In the film awards world, I tend to think there’s way too much attention paid to the Oscars and not enough to the Film Independent Spirit Awards (IFC, 10 p.m.).
The 28th annual event will be held this afternoon in a tent on Santa Monica beach, and will be charmingly more laid back and less stuffy than the Oscars (though nobody accused Seth MacFarlane, the Oscars host, as being stuffy). Still, Andy Samberg is a preferable choice for host at the Independent Spirit and generally I like the movies better.
It’s the alternate universe where “Moonrise Kingdom” is tied with “Silver Linings Playbook” for most nominations, and where you will want to have a pen and pad in hand to jot down names of interesting movies you have not heard of that look like prime candidates for your Netflix queue.
Oscars dominate the rest of the night’s programming, from past winner “Dreamgirls” (ABC, 8 p.m.) on network prime time to the behind the scenes look at planning a 20th anniversary Oscar party in “Vanity Fair’s Hollywood” (CBS, 10 p.m.). The historical background stories of some of the nominated films are presented in “Killing Lincoln” (National Geographic Channel, 9 p.m.), “Argo: Inside Story” (Discovery, 10 p.m.) and “Killing Bin Laden” (Discovery, 11 p.m.)
There are a few films on cable that had a Oscar history, including “Finding Nemo” (Starz, 7:15 p.m.), “Schindler’s List” (USA, 8 p.m.), “Juno” (Oxygen, 8 and 10 p.m.) and everything on Turner Classic Movies, in its second night of Columbia Pictures winners and nominees with “On the Waterfront” (8 p.m.), “The Harder They Fall” (10 p.m.), “The Caine Mutiny” (midnight), “Easy Rider” (2:30 a.m.) and “The Last Detail” (4:30 p.m.).
There are movies on that didn’t win Oscars but maybe should have, from “The Shawshank Redemption” (AMC, 6 and 9 p.m.) and “Animal House” (Encore, 8 p.m.) to “Shrek Forever After” (Fox Movie Channel, 7 and 9 p.m.). “War of the Worlds” (TNT, 8 and 10:30 p.m.) was nominated in technical categories but didn’t win.
But there are a lot of movies on that clearly didn’t have any Oscar ambitions: “Transporter 3” (IFC, 7:45 p.m.), “Rock Star” (TV Guide Network, 8 p.m.), “Coming to America” (Comedy Central, 8 p.m.), “Bad Boys II” (Bravo, 8 p.m.), “Malibu’s Most Wanted” (VH1, 9 p.m.) and “Burlesque” (ABC Family, 9:30 p.m.).
There are a couple new original TV movies. “Cold Spring” (Lifetime, 8 p.m.) with Natasha Henstridge and Sean Patrick Flanery, seems like another variation on “Fatal Attraction” — the kind of thing that the is the stock in trade of series like “Unfaithful: Stories of Betrayal” (OWN, 10 p.m.) or “Scorned: Love Kills” (Investigation Discovery, 10 p.m.).
And who can save the planet with their arcane expertise? Two video store clerks who specialize in disaster movies of course, according to the TV movie “End of the World” (Syfy, 9 p.m.) with Greg Grunberg and Brad Dourif.
“Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best?” (WEtv, 9 p.m.) returns for a third season.
Who has better accents? “Flipping Boston” (A&E, 10 p.m.) or “Southie Rules” (A&E, 11 and 11:30 p.m.)?
An anarchist is killed in a dock strike on a new “Ripper Street” (BBC America, 9 p.m.).
Jeremy Renner, Gemma Arterton, Matt Lucas and Rita Ora are among the guests on a new “Graham Norton Show” (BBC America, 10:15 p.m.).
Sting, Janelle Monae and Wyclef Jean join the host for “Stevie Wonder with Friends: Celebrating a Message of Peace” (Centric, 9 p.m.) from the United Nations in October.
Oh yes: There’s spring baseball on TV: Nationals vs. Mets (MLB noon).
Mostly, though, it’s men’s college basketball, with Iona at Indiana State (ESPNU, 11 a.m.), Clemson at Maryland (ESPN2, noon), Eastern Kentucky at Valparaiso (ESPNU, 1 p.m.), South Carolina at Georgia (CBS, 2 p.m.), Oklahoma State at West Virginia (ESPN2, 2 p.m.), Virginia Commonwealth at Xavier (CBS Sports, 2 p.m.), Montana at Davidson (ESPNU, 3 p.m.), Georgetown at Syracuse (CBS, 4 p.m.), North Carolina State at North Carolina (ESPN, 4 p.m.), Detroit at Wichita State (ESPN2, 4 p.m.), New Mexico at Colorado State (NBC Sports, 4 p.m.), Baylor at Oklahoma (ESPNU, 5 p.m.), Creighton at St. Mary’s, Calif. (ESPN, 6 p.m.), Marquette at Villanova (ESPN2, 6 p.m.), Nevada at San Diego State (NBC Sports, 6 p.m.), Arkansas at Florida (ESPNU, 7 p.m.), South Dakota State at Murray State (ESPN2, 8 p.m.), Harvard at Yale (CBS Sports, 8 p.m.), Missouri at Kentucky (ESPN, 9 p.m.), Providence at Rutgers (ESPNU, 9 p.m.), Ohio at Belmont (ESPN2, 10 p.m.) and Washington at Arizona State (ESPNU, 11 p.m.).
Esperanza Spalding plays a new “Austin City Limits” (PBS, 9 p.m., check local listings).
The Martin Short-hosted “Saturday Night Live” (NBC, 11:30 p.m.) with Paul McCartney is rerun. But they’re also putting on one of those one-hour cutdowns of last week’s pretty strong episode with Christoph Waltz at 10.