Tonight is the night that NBC has been waiting for: the gold medal showdown in ladies' figure skating. American Sasha Cohen enters tonight's free skate on top, but by only .06 of a point over Russian Irinia Slutskaya. Expect to stay up until midnight for the outcome of that competition (or you can get the results from any news website).

Also tonight, to fill the time between figure skating competitors, the women snowboarders compete in the parallel giant slalom. Curling, hockey, bobsledding and marathon speed skating are also on the schedule:

While NBC is focusing on speed skating and alpine skiing today, the real action is on its other networks, MSNBC and USA, where you can watch live hockey games all day long. The American men will play Finland in the quarterfinals at 11:30 this morning. Also, the American men's curling team is in the semifinal game against Canada. It airs on CNBC at 5 pm.

No figure skating tonight but the ladies will be back Thursday to determine the gold.

Here's the schedule:

The event that usually garners the most talk is women's figure skating, and it begins tonight with the short program. With Michelle Kwan out of the competition due to injuries, American skater Sasha Cohen gets the spotlight. And, Emily Hughes, the younger sister of 2002 Olympic gold medal figure skater Sarah Hughes, will also hit the ice. No pressure, Emily. Despite all the excitement over Sasha's modeling contracts and Emily's famous sister, Russian skater Irina Slutskaya is still favored for gold.

Also on the ice tonight, speed skaters Chad Hedrick, Shani Davis, Joey Cheek and Derek Parra race each other in the 1500m. Hedrick, Davis, and Cheek have all won gold medals so far in these games.

Here's the schedule on all of NBC's networks:

Three nights of ice dancing? No wonder ratings are down for the Olympics. Tonight promises to be the final night of ice dancing, with the free skate. Americans Tanith Belbin and and Ben Agosto are in second place, thanks to some falls by the top teams yesterday.

Big-mouthed Bode Miller is back on the slopes, this time in the Giant Slalom. The real talent here, still flying under the radar even after winning a gold medal, is Park City's Ted Ligety. And a cool spectacle tonight will be the men's aerials ski competition.

And, after all these days of hockey, the women of Canada and Sweden will play each other for the gold.

Here's the schedule on all of NBC's networks:

Ice skating returns to NBC primetime tonight with the finals in the ice dancing competition where an American team is in contention for a medal. But, the real interesting action on the ice is over at the speed skating track. Americans Chris Witty and Jennifer Rodriguez are both going for the gold in the 1000m. Expect to see and hear a lot about Witty from NBC tonight. She has overcome some pretty intense personal problems since winning gold in Salt Lake City.

Also tonight, the women's freestyle aerials competition, and the two-man bobsled. Here is the schedule for all of NBC's stations:

Michelle Kwan, you just gave up your Olympic dream. What are you going to do next? After Michelle dropped out of the Olympics this week (because of strained muscles), she turned down NBC's offer to stick around as a commentator, but she accepted Disney's multi-year offer to be its spokesperson. 25-year-old Michelle will appear in Disney television and print ads and will even be included in some original programming, though it's not clear what that entails. I didn't realize this, but Michelle Kwan has a history with Disney which includes a series of fictional books called, Michelle Kwan Presents Skating Dreams.

Thankfully, we're getting a break from all forms of figure skating. Daytime events include women's Cross Country, men's and women's Biathlon, and a live match of hockey where the USA men take on Slovakia. Seriously consider catching a curling match on USA when the American men take on Germany.

Primetime coverage is where all the excitement is supposed to be. American speed skaters Chad Hedrick and Joey Cheek each have a gold medal and tonight they'll race each other, plus American Shani Davis, for another one in the 1000m. Apolo Anton Ohno also is in that is in a separate race. Skiers Bode Miller and Daron Rahlves hit the slopes in pursuit of that elusive gold medal.

Here's the schedule on all of NBC's networks:

Oh joy. Ice dancing begins tonight on NBC. That's one event that I just can't watch because it looks too much like high-school-drama-club-on-ice to me. They can't jump or do lifts, so they wear weird costumes and look longingly into each other's eyes. This is much more of an artistic event than a sport. Why is this still in the Olympics?

