TV: Five shows worth watching tonight: November 6
A select viewing guide for Tuesday, November 6
REALITY Extreme Cheapskates (TLC, 7 p.m.) Remember the old adage, “A penny saved is a penny earned”? Recently returned for its second season, this popular series profiles people who go to absurd lengths to save money for themselves and their loved ones. Tonight’s mini-marathon begins by introducing viewers to Kate, whose frightfully frugal lifestyle includes “dumpster diving” all over the streets of New York. Next up is Jeff, who rides his bike everywhere and crashes on couches of friends to save rent money. How does Jeff repay their kindness? By preparing a meal that literally costs penny per serving. Six more episodes follow.
DRAMA The West Wing (CTS, 8 p.m.) Warm up for tonight’s U.S. presidential election results (which won’t be known until roughly 11 p.m. ET) by watching the best TV series ever made about a fictional American president. First broadcast from 1999 to 2006, this series created by Aaron Sorkin cast the reliable Martin Sheen as the idealistic commander-in-chief Josiah Bartlett, whose staff was comprised of like-minded Democrats all trying to do the right thing. In tonight’s third-season episode, Bartlett vetoes his first bill and then tries to contain a pending international crisis when Palestinian terrorists kill two Americans in Israel.
REALITY The Big Decision (CBC, 9 p.m.) When your foundering business needs help, you go to the bank or a rich person. Now in its second season, this series follows Dragon’s Den fixtures Arlene Dickinson and Jim Treliving on their selfless fiduciary rescue missions. The format features either Arlene or Jim going into the books and behind the scenes of two struggling businesses, one of which will be deemed worthy of his financial assistance. In tonight’s new episode, Jim travels to Windsor, Ontario, where the software company Radix Controls is in desperate need of investment to keep its doors open. Next, he’s in St. Thomas, Ontario, where a piglet-birthing farm is still trying to recover and rebuild from a devastating 2007 fire.
REALITY Bering Sea Gold: Under the Ice (Discovery, 10 p.m.) Back tonight for its second season, this series from the U.S. Discovery Channel is filmed near the frigid climes of Nome, Alaska, which is currently experiencing an influx of treasure-seekers unseen seen the days of the Klondike Gold Rush. This time, however, the gold is being dredged from the bottom of the icy Bering Sea. Tonight’s opener introduces the three gold-dredging crews, each bringing different skills and equipment to the search. Headed by Shawn Pomrenke, the Shamrock crew has the best equipment money can buy, but there’s no guarantee it will work in minus-28 degree Celsius waters. The Lazy Gator crew are a shoestring operation using makeshift methods to chop a hole in the ice. And the Clark crew features the father-daughter team of Steve and Emily Riedel. May the best gold-diggers win.Dawson Childers
MOVIE Kiss of Death (TLN, 10 p.m.) Remember the controversy when David Caruso departed the hit TV series NYPD Blue in 1993? At the time, Caruso was castigated in the press for his decision to pursue a film career, which eventually resulted in this 1995 remake of a 1947 film noir. Caruso is very good in the role of Jimmy Kilmartin, an ex-con recently released from prison and trying to keep a promise to his wife Bev (Helen Hunt) to steer clear of crime. All bets are off when Jimmy’s idiot cousin Ronnie (Michael Rappaport) talks him into driving a convoy of stolen cars for the psychotic gang boss Little Junior, played by a pumped-up Nicolas Cage. Of course Jimmy gets caught and his only chance of avoiding a long prison stretch by helping the cop Hart (Samuel L. Jackson) put away Little Junior for good.