NBC rivals to challenge Olympics
With only four days left in the XX Winter Olympic Games (8 p.m., NBC) and with February sweeps coming to an end, tonight marks one of the year’s most competitive evenings of television.
Tonight’s Olympic schedule includes coverage of the most popular figure-skating competition, the ladies’ free-skate gold-medal final.
Time was, networks didn’t compete with the Olympics. They aired repeats and waited until the games were over.
Tonight, CBS, Fox and ABC are taking on NBC with first-run episodes of some of their strongest programs. But the use of these big shows is not without some risk. After all, not everybody can be a ratings winner.
No show has a larger audience than “American Idol” (8 p.m., Fox), which airs a third time this week. After hearing from the top-12 male and female voices, viewers have cast their votes, and four contestants will leave “Idol” tonight.
Tom Bergeron hosts a two-hour episode of “Dancing With the Stars” (8 p.m., ABC). With only three couples left, look for a lot of chatting, glances back and other gimmicks to fill up the time.
Over on “Survivor” (8 p.m., CBS), the madness continues. Who cares about Misty getting the boot? I’m talking about Shane’s seating arrangements.
Last week, he took personal possession of a tree stump and declared it “Shane’s thinking seat.” He then forbade others to use the truncated trunk.
Of course, proprietary seating has a long history in prime time. Think of Archie Bunker’s chair, or Martin’s beat-up recliner on “Frasier.”
Tonight, even some of the repeats are sweeps-worthy. “Without a Trace” (10 p.m., CBS) airs an episode from last November starring “ER” castoff Alex Kingston and directed by Paul McCrane, who played Dr. Robert Romano on that NBC hospital drama.
Other highlights
Claudette Colbert stars in the 1934 melodrama “Imitation of Life” (5 p.m., TCM), a tale of mothers, daughters and race prejudice.
A European honeymoon goes anything but smoothly in the 2003 comedy “Just Married” (8 p.m., WB), starring Ashton Kutcher and Brittany Murphy.
A kidnapping leaves little evidence behind on “CSI” (9 p.m., CBS).
Three pairs remain on “Skating With Celebrities” (9 p.m., Fox).