If you can stomach the ice dancing, there are some other interesting events on television tonight, including the premiere of women's snowboardcross. I saw the men's race last night and it was pretty darn cool. It's like motorcross on snow. Once again, the American women are the favorites.

As usual, there is plenty of hockey and curling on NBC's other stations:

The Olympics is usually a ratings juggernaut for NBC, but not this year. Since the Winter Olympics began a week ago, the games have been clobbered by new episodes of Grey's Anatomy, American Idol and Lost. In fact, the ratings have dropped every night since Opening Ceremonies and Olympics viewership is down 36% since Salt Lake City in 2002.

Hmmm. CSI or Men's Figure Skating gold medal finals? Russian favorite, and Tom Jones fan, Yevgeny Plushenko is the leader after the short program and he goes into tonight's competition with the expectation that he will win.

A lot of people will probably put up with the figure skating in order to watch a new event in this year's Olympic games, the Snowboarding Cross. Think of it as Freestyle Skiing, but on a snowboard. Snowboarders will have to navigate a course against a clock, but also pull some nifty maneuvers out to impress the judges. American men and women are favored in these races.

If none of that interests you, MSNBC has hockey all day long:

One of the athletes to watch tonight is not an American. It's Croatian Alpine Skier Janica Kostelic, who won four gold medals in her sport in Salt Lake City. Her brother, Ivica, won the silver medal in the slalom last night. Americans Julie Mancuso and Lindsey Kildow, who was injured during a training run earlier this week, are also in medal contention.

There are some Americans to watch, too. Apolo Anton Ohno races in the 1000m speed skate and hopefully he'll be able to stay on his feet for this one. Also, gorgeous Jeremy Bloom (seriously, girls, look at him) competes in the moguls.

Here's tonight's line-up on all of NBC's stations:

That's right, sports fans. We're already on day five of the Olympics. Tonight on NBC, the men take to the ice. You've got to check out Russian skater Yevgeny Plushenko just for his inflated ego. With his quadruple jump combinations, the guy comes in as a top contender for a gold medal. He is also the star of the Sex Bomb exhibition where he skates in a flesh-colored costume and dances to Tom Jones. I kid you not.

Also tonight, overexposed American skier Bode Miller is back on the slopes in the men's combined downhill and slalom. Hopefully he got to bed early last night.

Here's the schedule on all NBC stations:

The Russians are well on their way to winning a gold medal in pairs figure skating tonight. After a flawless short program, Totmiyanina and Marinin enter tonight's long program almost four full points ahead of the next team. Also tonight is the women's halfpipe snowboarding competition. The U.S. men already claimed a gold last night, thanks to an awesome run by Shaun White. Tonight, Americans Gretchen Bleiler, Hannah Teter and 2002 gold medalist Kelly Clark all have a good chance at getting on the podium. Also tonight, more speed skating as American Casey FitzRandolph races in the 500m, for which he won gold in Salt Lake City. And the American women and men each take on Norway in curling.

Here's tonight's schedule on all of NBC's networks:

Some big names in competition today. On the slopes, Americans Bode Miller and Daron Rahlves hope they can hold back Austrian hot shot Alpine Skier Hermann Maier, who is on a mission to win since he missed the Salt Lake City games due to a motorcycle accident. Seattle native Apolo Anton Ohno (and his soul patch) go for the gold in the same race that caused controversy in SLC when he won after a South Korean speed skater was disqualified for interfering with Ohno during the race. But, the real spectacle of the night will hopefully be top-rated, red-haired, American snowboarder Shaun White, a.k.a. The Flying Tomato, as he goes for the gold on the half-pipe.

Here's today's Olympic schedule:

Most of the action today is going to be on the ice, in the form of figure skating and speed skating. Figure skating pairs begin competition with the short program. Expect to hear a lot from the commentators about how the judging has changed since Salt Lake, when Canadian and Russian pairs ended up sharing the gold medal. Also today, Chad Hedrick begins his quest for five gold medals in speed skating. Plus, the Americans face the very strong Chinese women in freestyle skiing. All the high profile events will air during NBC primetime.

Here's the schedule: