WJZ

Series American Idol:: Each contestant must sing a song from the year they were born. (8 p.m., WBFF-Channel 45) The Mentalist:: The team heads for Hollywood to probe a movie producer's murder. (9 p.m., WJZ-Channel 13) Fringe:: An abandoned child shares a special connection with Agent Dunham (Anna Torv). (9:01 p.m., WBFF-Channel 45) Specials It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown:: Charles Schulz's Peanuts gang celebrates the holiday in this animated special. (8 p.m., WMAR-Channel 2)

No sex, much misunderstanding. Endless trips to Pottery Barn, constant second-guessing and soul-wrenching regret as well. That's marriage today, according to the great American TV sitcom. Fox has been offering its take on the institution since September with Brad Garrett in 'Til Death. Tonight comes CBS with Rules of Engagement, featuring three men and two women variously running from, tiptoeing up to or locked in a slow, sad, sexless dance on the killing floor of matrimony. On TV Rules of Engagement premieres at 9:30 tonight on WJZ (Channel 13)

A 44-year-old Laurel man won the $1 million grand prize on the Maryland Lottery's "Scream For Millions" television game show, which aired last night on WJZ (Channel 13) in Baltimore and WDCA (Channel 20) in Washington.Saghir Ahmed, the winner, was one of 50 contestants chosen from more than 300,000 losing lottery ticket entries to compete for $2.5 million in cash and prizes.Ahmed said he plans to take the money back to his native Pakistan to share with family.Other winners included Mike Miller of Oakton, Va., who won a 1999 Chevrolet Camaro; and Jonathan Watson of Bowie, who won $222,747.

Don Scott was anchoring the noon news from a rain-swept street corner when a truck ran over a power cord and left only his voice on the air. Marianne Bannister and Rod Daniels anchored the 6 p.m. news from a makeshift set the color of Aqua-Velva. Kai Jackson and Sally Thorner did the 5 p.m. news from the studios of competitors.That's how Baltimore's TV news looked yesterday, as personnel at WBAL, Channel 11, and WJZ, Channel 13, soldiered on with 12 tons of metal dangling precariously above their studios.

Who'll miss these umps?It was the intention of the umpires to walk off the job before the end of the season. It was their hope that this action would get the commissioner's office to succumb to their desires. As a fan, consider the following:Will we miss umpires who:Bait players into heated arguments like the Roberto Alomar incident?Call phantom outs at second base during a double play?Change the strike zone on a daily basis?Reject directives from the league to improve the game?Aren't in shape to perform their jobs?

WJZ (Channel 13) continued its dominance in local news during the May "sweeps" ratings period that ended yesterday. But the hottest single newscast in town has to be the 6: 30 p.m. report on WNUV (Channel 54) that more than doubled its audience in the last year, thanks in part to its lead-in of the red-hot "Judge Judy" courtroom show.Meanwhile, one of the programs showing the biggest loss of audience from last year is "Jerry Springer," which dropped 30 percent in viewership. "Oprah," too, slipped in the ratings losing 20 percent of its audience.

WJZ, Channel 13, remains atop the Baltimore news heap, capping an impressive run that has seen its news broadcasts winning just about every ratings contest in 1999.For the November sweeps period, which ended Dec. 1, WJZ finished with the top-rated news broadcasts in the early morning -- a dominance morning news hosts Don Scott and Marty Bass have maintained for years, despite the historically poor morning performance of their network, CBS -- as well as at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m.The lone victory for the news at WBAL, Channel 11, came at 5 p.m., when it out-Nielsened WJZ by two-tenths of a rating point, 8.3 vs. 8.1. -- a drop-off from the July ratings book, when WJZ beat WBAL, 8.6 vs. 7.5. Each ratings point represents approximately 10,000 viewing households.

Baltimore was just supposed to be a brief stop on the way to big-time TV success.Some brief stop. Two decades later, Marty Bass is still plugging away on WJZ, Channel 13, doing the weather, playing Costello to Don Scott's Abbott, firming up his reputation as one of the most irrepressible (some might prefer incorrigible) talents on Baltimore's airwaves.A native of Kentucky, Bass has spent the past 16 years as co-host of WJZ's morning show, a ratings champion that outdraws the competition by a greater margin than any other local weekday news show.

Marcellus Alexander, WJZ general manager and one of the leading figures in the Baltimore television industry, is leaving town to take over Philadelphia CBS station KYW-TV, CBS announced yesterday.The move, which is effective today, will take Alexander from the 24th largest television market in the country to the fourth. He will still be working for CBS, however, as WJZ is also a CBS-owned station.Alexander will be replaced as vice president and general manager at WJZ by Jay Newman, who comes to the station from WWJ in Detroit, the nation's ninth-largest television market.

Backed by a dominant NBC prime-time schedule, WBAL (Channel 11) has wrested the 11 p.m. news crown back from WJZ (Channel 13).Nielsen ratings for the May sweeps, which ended last week, show WBAL's late-evening news with an 11.8 rating, compared to 10.6 for WJZ and 5.3 for WMAR, Channel 2. WBFF's 10 p.m. news (Channel 45) finished with a 5.6 rating. Each ratings point translates to roughly 9,800 viewing households.In February, WJZ rode CBS' Olympics coverage to its first 11 p.m. victory in nearly three years.

