Today's all-day action begins at 12:15 p.m. ET, on CBS, with West teams Ohio State (seeded No. 2) and Iowa State (seeded No. 10) taking the court. Two top-seeded teams play today, also on CBS, but they're not playing each other. Those perennial fan favorites, the Indiana Hoosiers (seeded No. 1 in the East), face No. 9 Temple at 2:45 p.m. ET, after which Kansas (No. 1 in the South) plays North Carolina (No. 5) at 5:15 pm. ET. Other games include two featuring scrappy underdogs. In the West, Old Miss (seeded No. 12) and La Salle (No. 13), having upset higher-ranked teams in the previous round (No. 5 Wisconsin and No. 4 Kansas State, respectively), do battle against each other, at 7:40 p.m. ET on TruTV. And finally, Florida Gulf Coast, the lowest-seeded team still alive in this year's tournament (it's No. 15 in the South bracket), tries to continue its good fortune after toppling No. 2 Georgetown. At 7:10 p.m. ET on TBS, it faces San Diego State, ranked No. 7.
PBS, 8:00 p.m. ET
Tonight’s Live from Lincoln Center outing has singer and actress Kristin Chenoweth taking on not only a bunch of songs, but trying on a bunch of different roles, as she digs deeply into her suitcase (literally) to affix herself with props and bits of costume (a shawl here, some eyeglasses there) to embody, as she explains, “the dames of Broadway… all of them!” Check local listings.
CBS, 9:00 p.m. ET
Matthew Perry, who has a recurring role on this series, returns tonight, in an episode that also features other guest stars, including John Noble, late of Fringe. Perry’s character has risen through the ranks to play the most prominent political opponent for Peter (Chris Noth), whose estranged wife (well, not so estranged at all, these days), Alicia, is this series’ central role, played so well by Julianna Margulies.
AMC, 9:00 p.m. ET
Last week’s episode ended with Andrea (Laurie Holden) recaptured by the Governor just before reaching safety and rejoining her old gang at the prison. That show’s final image was of Andrea in the Governor’s home-made torture chamber, bound and gagged. This is the penultimate episode of Season 3, so the tension is high, the plots are boiling – and almost every character on this show really is at risk. So, in essence: Not to be missed.
HBO, 9:00 p.m. ET
Al Pacino and Helen Mirren star in this compelling, if slippery, HBO Films production, which uses the impending trial of Phil Spector (accused of murdering an actress in his home by putting a gun in her mouth; he pled not guilty) as a launching point for an intense, and intimate, character study. Pacino goes from rant to rant, and wig to wig, as the former “wall of sound” music producer, while Mirren matches his fury with her calm as his attorney. For full reviews of this telemovie, see Ed Bark’s
Uncle Barky’s Bytes, and read and/or hear my own review on NPR’s
Fresh Air with Terry Gross.