What's on?

Over at Tosy and Cosh, John lists the TV shows he watches, by night. And of course, it only seems right that I do the same. So, here's what I watch when new episodes are in the offing. (During re-run times or if there's no "special event" programming that I want to watch, I'll either watch a movie or turn the TV off entirely.) This is also subject to change depending on shifting timeslots and the January returns of American Idol and Scrubs.

Monday: For some reason, I've become addicted to Antiques Roadshow, which is on PBS at 8:00. (Even more strangely, The Daughter has also developed a love of this show.) You can really learn a lot watching these shows, and it's fun to wonder at the stories behind these artefacts and the long-gone businesses that manufactured them. It's like a game show coupled with a glimpse into an earlier time. At 9:00 we do bedtime, and then I basically watch nothing until 10:00 when I watch CSI: Miami.

Tuesday: At 8:00, I've become a serious fan of Nova. Last week's show about a giant lake that formed millenia ago in upper Idaho and Montana, dammed by a glacier, was terribly interesting, and this week's show -- about the Japanese battleship Yamato, which was the largest battleship ever built and of which I had never heard until Nova came on. At 9:00, I've recently watched House and enjoyed it immensely, although I've only seen three episodes, and the show is likely off the air until November due to baseball playoff action.

Wednesday: Nothing until 9:00, when I watch The Apprentice: Martha Stewart. (Nope, I don't watch Lost.) At 10:00 it's CSI: New York, although I'm not terribly enthusiastic about this link in the CSI franchise.

Thursday: Well, I watch Joey, but not too enthusiastically. (It's certainly no Friends, although it's not exactly bad.) Then at 9:00 I tape CSI while watching The Apprentice. And as recent readers know, my 10:00 slot has recently become open. If The Wife still wants to watch ER, I'll read books or blogs during that time.

Friday: Movie night. Nothing at all is on that interests me.

Saturday: This is slowly turning into "Music Night" in our apartment. Buffalo's NPR station has two hours of Celtic music starting at 6:00 (coupling Fiona Ritchie's wonderful Thistle and Shamrock with a local production called Celtic Kaleidoscope), followed by Marian McPartland's amazing Piano Jazz. (If you've never listened to Piano Jazz, and you like the idea of wonderful two-person jazz improv coupled with insightful interviews, track this show down and give it a lesson. It's just wonderful.) I try to stay up for Saturday Night Live, which is halfway decent again these days (the good sketches are side-splitting, while the bad sketches are cover-your-eyes bad).

Sunday: Football, football, football! Then, The Daughter adores America's Funniest Videos. At 8:00 is The West Wing (which, so far this year, I've found as energetic and good as Aaron Sorkin's best years, even if the show is a little too dependent on today's headlines), and then at 9:00 I tape Desperate Housewives, which I then watch with The Wife when she gets home from work. (Yes, I love Desperate Housewives. It is, in my eyes, a terrific blend of soap-opera melodrama and darkly sarcastic humor.)

I follow a lot fewer shows these days, and this year I've only picked up one new show , House. (Well, two if you count The Apprentice: Martha Stewart.)

(By the way, a bit of a rant on the contestants on The Apprentice: when are these people going to realize that approaching this show as though it's Survivor in a business setting is a sure ticket to losing? Every week, the losing Project Manager opts to bring into the final board room meeting those team members he/she is trying to get eliminated, rather than the team members who are directly accountable for the team's losing that week. For example, last night's episode of Martha Stewart had the two teams designing a wedding cake and then selling it to couples. One team failed to sell a single cake, and yet, the Project Manager refused to bring in the team members whom he had placed in charge of sales. The contestants make this mistake constantly.)