Thanksgiving Day Leftovers

Actually, it was a fairly mild holiday weekend, in terms of TV watching. For a change, the networks decided to broadcast new episodes of some of their key series ("Ugly Betty," "CSI," "Shark") rather than run repeats, so that was nice.

The big news comes from ABC, which is shelving "The Nine" on Wednesdays in favor of "Prime Time Live" news programs. I was a big fan of the concept of "The Nine" and thought the pilot was terrific, but the writers showed too little of events inside the bank in subsequent weeks, and the characters' lives after the standoff were too soap opera-y to be interesting.

ABC promises it will air the remaining episodes at some point, but this being ABC and all, who knows?

"The Amazing Race," once TV's best reality show, continues to annoy. Please explain to me how it would have been OK for the Alabama moms to yield the beauty queens -- cause them a 30-minute time delay at a certain point in the race -- but then moan and complain incessantly when the beauty queens yielded them instead. I've pretty much hated the moms from the beginning, with their snide comments about handicapped contestant Sarah, so if they actually end up winning the $1 million, it will make the show unwatchable for me.

Well, that or the All-Star edition of "The Amazing Race" that began filming last week. CBS has yet to announce the teams officially, but reports say reality icons Rob and Amber extend their 15 minutes of fame, as well as former champs Uchenna and Joyce and Team Kentucky from the current version. I loathe the All-Star versions of these CBS reality shows, so this may be the first version of the race I don't tune into.

MONDAY'S BEST BET: Loads of good TV tonight, as "Prison Break" (Fox, 8 p.m.) ends its fall run with most of the characters facing various sorts of crises. The good news is that "PB" returns at the end of January, two months earlier than expected.

Fans of "The Bachelor" (ABC, 9 p.m.) get a chance to see who the prince chooses in the season finale. Why anyone cares is beyond me.

Wayne Brady guest stars on "How I Met Your Mother" (CBS, 8 p.m.)

In what could be the key episode of the season, "Heroes" (NBC, 9 p.m.) jumps back in time six months as we see how everyone gets their powers. In addition, Hiro is in a key position to save the waitress he's grown so fond of. Judging by last week's previews, we may also learn the identity of the villain Sylar, and see how close my theory came. This might be a good time for anyone who has heard about the show but missed it to jump in, since Sci-Fi is running a mini-marathon of "Heroes" on Wednesday.

"Comic Relief" returns to the airwaves for the first time in a long time (HBO, 8 p.m.) as original hosts Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg and Billy Crystal return.

For fans of last year's much-loved, but little-seen "Threshold," two unaired episodes are running tonight (Sci-Fi, 11 p.m.) after a couple of reruns.