Every week seems to bring fresh evidence that Friday nights have become a graveyard for network shows and a fertile ground for cable series with faithful audiences.

Early this week, Fox pulled the plug on the new comedy “The Return of Jezebel James.” I predicted that the Parker Posey comedy would run about as long as “Party Girl,” the 1996 sitcom adapted from Posey’s independent film. I was wrong. “Party” ran three weeks; “James” got the hook after two.

A quick sitcom autopsy reveals several fatal flaws. Audiences did not warm to its grim and tasteless take on yuppie infertility and mercenary birth surrogates. But the real killer was the use of Posey, best known for her improvisational work in films like “Best in Show,” in a tightly scripted work by “Gilmore Girls” creator Amy Sherman-Palladino. That kind of illogical casting smacks of Hollywood agentry at its worst.

“‘Til Death” was also yanked from the schedule to make way for “Bones” repeats. There’s no word where or when repeats of that sitcom will return. Fox’s long-standing Friday-night disarray does not bode well for the new series “Canterbury’s Law.” It was recently shuffled to Fridays after a weak Monday-night debut. Fans of Julianna Margulies should catch her show while they can. See listings below.

¢ Meanwhile, the folks at Sci Fi are preparing viewers for next week’s return of “Battlestar Galactica,” the acclaimed space opera that has won a large following of fans and critics over its first three seasons. “Battlestar Galactica Revisited” (9 p.m., Sci Fi) will help the casual viewer catch up with the series’ many twists and quirks and set them up for the fourth and final season. I sure hope it helps explain just what the heck happened to Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff). Did she die? Or just take a sabbatical so she could appear on the doomed NBC retread “Bionic Woman”?

“Battlestar Galactica: The Phenomenon” (10:30 p.m., Sci Fi) touts the show’s pop-culture resonance and visits with celebrity fans including actor Seth Green, country star Brad Paisley and “The Soup” host Joel McHale.

¢ Contrast this ballyhoo for a cable series with the silence of the networks. Both “Ghost Whisperer” and “Numbers” return with new episodes next week, and “Moonlight” follows April 11.

Tonight’s other highlights

¢ Orlando Bloom joins the Crusades in the 2005 epic “Kingdom of Heaven” (5 p.m., FX), directed by Ridley Scott (“Gladiator”).

¢ A dance-club bust reveals evidence of a mummy and a meth lab on “Bones” (7 p.m., Fox).

¢ The hungry gang eats a toxic plant with grim results on “Lemur Kingdom” (7:30 p.m., Animal Planet).

¢ Scheduled on “Dateline” (8 p.m., NBC): a two-hour report on a deadly accident with a surprise, bittersweet twist for two grieving families.

¢ Elizabeth faces mounting evidence on “Canterbury’s Law” (8 p.m., Fox).

¢ Scheduled on a two-hour “20/20” (8 p.m., ABC): medical mysteries; young, out-of-control celebrities on drugs.

¢ Helen Mirren and Eric Stoltz star in the 1999 cable drama “The Passion of Ayn Rand” (8 p.m., ION), about the novelist’s affair with a much younger man. Julie Delpy and Peter Fonda also star.