When it comes to new TV shows, January has become almost as big as September.
Mid-season shows started airing over the New Year's weekend, and new runs of "reality" standbys start this week.
ABC's "Bachelor" begins its latest installment tonight at 7 on Channel 12, and NBC's "Biggest Loser" returns at 7 p.m. Tuesday on Channel 4.
Both launch with two-hour season-openers.
Among scripted shows, the seventh season of "Nip/Tuck" starts at 9 p.m. Wednesday on FX.
The canceled "Southland" moves to cable's TNT on at 9 p.m. on Jan. 12, airing seven reruns and six unaired episodes from the original 13-episode season ordered by NBC.
Fox's "Dollhouse" airs its final episode on Jan. 22. That same night, Syfy launches its new show, "Caprica" a prequel to "Battlestar Galactica."
There are also season premieres galore this month. Here are 10 of the biggest up and down the dial:
- NBC's "Chuck" comes back for a third season with two episodes at 7 p.m. Sunday on Channel 4.
- HBO's "Big Love" starts its fourth season at 8 p.m. Sunday.
- Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations" launches its sixth season on the Travel Channel at 9 p.m., Jan. 11.
- The ninth season of Fox's "American Idol" begins at 7 p.m. on Jan. 12 on Channel 6, with Ellen DeGeneres replacing Paula Abdul as one of four judges.
- TNT's "Leverage" is back for another season at 9 p.m. on Jan. 13th
- Lifetime's "Project Runway" returns for a 7th season at 9 p.m. on Jan. 14.
- Fox's "24" returns at 8 p.m. Jan. 17, a Sunday night, for its eighth season premiere on Channel 6.
- FX's "Damages" is back for a third season at 9 p.m. Jan. 25.
- USA's "Psych" returs for a fourth season on Jan. 27 at 9 p.m..
- Gordon Ramsay's "Kitchen Nightmares" is back for its third season on American TV on Jan. 29 at 8 p.m.
Since I know the questions will come in, let's answer 'em now: ABC's "Lost" returns for its final season Feb. 2 on Channel 12.
And, here's one small warning. Everything in TV changes quickly these days, especially the schedule.
So check the listings to be sure.
No rush back to work for Rush: the nation's biggest radio talker, Rush Limbaugh was scheduled to be back on his syndicated radio show, which airs at noon weekdays on WISN-AM (1130).
But last week's heart scare has changed that a bit. He's reportedly going to make appearances on the show today and tomorrow, with Mark Steyn filling in.
Limbaugh won't be back behind the microphone until Wednesday.
Tim Cuprisin is the media columnist for OnMilwaukee.com. He's been a journalist for 30 years, starting in 1979 as a police reporter at the old City News Bureau of Chicago, a legendary wire service that's the reputed source of the journalistic maxim "if your mother says she loves you, check it out." He spent a couple years in the mean streets of his native Chicago, and then moved on to the Green Bay Press-Gazette and USA Today, before coming to the Milwaukee Journal in 1986.
A general assignment reporter, Cuprisin traveled Eastern Europe on several projects, starting with a look at Poland after five years of martial law, and a tour of six countries in the region after the Berlin Wall opened and Communism fell. He spent six weeks traversing the lands of the former Yugoslavia in 1994, linking Milwaukee Serbs, Croats and Bosnians with their war-torn homeland.
In the fall of 1994, a lifetime of serious television viewing earned him a daily column in the Milwaukee Journal (and, later the Journal Sentinel) focusing on TV and radio. For 15 years, he has chronicled the changes rocking broadcasting, both nationally and in Milwaukee, an effort he continues at OnMilwaukee.com.
When he's not watching TV, Cuprisin enjoys tending to his vegetable garden in the backyard of his home in Whitefish Bay, cooking and traveling.