After more than two decades at the Baltimore TV anchor desk, WJZ newswoman Sally Thorner says she is retiring, and her last day at the station will be Dec. 18. She came to represent local broadcast news at its best - serious, trustworthy and nonsensational, but also reassuring and friendly. Thorner, who was on the air for 10 years at WMAR before she joined WJZ in 1993 in one of the most highly publicized anchor moves in Baltimore TV history, could certainly ask the hard questions. She was an excellent reporter.

There have been no major changes at local anchor desks. Nor have any newscasts been added or dropped. But suddenly, Baltimore is a much more competitive local news market than it has been in decades. Front-running WBAL (Channel 11) is not winning by wide margins any more with its evening newscasts, and even more surprising, WMAR (Channel 2) is no longer a ratings doormat trailing the competition by seemingly insurmountable margins. Blame it on the Local People Meters, a new bit of technology introduced in Baltimore on July 2 by the Nielsen Media Co. to measure area viewing habits.

Some disgruntled viewers remain in the dark after last week's digital television switch-over. "We were not able to watch 60 Minutes on Channel 13," said Hanuman Agrawal, 73, a retired Owings Mills resident. "My wife had to read her magazine and books. It was an enormous inconvenience." Television stations say the problems are largely confined to households with antenna problems, or those where digital converter boxes have not been reset to account for frequency changes at some stations.

Series American Idol:: Each contestant must sing a song from the year they were born. (8 p.m., WBFF-Channel 45) The Mentalist:: The team heads for Hollywood to probe a movie producer's murder. (9 p.m., WJZ-Channel 13) Fringe:: An abandoned child shares a special connection with Agent Dunham (Anna Torv). (9:01 p.m., WBFF-Channel 45) Specials It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown:: Charles Schulz's Peanuts gang celebrates the holiday in this animated special. (8 p.m., WMAR-Channel 2)

Series Survivor: Tocantins: : A fake immunity idol is introduced into the game. (8 p.m., WJZ-Channel 13) ER: : This one-hour retrospective features clips from the past 15 seasons, along with interviews with past and present cast members. (8 p.m., WBAL-Channel 11) CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: : Academy Award winner William Friedkin directs the 200th episode of the series. (9 p.m., WJZ-Channel 13) ER: : Alexis Bledel and Ernest Borgnine guest star in the series finale, which features the appearance of some former series stars.

Series Reaper: : Sam meets the Devil's other son. (8 p.m., WNUV-Channel 54) Nova: : Photojournalist James Balog and a scientific team disperse cameras in risky, remote locations in the Arctic, Alaska and the Alps to document and record the process of melting glaciers. (8 p.m., MPT-Channel 22) The Biggest Loser: : NASCAR driver Clint Bowyer participates in a challenge that requires each contestant to pull a car. (9 p.m., WBAL-Channel 11) The Mentalist: : Patrick (Simon Baker) and the team investigate murders at a corporate retreat hosting rich and powerful clientele.

Series America's Next Top Model: : In the season premiere, 34 finalists head to Las Vegas for their first photo shoot before Tyra Banks whittles them down to the 13 finalists who will move to a loft in New York and compete for the top prize. (8 p.m., WNUV-Channel 54) American Idol: : Three more finalists are chosen. (8 p.m., WBFF-Channel 45) Criminal Minds: : The team searches for a serial killer who stages car crashes to cover up the way his victims really died. (9 p.m., WJZ-Channel 13)

Series The Big Bang Theory: : A paintball game leads to a feud between Sheldon and Penny (Jim Parsons, Kaley Cuoco). (8 p.m., WJZ-Channel 13) The Bachelor: : Jason brings his son to New Zealand to meet the final two women and makes his final decision. (8 p.m., WMAR-Channel 2) 24: : Dubaku's plan escalates to his boss, General Juma; a high-impact terrorist threat develops. (8 p.m., WBFF-Channel 45) Harlem Heights: : This new, unscripted series follows eight college-educated African-Americans searching for success in New York.

Family, fans: These are few of celebs' favorite things Even with wealth and fame, celebrities still take stock of their blessings. The Associated Press has gathered some together: * Joe Jonas of the Jonas Brothers: "I think we want to be, most of all, thankful for the fans. This year, they've been always sticking around for us, always been there for us. ... And we can't thank them enough." * Singer Barry Manilow: "Health. It's all about health. My health. My loved ones' health. We're all here.

After 33 years of Baltimore television, Richard Sher says he's finally ready to move on. And this time, he means it. "I had done this a few times before," says Sher, whose announced retirement in 2004 lasted less than a month before he asked station management to take him back. "It was tough each time, but I thought this was the time to really do it." Sher, 67, says he made his decision to retire early this month. Although lean economic times have forced newsrooms throughout the country to cut costs, he insists the decision to leave now was his alone, and that he was not forced out by WJZ management.