The dust has settled on most of the big premieres, and I’m excited to add some shows to my series pass this week. First up is Chuck, which in my opinion was the one of the top three pilots so far (for those keeping score at home, the others are Reaper and Dirty Sexy Money).

That show is nicely complemented by How I Met Your Mother (absurd publicity photo, left). The slap bet countdown is real.

Unfortunately that means that I don’t have space for Everybody Hates Chris. Sorry, EHC! I don’t actually hate you.

But I will have the space in the 8:30 slot to check out the controversial Aliens in America. I expect to feel about it much the same way as I do Everybody Hates Chris: probably good stuff, but not a tragedy if it were to get pre-empted by a joint session of Congress.

Then there’s Heroes, where Nikki and Micah return (great…) and we learn more about Claire’s weird flying stalker. Question for the crowd: Have they really started repeating abilities (if so, sad — I liked the uniqueness), or is Stalkerboy’s ability somehow different than Nathan’s?

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming: Yes, this means I’ve abandoned Journeyman. I understand there were some surprising twists, and it seemed to have a spark of something, but I don’t care for the guy and I don’t care what it all means. Someone can tell me what happens later.

I had no idea how many egg dishes I needed to make.

• TV Guide looks at Survivor’s new set.
• They’ve reshot the entire pilot for Women’s Murder Club.
• Chris Rock will guest star on Everybody Hates Chris.
• E! will air second runs of Big Shots and Dirty Sexy Money.
• Grey’s Anatomy and The Office did well on Thursday.
• 7th Heaven’s Wikipedia entry has nearly 30,000 words.
• Stereogum compiles music used in the new fall season. In case you hadn’t noticed, Peter Bjorn and John are some pretty rich Swedes.
• Even though NBC and Apple are in a fight, you can still download Chuck and Journeyman.
• The Dexter fountain scheme was a mess.
• The South Park dudes are coming out with a new show.
• The San Francisco Gate examines Dexter.
• Mindy Kaling talks to New York magazine.
• Just how Mormon is Survivor’s gay mormon.
• Nickelodeon went dark to promote playtime.
• E-Kristin has a video interview with Heroes’ Milo Ventimiglia.
• The lastest Survivor loser talks about her being kicked off.

When we last left our Heroes (hehe), Claire was on the run with the help of Peter’s mom (!), Mohinder was on the ceiling, and the world was probably going to blow up any day now. Tonight, more stuff! I’m avoiding spoilers, so you’ll just have to read them yourself, or live in the moment.

Now that this season of 24 is drawing to a close, it’s safe to say that it hasn’t really lived up to the previous ones. Are we just sick of the concept? Are the writers? Or, optimistically, are they lulling us into a sense of false security so they can blow our minds in the finale?

Hey, Everybody Hates Chris is back! Watch it instead of How I Met Your Mother, which is a repeat. On second thought, HIMYM is a repeat of the Robin Sparkles episode, so that’s kind of a toss-up.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming: NBC, the network most often referred to as “classy,” has decided play against type and give up on classiness altogether by airing The Real Wedding Crashers, the most terrifying idea for a reality show ever. Look, just because the bride and groom are in on it doesn’t make it any less stupid, uncomfortable, and (most likely) unwatchable. Almost makes you think Aaron Sorkin had a point.

MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

• ABC’s new show Notes From the Underbelly is, weirdly, going to be put in the 10 p.m. slot after Grey’s Anatomy. They say it’s the first time a half-hour comedy’s done that since the early 90s. Meanwhile, I have low expectations for the show, but I hope it does well because it has Kissing Jessica Stein’s Jennifer Westfeldt.
• Different Strokes/Everybody Hates Chris star Todd Bridges joins Suzanne Sommers, Tony Blair, Alanis Morrissette, Stephen King, Maddox Jolie-Pitt and Tony Hawk in the long list of people who are not dead.
• For God’s sake.  Bravo’s casting a new edition of The Real Housewives of Orange County.
• Jeff Probst isn’t thrilled with this season’s rich tribe/poor tribe twist on Survivor. And they’re thinking about remote Canada for future seasons.
• As if they haven’t had enough failed experiments with Lost’s time slot — now they’re thinking about starting the fourth season in January 2008.
• that seems to pretty much be in the same feel good-y vibe as Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.
• Jefferey Sebelia broke up with his girlfriend/mother of his baby.
• The Addison spin-off is tentatively called Private Practice.
• Rumor has it that Dexter’s coming to DVD in September.

HIMYM brings us a flashback episode tonight. There's something so cheap and dirty about the fun of flashbacks. I always like watching them, but I feel all wrong about it. Usually flashbacks only show up once we've developed an attachment for the characters, so seeing them dressed funny/acting young/being ironic about their plans and their futures will always make us smile because we know better now, and the shows know that. But it's hard to find a flashback that's more than those easy jokes.

Everybody Hates Chris is like a series that's entirely a flashback. I'm okay with that, though. 

Who is this? No, really?

