Nothing enhances a cable reality show like a reality star, particularly one from a more popular network show. Look for former “Bachelor” contestant Bob Guiney on the real-estate series “Date My House” (7:30 p.m., today, TLC).

Give “Date” credit for acknowledging the harsh reality of the current real-estate market. Guiney encourages frustrated buyers to treat their house sale as they would a courtship. You can’t just put up a sign and say, “I’m available.” You have to refine your arts of seduction.

Expert decorator Nadia Geller comes in to declutter and accentuate the positive. Then Guiney arranges for the owner to throw a party and invite would-be buyers. After lubricating everybody with drinks and snacks, he allows one interested couple to move in for a few nights, make dinner and even have people over. But will they respect the place in the morning? They learn to like the backyard pool but find themselves turned off by the nearby highway noise.

We learn quickly that not every “Date” will make for a love connection. And with its emphasis on pre-mortgage cohabitation, a better name for this show might be “Shacking Up.”

¢ Tom Brokaw hosts “King” (7 p.m., Sunday, History), a documentary profile of the civil-rights leader, rich in archival footage of King and new interviews with King’s son, Martin Luther King III, and his colleagues, as well as observations from contemporary figures including singer Bono, Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Raised in Birmingham, Ala., during the civil-rights struggles, Rice was a kindergarten classmate of one of the four students killed in a church bombing in 1963.

As with the James Brown documentary, “King” shows how the relatively new medium of television was essential to the civil-rights movement. It was hard to ignore the crude injustices of segregation when they were shown in your living room night after night.

But it’s difficult to watch “King” and not notice that two major aspects of his message have disappeared from television. King’s philosophy, rhetoric and affiliations were deeply rooted in religion. And his brand of progressive faith is almost never reflected on television today.

But King’s focus on the poor and economic inequality is most out of sync with our contemporary media reality. It is difficult to imagine any public figure or celebrity today spending the final days of his life helping out a group of sanitation workers, or spending his final moments on the balcony of a budget motel, as King did in April 1968. The poor were at the core of his message, but they have become all but invisible in a TV culture that has become pathological in its celebration of wealth.

Today’s highlights

¢ Gwen uncovers the agency’s darker side on “Torchwood” (8 p.m., BBC America).

¢ Christopher Walken hosts “Saturday Night Live” (10:30 p.m., NBC), featuring musical guest Panic! At the Disco.

Sunday’s highlights

¢ Scheduled on “60 Minutes” (6 p.m., CBS): Douglas Feith, a Bush insider, discusses the road to the Iraq war; NASA’s post-shuttle plans; China’s influential investments.

¢ A very cold wedding shower is reconsidered on “Cold Case” (8 p.m., CBS).