Laurel’s TV Picks

Best Bets

24: Redemption (FOX, 7pm – 9pm)
New Brotherhood (Showtime, 7pm)
New Dexter (Showtime, 8pm and 10pm)
Season finale of True Blood (HBO, 8pm and 10:30pm)
A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All! (Comedy Central, 9pm and 11pm)
New The Unit (CBS, 9pm)

News & Notes

Note that a football game may result in a late start of primetime programming for CBS and/or FOX, which could push the start and end times of everything to be later than scheduled.

If you enjoy True Blood and are gonna miss it during the long wait between now and the second season, you might want to check out the series of books that the show was based on: Sookie Stackhouse Boxed Set (Sookie Stackhouse/True Blood)

Primetime Grid

Primetime

Anton Gerber, a South African who thwarted an armed attack on a nuclear facility, is interviewed on 60 Minutes (CBS, 6pm or after football).

The usual FOX Sunday lineup is pre-empted so that they can air a special two-hour 24 movie which is called 24: Redemption (FOX, 7pm – 9pm). Jack Bauer is back for a new adventure. I haven’t watched the show much in recent years, but I enjoyed this two-hour movie which does a lot to set up the next season of the show which will start on January 11th and 12th. You need not have seen previous seasons of the show to follow the action in this movie. Guest stars in this include: Robert Carlyle, Gil Bellows, Powers Boothe, Peter MacNicol, Jon Voight, and Tony Todd. You can expect a preview of the next season after the movie– the one I saw contained a lot of things I’d consider spoilers, but then I’m very careful about avoiding mentioning spoilers here.

Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters are preempted tonight to make room for the American Music Awards (ABC, 7pm – 10pm). Both shows return with new episodes next Sunday. There’s an hour-long red carpet show (ABC, 6pm) that airs before the American Music Awards.

Lily and the team re-open the 1953 murder of a pin-up girl on Cold Case (CBS, 8pm). Debra Mooney, who played “Edna” on Everwood, is among the guest stars.

Debut of A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All! (Comedy Central, 9pm and 11pm; also airs on Tuesday at 9pm and 11pm). Colbert’s special is really awesome; it features appearances by Jon Stewart, Elvis Costello, Toby Keith, John Legend, and Feist. There are songs and it’s just a really fun riff on the classic old Christmas specials. The DVD A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All hits stores this week and includes some neat extras like a video advent calendar, alternate endings, and a “Book Burning Yule Log”– it’s a lot of fun.

I love The Unit (CBS, 9pm) and can’t wait to see tonight’s new episode.