TV Picks 05.09.2010

SUNDAY, May 9, 8pm

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

ABC Despite having the genetic disorder Prader-Willi syndrome, Ethan Starkweather, 9, of Tulsa, Okla., helps the Make-A-Wish Foundation raise funds for other kids. Now, Ethan and his family get a new house that can accommodate his special needs, thanks to the “Makeover” crew, celebrities, volunteers and builders.


TUESDAY-FRIDAY, May 11-14

Papal Visit to Fatima

EWTN, CATHOLICTV Our Lady said at Fatima in 1917, “I have come to ask the faithful to amend their lives and ask pardon for their sins.” EWTN will air, live, the Pope’s Tuesday arrival (7:45am) and Mass (1:15pm) in Lisbon and his Wednesday meetings (5am) there; his Wednesday vespers (1pm) and blessing of candles and Rosary (4:30pm) in Fatima; his Thursday Mass (5am) and meetings (noon, 1:45pm) in Fatima; and his Friday Mass (5:15am) in Porto and departure (8:30am).

CatholicTV will air the Pope’s Tuesday Mass in Lisbon (8pm), his Wednesday vespers and Rosary in Fatima (8pm), his Thursday Mass (noon, 8pm), and his Friday Mass in Porto (noon, 8pm), plus, at 11am Thursday, Family Theater’s “Our Lady of Fatima.”


WEDNESDAY, May 12, 8pm

Secrets of the Dead: Churchill’s Deadly Decision

PBS On July 3, 1940, British warships, on orders from Winston Churchill, fired on French warships in Mers-el-Kebir in Algeria, destroying a battleship, damaging six more vessels, and killing 1,300 crewmen. France had just surrendered to Hitler, and Churchill did not trust French pledges to keep the ships out of German hands.


THURSDAY, May 13, 9pm

Modern Marvels: Breaking Point

HISTORY This new episode uses ultra slow-motion film to follow stress tests of cars, trucks, crash dummies, bulletproof glass, electric car batteries and more.


SATURDAY, May 15, 4:30pm, live

The Preakness Stakes

NBC Post time will be 6:05pm at Pimlico Race Track in Baltimore for the 135th running of the Preakness, the second leg of thoroughbred horse racing’s Triple Crown.


WEDNESDAYS, May 19 and 26, 9pm

Ground War

PBS This new documentary covers the history of “Warrior Weapons” and “Battlefield Mobility” (9 and 10pm), and, next week, “Firepower” and “Command and Control” (9 and 10pm).


THURSDAY, May 20, 8pm, live

Life on the Rock

EWTN Tonight’s guests are from the Men of St. Joseph, who found parish groups of “everyday Catholic men” who seek “to lead extraordinary spiritual lives” and “surrender our day-to-day problems to God” to become “better fathers, husbands and friends.”

Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.

Pilgrimage to Where the Sun Danced: Fatima, Portugal

Up to half a million people are expected to welcome Pope Benedict XVI at Our Lady of Fatima’s shrine when he visits May 13, the 10th anniversary of the beatification of Francisco and Jacinta Marto, the shepherd children who, along with their cousin, Lucia dos Santos, first saw Our Lady on this date in 1917.