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PREMIERE WEEK

Most returning shows on the big four networks are back this week. (The CW is already up and running, not that you noticed.) And because I spent much of last week telling you what NBC has on at 9 every night, in the interest of equal time here are some of Jay Leno’s new competitors:

“Castle” (9 p.m. Monday, KMBC). ABC will have Nathan Fillion on a short leash, but the former star of two short-lived Fox shows would be used to that, you’d think. If it doesn’t deliver viewers, it’ll be pushing daisies.

“The Good Wife” (9 p.m. Tuesday, KCTV). Julianna Margulies is a politician’s wife humiliated by his misdeeds, so she goes back to work. The pilot was strong, the lead-in (“NCIS” and “NCIS: Los Angeles”) even stronger. Now if only Chris Noth can be booked for more episodes.

“Eastwick” (9 p.m. Wednesday, KMBC). One simply can’t predict how this adaptation of the late John Updike’s novel into a Lifetime movie-esque romantic dramedy will work, especially on a night of all-new ABC shows. Badly, one suspects.

“The Mentalist” (9 p.m. Thursday, KCTV). Though this is NBC’s potentially strongest night — four comedies into Leno — I predict NBC will suffer its most crushing setbacks on this night. Simon Baker simply can’t be stopped, and “Mentalist” isn’t as grisly as other CBS crime dramas.

“Psych” (9 p.m. Friday, USA). Arguably this show is funnier than Leno some nights. And when it signs off, “White Collar” — another buddy series that I consider the best new drama of the fall — signs on in its place Oct. 23.

| Aaron Barnhart, The Star

Posted on Sat, Sep. 19, 2009 10:15 PM

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