case, as a consultant. So let’s all hope that the President doesn’t get long-winded, so we can give Grissom a proper & deserving farewell. CBS will be repeating the first part of the two-part serial-killer story at 8:15pm, followed by the NEW episode at 9pm. A NEW Eleventh Hour airs at 10pm.

The Series Premiere of The Beast airs tonight on A&E at 10pm. This is Patrick Swayze’s new crime drama that he was working on when diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He didn’t let the knowledge or treatment of the disease hinder production of the show. Swayze plays veteren FBI agent Charles Barker who is considered unconventional by the bureau. In this first episode, he is given a rookie agent as his new partner (Travis Fimmel?) who must go undercover with him to break up a weapons smuggling ring. (zzzzzzzzz…. sorry, it sounds soooo boring).

MTV has Randy Jackson returning for season #3 of Randy Jackson Presents: America’s Best Dance Crew at 10pm. Rainen Paquio of the Jabba’s, from a previous season, is the guest judge for this premiere episode. He’s filling in for judge JC Chasez who is MIA. Lil Mama & Shane Sparks are back too, judging the 8 new ‘crews” of dancers. Does Randy do anything or is it just his name on the show?

VH1 is airing it’s series premiere of Celebrity Rehab Presents: Sober House at10pm. Dr. Drew got this one up and running in a hurry. Guess he didn’t want his rehabers “falling off the wagon”. Our celebrities are Steven Adler, Amber Smith, Rodney King, Nikki McKibbin, Seth Binzer & Mary Carey. No sign of Jeff Conaway & his enabler, Vicky or Gary Busey as counselor! Now that just makes the show so undramatic!

FOX has Kitchen Nightmares finally returning with a NEW episode at 9pm. Too bad it’s the season finale! Oh well, who knows what these programmers are thinking sometimes! Chef Ramsey’s going to “Cafe 36″, a french-american restaurant in LaGrange, Ill. He’s going to teach an unruly & wasteful chef just how to cuss at the help to get things done. The high point comes when he checks out the walk-in cooler.

Saw For Hire premieres on TLC at 9pm. This NEW series follows a tree removal company as they go around chopping down trees. Can you imagine! The first episode is all about a huge sycamore tree that’s giving the crew a hard time. I sure hope the guys are hot & do alot of work with their shirts off. Another episode follows at 9:30pm & they battle broken, fallen trees & branches after an ice stom. Oooo… I bet they bring out the wood chipper!

Okay, let’s get to the schedule for tonight.

ABC has NEW episodes of:

Ugly Betty at 8pm.

Grey’s Anatomy at 9pm.

Private Practice at 10pm.

NBC is all NEW:

My Name is Earl at 8pm.

Kath & Kim at 8:30pm.

The Office at 9pm.

Golden Globe Winning 30 Rock at 9:30pm.

ER at 10pm. Dr. Elizabeth Corday (Dr. Greene’s wife) is back for her ‘farewell to ER’ visit.

CW has NEW:

Smallville at 8pm.

Supernnatural at 9pm.

truTV is one of my favorite cable networks. I love their quirky reality shows. They are good family viewing at my house. They have all-NEW episodes of my favorite shows on tonight:

Speeders at 8pm.

Speeders Fight Back at 8:30pm.

Smoking Gun Presents: World’s Dumbest Criminals at 9pm.

Principal’s Office at 10 & 10:30pm. This is a new series. I love watching today’s kids get in trouble. Things are different than when I went to school.

Let’s see….. am I forgetting anything? Hmmmmmm….. Oh!

LOST Countdown ………… 6 DAYS!!!!!

love

chooch