Some of ”Cents” falls a dollar short
As makeover shows become big-budget fantasies and extreme variations on the “Queen for a Day” theme, it’s nice to see that some people still work within a budget.
Hosted by Joan Steffend, tonight’s “Decorating Cents” (8:30 p.m., tonight, HGTV) offers some novel ideas that won’t break the bank. The show’s title, “100 Ideas Under $100,” says it all. Covering 100 ideas in 60 minutes affords you 36 seconds per suggestion, minus commercials.
Some of these notions aren’t even worth that much time. Want a “nontraditional window treatment”? Use beach mats.
Some ideas seem funky, like (No. 61) using a detached umbrella handle as a towel holder. And others are best forgotten. No. 51 suggests that you make an ottoman out of a mini exercise trampoline. How … interesting.
Yet despite the occasional clunker, “Cents” deserves credit for accentuating creativity over mere shopping.
The proximity of Earth Day has brought us a stampede of critter-centric programming. Most, but not all, concern creatures gone wild or monsters created by curious scientists, as in the 2001 sequel “Jurassic Park III” (9 p.m. tonight, ABC).
“Tsunami: Animal Instincts” (5 and 8 p.m. tonight, Animal Planet) is the most benign of the bunch. Shot on location in the tsunami-ravaged regions of Sri Lanka and Thailand, the show offers firsthand accounts of animal behavior preceding the killer waves and how some species have an innate ability to sound an alarm and avoid catastrophe.
Not to be outdone, the National Geographic Channel rebroadcasts “Hogzilla” (5 and 8 p.m. Sunday, National Geographic), one of the most popular shows in the network’s history. The show travels to rural Georgia, where a hunter claims to have killed and buried a wild hog weighing more than 1,000 pounds.
As anyone who’s ever seen the 1958 version of “The Fly” can attest, sometimes scientists go “too far” and “tamper with the forces of nature” with hideous and painful results. That, in a nutshell, is the lesson of the 2005 TV-movie shocker “Locusts” (9 p.m. Sunday, CBS).
Lucy Lawless (“Xena”) stars as Maddy Rierdon, an expert on voracious insects and undersecretary of agriculture. Her know-how gets a workout when a mad scientist played by John Heard (“The Sopranos”) engineers a hybrid breed of superlocusts resistant to all known insecticides.
And speaking of voracious insects, “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” (8 p.m. Sunday, ABC) offers help to desperate house owners on the receiving end of a termite attack.
Tonight’s highlights
Mike Joy, Darrell Waltrip and Larry McReynolds are your hosts for the Phoenix 500 (4:30 p.m., Fox) NASCAR race.
A tribal treaty calls other land deeds into question on “Little House on the Prairie” (8 p.m., ABC).
The “Cirque du Soleil” (8 p.m., Bravo) troupe introduces its latest act, “La Nouba.”
Scheduled on “48 Hours Mystery” (10 p.m., CBS): a medical examiner has a bomb strapped to his neck.
Jason Bateman hosts “Saturday Night Live” (11:30 p.m., NBC), featuring musical guest Kelly Clarkson.
Sunday’s highlights
Scheduled on “60 Minutes” (7 p.m., CBS): Terrorists held in Israel’s prisons; a new water tunnel for New York City; the Earth Conservation Corp.
Ryan Seacrest (“American Idol”) hosts the two-hour musical special “American Top 40 Live” (8 p.m., Fox), featuring performances by Ryan Cabrera, Gavin DeGraw, Finger Eleven, Maroon 5 and Hoobastank.
“True Hollywood Story” (8 p.m., E!) recalls the late John Ritter.
A clip show glances back at the season’s highs and lows on “Desperate Housewives” (9 p.m., ABC).
A distraught housewife takes Jordan hostage on “Crossing Jordan” (10 p.m., NBC).
Meredith has a hard time balancing her mother’s needs and the demands of her job on “Grey’s Anatomy” (10 p.m., ABC).
The 2000 stand-up special “Ellen Degeneres: The Beginning” (10 p.m., Comedy Central) offers the comedienne’s take on life’s amusing minutiae.