ABC, 8:00 p.m. ET
The season finale of this series won't be until next week - but this underrated ABC sitcom got its good news early. Yesterday, ABC revealed its new fall schedule, and The Middle remains a reliable part of it. Watch tonight, if you haven't seen the show, and see why.
Fox, 8:00 p.m. ET
SEASON FINALE: Part 1 of 2. Candice Glover and Kree Harrison are the two singers left standing for this final night of competition – a night in which they sing three songs each. The drama isn’t necessarily from the competition, for Candice has been a powerhouse all season, but at the judges’ table. Tonight and tomorrow, the feud between Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey is coming to an end, because there’s no way they both will return next season. So who will get in the last shots?
ABC, 9:00 p.m. ET
Next week is this sitcom’s season finale, which is built around a death in the family. This week’s show is built around something a little lighter: a gymnastics event. But don’t presume that a funeral, on TV, is no place for laughs. (
See the “Chuckles Bites the Dust” episode of
The Mary Tyler Moore Show.)
CBS, 10:00 p.m. ET
SEASON FINALE: Ozzy Osbourne, and the rest of Black Sabbath, are featured guests on tonight’s CSI season finale, which also makes room for a killer that, like the villain in The Following, gets his inspiration from a classic literary work. This time, though, the source material is Dante’s Inferno. Coincidentally, that same source material also was the inspiration for the name of my underground newspaper in 1969. That’s right: Seventh Circle.
ABC, 10:00 p.m. ET
Only two shows from last fall’s ABC lineup will survive to enjoy a sophomore season, and Nashville is one of them. That makes you believe in some sort of wise and discerning TV god – except that the other show to win a reprieve is The Neighbors. Go figure. Meanwhile, be grateful for Nashville, and its music, and the fact that Connie Britton and Hayden Panettiere will continue to strut their country-music stuff for another year.