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THURSDAY

Road to the Final Four (CBS, 7:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m., EST): Coverage of the National Collegiate Athletic Association Basketball Championship continues with a semifinal doubleheader. Please check local listings for the regional games being carried in your area.

FRIDAY

Road to the Final Four (CBS, 7:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m., EST): Regional semifinal doubleheader.

Firing Line (PBS, 9-11 p.m.): This debate format is inherently volatile enough, but the rhetorical fires are especially well-fed by this edition: ''Resolved: We're Suing Ourselves to Death,'' taped at New York City's Fordham Law School.

And when you line up debaters like ''Firing Line'' founder and host William F. Buckley Jr., captain of the affirmative team, and famed lawyer Alan Dershowitz, captain of the opposing team, you get a evening of polemics that is truly incendiary -- not to mention entertaining and even enlightening (well, some of the time).

Inevitably, the recent case is invoked of the woman who won $2.7 million from McDonald's because the coffee she spilled on herself was too hot.

But invoked, too, is the specter of big business getting away with murder, metaphorically speaking.

Nor is the subject's seriousness overlooked in the interest of fancy pointmaking (well, not most of the time). Mr. Dershowitz especially brings a passion to his arguments that reflects the human pain and conflict involved in the issue, as well as displaying a bit of his famous courtroom prowess.

Buckley is the only non-lawyer in the debate, but -- if any assurances are needed -- he makes out just fine.

SATURDAY

Road to the Final Four

(CBS, 12:30-3:30 p.m., EST): Division II Men's Championship.

(CBS 3:30-8 p.m., EST): Regional final doubleheader.

SUNDAY

Road to the Final Four

(CBS, 2:30-7 p.m., EST): Regional final doubleheader.

Please check local listings for these programs.