Ellen Gray: Some of your favorites may end up on pay channels

TORCHWOOD: MIRACLE DAY. 10 p.m. tomorrow, Starz.

MORE THAN ever, we're getting the television we pay for.

If you're lucky enough to share your tastes with tens of millions of viewers - or a significant share of Nielsen households - this probably isn't your headache.

If you're the couch potato equivalent of a picky eater, someone who's used to seeing favorite shows go down in flames on networks that depend on ad revenue, you may now have options.

But they're going to cost you. If you'd like, for instance, to see the next season of "Damages" any time soon, you'll need to sign up for DirecTV, which has taken over the Glenn Close legal thriller that returns next Wednesday on its 101 Network. FX won't be carrying it even on a delayed basis, the way NBC did in the deal that kept the lights on at "Friday Night Lights" for a few extra seasons.

The bill also comes due tomorrow night for fans of "Torchwood," Russell T Davies' splendid, made-for-adults spin-off of the British sci-fi series "Doctor Who."

Though "Torchwood's" first three seasons have appeared in the U.S. on BBC America - the most recent, the five-episode miniseries "Children of Earth," set ratings records for the ad-supported digital channel - its fourth, the 10-episode "Miracle Day," will be presented here on the premium channel Starz.

And if you're thinking of doing an end run around that with your Netflix account, be aware that Starz is now imposing a 90-day delay on streaming its series there.

Even the British will reportedly have to wait nearly a week to see the premiere of "Miracle Day," which explores the consequences of death literally taking a holiday while teleporting the series from its native Wales to the U.S.

Here, "Torchwood" stars John Barrowman and Eve Myles are joined by an American cast that includes Bill Pullman and Mehki Phifer. And Barrowman's character, the seriously immortal and gleefully bisexual Captain Jack Harkness, is about to increase his options, premium-cable style.

It may seem as if nothing says "made in America" quite like putting the fighter pilot president from "Independence Day" and one of the stars of "ER" in your cast. Pfifer's playing a CIA agent, but Pullman's character is a pedophile named Oswald Danes, who, as "Miracle Day" dawns, is marked for execution in the murder of a child.

Without giving too much away, the human race's newfound inability to die sets Danes off on a peculiarly American journey, one that may seem all too familiar to cable-news junkies.