Tonight on the Tube: Alice Miniseries, Desperate Housewives & Dexter

News & Notes

Tonight, CBS has the 15th season finale of The Amazing Race.

Over on cable, Biography has the fourth season premiere of I Survived… and the second season premiere of Shatner’s Raw Nerve, Comedy Central has a Comedy Central’s Hot List special, E! has the fifth season finale of The Girls Next Door, G4 has a Sexpo Australia special, HBO has a Robin Williams: Weapons of Self Destruction comedy special, HGTV has a Celebrity Holiday Homes special, Syfy has the miniseries premiere of Alice, and TLC has an Invasion of the Christmas Lights special and a Chainsaw Ice Sculptors special.

Prime Picks

The Amazing Race (CBS): Season Finale. The final three teams race to see Mr. Las Vegas for the final clue to win the $1 million prize.

Dexter (Showtime): New. Debra is getting close to figuring out who Trinity is and he tries to impede things, so he can deal with him first. Meanwhile, Trinity tries to figure out why he wasn’t turned in by Kyle Butler. Plays again later. Last week’s episode replays right before.

Brothers & Sisters (ABC): New. Plans for Justin and Rebecca’s wedding take a shocking turn. Tommy takes a big risk. Starts a minute after the hour and runs 59 minutes.

Solid Selections

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (ABC): New. A mother of three who lost her husband in a tragic accident gets a new home courtesy of the team and the help of Usher and Selena Gomez.

Desperate Housewives (ABC): New. Susan thinks she knows how to help Katherine and Bree and Orson make an agreement. Wisteria Lane has a plane crash on it. Runs 61 minutes.

Californication (Showtime): New. It’s a dueling good time at the end of semester mixer. Also, Charlie and Marcy sell their house. Runs 30 minutes. Plays twice.

Other Option

• 12 Men of Christmas (Lifetime): Repeat. Stars Kristin Chenoweth (Pushing Daisies) as a public relations exec that thought she had everything, but after some unfortunate events finds herself without a job. So, she takes a job in a small town in Montana. For more about this, read what I had to say about it in “Tonight on the Tube” from yesterday. Short version: it is kind of fun and worth watching if you missed it last night. Runs two hours. Plays twice tonight and again on Tuesday night.
• Alice (Syfy): Miniseries Premiere. Syfy attempts to do for Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass what it did for The Wonderful Wizard of Oz with last year’s Tin Man miniseries. Unfortunately, it falls short of that goal. This is a modernization of the classic story and attempts to play like a sequel some 150 years after the original story took place. I had a chance to see it, but the screener lacked most of the special f/x shots, which I’m sure are spectacular, given the same company that does the f/x for Sanctuary and did them for Tin Man are doing them here. But, what that left me with was nothing but the story and the actors telling it. You’d think that wouldn’t be so bad given the likes of Kathy Bates, Matt Frewer, Colm Meaney and Tim Curry populating the cast list. Yet, while there aren’t really any truly terrible performances, there wasn’t anything that wowed me either. As for the story, well other than this Alice being able to kick a little ass, it isn’t all that special. Overall, it looks like the only thing special about Alice is the f/x. If I had to predict, I’d say it will do well ratings-wise tonight, although they may drop over the course of the two hours, but won’t do as well tomorrow night with part two. Plays three times and again tomorrow night before part two.
• Cold Case (CBS): New. A debater that was thought to have committed suicide after losing a big debate turns out to have been murdered and the squad starts up an investigation.

Sports Notes

• CBS has NFL action.
• FOX has NFL action.
• NBA TV has the Washington Wizards at the Detroit Pistons.
• NBC has Sunday Night Football with the Minnesota Vikings at the Arizona Cardinals.

Late Night

• House (USA): Repeat. The “Ignorance Is Bliss” episode from a couple weeks ago on FOX replays, where House and the team are treating a brilliant man who has been dumbing himself down. It’s also the Thankgiving episode.
• nip/tuck (FX): Repeat. Last Wednesday’s episode, “Lola Wlodkowski,” replays.
• Sons of Anarchy (FX): Repeat. Last Tuesday’s second season finale episode, “Na Trioblidi,” replays. Runs 90 minutes.

TV Marathons

ABC Family is playing Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
Animal Planet has five episodes of I’m Alive.
Bravo has five episodes of The Real Housewives of Orange County early.
Cartoon Network has 22 episodes of Total Drama Action.
CMT has 10 episodes of World’s Strictest Parents.
Hallmark Channel has Christmas/Holiday themed TV movies all day.
Lifetime has six Christmas/Holiday themed TV movies today.
Oxygen has 24 episodes of Snapped.
TNT is playing Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King starting early today.
truTV has 12 episodes of It Only Hurts When I Laugh.