Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Disney goes global in ‘Cheetah’

By MIKE HUGHES Gannett News Service

Tonight’s might-see

“The Cheetah Girls: One World,” 8-10 p.m., Disney Channel; reruns Saturday, Sunday.

Let’s credit the Disney people for global ambition: They filmed most of this movie in India, using rich backdrops.

The story itself is lame. There are three Cheetahs now (Raven-Symone dropped out), and they’ve just learned they must compete for one role in a “Bollywood” musical.

Once you overlook that, you can savor the film’s bright look, its uptempo songs and attractive cast, including Deepti Daryanani, Rupak Ginn and Michael Steger in support.

Tonight’s might-see II

Olympics, 8 p.m. to midnight, NBC.

It’s a big night for track.

Men have the gold-medal finals for the decathlon and the pole vault, women for the 5,000-meter run and the long jump. Both have finals for the sprint relay, which has four blazing, 100-meter runs.

Also: Finals for men’s 10-meter platform diving.

Other choices include

More Olympics. That’s on NBC from 12:35 a.m. to 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. (including women’s tennis finals and men’s basketball semi-finals). Cable is 2 a.m. to noon on USA, 9-11 p.m. on CNBC, 6-8 p.m. on Oxygen.

Football, 5 p.m. CBS. It’s a Texas pre-season showdown, with Houston at Dallas.

“Collateral” (2004), 8-10 p.m., ABC. Jamie Foxx plays a cab driver on a strange day. His passenger (Tom Cruise) is a hit man, pulling him into adventures. Director Michael Mann had nighttime Los Angeles as a backdrop.

“Tabatha’s Salon Takeover,” 8 p.m., and “Clueless” (1995), 9 p.m., Bravo. In a change of plans, Bravo delays “Clueless” (a dandy comedy) by an hour, so it can rerun Thursday’s interesting debut, in which Tabatha Coffey re-shapes a struggling beauty salon.

“Monk,” 9 p.m., USA Network. Monk loves the suspect (Joanna Pacula) and tries to prove she’s innocent.

“20/20,” 10 p.m., ABC. In most U.S. cities, this report says, black babies die at triple the rate of white babies. Elizabeth Vargas visits Memphis, which reportedly has the highest rate in the nation: an infant death every 43 hours.

Mike Hughes covers television for the Lansing State (Mich.) Journal and Gannett News Service.