What to Watch for week of October 9 - 15, 2006

Yes? Do tell, 'What About Brian?'

What About Brian: Gale Adler

Monday

SEASON PREMIERE
10-11PM
What About Brian (ABC, TV-14) What about him, indeed. This season premiere finds Marjorie (Sarah Lancaster) and Adam (Matt Davis) about to get hitched, while Brian (Barry Watson, pictured) has skipped town since he made a move on the bride-to-be. That's good for some standard love-triangle tension, but the ho-hum hero is still the weak link. The absurdly appealing Lancaster — and even some of the secondary characters — upstage him at every turn, leaving us asking the titular question, and not in a good way. B- — Jennifer Armstrong

10:30-11AM
The Backyardigans (Nick Jr., TV-Y) To kids, having Alicia Keys do The Backyardigans is like when Carol Burnett played The Muppet Show: Thanks for stopping by, nice lady, but could you move over? You're blocking the action.

NOON-12:30PM
My Block: Chicago (MTV2) Illinois as a hip-hop mecca? Sure, whatev. What do we know? We still miss Kool Moe Dee. And his sunglasses.

8-8:30
Everybody Hates Chris (The CW) Turns out, not everybody liked Chris on Sunday nights. Starting today, most of Sunday's CW lineup moves to Monday. Chris will be followed by reruns of All of Us, Girlfriends and The Game.

8-8:30PM
The Class (CBS, TV-PG-DL) Roseanne's Sara Gilbert guests as someone from Richie's past. Which means creator David Crane (Friends) will probably have to get around to tackling that lack-of-diversity thing next week.

SERIES DEBUT
8-8:30PM
Off the Leash (Lifetime, TV-PG) Inside a pet talent agency. Lifetime, seriously, we need to talk about your brand.

9-10:30PM
Rank (IFC, TV-14) Watch this doc, then ask yourself: What would it take to get you to ride a 2,000-pound bull for eight seconds? We mean sober.

SERIES DEBUT
9-11PM
Engineering an Empire (History, TV-PG) No, don't run. Building aqueducts and pyramids actually sounds very interesting — not to mention educational — and...oh, screw it, run. Run!

10-10:59PM
Studio 60 (NBC, TV-14-D) A sketch is ''inadvertently'' plagiarized. What?! You mean we've heard this navel-gazing-sad-Ivy-League-clown-staccato patter before?? Suddenly I feel so disabused of all my notions.

(Additional reporting by Helin Jung)