GMMR’s Fall TV: Monday Night
September 22, 2008 by Kath Skerry
Unless you watch TV for a living (and if you do I’m quite jealous) then there really isn’t an easy way to tackle the Monday night TV schedule. It’s borderline insane. It’s as if every network said “let’s really screw with the viewers and put a ton of awesome shows up against each other and make everyone pull a Sophie’s Choice“. Ugh, but we have what we have and unless the schedule gets moved around a bit (which I’m not counting on) then we just have to deal.
So here’s my Monday night schedule, and a little insight on just how I’m going to handle watching all these shows.
CHUCK (premieres September 29th): It’s so cruel that I have to pick only one show to watch in this very crowded 8pm hour. But I’m going to have to go with CHUCK. It’s a real toss up between CHUCK and GOSSIP GIRL, but I’m going to go with the big Bartwoski and his Buy More buds. (Bonus – Since I’ve already seen the first three episodes of CHUCK I can watch GOSSIP GIRL at 8pm – at least until the end of October.)
…and that my friends is the only show I will be watching live on Monday nights. Seems odd, but keep reading and you’ll see the how and why.
So this is the category where most of my Monday night TV is going to live. There’s a lot of time shifting on Mondays so try to keep up 😉
GOSSIP GIRL: The way I see this happening is that I’ll watch GOSSIP GIRL at 9pm after I’m done watching CHUCK. There’s no way I could hold out any longer than 9pm to see the latest antics of the Upper East Siders. So from 8-10pm on Mondays it’s all Josh Schwartz all the time.
HEROES…maybe: The 8pm timeslot is nasty but it doesn’t get any easier at 9pm. Not only do I still have the shows I missed at 8pm, but now I have new ones to deal with. But the plan as of now is to watch HEROES from 10-11pm on Monday nights. But let me say this…with all the other shows happening on Mondays, HEROES has only a few precious episodes to draw me back in. If I’m not really excited about the show once the new episodes start, I’m definitely not going to worry about watching it on Mondays. I’ll TiVo it for the weekends. I know this may come as a surprise for some of you, but I’m just not all that excited about HEROES. But for now it’s on the Monday night game plan.
PRISON BREAK: This is when it gets tough. Assuming I watch HEROES until 11pm, my mind is going to be goo. That’s a lot of TV to watch back to back. But at this point I still have PRISON BREAK, T:SSS, THE BIG BANG THEORY and HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER that I still haven’t watched. So cruel. So my plan is this. I’m going to try to watch PRISON BREAK before I got to bed. There is no way my brain will be functioning enough to watch T:SCC that late in the night – esp not after the brain bust that is HEROES. But I think I can handle Michael Scofield and his merry men at that late hour…I guess we’ll see soon enough.
THE BIG BANG THEORY & HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER: I don’t think you understand how it kills me to not watch these shows live on Monday nights. Let’s be clear – pushing these shows off has nothing to do with how I feel about these shows. I’m madly in love with both. It’s a sacrifice to put off watching Jim Parson and Neil Patrick Harris, but it’s something I have to do…there’s just no way around it. But here’s the deal. I’m not going to park these shows for viewing whenever. The plan is to watch them on Tuesday morning….really early on Tuesday morning. And if what I’m about to tell you doesn’t show true dedication to GMMR and my love for TV (and my clearly pathetic life) then I don’t know what else to tell you, but…I meet with my personal trainer at 6:30am on Tuesday mornings which means I’m going to have to get up at 5:30am on Tuesday to watch BBT and HIMYM before I leave for the gym at 6:15am. Oh snap! I don’t know if it can be done, but if it can, then I’m the girl to do it.
TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES: Another big sacrifice for me. But as I’ve mentioned before, there’s just no way to do it all. And even with two DVRs I can’t record all the shows I need to on Monday. So T:SCC has been shifted to online status. The way I see it, I’m going to try to watch this show on Tuesdays when I come home from work. Perhaps over dinner? Wow, I am really depressing myself right now. I’m really hating these network programming people right about now.
MY OWN WORST ENEMY (premieres October 13th): The show looks great (I’m actually off to watch the pilot episode right now), but as the new kid on the block MY OWN WORST ENEMY gets the short end of the schedule stick. I’m planning on watching it, but I really don’t have a sense as of when at this point in time. Maybe on Tuesday or Wednesday which tend to be slower nights for me, but I really can’t commit right now. Maybe this is a weekend catch-up show. When I watch it all depends on how much I dig the first few episodes. So stay tuned.
===========================
GMMR Coverage: So there you have it…my Monday nights. Two parts awesome and one part sad. Of course with all this TV watching in to the late hours and then again in the early mornings, I’m not sure when I’m actually going to be write about the shows on GMMR. I guess we’ll just do the best we can. Luckily for us TEAM GMMR has some of this handled. SB will be back again covering CHUCK and this year JEN will be on board sharing her thoughts on HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER. I’m excited to share Monday night duties with these gals and I’m sure you’ll love hearing from them too.
