NBC, 8:00 p.m. ET
Last night, in the first night of the live competition round, singers from the teams of Blake Shelton and Alicia Keys competed to stay alive in the contest. Two singers on each team of six were voted as worthy of continuing by viewers at the end of the program, and the judges were allowed, after that, to select one other team member apiece for advancement. At the show’s literal last minute, Keys rewarded, with her judge’s pardon, one of the finest performers of the night: Stephanie Rice (pictured), who had delivered an emotionally raw version of “Every Breath You Take.” Tonight, the dozen singers from teams Adam (Levine) and Gwen (Stefani) take their turn, with half of them slated to go home at the end of the show. High stakes indeed…
CW, 9:00 p.m. ET
In tonight’s episode, Liv (Rose McIver) eats the brains, and temporarily absorbs the memories and personality, of a laid-back lifestyle guru. You might well ask: "Oh, yeah? And zen what happens?"
A&E, 9:00 p.m. ET
They’re widely called the L.A. riots, those violent street protests that followed the 1992 not guilty verdict in the case of four white L.A.P.D. officers captured on videotape violently beating black motorist Rodney King. But others call them “the L.A. uprisings,” and 25 years later, the racial and societal divisions exposed by that event and court case have, sadly, been repeated and amplified in the many years since. “Can’t we all just get along?” King famously pleaded after all the post-verdict violence erupted. It’s a question that still needs answering – and Boys n the Hood director John Singleton, one of several documentarians noting the event’s anniversary this week, tries to answer it in this two-hour study, which looks not only at the police brutality case involving King, but of the many nationally infamous cases that have occurred since.
ABC, 10:00 p.m. ET
For a few episodes now, the agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. have been plugged into the alternate reality world known as the Framework, which keeps their bodies inert by their minds intensely occupied and distracted – by placing them in a different world, populated by the familiar yet altered. Aida (Mallory Jansen), an artificial intelligence android corrupted by an evil force, captured and mentally imprisoned and altered the agents, and now rules them as the ruthless leader of Hydra. But the natives are restless, and more and more S.H.I.E.L.D. agents slowly are awakening to the artificiality of their surroundings – including Coulson (Clark Gregg), the former head of S.H.I.E.L.D., now aware he’s not a meek high-school science teacher. And this week, he’s armed… and, at long last, dangerous.
FX, 10:00 p.m. ET
More than a year’s worth of episodes on The Americans, ever since young Paige (Holly Taylor, who gets better and better every week) snooped around in the family laundry room and began learning that her parents were Russian spies, have led up to the cliffhanger that ended last week’s episode. The chief handler of Philip and Elizabeth, Frank Langella’s Gabriel, had revealed to them his intention to return to the Soviet Union – and Philip (Matthew Rhys) and Elizabeth (Keri Russell), either to reward him or keep him intrigued enough to stay, ended the episode by bringing Paige by his home to proudly introduce her to him, and, at the same time, introduce her officially to the family business of international espionage. What’s happening tonight? Don’t know. But can’t wait. And this week, Rhys not only co-stars, but directs...