BY CLIF GARBODEN

THURSDAY

7:00 (12) Basketball. NCAA regional semifinal action. Two games.

7:30 (2) Basic Black: Ruth Batson: An Activist’s Life. Roxbury’s Ruth Batson (who died last year, at age 82) devoted her life to education and children’s advocacy and played a major role in securing educational equality for African-Americans in Boston’s schools. This edition of Basic Black looks back at her long and productive life. (Until 8 p.m.)

8:00 (2) Conquistadors with Michael Wood: The Conquest of the Incas. What seems like ages ago (before fundraising), they started showing this Michael Wood series on the Spanish conquest of the Americas. Tonight’s featured genocidal maniac is Francisco Pizarro, who defeated the Incas. (Until 9 p.m.)

9:00 (6) World Figure Skating Championships. From Dortmund, Germany, the men’s final and perhaps the pairs as well. Don’t look for the US to win anything. More on Saturday. (Until 11 p.m.)

10:00 (2) The Journey of Sacagawea. She walked with Lewis and Clark. Her image is on that one-dollar coin that you mistake for a quarter. This is her story. (Until 11 p.m.)

FRIDAY

7:00 (12) Basketball. An NCAA regional semifinal doubleheader.

9:30 (2) Viewer Favorites. The funny thing about pledge month (seems longer than a month, doesn’t it?) is that Channels 2 and 44 show all kinds of lowbrow junk in hope of attracting new viewers to send cash, but there’s one PBS mainstay that’s conspicuously missing from the schedule. Yes, our favorite show of all time (and one that seems to air at least 50 times a year), Fiesta in the Sky, that classic look at a hot-air balloon festival in the Southwest. So if this is " viewer favorite " time, let’s drag that tape out of the closet and show it all day. Up, up, and away! Since the thing is unwatchably boring, people will have more time to phone in pledges. (Until 12:30 a.m.)

10:00 (44) Coupling, " The Girl with Two Breasts. " In which Jeff falls for a non-English-speaking woman at the pub and confuses the Hebrew word for breasts with her name. As always, this is far funnier than it sounds. (Until 10:30 p.m.)

SATURDAY

11:00 a.m. (2) Dale Evans Remembered. Okay, right off: we’re kidding about this — it’s another block of unscheduled " viewer favorites " from the recent fundraising debacle. We figure the caution is in order because an actual Dale Evans retrospective would probably draw a pretty big audience of WGBH contributors. (Until 4 p.m.)

Noon (44) Clarence Evans Forgotten. Even we forget who he was — unless he’s the one who played the transgender lead in the touring company of The Roar of the Lunch Room, the Smell of the Chow? This gaping time slot, we do know for certain, is being used for more of those famous " viewer favorites. " (Until midnight.)

1:00 (12) Basketball. The men’s championship game from NCAA Division 1A.

4:30 (12) Basketball. An NCAA regional-final doubleheader.

7:00 (2) Antiques Roadshow Baghdad. Host Dan Elias sets up camp in a limited no-fly zone on the edge of town and welcomes a parade of locals bearing souvenirs of Gulf War I. Highlights include an unexploded bomb, a bucket of depleted-uranium residue, a map to a cluster of remote unmarked graves, hand-painted shell-casing Christmas-tree ornaments, and a human skull. Or, this might be just more " viewer favorites. " (Until midnight.)

8:00 (6) World Figure Skating Championships. The ladies’ final, in which US skaters Michelle Kwan and Sasha Cohen figure to wind up somewhere on the podium. (Until 11 p.m.)

8:00 (7) A Knight’s Tale (movie). A Chaucerian-derived plot with a Chaucer character written in. Same old story: knight dies, squire takes up his arms, falls in love, isn’t really a knight, etc. And it’s all played (rather unsuccessfully) for laughs and set to the music of Queen. The result is a sort of a cross-influenced, cross-generational, cross-genre cross-to-bear starring Heath Ledger as the squire-turned-jouster and Rufus Sewell as his evil nemesis. (Until 11 p.m.)

SUNDAY

Noon (12) Glory in Black and White. Just to get you in the mood, we have a recap of the 1966 NCAA basketball championship, in which Texas Western (black) beat Kentucky (white). (Until 1:30 p.m.)

2:30 (12) Basketball. Another NCAA regional-final championship doubleheader.

Noon (44) Once the Best of Friends. Hap and Hal, two lovable (if intolerably smelly) black rhinos, face extinction with dignity and provide insight into mankind’s disrespect for the natural world in this animated special from the producers of 1996’s Death of a Bunny Wabbit. But it’s probably going to be worse than that — you guessed it, more " viewer favorites. " (Until midnight.)

