Tonight on the Tube: A Night at The Office, CSI, Shark and News About Men in Trees

The latest on Men in Trees is that it has not been cancelled and in fact has been picked up for a second season. It was supposed to return on April 12th, but FOX and American Idol threw a wrench in the works. FOX has decided to extend the results shows to an hour sooner than they normally do. ABC was set to launch the new comedy Notes from the Underbelly on Wednesday, April 11th, which wouldn’t have had competition from Idol. Now it will, so ABC is going to move the launch of Notes to the 12th after Grey’s Anatomy instead of bringing back Men as previously planned. As of now, it looks like Men in Trees will not return to finish out its first season until May. Will you be able to wait that long? Well, unfortunately, you are going to have to. I guess we should just be happy that Marin and the rest of the Elmo gang are going to be hanging around for another season. Want to keep up to date with your favorite shows like Men in Trees, then subscribe and get Tonight on the Tube in your inbox or grab the RSS feed and ad it to your favorite reader.

Prime Picks

The Office (NBC): Repeat. It is “Diversity Day” once again. NBC will be playing five episodes of The Office tonight.
The Office (NBC): Repeat. Dwight gets to pick the new health plan for the office and the power goes to his head.

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (CBS): New. Sarah is haunted by the eyes of one of the dead showgirls at a crime scene she is working.

Shark (CBS): New. Sebastian goes after a black cop and his white partner after the shooting of a black teen under controversial circumstances.

Solid Selections

Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (FOX): New. This basically gets a spot here by being new and not much else is in the first hour of primetime tonight and so I could write the following: FOX is telling you in its ads that you should watch because this show had the highest debut audience in eight years. It doesn’t matter that the audience is nowhere near that now. That is just dumb. But, not as dumb as the other reason they want you to watch. That being, because some guy is going to make show history, this will be the fifth week the show will have aired. Pretty much everything that happens will make show history at this point. This isn’t having three contestants tying at the end of Jeopardy, which had never happened before on a show that has been on the air almost nonstop since it debuted in March of 1964. That is show history. This type of advertising is just dumb. Have you been watching the show? Will you be watching tonight? Does this type of advertising get you interested in watching? If so, why?

The Office (NBC): Repeat. The “Sexual Harassment” episode replays and runs 31 minutes.
Andy Barker, P.I. (NBC): New. Andy and Simon stand up against Wally serving bad chicken at the restaurant.

The Office (NBC): Repeat. “The Injury” episode replays where Michael has an accident with a grill.
The Office (NBC): Repeat. Michael outs Oscar by mistake in the “Gay Witch Hunt” episode.

Cable Choices

Emeril Live (Food Network): Repeat. Emeril cooks up some delectable meats from the Chelsea Market.

American Chopper (TLC): New. The guys start work on a computer themed bike for HP.

Throwdown With Bobby Flay (Food Network): New. A fish & chips battle is waged.
Ace of Cakes (Food Network): New. They can really make some spectacular theme cakes. See what they come up with this week.

Other Options

• Grey’s Anatomy (ABC): Repeat. The episode where Cristina finally can’t take it anymore and runs to the chief about what she and Burke have been doing.
• October Road (ABC): New. Will the third episode be the charm, or will it continue to suck like the first two. Things I would rather listen to than the dialogue on this show: fingernails on a chalkboard, jackhammer on pavement, Fran Drescher talking on a 24 hour loop or just about anything else.

Sports Notes

• EPSN has the NIT championship game tonight.
• TNT has an NBA doubleheader with the Detroit Pistons at the Chicago Bulls followed by the Phoenix Suns at the Golden State Warriors.