Tonight on the tube: Can the Rays wrap up the ALCS?

The CW

8:00p/7:00 Central

• Tonight’s Hole in the Wall two-fer on FOX features face-offs of “North v. South” and “Geek v. Greek.” Meanwhile, hunger pangs start to affect alliances and challenge performances on a new Survivor: Gabon on CBS.
• Hunger for that ring starts to gnaw on TBS’s ALCS Game 5. After the Phillies knocked out the Dodgers last night, the Rays can do the same to the Red Sox tonight?
• On ABC’s Ugly Betty, Betty tries to make amends with Gio, which doesn’t go as well as she may have liked. Chloe has a rough day on The CW’s Smallville when she is asked if there’s anyone else she loves while strapped to a kryptonite-enhanced lie detector next to Jimmy.
• It looks like people are forgetting about NBC’s Thursday night comedy line-up, which is a shame. After all, Jenna Elfman is tonight’s guest on My Name Is Earl as a cheerleading camp owner who hinders Earl’s chances to mark Randy off his list. Following this is a new Kath & Kim, which I’m still on the fence about. Tonight, Kath sets up a booth in the mall to boost awareness of her hair salon.

9:00p/8:00 Central

• As the time nears for the birth of Jan’s baby on NBC’s The Office, Michael prepares with Dwight for the big day. Then we get another SNL Weekend Update Thursday. Last week’s premiere was better than I expected, which I guess I should have expected because I’ve come to expect that “Weekend Update” will be about the only part of SNL where I’ll get a laugh any more.
• BBC America offers more inventor excitement on a new Dragon’s Den, while VH1’s Fabulous Life Presents takes a look at the nerdiest of the nerdy, laugh-snorting all the way to the bank.
• TLC has another stretch with American Chopper while Spike TV gets it on in the squared circle on a new TNA: Impact!. But if you really just want to keep it simple, stick with The Discovery Channel for Destroyed in Seconds, in which objects are … destroyed … in seconds. Ahem. Guess that one was fairly obvious.
• On ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy, while Cristina discovers a heretofore unseen part of the hospital, Meredith discovers a heretofore unseen diary from her mother. Or will more of you tune in to see “The Case of the Hypnotist Bank Robber” on CBS’s CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
• Me? Well, I’d rather watch the brothers Winchester in a black-and-white classic horror movie installment of The CW’s Supernatural. But ratings tell me I’m clearly in the minority there.
• FOX throws up a token repeat of Kitchen Nightmares where Chef Ramsay tries to save a family restaurant named Seascape.

10:00p/9:00 Central

• VH1 wraps the first season of Glam God With Vivica A. Fox, while Showtime brings you some more Comics Without Borders. Tonight’s episode features Erik Griffen and Ahmed. For comic book inspired shenanigans, tune in to TLC’s LA Ink as Hannah tries to transform the crew into comic book characters.
• What do you do when an article declares yours “The Worst Bar in Philadelphia?” If you’re the gang from FX’s It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, you kidnap the reporter in order to change his mind. After that, the human guinea pigs of Testees discover life without their special little friend. If that’s not your style, though, at 10:30p/9:30 Central you can switch over to someone who never had that particular special little friend as Comedy Central’s The Sarah Silverman Program features Sarah finding new friends.
• Bravo’s Tim Gunn’s Guide to Style continues bringing glamorous makeovers to random women while A&E’s Jacked: Auto Theft Task Force continues bringing in would-be car thieves. Wait, those two things have nothing in common. Why did I put them in the same bullet point?
• No time to worry about that, though, because Sam is still trapped in the 1970s on ABC’s Life on Mars. With no idea how he got there or why, he may have to figure out a way to just get comfortable and try to make a life for himself there … on Mars. Sorry, I couldn’t resist. I know it was terrible.
• Let’s not think about that now. How can you when perfectly healthy 11-year old kids are dying of heart attacks on CBS’s Eleventh Hour. How heartless can you be? I mean, there’s gunshot wounds on NBC’s ER. Can you believe it. A gunshot wound in an ER! I’m not sure how two people can butt heads on how to treat something that must happen every night, but Catherine and Abby do it.

Clacked by Jason Hughes
on Oct 16, 2008 @ 16:30 EST5EDT