Fox, 8:00 p.m. ET
The third phase of this show arrives tonight – and for the limping American Idol, couldn’t come soon enough. The live telecasts begin tonight, and if the judges and contestants can’t inject some energy into this week’s shows, then they’ll lose even more momentum to NBC’s The Voice.
PBS, 8:00 p.m. ET
(Check Local Listings) Tune in for the opening moments of writer-director David Belton’s two-hour documentary about the Amish, and you’ll know within seconds – because of the almost reverent silence and respectful distance of the rural landscapes at dawn – that you’re in good hands. This is the best, most complete documentary on the Amish I’ve ever seen. For more, see today’s BIANCULLI’S BLOG.
NBC, 10:00 p.m. ET
SEASON FINALE: After more than a season of messing up romantically but doing well professionally, Crosby (Dax Shepard) finally makes the right move, and ends up at the altar. But as he has cause to rejoice, there are other issues as well in this last episode of the season, including new and broken business propositions – one professional, one painfully personal.
PBS, 10:00 p.m. ET
After the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan so forcefully, the Fukushima Daaichi nuclear plant was dangerously exposed and damaged. Pools of radioactive spent fuel were exposed to the atmosphere, risking a disaster even greater than a “standard” nuclear meltdown. After a week, the government ordered a high-risk mission, to have a helicopter drop thousands of gallons of water on the site to avert a horrifying tragedy. Tonight, Frontline interviews one of the pilots, speaking for the first time about his mission prep, his point of view, and his feelings about the mission, then and now.
FX, 10:00 p.m. ET
In this new episode, two generations of Givens men are on the warpath, each treading straight and boldly into enemy territory. With Raylan (Timothy Olyphant), he’s confronting Neal McDonough’s usually cool Robert Quarles, left, who seethes openly after the latest Raylan visit. And with Raylan’s father, Arlo (Raymond J. Barry), he walks straight into very dangerous territory: the hollow run by the intermittently vicious Limehouse (Mykelti Williamson).