TV: Five shows worth watching tonight: Sept. 14
Your select viewing guide for Friday, Sept. 14
NEWS: Marketplace (CBC, 8 p.m.) Talk about staying power: CBC’s sturdy consumer-watchdog series returns for its 40th season tonight with a typically timely episode that takes sharp aim at so-called “green” products. Although the labels use words like “biodegradable” and “natural ingredients,” many of the products are nowhere near as eco-conscious as they claim. Host Erica Johnson counts down 10 of the most odious false-label offenders.
REALITY: Shark Tank (ABC, CTV Two, 8 p.m.) Emmy-nominated last year for Best Reality Series, this U.S. version of Dragon’s Den returns for its fourth season tonight. As before, the format involves wide-eyed entrepreneurs delivering pitches for their great big idea to a panel of rich people. The returning Sharks: Lori Greiner, Mark Cuban, Daymond John, Barbara Corcoran and Dragon’s Den veterans Kevin O’Leary and Robert Herjavec. Tonight’s season-opener brings pitches from the inventor of a ticketless coat-check system and a man who has devised a belt-buckle that doubles as a beverage holder. Only in America!
NEWS: Primetime: What Would You Do? (ABC, CHCH, 9 p.m.) If you haven’t watched this show before, sample it tonight. Hosted by John Quinones, the format sets up outrageous scenarios in public places and then films the reactions of average people. In tonight’s show, a waiter refuses to serve a homeless man and a spoiled teen throws a fit at a dress shop because she hates her Sweet 16 birthday dress. The shocked reactions of onlookers is, as always, priceless.
REALITY: Ex-Wives of Rock (Slice, 10 p.m.) Both sad and compelling, this reality series follows the lives of divorcees Bobbie Brown (once married to Warrant front man Jani Lee), Athena Lee (ex-wife of Scorpions drummer James Kottak), Susan Dixon (formerly with Warrant bassist James Dixon) and Sharise Neil (once married to Motley Crue vocalist Vince Neil). Tonight’s two-parter documents the group’s trip to Las Vegas to celebrate the finalization of Athena’s divorce. As might be expected, they end up over-imbibing and everyone learns that what happens in Vegas doesn’t always stay in Vegas.
MOVIE: Close Encounters of the Third Kind (AMC, 8 amd 11 p.m.) Steven Spielberg made his name with the 1975 blockbuster Jaws, but this movie pushed his career into the stratosphere. The 1977 epic stars Spielberg favourite Richard Dreyfuss as an electrical lineman named Roy, whose life changes forever when he witnesses an unidentified flying object while on an emergency call. After his wife (Teri Garr) and kids move out, Roy connects with a single mom whose young son was abducted by a UFO, and the unlikely pair, along with hundreds of others, are drawn to an alien encounter in Devil’s Tower, Wyoming. French film director Francois Truffaut has a cameo as UFO researcher Lacombe.