Laurel’s TV Picks

Best Bets

New Pioneers of Television (PBS, check your local listings)
Season finale of Criminal Minds (CBS, 8pm)
New (to NBC) Law & Order: Criminal Intent (NBC, 8pm)
New Mythbusters (Discovery, 8pm and midnight)
New Law & Order (NBC, 9pm)
New Project Runway (Bravo, 9pm, 11pm, midnight, 2am)
Charles Grodin, New York Giants kicker Lawrence Tynes, the Redwalls on The Late Show with David Letterman (CBS, 10:35pm)

News & Notes:

Strike News: Today the WGA and AMPTP are gonna start informal discussions about whether they can have formal discussions. Yes, really. Negotiating whether they can negotiate. Something like that.

Showtime has picked up Brotherhood for a third season of eight episodes. Bravo has picked up Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List for a fourth season. Oxygen will air a third season of Tori & Deanthough this time they’re leaving the Inn behind and moving on to other things.

Daytime

Oprah (syndicated, check your local listings) takes a look at “What Makes America, America” in this new episode. Chris Rock makes an appearance on the show.

Primetime Grid

Primetime

College hoops: Iowa State at Kansas (ESPN, 6pm) and Georgia Tech at North Carolina State (ESPN2, 6pm).

Part four of Pioneers of Television (PBS, check your local listings) takes a look at early and influential game shows.

The final installment of The Jewish Americans also airs tonight in most markets (PBS, check your local listings). You can read more about it on the PBS website.

Even more auditions on a new American Idol (FOX, 7pm). This time they’re in Charleston, South Carolina. I spent Christmas in Charleston with my parents, my husband, and my brother (who lives there). Was fun, though definitely different for a midwesterner like me who is used to white Christmases. It’s a beautiful city and I must say I was fine with the warmer temperatures (which folks down there thought were cold, I guess). Why oh why didn’t I bring back any pralines from that trip? Obviously, I just wasn’t thinking.

A laid-back magician’s wife who doesn’t care for housework swaps lives with a mom who’s a clean freak and micromanager on Wife Swap (ABC, 7pm).

When the BAU sees the contents of a particular storage unit, they think it must belong to a serial killer or someone who will become one on the season finale of Criminal Minds (CBS, 8pm). They end up putting together a profile based on the contents of the locker in an effort to find and stop the owner.

The team tests if dynamite can create ideal surfing conditions and then tests the proverbial lead balloon on a new Mythbusters (Discovery, 8pm and midnight).

Tonight’s episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent (NBC, 8pm) originally aired on November 15th on USA, but if you missed it then it’s new to you. A promising young writer is murdered and Goren and Eames are on the case. Guest stars include Peter Coyote (of The Inside, The 4400), Pablo Schreiber (who played “Nick Sobotka” on The Wire), Shamika Cotton (who plays Michael’s mother on The Wire), and Fisher Stevens (of Early Edition).

Mark L. Walberg hosts the series premiere of The Moment of Truth (FOX, 8pm). You’ve probably seen previews for this. Competitors are asked a series of personal questions while connected to lie detectors; later on when they compete, they’re asked some of those questions again . . . with money on the line and friends and family (and viewers) looking on. I guess the bigger secret or more embarrassing things they reveal, the more money they win. Or something. What will these people tell the world for hundreds of thousands of dollars? This doesn’t sound entertaining to me, just rather icky.

Rerun of the fifth episode of Gossip Girl (CW, 8pm). Serena and Dan go on their first official date, Jenny goes to a sleepover where she gets involved in a nasty game of Truth or Dare, Serena’s brother goes missing from the treatment center.

NBA Basketball: Lakers at Spurs (ESPN, 8pm).

HGTV airs new episodes of Deserving Design (HGTV, 8pm and midnight), Design on a Dime (HGTV, 8:30pm and 12:30am), House Hunters (HGTV, 9pm and 1am), and Sleep On It (HGTV, 9:30pm and 1:30am).

DIY airs new episodes of Sweat Equity (DIY, 8pm) and Man Caves (DIY, 8:30pm).

A Caucasian teenage boy and an African American young girl are both found dead near a playground on a new Law & Order (NBC, 9pm) and as you might imagine, it’s a racially charged case. Ally Walker (of Tell Me You Love Me, Profiler) guest stars.

The designers are challenged to create unique designs using denim on a new Project Runway (Bravo, 9pm, 11pm, midnight, 2am).

When members of the CSI team are called to two different murders just two buildings apart, they think there might be a connection between the cases on a new CSI: NY (CBS, 9pm). Um, yeah, that’s certainly worth investigating. There’s still one more episode after this one that was filmed before the strike, but which hasn’t aired yet.

Caitlin discovers she’s still attracted to men while at a bridal shower for a lesbian couple with her girlfriend on a new Cashmere Mafia (ABC, 9pm). Oops. I’m guessing that’s a little awkward. The other women have their own issues to deal with too, of course. Tom Everett Scott guest stars; Lourdes Benedicto continues her guest stint on the show as Caitlin’s love interest.

Eyewitness reports from Wisconsin and Michigan tell of a tall and hairy man-beast described as a “dogman” on MonsterQuest (History Channel, 9pm and 1am).

The Smash Lab (Discovery, 9pm and 1am) team tests if a special type of carbon fiber is strong enough to protect a home from a hurricane.

Alexandra Wentworth stars in the series premiere of Head Case (Starz, 9pm, 10pm). It’s a new original series from Starz, yet another single-camera comedy. Wentworth plays a very bad psychiatrist to the stars, her clients are celebrities who are playing “themselves” as they visit her. I was unimpressed by the one later episode I was sent by Starz, the humor came from shockingly bad behavior but there wasn’t anything else to it. Plus it was really really vulgar. If you want to find out more about the show (including the list of celebrities who make appearances), you should visit the official website. It looks like the first episode is available from the website should you want to check it out (even if you don’t get Starz).

Cris Carter, Cris Collinsworth, Bob Costas, and Dan Marino talk football on a new Inside the NFL (HBO, 9pm).

Season premiere of The Real World / Road Rules Challenge (MTV, 9pm).

New episodes of Tyler Perry’s House of Payne (TBS, 9pm, 9:30pm).

The deputies run into a celebrity bounty hunter on a new Reno 911! (Comedy Central, 9:30pm and 11:30pm).

Series premiere of Hollywood Residential (Starz, 9:30pm and 10:30pm). This single-camera comedy follows a handyman who really wants to be a big star; he’s on a TV show where they makeover rooms in celebrities homes. Anyway. I’ve seen a later episode of this show as well (one where they fix up the kitchen of Chris Kattan) and boy, was this mostly painful to watch. It makes Head Case look great by comparison. Another show that relies too much on the casting of celebs as “themselves” and the bad behavior of the main character. It’s like a really really bad pale imitation of Extras. The official website has more details on the show, plus you can see the first episode there (if you don’t have Starz or don’t want to wait until tonight).

Late Night

Season premiere of Pros vs. Joes (Spike, 10pm).

New guest (since original posting of picks): Charles Grodin, New York Giants kicker Lawrence Tynes, the Redwalls on The Late Show with David Letterman (CBS, 10:35pm).

Carmen Electra, Justin Bartha, Margaret Cho on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (CBS, 11:37pm).