Fox, 8:00 p.m. ET
Last week, the selection of the final competitors had the judges – Jennifer Lopez, at least – fighting back tears. Tonight, the 13 finalists begin live competition in the elimination rounds – and they couldn’t have come sooner for this long-dominant reality competition show, which suddenly is in a fierce Battle Round, for viewers and media attention, with NBC’s The Voice. Tonight and tomorrow, the boys and girls take on, respectively, the music of Stevie Wonder and the playlist of the late Whitney Houston, with Mary J. Blige as the week’s guest mentor. Houston’s catalog should be emotional, and both of them, vocally, are extremely challenging. So this year’s finals, at least, begin on a demanding note – which might lead to many bad ones.
HBO2, 8:00 p.m. ET
This 2010 documentary is all about “fracking,” the increasingly common term for hydraulic fracturing, the practice of forcibly extracting natural gas from deep underground. There’s much debate about the safety and possible side effects of this method of energy cultivation, and some of that debate started with this film. When you see a local resident, whose ground water has been contaminated by local fracking efforts, turn on his tap water, light a match and have the water burst into flames, it’s fracking incredible.
NBC, 10:00 p.m. ET
From the beginning, this newsmagazine has made it a point to highlight individuals who have made an impact on the Internet, through either their videos and performances or their viral journalism. This hasn’t resulted in any measurable increase in the ratings – perhaps the YouTube generation just isn’t watching network TV in real time any more – but it has resulted in many solid stories. Tonight, Jamie Gangel visits Nick Denton, the founder of Gawker, the Internet site that uses snark, and even rumor, as some of the biggest weapons in its arsenal.
PBS, 10:00 p.m. ET
(Check Local Listings) This documentary captures a dizzying, whirlwind moment in time, when the brilliantly talented, boastfully poetic boxer known as Cassius Clay took a stand outside of the ring as well, changing his name, and his direction and fate, as he embraced a new identity and sensibility. In Miami, he rubbed shoulders with everyone from Malcolm X (pictured) to the Beatles, but it was the man of Clay, reshaped as Muhammad Ali, whose fame eventually outshone them all. This documentary explores, and explains, that powerful transformation and trajectory.
Cinemax, 10:00 p.m. ET
This 2011 movie, the latest in the X-Men cinematic franchise, has a lot to offer, and, as a prequel, is quite entertaining. But in the context of TV WORTH WATCHING, I’d like to focus in particular on one very small, quality-TV–related supporting role. It’s Emma Frost, the evil, mind-controlling mutant, played here by January Jones. Jones plays Don Draper’s ex-wife, the cold and brittle Betty, on AMC’s Mad Men – and getting her to play a literal Ice Queen (she morphs, at one point, into a diamond-crystalline exterior) is a particularly inspired bit of typecasting.