THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9

SERIES PREMIERE

"NIKITA" - (9:00-10:00 p.m. ET)

"Pilot" (TV-14) (HDTV)

SERIES PREMIERE OF THE NEW ACTION DRAMA STARRING MAGGIE Q AS NIKITA - When she was a deeply troubled teenager, Nikita (Maggie Q, "Mission Impossible III") was rescued from death row by a secret U.S. agency known only as Division, who trained her as a spy and assassin. Nikita was eventually betrayed by the only people she thought she could trust. Now, after three years in hiding, Nikita is seeking retribution and making it clear to her former boss, Percy (Xander Berkeley, "24") and her former friends Michael (Shane West, "E.R.") and Birkhoff (Aaron Stanford, "X-Men: The Last Stand) that she will stop at nothing to expose and destroy their covert operation. Division continues to recruit and train other young people, among them Jaden (Tiffany Hines, "Bones") and Thom (Ashton Holmes, "Boston Legal"), erasing all evidence of their former lives and turning them into cold and efficient killers. One of these new recruits, Alex (Lyndsy Fonseca, "Kick-Ass") is a beautiful girl with a violent past and a story not so different from Nikita's. The recruits all spend part of their training with Amanda (Melinda Clarke, "The O.C."), a master manipulator who can turn any ugly duckling into a swan and any bleeding heart into a killer. Danny Cannon directed the pilot written by Craig Silverstein.