A quick note that the better-than-ever Chuck and the pretty-much-same-as-always Life both return to NBC tonight (if you haven’t already seen them online). See my take on their return engagements here.

This is not The Curious Capitalist, but the Congressional bailout bill has failed and the Dow is fluctuating between 500 and 600 points down. (As I noted in my Tina Fey post below: Sarah Palin, time to suspend your campaign!)

My only insight: the most frightening thing about CNBC’s coverage is that Jim Cramer is calm.

I stuck with straight-ahead news-channel carriage of the debates for my liveblog Friday night, so I didn’t have a chance to check out the broadcast on Al Gore’s Current TV, which included “tweets” from Twitter by Current viewers. But Current PR was helpful enough to send some along:

*McCain was afraid to make eye contact with

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A scad of new and returning programming last night. Were you digging Dexter? Amazed by Race? Bowled over by Britain? Taken by Tim? Supercaliflabbergasted by Californication?

Let’s hope Sarah Palin was watching this one with the sound off too. Tina Fey, playing Palin, and Amy Poehler, playing Katie Couric’s eyelashes, reprised SNL’s satire of the Vice presidential candidate Saturday night, capping off a week of bad media for the nominee.

It wasn’t the show-stopper that Fey’s first Palin skit was, but it …

Debate, schmebate! In really important news, NBC Universal won a preliminary injunction against the Weinstein Company’s moving Project Runway to Lifetime in January. NBC Universal’s statement:

NBC Universal is pleased that the court granted our motion for a preliminary injunction against The Weinstein Company. The overwhelming evidence

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My liveblog (with Swampland’s Karen Tumulty) is not here at Tuned In; it’s at this super-special debate-liveblog page.

Debate starts at 9 p.m. E.T.; see you there.

Lots of TV going down Sunday—more than I can reasonably review here, more than you will probably watch. The rundown:

* Dexter returns to Showtime. I’ve only watched one of several episodes the network sent out, but it fairly quickly involves Dexter—riding high from his escape from being caught for the harbor …

SPOILER ALERT: Before you read this post, mix some lemon juice and cayenne, swallow a tapeworm and watch last night’s The Office.

And thus so is your drink. MSNBC, CNN and Fox News reports that McCain will go to Mississippi.