Laurel’s TV Picks

Best Bets

New Bones (FOX, 7pm)
New Criminal Minds (CBS, 8pm)
New Life (NBC, 8pm)
New MythBusters (Discovery, 8pm and midnight)
New Friday Night Lights (The 101 on DirecTV, 8pm and 11pm)
New Law & Order (NBC, 9pm)
New Sons of Anarchy (FX, 9pm, 10pm, midnight)

News & Notes

Wondering when some shows return with new episodes this winter? Here’s a list of returning shows (with premiere dates in parenthesis):
24 (January 11th & 12th)
According to Jim (December 2nd)
American Idol (January 14th)
The Bachelor (January 5th)
Battlestar Galactica (January 16th)
Big Love (January 18th)
Breaking Bad (January 18th)
Burn Notice (January 22nd)
The Closer (January 26th)
Damages (January 7th)
Flight of the Conchords (January 18th)
Kyle XY (January 12th)
Lost (January 21st)
The L Word (January 18th)
Medium (date hasn’t been announced yet)
Monk (January 9th)
Nip/Tuck (January 6th)
Psych (January 9th)
Scrubs (moves to ABC, date hasn’t been announced yet)
Secret Diary of a Call Girl (January 18th)
The Secret Life of the American Teenager (January 5th)

Dates haven’t been announced yet for the season premieres of Medium or Scrubs so it’s possible they may not return ’til sometime after January.

A special two-hour 24 movie airs on November 23rd.

Monk and Psych also both air special new Christmas episodes on November 28th (the day after Thanksgiving).

Daytime

“Oprah’s Clean Up Your Messy House Tour” on a new Oprah (syndicated, check your local listings). Peter Walsh appears on the show.

Primetime Grid

Primetime

Pushing Daisies, Private Practice, and Dirty Sexy Money are all pre-empted tonight to make room for The 42nd Annual CMA Awards (ABC, 7pm – 10pm). All three shows return with new episodes next Wednesday.

Brendan Fehr (of Roswell and CSI: Miami) guest stars as Booth’s younger brother on Bones (FOX, 7pm).

If it’s November, it must be time to revisit Romancing the Bird: A Good Eats Thanksgiving (Food Network, 7pm and 2am). It’s a special hour-long edition of Alton Brown’s Good Eats. A classic.

NBA basketball on ESPN: Trail Blazers at Heat (ESPN, 7pm), Rockets at Suns (ESPN, 9:30pm).

College football: Central Michigan at Northern Illinois (ESPN2, 7pm).

Two more new episodes of Time Warp (Discovery, 7pm and 11pm, 7:30pm and 11:30pm). The first involves liquid nitrogen, the second involves a bull whip.

Paulina shows the women how to model with various items and some local guys are invited over for an evening of games on America’s Next Top Model (CW, 7pm; also on Sunday at 8pm).

A criminal couple is on the run on Knight Rider (NBC, 7pm; also on Saturday at 7pm).

Christine and Richard argue over whether to let Ritchie audition for a commercial on The New Adventures of Old Christine (CBS, 7pm).

If you watched Criminal Minds last week, you’re probably (like me) dying to see tonight’s new episode of Criminal Minds (CBS, 8pm). Dr. Spencer Reid and the team investigate the murder of a young boy back when Reid was a kid. Could the case have an all-too-personal connection to Spencer? I guess we’ll find out tonight. Xander Berkeley guest stars as Detective Hyde, Jane Lynch returns as Reid’s mother.

A murder happens at the mall on the biggest shopping day of the year (a.k.a. Black Friday) on a new Life (NBC, 8pm). Thinking this episode is airing awfully early? I imagine that’s because NBC aired two episodes of this show each week for the first two weeks of the season.

New episode of Friday Night Lights (The 101, 8pm and 11pm; also airs on Friday at 8pm and 11pm). The 101 is a station that’s only available on DirecTV; these episodes of Friday Night Lights will air eventually on NBC, but probably not until February.

New episode of MythBusters (Discovery, 8pm and midnight).

USA airs reruns of House tonight including the very first episode (USA, 8:01pm).

The second ever episode of Legend of the Seeker (WGN, 8pm; also on Saturday at 3pm).

New Inside the NFL (Showtime, 8pm).

A man is found dead in a park and the detectives end up doing a whole lot of work to figure out what happened in this episode of Law & Order (NBC, 9pm). I’ve seen this episode and I really liked it.

One member of the club is arrested for murder and another goes missing on Sons of Anarchy (FX, 9pm, 10pm, midnight; also on Sunday at 10pm).

Special 75-minute season premiere of Top Chef (Bravo, 9pm, 10:15pm, 12:30am, 1:45am). Preceded by a marathon of old episodes.

The crime scene is on a boat, which complicates things a bit on CSI: NY (CBS, 9pm).

Series premiere of Estate of Panic (Sci-Fi, 9pm and 11pm; also on Friday at 3pm). Steve Valentine, who played “Nigel” on Crossing Jordan, hosts. You can read all about it on the official website for this new show.

The team tries to engineer a waterslide simulator that will work in a backyard on a new Prototype This! (Discovery, 9pm and 1am; also on Sunday at 10am).

New TV Land Myths & Legends (TV Land, 9pm and midnight).

New K-9 Cops (Animal Planet, 9pm, 11pm, 4am).

New South Park (Comedy Central, 9pm and 11pm).

New Chocolate News (Comedy Central, 9:30pm and 11:30pm).

Late Night

New episode of Red Hot and Green (HGTV, 10pm and 2am).

T. Boone Pickens on The Daily Show (Comedy Central, 10pm and midnight).

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

New episode of Haulin’ House (HGTV, 10:30pm and 2:30am).

Stupid human tricks, Russell Brand, Charlie Haden on The Late Show with David Letterman (CBS, 10:35pm).

Steve Carell, Joel Levinson, Beck on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (NBC, 10:35pm).

Tom Brokaw, Frank Caliendo, Joshua Radin on Late Night with Conan O’Brien (NBC, 11:37pm).

Seann William Scott, Kathy Kinney on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (CBS, 11:37pm).

Julia Louis Dreyfus, Dave Annable, Julianne Hough on Jimmy Kimmel (ABC, check your local listings).

Kevin Nealon, Yelle on Last Call with Carson Daly (NBC, check your local listings).