1:00 (6) Basketball. The Dallas Mavericks versus the Orlando Magic.

9:00 (12) Jesus (movie). But without all the blood. A 1999 TV-movie starring Jeremy Sisto as Our Lord and Saviour and the Son of God and Jacqueline Bisset as Mary. Not sure whether his part passes Mel Gibson’s muster, but Gary Oldman seems like a pretty good Pilate to us. Casting Debra Messing as Mary Magdalene, on the other hand . . . (Until 11 p.m.)

MONDAY

8:00 (6) The Haunting (movie). A 1999 spend-a-night-(or more)-in-a-haunted-house yarn starring Lili Taylor, Liam Neeson, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Bruce Dern, and Owen Wilson. (Until 10 p.m.)

8:00 (44) Globe Trekker: Vienna City Guide. Trekker Ian Wright lounges in Freud’s waiting room, visits a former concentration camp with some of its survivors, and hears a little Mozart in Salzburg. (Until 9 p.m.)

9:00 (2) The New Americans, part one. This seven-hour documentary follows new immigrants to the US as they move out of their respective Old Countries and into ours. The first installment follows the fortunes of Nigerian refugees in Chicago, Dominican baseball players at Dodgers’ spring training, and a Palestinian woman engaged to an Palestinian-American. More episodes on Tuesday and Wednesday. To be repeated tonight at 12:30 a.m. (Until 11 p.m.)

10:00 (44) A Brief Flight: Hazel Ying Lee and the Women Who Flew Pursuit. " The story of the first Chinese-American to join the Women Air Force Service Pilots. " If you’re not a white male and you did something first, sooner or later, PBS will find you. (Until 11 p.m.)

TUESDAY

7:30 (2) La Plaza: Blind and On Her Own. Speaking of immigrants: this week’s La Plaza profiles blind Panamanian sisters who moved to Boston to study. (Until 8 p.m.)

8:00 (2) Nova: Hunt for the Supertwister. If you see the cow twice, you’re in trouble. Real storm-chaser scenes of violent weather tearing through the Midwest and seeking revenge on every state that went for Bush in 2000. (Until 9 p.m.)

9:00 (2) The New Americans, part two. Tonight’s theme is culture shock. America, wrongheaded and weird as it often may be, is considerably plusher than a lot of the places people are leaving. Tonight’s show focuses on a Mexican meatpacker struggling to bring his family to his new home in Kansas. One more episode — on Wednesday. To be repeated tonight at 12:30 a.m. (Until 11 p.m.)

9:00 (44) Indie Select: If Women Ruled the World. Modern women’s-movement pioneers Betty Friedan, Sandra Day O’Connor, and others (but probably not Hazel Ying Lee) share their views and experiences. (Until 11 p.m.)

WEDNESDAY

8:00 (2) National Geographic: Whales in Crisis. The poor whales. It’s not their fault their plight has become a caricature cause. A look at the folks who go way beyond bumper stickers and devote their lives to preserving our waters’ surviving whale populations. To be repeated at 4 a.m., and on Channel 44 at 1 a.m. (Until 9 p.m.)

8:00 (44) Rosemary Clooney: Girl Singer. The late, great female vocalist profiled through family interviews and 1950s TV clips. (Until 9 p.m.)

9:00 (2) The New Americans, part three. Tonight we meet an Indian computer programmer who ventures into Silicon Valley. We also wrap up the odysseys of all the other migrators featured in the series. Not repeated later tonight for some reason. (Until midnight.)

9:00 (44) American Masters: Joni Mitchell: Woman of Heart and Mind. It’s a given that Joni’s better than the rest, so she’s never included in people’s Top 10 lists. A portrait of an innovator. To be repeated tonight at 1:30 a.m. on Channel 2. (Until 10:30 p.m.)

10:30 (44) Sing! An Oscar-nominated documentary about the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus. (Until 11 p.m.)

THURSDAY

7:30 (2) Basic Black: A Reporter’s Notebook. An interview with CBS News’ Byron Pitts. (Until 8 p.m.)

8:00 (2) Conquistadors with Michael Wood: In Search of El Dorado. Historian Michael Woods continues his history of the Spanish invasion of the Americas with a look at the explorers’ relentless quest for gold. (Until 9 p.m.)

9:00 (2) Frontline: Ghosts of Rwanda. A 10th-anniversary show recalling the 1994 genocide atrocities in Rwanda — as horrible as anything that happened in the 20th century (and that’s some stiff competition). To be repeated tonight at 1 and 4 a.m. on Channel 44. (Until 11 p.m.)