As expected, Friday nights have not been hospitable to network shows. I had predicted that it would be a toxic spot for “Touch,” the new-age mystery series scheduled to begin its second season on Oct. 26. Fox has since reconsidered and delayed its debut for the foreseeable future.
NBC has done the same, postponing the season premieres of Friday night comedies “Community” and “Whitney” to an unspecified date.
While Fox and NBC have engaged in strategic retreat, CBS has surrendered on one front. Last week, “Made in Jersey” became the first new show of the fall season to be canceled. This, along with the fact that MTV’s “Jersey Shore” is now in its final season, can only be considered good news for Garden State residents. Helpings of “Undercover Boss” will air in place of “Jersey,” beginning Nov. 2.
• Ryan and Nikita take over Division and try to recruit new rogue agents on the season premiere of “Nikita” (8 p.m., CW). The show is now in its third hyper-violent season on the CW, or as I like to call it, the Island of Misfit Toys.
Halloween-themed shows
• ABC Family unleashes “13 Nights of Halloween” programming, starting tonight with the 1991 adaptation of “The Addams Family” (7 p.m.) and its 1993 sequel, “Addams Family Values” (8 p.m.).
• Parapsychologists use cheesy TV ads to attract business in the 1984 comedy “Ghostbusters” (7 p.m., Encore).
• A distracted novelist (Jack Nicholson) gets a little too caught up in the spirit of a grand hotel in the 1980 horror classic “The Shining” (7 p.m., BBC America).
• A preteen’s troubles turn heads in the 1973 shocker “The Exorcist” (7 p.m., IFC).
• “My Ghost Story: Caught on Camera” (8 p.m., Bio) explores otherworldly wails from an old prison.
• New arrivals to a beach town fall in with vampire delinquents in the 1987 thriller “The Lost Boys” (9 p.m., VH1).
Tonight’s other highlights
• The St. Louis Cardinals host the San Francisco Giants in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series (6:30 p.m., Fox).
• A parasite devours a patient’s face on “Monsters Inside Me” (7 p.m., Animal Planet).
• A wedding day massacre unfolds on “Blue Bloods” (9 p.m., CBS). Music from Green Day will be featured on the show.
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