Watching Sitcoms

So, what am I watching now? I thought I’d make a list, cause I’m getting a little confused myself. Especially cause it seems like shows are ending and starting all randomly every week. Here’s my rundown (all times are ET):

Monday
The Big Bang Theory - CBS - 8:00 pm
New Amsterdam - FOX - 9:00 pm
The Bachelor: London Calling - ABC - 10 pm

Tuesday
American Idol - FOX - 8 pm
Beauty and the Geek - CW - 8 pm
Reaper - CW - 9 pm

Wednesday
America’s Next Top Model - CW - 8 pm
American Idol - FOX - 9 pm

Thursday
Miss Guided - ABC - 8 pm
Lost - ABC - 9 pm
Smallville - CW - 8 pm
Supernatural- CW - 9 pm

Saturday
Torchwood - BBC America - 9 pm

That’s about 12 1/2 hours per week. That’s not too bad, is it? But, wow, that’s a heck of a lot more reality TV than I realized. And this Tuesday night (April 1) is the start of Hell’s Kitchen on Fox at 9:00 pm ET, following American Idol. That will be at least 6 hours of reality TV a week. I say “at least” because both American Idol and The Bachelor are sometimes longer than an hour.

Of my TV watching time, only an hour and a half is devoted to sitcoms. But, at least its 5 hours is on the CW, and since I write the watchingcw.com blog, too, I feel reassured by that.

Also returning soon are some other shows I’ll be watching, like House, Bones and Law and Order: SVU. Which puts me at a total of 15 1/2 hours per week. That’s not too bad, only a little over 2 hours a day. Of course, that’s only prime time, and it doesn’t take into consideration my regular daily routine while making, eating and cleaning up dinner, from around 5 pm to 8 pm. Then I usually watch, in this order: Everybody Loves Raymond, Everybody Loves Raymond, Judge Judy, 30 Minute Meals, Judge Judy, and Jeopardy. So that’s another possible 3 hours per day. But who’s counting?

I was enjoying the new eps of House and I’m gonna miss it until it comes back. I hear there are four more new eps to be shot that will air in April/May. (Meaning one or the other, or both, I wonder.) I’m not as happy with House this season overall, though. I don’t really like all these new people nearly as much as I liked the old people. And, as I believe I’ve mentioned before, I miss Chase. It seems to me that we see less of him in each ep than we do of Cameron and Foreman. It doesn’t seem fair that the one person who walked away is the one we see the most.

In any case, I still don’t trust Amber. Maybe House thinks she’s changed, but I’m not sure. Of course, he’s pretty smart, but its not like he’s never been wrong. I don’t like her with Wilson either. He’s too nice. Well, I guess he’s not really nice, he just seem nice cause he looks so innocent and young. I just don’t see their personalities being a match. And don’t give me all that she’s just like House crap, cause that’s really not true. She’s not that much like House. The thing that seems to be the greatest link between House and Wilson is their sense of humor. Does Amber even have a sense of humor? Other than the fact that she’s very self-serving and doesn’t care too much about others, what makes her like House? And what links her to Wilson? I’d rather see him dating Thirteen. What is her name again? Although maybe I wouldn’t like that either. I don’t know, there’s got to be someone out there for Wilson that’s more better than Amber.

Now that the absolute end of the strike is in sight (yay!!!), here’s some news about when shows are gonna be back on the air. I love Michael Ausiello, don’t you? He always has all the answers.

So I checked out his list for all the shows I’m watching, and I was interested to see that some shows still have pre-strike episodes that haven’t aired yet. Somehow, I thought everything that was out there had already aired, with the exception of those few shows that are presently airing new eps, like Lost, Smallville, Supernatural and whatever else there is . . . they know who they are. For instance, I didn’t realize that there are still eps of Back To You and Bones that haven’t aired. So that’s fun. Hopefully, those will air before Spring.

It was sad to see that both Chuck and Moonlight are not going to be back until Fall. I love those shows. Along with Big Bang Theory, they were my favorite new shows of the past season. At least Big Bang will be back by April or May. I guess it gives me something I can look forward to. I have some questions about those shows, though. When will the first season DVDs come out? And when they do, will it be just these few episodes? I mean, they won’t hold off on putting out the DVDs until after new episodes air next Fall, will they?

Well, the exciting news is some of the shows we’ve come to know and love will be back soon. And right now I’m busy pretty much every night of the week watching American Idol anyway.

