Tonight, Kid Nation

Lord of the Flies Kid nation begins tonight. CBS has already ticked me off, two hours before it airs. You see, after KN, they're airing reruns of Criminal Minds and CSI:NY. FOX, NBC and the CW all are airing new shows in those time slots, so CBS decided to let KN bleed over 8 minutes into the next hour.

New on FOX tonight: Back to You and ’Til Death (notice I got the apostrophe right, FOX?) and Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares.

New on The CW: America's Next Top Model and Gossip Girl. I don't care if Kristin Bell is doing the voice overs, I'm not watching it. Can't wait to get me some Miss Tyra, though!

BB8 Finale (spoilers)

So, Evel Dick wins $500,000. Info and screen caps at Big Brother Updates. Daniele wins $50K. She can buy a nice car with that. And nothing else, evil grin!

The Real feeds are back, showing the "first night" in the house, which we know was a week after they actually entered. Hmmm. A Dustin/Carol alliance I missed!

Also tonight, the premiere of Beauty and the Geek and Live from Lincoln Center, reviews to follow.

Prison Break, K-ville first impressions

Mondays on FOX are going to be dark.

Two disclaimers:

I was distracted by moderating Big Brother Updates.

I was frustrated by the lack of KTVI's DT signal quality. I had to keep futzing with my antenna to get a constant signal. KTVI and our PBS station, KETC Channel 9, have the worst signal quality for DT.

Prison Break is dark. Michael is in Hell, and Linc is powerless. Think "Lord of the Flies" with adults. Bellick is there, in tighty whiteys...and nothing else. T-bag, too. The photography and underscoring are phenomenal, and yes: I'm sucked back in to this world.

K-ville is a harder sell. Everyone is damaged, including the city itself. Again, the photography and scoring are great; I even buy in to the shaky hand-held camera stuff. They won't get much of a chance with me if it's not much better next week, because the season is in full swing in seven days. Next week K-ville is up against Heroes, 2-1/2 Men and Dancing with the Stars. If you're gonna get better, K-Ville, now's the time. I have only so much tape and a limited number of hours.

It's a new season!

As I yawningly hang on for the last two nights of Big Brother 8, with the lovely Donatos pére and fille, I slowly prepare for the Fall season, beginning tonight.

The Donatos have spent the last several days and nights slamming the evicted houseguests, the jury questions, and anything else they can think of. I'm still moderating at Big Brother Updates, and will be for the next few weeks. After Big Brother 8 ends Tuesday night, I'll sample Kid Nation, beginning Wednesday; and Survivor:China starts Thursday. And yes, I'll be moderating at Survivor Updates. Please join me!

I stopped at my favorite big box store on the way home from work, to pick up an 8-pack of 8-hour tapes. Fresh stuff to feed to the four VCRs. New this season is the Elgato EyeTV, for HD recording to my computer. I also have a new DVD recorder that isn't quite hooked up yet.

On to tonight's lineup. It's still sparse: FOX has premieres of Prison Break and K-Ville; CBS, CW and ABC are still in reruns; and NBC is debuting game shows Deal or No Deal and The Singing Bee before repeating last season's Heroes finale. I think I'll save the game shows for reruns in December.

Prison Break looks to be awfully dark this year, with Michael in a Panamanian prison and Linc trying to break him out, in reversal from season one; K-Ville, set in post-Katrina New Orleans, sounds good, but critics' reviews are mixed.