Laurel’s TV Picks

Best Bets

New Eureka (Sci-Fi, 8pm and 11pm)
New Damages (FX, 9pm, 10pm, midnight; also on Wednesday at 10pm)
Alan Greenspan on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (Comedy Central, 10pm and midnight)
Susan Sarandon on The Colbert Report (Comedy Central, 10:30pm and 12:30am)
Jeff Goldblum, Paul Haggis, Mandy Moore on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (CBS, 11:37pm)

News & Notes

You can download some NBC pilot episodes from Amazon Unbox. In case you can’t wait for their debuts to see them.

Daytime picks for today are in the last section of my picks for yesterday.

In recent weeks, picks have been up at/by 5am; I may start posting them closer to midnight as the weeks go on– we’ll see how it goes.

Primetime Grid

Primetime

Season premiere of Beauty and the Geek (CW, 7pm – 9pm; airs again on Thursday). This time they’re shaking the formula up a little bit by adding a geeky girl and a hot guy to the show. Huh.

Jenn begins a new job at a local clinic, Lund’s estranged daughter comes to town, a house party gets out of control (’cuz that’s always what happens on TV) on a new episode of Lincoln Heights (ABC Family, 7pm and 11pm).

An alien (or something) is using people to have sex and this is most definitely not a good thing in the second ever episode of Torchwood (BBC America, 7pm and 10pm).

Gwen: “So what’s this supposed to do?”
Jack: “I’m using satellite tracking data to determine the intra-trajectory of the meteorite.”
Tosh: “He means he’s trying to find out where it’s come from.”
Jack: “Hey! Sometimes a little technobabble is good for the soul!”
  from Torchwood

Rerun of the last season’s finale of House (FOX, 7pm). I’ve seen the first two episodes of the new season and they’re great; the season premiere airs next Tuesday.

Wilson: “You are not good with change.”
House: “That used to be true, but I changed.”
  from House

Lots of people end up very strongly attracted to Sheriff Carter in a new episode of Eureka (Sci-Fi, 8pm and 11pm). Lemme guess: another experiment gone wrong? Or someone is experimenting on the sly? That sure happens a lot and yet I still really like this show. It’s fun!

Elizabeth Vargas hosts Elvis: Viva Las Vegas (ABC, 8pm – 10pm). This show will “examine how the King of Rock-and-Roll reinvented Las Vegas– and how it reinvented him.” There’ll be clips of Elvis, of course. And an interview with Priscilla Presley. Plus performances by and/or interviews with 50 Cent, Beyonce, Daughtry, Celine Dion, Faith Hill, Norah Jones and The Little Willies, Miranda Lambert, Paul McCartney, Willie Nelson, Patti Scialfa, Three-6-Mafia, Toby Keith, Joe Perry, Nancy Sinatra, and Chris Isaak.

Rebroadcast of the series premiere of K-Ville (FOX, 8pm). In case you missed it last night and want to see it. I blathered about it in yesterday’s picks.

Glenn Close stars in a new episode of Damages (FX, 9pm, 10pm, midnight; also on Wednesday at 10pm). I’m still hooked on this very dark and intense show. Don’t jump into it if you haven’t been watching, this is one you really have to see in order from the beginning. Glenn Close, Tate Donovan, Ted Danson, Zeljko Ivanek, and Rose Byrne star in this legal drama. There are five episodes left for this season after this one, no word yet on if there’ll be another season– I’m hoping this show was meant to just go thirteen episodes and wrap up because if it drags on too long, it really won’t work.

Donovan McNabb, survivors of the 1972 crash of a plane carrying Uruguay’s rugby team, and a look at “the extreme lives and deaths of professional wrestlers” on Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel (HBO, 9pm; with additional airings this week).

New episodes of Tori & Dean: Inn Love (Oxygen, 9pm, 9:30pm), L.A. Ink (A&E, 9pm, 10pm), and Flipping Out (Bravo, 9pm, 10pm, 1am).

Rebroadcast of the latest episode of Weeds (Showtime, 9pm, 9:30pm).

The team is forced to take polygraph tests, Tony has a run-in with some bad people while at the hospital visiting his girlfriend in this rerun of last season’s finale of NCIS (CBS, 9pm).

Gibbs: “Why are you torturing McGee?”
Abby: “I’m not, I’m prepping him for his polygraph test on Monday.”
  from NCIS

Rerun of last season’s finale of Law & Order: SVU (NBC, 9pm). All sorts of family business ends up part of this episode as the season wrapped up. Guest stars include: Adam Beach, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Steven Weber, Vincent Spano, Lisa Gay Hamilton, John Schuck, and Judith Light. Star Jones Reynolds and Nancy Grace appear as themselves.

Late Night:

Alan Greenspan on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (Comedy Central, 10pm and midnight).

Susan Sarandon on The Colbert Report (Comedy Central, 10:30pm and 12:30am).

Tina Fey, Venus Williams, Steve Earle on a rerun of The Late Show with David Letterman (CBS, 10:35pm).

Jamie Foxx, Tim Gunn, Paolo Nutini on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (NBC, 10:35pm).

Kelsey Grammer, Aries Spears, James Blunt on Late Night with Conan O’Brien (NBC, 11:37pm).

Jeff Goldblum, Paul Haggis, Mandy Moore on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (CBS, 11:37pm).

Amy Brenneman, Tom Ruprecht, Harry Shearer on Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC, check your local listings).

Bill Bellamy, Hellogoodbye on Last Call with Carson Daly (NBC, check your local listings).

Wednesday Daytime

Jessica Alba, Jeff Probst, Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds on Live with Regis and Kelly (syndicated, check your local listings).

Gloria Estefan on The View (ABC, check your local listings).

Brad Garrett, competitors from Kid Nation, Amy Schumer on The Ellen DeGeneres Show (syndicated, check your local listings).

Justin Timberlake, Reba McEntire, and Kelly Clarkson on Oprah (syndicated, check your local listings).

“Do fences really make good neighbors?” on Dr. Phil (syndicated, check your local listings).

Make your office unique, Nantucket baskets, pickled beets and other pickled items on Martha (syndicated, check your local listings).

Patricia Heaton, viewers put beauty products to the test on The Rachael Ray Show (syndicated, check your local listings).

Make your photos look like they were taken by a pro, Lil Mama on The Tyra Banks Show (syndicated, check your local listings).