Jack has to go see EVIL PRESIDENT LOGAN tonight on 24. I can only hope this means that Martha Logan's just around the corner.

Heroes is being strangled, beaten, and ripped limb from limb by the NBC promo department. Please, please give it a rest, people. I know they're all excited that people seem to like it, but they are very close to ruining the show. Some stuff happens with Bennet tonight, as Dan pointed out.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming: The Black Donnellys premieres tonight in Studio 60's spot. I'm not going to watch it (ugh, Haggis), I'm just glad it's there. 

Not a very promising weekend for television. This whole post is pretty much we interrupt your regularly scheduled programming. But I'm including Monday because of the holiday, so that helps.

On Friday night, there's a Lifetime original movie from 1996, For My Daughter's Honor, which sounds delightfully cheesy if you enjoy that sort of thing. Alyson Hannigan's in it, and the girl who was Maggie in The Nanny stars. Please, please click on that link and read the user comments. I promise it's worth it.

On Saturday, they're repeating Justin Timberlake's latest SNL appearance, which, as everyone knows because we all saw it the first time, was awesome. The Disney Channel's playing the Lindsay Lohan Parent Trap. It's adorable. Shut up. TBS has Cheaper By the Dozen for the thousandth time, which I only mention so I know to avoid it like the plague to keep from falling into another Tom Welling coma. Best of all, WE is playing Girl, Interrupted and IFC has thirteen. Which troubled teen girl movie will you be watching?

Sunday's episode of Battlestar Galactica better be better than last week's, or there's going to be hell to pay from the internets. It's all about the Chief and Cally, so… okay. I love the Chief. But I love Helo, too, and that didn't really help last week. It's not a fatal blow to the series, but it is a little disheartening. So let's get back on track, Show!

Then Monday — lovely Monday. Ted's got to throw away some crap and Lily's in a play in HIMYM, and though it sounds a tad Joey to me, I dig it. Chris wants to go to Ghostbusters on Everybody Hates Chris — got to love those period details. Heroes introduces a new Hero (eventually they'll stop doing this, right? or do we even want them to?) and we're back with Ultimate Superhero Peter for a while. Jack gets really, really mad at Marilyn on 24, and for good reason. Why is everyone so stupid about their lives and the lives of their loved ones on that show? Don't they know the fate of the world depends on them being selfless?

And then there's Studio 60, the show that might have been, that continues to self-destruct in a fiery blaze. To paraphrase Lorelai Gilmore, "You're the show I want to want." Sorkin is a very good writer, but these are not lived-in characters with flaws and quirks; they're half an idea of a character. No one's thought these people through; no one's sat in a room and hashed out why and how these people are who they are: everything they do is forced on them without any thought or grace. Anyway, catch the infuriating madness before it's gone forever.

That's right, there are two hours of 24 tonight. Though I still feel like I'm still waiting for this season to start the addictive thrills. Maybe tonight?

The two-hour 24 means that I will not harp on you like I usually do about Everybody Hates Chris, as the TiFaux had to kick it off the recording list because there's just too much awesomeness on at the same time.

How I Met Your Mother — Ted finds a lucky penny and bad things happen to him. Most of the time, this show ends up being better than its description (gang goes to too many new year's parties, Marshall and Ted sword fight, etc), and I sincerely hope that's the case here, because that description sounds so precious I almost want to barf.

Nathan is Claire's dad on Heroes. So Peter's her uncle. I thought she had a little crush on him, so that's gross, now. Thanks, show. 

Studio 60 has a flashback episode. If I weren't already queasy from the HIMYM plot description and the idea of Claire hooking up with her uncle, I would be from this. The thing is — we all know what Matthew Perry looked like ten years ago. And I still love him, but he doesn't look like that any more. Also, this show makes me die inside. 

If you're sick of the same old shows I always talk about, and you love puppies, you might be interested to know that the 131st Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show is on tonight and tomorrow on USA. 

And finally, I'd just like to say that I called it about Forest "zzzzzzz" Whitaker, who completely sucked on SNL on Saturday, even in my new favorite sketch (after Peter O'Toole), Bronx Beat. Here's the first (cuter) Bronx Beat:

How I Met Your Mother has a Super Bowl themed episode. How timely… almost. Since this is literally the only show I watch on CBS, I will be hoping not to see the suicidal robot ad again. Very upsetting.

DVR Everybody Hates Chris. Then when you're making dinner some time you can play it in the background, and you might like it.

Heroes: more George Takei!

24: more torturing of blood relatives!

On Studio 60, Danny and Jordan are still on the roof (lame), and Tom is still in trouble with Lucy for lying about having to go to Harriet's dinner (double lame), and somehow the fate of the free world rests on these fools' shoulders (i.e., if Tom screws up, the FCC wins, and civilization as we know it will fail). Also, I think we can all agree that just because characters say "this is just like a sitcom cliche!" doesn't mean that they're forgiven for using a sitcom cliche. Still… there's Jack. I heart Jack, until he starts stalking some poor woman, of course.