Starz

THE KILLING. 9 p.m. Sunday, AMC. CHAOS. 8 p.m. Friday, CBS3. CAMELOT. 10 p.m. Friday, Starz. SEATTLE HOMICIDE detective Sarah Linden (Mireille Enos) is halfway out the door and on her way to a new life in sunnier climes when a blood-soaked, pink sweater turns up in the city's sprawling Discovery Park. Sarah won't be going anywhere fast and neither will "The Killing," which makes its two-hour premiere Sunday on AMC, home of "Mad Men," "Breaking Bad" and "The Walking Dead.

DR. CONRAD MURRAY , the cardiologist who became Michael Jackson 's personal anesthesiologist and medical yes-man, was convicted yesterday of involuntary manslaughter after less than nine hours of jury deliberation, ending a trial that painted him as a careless caregiver who administered a lethal dose of propofol to the pop star. Members of Michael's family wept quietly after the verdict. Mother Katherine Jackson later told the Associated Press, "I feel better now. " Asked if she was confident in the outcome, she said, "Yes I was. " La Toya Jackson told the AP she was overjoyed.

* SHAMELESS. 9 p.m. Sunday, Showtime.   PASADENA, CALIF. - Emmy Rossum has stopped worrying about looking too good. Three seasons into "Shameless," the Showtime series in which she stars as Fiona Gallagher, a harried twenty-something who's raising her siblings with no help whatsoever from their alcoholic father (William H. Macy), Rossum's found a way to bridge the divide between the polished red-carpet persona that's made her the darling of fashion bloggers and her often disheveled character, whose look she also loves - if only for its ease.

* DA VINCI'S DEMONS. 10 p.m. Friday, Starz.   A FEW EPISODES into "Da Vinci's Demons," Starz's latest foray into the world of historical fantasy, I realized I could either fight the superpower or go with it. And I decided to go with it. Created by David S. Goyer ("Batman Begins," "Man of Steel"), "Da Vinci's Demons," which premieres Friday following the series finale of "Spartacus: War of the Damned," is more than Showtime's "The Borgias" on acid - though it's that, too. A little bit "Sherlock," a little bit "Batman" (but with more nudity than both)

LOS ANGELES - Andy Whitfield, 39, who played the title role in the hit cable series Spartacus: Blood and Sand , died Sunday in Sydney, Australia, 18 months after he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. "On a beautiful sunny Sydney spring morning, surrounded by his family, in the arms of his loving wife, our beautiful young warrior Andy Whitfield lost his 18-month battle with lymphoma cancer," Mr. Whitfield's wife, Vashti, said in a statement. "He passed peacefully surrounded by love.

You won't see a whole lot of home runs, so the game may lag a bit. But you will hear a repeated thwack of wooden bat on ball and be better able to judge the skill of each batter since none will have a $500 aluminum bat to provide an edge. "It's really neat - we're back to old-fashioned baseball," said Jim Tamburro, a coach of the Protocall Starz, a collegiate summer baseball team that often plays at Hartford Crossing, a ballpark in a Medford, Burlington County. "The wooden bats even out the play.

The new Comcast-Spectacor all-sports cable channel rescued the Sixers from their lonely PRISM island yesterday. As reported by the Daily News Friday, the Sixers will join the Flyers and Phillies next season on Comcast SportsNet, as the new basic-cable channel will be known. PRISM, a premium channel, had held the Sixers rights through the 1999-2000 season. As of Sept. 30, PRISM and SportsChannel Philadelphia will shut down. More on that later. To follow the progress of cable sports television in the Philadelphia area, fans need a company lineup: Comcast cable owns the Flyers and Sixers.

Ready, set (as in TV set), binge! If you're the kind of person (and many of us are) who's tempted to do marathon viewing of a favorite show, you might want to rethink your plans for the last week of this month. As long as you're an Xfinity TV customer. Starting March 25, Comcast's Watchathon Week will offer FREE "access to over 3,500 episodes of 100 TV series across 25 premium, cable and broadcast networks," according to a news release. Included: -- "Almost the entire TV libraries of HBO, Showtime, Starz, and Cinemax," including The Sopranos, Sex & the City and The Wire , according to spokeswoman Jennifer Bilotta.

* BOSS. 10 tonight, Starz. * APPROPRIATE ADULT. 10 p.m. tomorrow, Sundance Channel. * STEPHEN KING'S BAG OF BONES. 9 p.m. Sunday and Monday.   HORROR FANS who haven't become jaded by the never-ending bloodbath on FX's "American Horror Story" have probably already marked their calendars for "Stephen King's Bag of Bones," a two-parter that begins Sunday on A&E. But while there are a dependable number of shivers in this latest King adaptation, which stars Pierce Brosnan as a widowed writer who finds himself embroiled in a custody dispute with the usual very dark overtones, it's not even close to being the most terrifying thing you could see on TV this weekend.

NEW YORK - Barnes & Noble Inc. said Thursday that Liberty Media, the conglomerate controlled by John Malone, has dropped its $1 billion bid to buy the bookseller and instead will invest $204 million in the company. In May, Liberty Media Corp. offered to buy all of Barnes & Noble, apparently enticed by the potential of the company's Nook electronic reader. But Barnes & Noble said the takeover talks had been ditched in light of the investment agreement unveiled Thursday. Under the terms of the deal, Liberty Media bought preferred stock convertible into about 12 million Barnes & Noble shares at $17 apiece, giving it about a 17 percent stake in the company.