SEASON PREMIERE: Part 3 of 3. If you can fight fire with fire, why not fight auditions with auditions, and judges with judges? In an effort to try and blunt tonight’s season premiere of Fox’s The X Factor, NBC has added a third installment to this week’s multi-night season premiere of its own celebrity-judged musical competition series, The Voice. (And for Simon Cowell's thoughts on The Voice's blunt efforts, see Ed Bark's Uncle Barky's Bytes.)

2012

Sep

THE X FACTOR By David Bianculli

SEASON PREMIERE: Part 1 of 2. For its second season, X Factor grand pooh-bah Simon Cowell has retained fellow host L.A. Reid, but otherwise cleared the decks to make room for two new female judges: young singer and tween TV star Demi Lovato and former pop-princess icon, Britney Spears. As kids, both Spears and Voice judge Christina Aguilera once co-starred on The New Mickey Mouse Club. Now their career paths cross again — this time as prime-time TV rivals.

2012

Sep

DAMAGES By David Bianculli

SERIES FINALE: It all ends tonight: The legal case pitting Patty (Glenn Close) against Ellen (Rose Byrne), the intricately interwoven story threads, and this ambitious, wonderful series itself, which began on FX in 2007 and ends tonight, five years later. Trust this excellent show to leave to final stones unturned, and to live up to the exhaustive, sinister threat of its VLA theme song: “When I get through with you / There won’t be anything left.”

2012

Sep

GREAT PERFORMANCES AT THE MET: “DIE WALKURE” By David Bianculli

Tonight’s entry in the epic Wagnerian opera focuses on the Wotan clan — specifically, on Wotan’s daughter, the original warrior princess: Brunnhilde, played by series co-host Deborah Voight. Check local listings.

2012

Sep

INSIDE THE NFL By David Bianculli

SEASON PREMIERE: James Brown, Cris Collinsworth and Phil Simms are back for another new season of this long-running series, kicking off again (so to speak) after the NFL teams completed their first official week of the 2012 pro football season.

2012

Sep

1954: CBS INTRODUCED 'LASSIE' By Christy Slewinski

On this day in 1954, CBS introduced the series, Lassie...

2012

Sep

PRIME-TIME ADJUSTMENTS FOR FOOTBALL DOUBLEHEADERS By Ed Bark

Do you and your DVR get the blues on NFL football Sundays? CBS in particular wants to help...

2012

Sep

1967: 'THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW' DEBUTS By Christy Slewinski

On this day in 1967, CBS introduced the popular variety/sketch series, The Carol Burnett Show...

2012

Sep

THE CRIMSON PETAL AND THE WHITE By David Bianculli

MINISERIES PREMIERE: Part 2 of 2. This outstanding 2011 miniseries, premiering in the U.S. on Encore, concludes tonight, with all its primary characters eventually gathering under one roof — but Upstairs, Downstairs, or even Downton Abbey, it’s not. For a full review of this series, which stars Romala Garai as a conflicted prostitute in 1974 London, see Bianculli’s Blog.

2012

Sep

GREAT PERFORMANCES AT THE MET: “DAS RHEINGOLD” By David Bianculli

The first TV presentation of Wagner’s Ring cycle in more than 20 years (the most recent was the 1990 Live from the Met James Levine production) is televised this week, beginning with the first opera in the series, Das Rheingold. This is the Robert Lepage production, conducted by James Levine and starring, among others, Stephanie Blythe as my friend Fricka. Check local listings.

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