Even though it was after the Super Bowl and everything I predicted came true (that is, the ep didn’t start until almost half an hour after they said and I had to stay up way too late to watch it) House was good. It was interesting to see House be attracted to someone real. (Or is that to be really attracted to someone?) It was nice to see him take a more personal interest in the case, too. I was kinda glad to not have to deal with all those other people too much. I’m not particularly interested in any of the new people. Well, I do like Kal Penn, but I miss Chase. Don’t you? It’s also kind of annoying how much the new girl looks just like Cameron. They could have at least made her a blond. She even acts a bit like Cameron, although maybe she’s not as sensitive. And certainly, she’s not in love with House.

And what was with Wilson dating Amber? I was surprised by that. I was pretty sure it wasn’t Cuddy, but I thought it might have been Cameron. I had one brief moment when I debated whether or not it could be Stacy (House’s ex-wife, for those of you who don’t remember) but then I was pretty sure she wouldn’t do that to her husband again, even if Wilson would. Besides, didn’t she move away or something? I’m not sure I like Wilson being a philanderer, cause he looks too innocent. But maybe that’s his charm. I always enjoy watching House work things out. I like smart people.

Well, there’s another new ep of House tonight. As far as I know, it’s the last one for at least a while. There are two-hour eps of American Idol for the next two weeks on Tuesday, anyway. So at least we have that to look forward to.

I was wrong. It appears that instead of House airing new episodes the next three Tuesdays, they will instead be airing new episodes tonight, January 29, Sunday night, February 3 (after the Super Bowl), and then next Tuesday, February 5.

I don’t get that. Why would you show a new episode of a show that everyone wants to watch after a sporting event that doesn’t necessarily end on time?

I’m not against the Super Bowl or anything, but I’m not really a big sports fan. I probably won’t be watching the Super Bowl. (well, maybe we will be, cause I’m sure my husband is planning on watching it in living color on the big TV.) But I will be going to bed and I don’t want to sit up and just wait for the Super Bowl to end so I can watch House. I can, of course, tape House, but who is to say that House will start at 10 pm or 10:30 pm? How do I know if I’ll be taping part of the Super Bowl and part of House?

It just seems like you should show a repeat or something when you can’t be certain what time the show will air. Right? I mean, am I right? Maybe its just me.

Tonight’s episode is entitled “It’s a Wonderful Lie,” which sounds like a Christmas ep to me. Well, it’s not February yet so I guess it’s OK. Sunday’s ep is entitled “Frozen,” and it looks like it’ll be fun, when the team has to diagnose a researcher who’s located at the South Pole. Next week the ep is entitled “Don’t Ever Change.”

House, Hugh Laurie, Super Bowl XLII

Woo and hoo!! New episodes are back. At least for a couple of weeks. And you can color me happy. Not that I’m not enjoying all the stuff I’ve been watching on DVD, but I’d just like to see something filmed after 1989. Its been so long for some shows, I’m not even sure I can remember everything I watched before. Which is a bad sign, cause it obviously means I don’t need to watch anything I don’t remember. And there’s also the fact that even when I remember which shows I was watching, I’m pretty sure I don’t remember what was happening when I saw them last.

I already mentioned Chuck, which will air the last two taped episodes tonight on NBC at 8 pm and 10 pm (this is lovely, cause I really, really miss Chuck) and Torchwood’s new season, which starts on BBC America on Saturday, January 26 at 9 pm. My watchingcw blog also discusses the new eps of Smallville and Supernatural, which start airing on Thursday, January 31 at 8 pm and 9 pm, respectively, on the CW.

And in other very exciting news, also coming back with new eps is (yay!!) House, three weeks in a row, starting Tuesday, January 29 at 9 pm, following American Idol. It will be so much fun to finally see how the new team works out, since we just got them picked when the last ep aired.

Finally, season four of Lost is starting on Thursday, January 31 at 9 pm on ABC, preceded by a recap episode entitled Lost: Past, Present & Future, at 8 pm. I’m really looking forward to Lost, but I’m not exactly positive why. I guess I just keep thinking that some day I’ll understand it and then it would have all been worthwhile. If you haven’t checked them out yet, you should go watch the “Missing Pieces.” They are a little confusing as they’re in no apparent order and they deal with stuff that happened over the past three years, but they are still fun. It only takes about 20 minutes to watch all of them that are up at the ABC site, so you should go see them before the season starts.

Chuck, Torchwood, Smallville, Supernatural, House, American Idol, Lost