NBC, 8:00 p.m. ET
This is elimination night for the Top 6, who performed yesterday – and the official NBC lead-in to yet another competition reality series, America’s Got Talent, which begins its new season with two new judges, Heidi Klum and former Spice Girl Mel B. I can’t imagine ratings for that show not going down this year – just as it’s easy to imagine The Voice getting stronger, at least for a while, even though it also uses its rotating thrones as a game of musical chairs. Judges on The Voice have chemistry, while those on American Idol and America’s Got Talent seem to resent being assigned to the same Breakfast Club.
Cinemax, 8:10 p.m. ET
This 1998 vampire film, directed (but not written) by John Carpenter, is 15 years old now, but retains enough edge to make it a watchable, unpredictable, sometimes unsettling film in the vampire genre. Some of that comes from James Woods’ successful attempt to play a hero in the later Kurt Russell mode, but a lot comes from the supporting performance by Sheryl Lee of Twin Peaks, who here ends up undead, but not wrapped in plastic.
HBO Family, 9:45 p.m. ET
If you’ve worked your way through the new episodes of
Arrested Development on Netflix, you’ve seen Ron Howard’s imagined Imagine office, with its full-size lunar module. Here is the 1995 movie from which that came: Howard’s taut, smart, inspiring dramatization of the ill-fated Apollo 13 lunar mission of 1970. Tom Hanks stars, but there are star turns almost everywhere you look, including those by Gary Sinise (pictured) and Ed Harris. And speaking of
Arrested Development: I'll be talking about Season 4 on
today's Fresh Air.
CBS, 10:00 p.m. ET
In this week's new installment, among other cases followed from the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office, is the continuation of one begun in last week’s series premiere: the art theft investigation, which this week gets to the point of installing high-tech equipment in hopes of capturing the thieves red-handed. Or, at least, a nice shade of crimson.
Comedy Central, 11:00 p.m. ET
Tonight’s scheduled guest is NBC news anchor Brian Williams, who generally gets more respect from Stewart here than he does from his own network, where NBC has all but abandoned the newsmagazine with Williams’ name on it. Don’t be surprised if Stewart brings that up – and if Williams, as usual on this show, has a very funny response.