Prime Time

If viewers to WBAL's 6 p.m. news were confused, they had the right to be. Outside of a graphic that appeared onscreen during the sports portion of the news, the only mention of Michael Phelps' failure to win a medal in his first event Saturday came in a graphic shown onscreen during Gerry Sandusky's sports portion of the show. And Sandusky warned viewers to look away before the news of Phelps' fourth-place finish was shown on the screen if they didn't want to know. Sandusky never verbally reported the results, according to WBAL General Manager Dan Joerres.

"Grace & Glorie" is a story of love and death. It's a brave story with fine performances by Gena Rowlands and Diane Lane.But, in the end, the Hallmark Hall of Fame production fails to deliver the kind of emotion promised throughout. Part of the problem is surely the script. Or, maybe, it's me.After watching Bobby Simone die on "NYPD Blue" and Jack Kevorkian euthanize a man on "60 Minutes" last month, maybe I am simply burned out on death in prime time.Rowlands plays Grace, a woman sent home from the nursing home to spend her final days on the land she once farmed.

The women of The Unit rule. A television season notable for its portrayal of the medium's first female president (think ABC's Commander in Chief) and several leading women defined more by intellect and competence than physical beauty or their relationship to men (think Fox's Bones or CBS' Close to Home), ends next week. And one verdict already is in: The most popular new female characters in prime time are three wives who describe their primary purpose as providing support for their military husbands.

ACADEMY AWARD WINNER HOLLY Hunter arrives in a weekly television series tomorrow night with the debut of cable channel TNT's Saving Grace. And while the drama about a hard-drinking police detective who is saved by a tobacco-chewing angel isn't exactly divine entertainment, it is the first in a wave of spiritually themed TV shows about to wash over prime time -- the next semi-big attempt by Hollywood to speak to the post-Sept. 11 hole in America's soul. SAVING GRACE / / premieres at 10 p.m. tomorrow on TNT ONLINE David Zurawik discusses Saving Grace at baltimoresun.

As I write this, it's still not clear whether the American League or National League will occupy prime time tonight -- but by the time you read this, you'll know. If the Toronto Blue Jays clinched the pennant last night, then the NL's Philadelphia Phillies and Atlanta Braves will play their sixth game in prime time. But if the Chicago White Sox won last night, the seventh game of the Toronto-Chicago series will be played tonight, pushing the Phillies-Braves game to a daytime start at 3 p.m. on CBS. Either way, baseball will occupy prime time beginning at 8 p.m., leaving the following as the best available alternatives for non-baseball fans.

NFL prime-time football is looking more and more like the new reality TV this fall — it's on several nights a week, and it's thumping the competition almost every time it airs. And this week, the dominance will be further extended when the Baltimore Ravens kick off a new season of "Thursday Night Football" on the NFL Network. With NBC's "Sunday Night Football" now the highest-rated show on TV, and ESPN's "Monday Night Football" leading all channels in young male viewers, the only question about the Thursday night franchise is how many ratings records it will set when it returns with the Ravens facing the Atlanta Falcons.

ONCE UPON a time, Deion Sanders was viewed as a potential distraction. Now, the Ravens would love his kind of distraction. In fact, tonight would be the perfect time for Sanders to become the Deion everyone remembers, the one he believes he can still be, the one people still wonder if he can be. After coming back from a three-year retirement, playing two games and sitting one out as a precautionary measure, Prime Time is expected to be back in uniform and...

Despite the recession and a soft advertising market, CBS is very optimistic about bringing home the gold with its mammoth coverage of the Winter Olympics from Albertville, France, which started Saturday and runs for 16 days and nights."

The ax has started to fall on the new programs as NBC moves to stem the hemorrhaging of viewers it is experiencing on Friday and Sunday nights.Already announced was the cancellation of the network's two news shows -- "Real Life with Jane Pauley" and "Expose" -- which will be replaced on Fridays at 8 o'clock by "Matlock."The network claims that the news programs will be combined into a single hour show that will return to the schedule in March. This is just the latest in a seemingly endless line of vain attempts by NBC to find success in the prime time news business that adds so much cash to the bottom line of the news divisions at CBS with "60 Minutes" and "48 hours," and ABC with "20/20" and "Prime Time Live."

WASHINGTON -- Both political parties face serious convention problems. The Republicans are in trouble because Pat Buchanan is demanding prime time to give a speech denouncing everyone in attendance. If they don't give him what he wants, Pat has vowed to go on a hunger strike in a Rio Grande refugee camp.The problem for the Democrats is that they have four days with nothing to put on except Chelsea's clogging club.It is a very difficult situation. One solution has been suggested by Carter Cornwall, the Democratic entertainment chairman.