Tell us what YOUR Monday night TV schedule looks like. What shows are you watching live, TiVoing for later, watching online or maybe ditching all together?
Wow – that is one crazy Monday night!! I’m lucky in that my Mondays will only include Chuck right now – I never did get into Gossip Girl or Sarah Connor last year, though I saw a few episodes.
For me it’s Wednesday that sucks. I’m at a yoga class from 7 – 8, and have both Pushing Daisies and Bones airing in the same timeslot. I’m back in the Dark Ages with only one VCR, which means only one program will get recorded. Since I didn’t much care for the last season of Bones, and Pushing Daisies is my star from last year – the choice was relatively easy. Plus, I’m hoping to catch Bones in reruns sometime – or perhaps Hulu will start catering to Canadians….
I don’t watch Gossip Girl, but otherwise I will watch the same shows.
Does anyone know if CBS is good about putting its shows online? Will I be able to find BBT and HIMYM on either Hulu or CBS’s site?
I still haven’t finalized my plan for Mondays. The only thing I know for sure is that Chuck will be live. I’ll still watch Heroes, but depending on how good it is, watching live is still tbd. My biggest problem is that I live with a die-hard DWTS fan – ugh! So I think we’ll be recording that to watch at 10.
Billiam – I’ve always watched HIMYM the next day online. CBS was really good about getting it online last season.
Mondays are torture! All of the Monday shows seem like my babies and to have to put any of them off seems wrong.
I think this is the order I’ll be watching them in but that may change depending on quality:
BBT (since it’s a half hour and that means I can start something else and fast forward through commercials)
Gossip Girls
HIMYM
Heroes
OTH
Chuck, unfortuately as much as I adore this show, will be put to the online list. We know we’ll get 22 episodes. I really wish that this was on at 9p and Heroes at 10pm because then I’d be a happy camper! The only reason why I’m putting Gossip Girl ahead of Chuck is because most of my friends watch Gossip Girl and I’d hate to be excluded in the gabfest the next morning. And OTH can easily move on as a filler show if they continue on too long with the Dan/Carrie storyline (I know when it ends but it is still too long!)
Mondays are hard! We had to decide to drop Terminator (which wasn’t that hard of a decision) and then watch Chuck live and Tivo Gossip Girl and HIMYM and Big Bang b/c I like to watch the last 3 over and over again 🙂
Mondays suck for TV. Too much to watch…and only one DVR. I never watch any show “live” anymore. I wait at least 15 minutes into and then start so I can skip past all the commercials (if shows do what Fringe did then I may stop this).
Chuck. How I Met Your Mother. Two and Half Men (I don’t know why I like this show, I just do). Worst Week (gets one week to show me why I should tune in next). Samantha Who?. Heroes. My Own Worst Enemy.
I am actually relieved I never got into Gossip Girl (I am pretty sure I am out of their demographic at 37). I can’t stand watching shows that show teen girls I believe are too young cavorting around like late unmarried 20-somethings since I had a daughter of my own. We didn’t behave like that when I was in high school (we weren’t total prudes either, but what they portray on some of these shows today is so beyond my comprehension I just don’t want to see it).
Online TV viewing doesn’t work well for me…they never put the shows on I want to watch fast enough (was still waiting for Privileged this week when I caught it last night).
I really don’t know how to handle the 8pm Monday night slot. As a Tivo-less person, I’m not sure how to approach it all.
My inclination is to watch BBT and HIMYM live, because they make me laugh so hard, but how can I put off the Chuck B’s? I’ll probably watch Gossip Girl, just because it takes forever for the CW to put up their shows, whereas I can catch Chuck, BBT, and HIMYM next day.
9pm is much easier. It’s all about Heroes for me.
hey guys – chuck’s season two first episode is now on nbc’s site – early! it’s awesome!!!!! can’t wait for the rest of the season.
enjoy!
Yeah, well, now try that schedule living in central time when primetime starts at 7:00 (I could live here the next 60 years and never get used to this), AND with 2 little kids who don’t go to bed til 8:00. HA!
Well on Mondays, I’ve decided to watch Gossip Girl and One Tree Hill live. I’m in college now and these shows have stuck with me for some time. My roommate conveniently loves these shows as well so it works. However, she also has a love for DWTS. So there will be lots of flipping back and forth between those shows. Unfortunately, I don’t like DWTS but my roommate’s lucky I like Ted McGinley, Lance Bass, and Susan Lucci for different reasons (I forget who else is on this show).
I’m Tivo-less too. So, I decided to watch HIMYM online Tuesday mornings before my first class (must have my NPH fix before Latin). Then watch Heroes sometime during the week when I feel like it. I’m not exactly excited for Heroes to be back, but I haven’t given up on it yet. I’ll definitely watch My Own Worst Enemy later in the week as well online (liked C.Slater since I saw Heathers and plus this Jekyll/Hyde thing interests me).
Oh. I will also watch Jon and Kate Plus 8 later in the evening since TLC loves to do repeats of that show at night. Love those kids!
So pretty much if I get my homework done on time, I’m good on Mondays.