As the Time Warner Cable and CBS Corp. dispute continues, with about 3 million homes without access to some of television’s most popular shows — like CBS’ Under the Dome and the final season of Showtime’s Dexter — THR has compiled a survival guide, of sorts, to tide viewers over.
1. Watch Big Brother? Try The Challenge: Rivals II.
MTV’s Real World and Road Rules franchises have spawned competition series like The Challenge and The Gauntlet for the past several years, and the latest iteration, The Challenge: Rivals II, continues the trend. The series is complete with physical challenges, social gamesmanship and all-out verbal — and often — physical fights, a more chaotic version of CBS summer staple, Big Brother. (The Challenge: Rivals II airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m.)
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2. Watch The Young and the Restless? Try General Hospital (or any of the other soaps).
The long-running daytime soap won’t be available to roughly 3 million customers as the Time Warner Cable-CBS Corp. dispute continues, but there are other similar offerings at the ready. Veteran soaps like NBC’s Days of Our Lives and ABC’s General Hospital are still running strong, with “new” episodes of The Online Network’s revived All My Children and One Life to Live airing on Oprah Winfrey’s OWN Network every afternoon at 1 p.m. PT/ET. (The episodes are only “new” to OWN.)
3. Watch Dexter? Try Hannibal.
Hannibal, returning for a second season on NBC, is based on characters and story from the Thomas Harris novel Red Dragon. The intense one-hour drama from Pushing Daisies creator Bryan Fuller centers on the complicated dynamic between FBI investigator Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) and Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen), a forensic psychiatrist who becomes Will’s archenemy. (The last three episodes of Hannibal season one is available on Hulu, with the DVD/Blu-ray sets in stores Sept. 24.)
4. Watch Under the Dome? Try Breaking Bad.
If only for Dean Norris, the common thread between the two series. While he plays city councilman “Big Jim” Rennie on Under the Dome, viewers will see Norris’ Breaking Bad alter ego, DEA agent Hank, going after Walter White (Bryan Cranston) after discovering that Walt is drug kingpin Heisenberg. (Breaking Bad is available on Netflix and returns Aug. 11 on AMC for the final episodes of the series.)
