What to Watch Tonight: Simpsons, Californication, Shameless & More

News & Notes

Tonight, ABC has the series premiere of Secret Millionaire and NBC has the series premiere of America’s Next Great Restaurant and the 11th season premiere of The Apprentice.

Over on cable, A&E has the series premiere of Breakout Kings, Animal Planet has a River Monsters special and the series premiere of Taking on Tyson, BET has the second season premiere of The Family Crews, Bravo has the sixth season premiere of The Real Housewives of Orange County, Comedy Central has a Daniel Tosh: Happy Thoughts comedy special, Lifetime has the fifth season premiere of Army Wives and the series premiere of Coming Home, style has the fourth season premiere of Ruby and the fourth season finale of Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane, TLC has a Cake Boss: Baby Special and a Heavily Ever After special, and VH1 has the second season finale of Basketball Wives and the series premiere of Love & Hip Hop.

In late night, E! has the series premiere of After Lately.

Prime Picks

The Simpsons (FOX): New. Grampa ends up living with the family after getting kicked out of the retirement home. Runs 30 minutes.

Californication (Showtime): New. Hank moves back in with Karen and Becca. Becca and Pearl go for a ride in the Porche without permission. Plays twice and again later.

Shameless (Showtime): New. Frank needs a signature from his ex-wife. Fiona starts living with Steve. Plays again later.

Other Options

America’s Next Great Restaurant (NBC): Series Premiere. The panel chooses 10 contestants to move forward after many hopefuls present their ideas for the next great restaurant and serve a dish from their prospective menu.

Desperate Housewives (ABC): New. Susan finds out that she doesn’t have long to wait for a transplant. Bree is looking for someone to help Susan. Lynette is trying to dissuade Renee from adopting a child. Runs 61 minutes.

Brothers & Sisters (ABC): New. Nora and Sarah decide to fly out to the east coast and see what Kitty is up to. Olivia isn’t sure about living with Kevin and Scotty. Starts a minute after the hour and runs 59 minutes.

Other Options

• Army Wives (Lifetime): Season Premiere. Denise is getting ready to meet her new daughter-in-law. Emmalin is headed off to college. Pamela must make a decision about her job. Plays again later.
• Breakout Kings (A&E): Series Premiere. The U.S. Marshals decide to try out a probationary idea and create a special task force made up of convicts to help track down escaped prisoners. Plays twice and again later twice. This show starts out rough, as it introduces you to the characters and the premise. Unfortunately, in an attempt to grab your attention quickly, they actually end up turning you off with a poorly executed opening. Yet, by the end of the episode I was willing to give it another shot next week. In the second half of the episode you get some interesting character moments and a very well executed ending. I would’ve much preferred to learn about the characters in the way we do later in the episode, all the way through, instead of the data dump at the beginning. Give your audience some credit. It wouldn’t be my first choice in the timeslot. Heck, it probably wouldn’t even be my third choice. But, I think it might be fun going forward, as each week they are going to try and top themselves with a prison break and then send this team to track them down. Also, there looks to be some cast changes from the screener I saw and/or going forward, not quite sure, but it might be a good thing. One that will be sticking around is Lloyd, played by Jimmi Simpson, who played Mary on Psych, whom I like a lot, so that is good. But, given A&E’s past forays into scripted programming have given us The Glades, one of my favorites, and the very good, if short-lived, The Beast and The Cleaner, I was expecting much better.
• Challenge (Food Network): New. Four contestants compete to make the best “Extreme Mardi Gras Cakes.” Plays again later.
• Chopped: All-Stars (Food Network): New. Part one of this five part special has 16 celebrity chefs taking the Chopped challenge to win $50,000 for their favorite charity. Plays again later.
• Iron Chef America (Food Network): New. Chef Emma Hearst, the youngest chef to enter Kitchen Stadium, takes on Iron Chef Michael Symon. Plays again later.

Sports Notes

• ABC has doubleheader NBA action with the Chicago Bulls at the Miami Heat followed by the Los Angeles Lakers at the San Antonio Spurs.
• CBS has tripleheader college basketball action.
• ESPN has has doubleheader NBA action with the New York Knicks at the Atlanta Hawks followed by the Boston Celtics at the Milwaukee Bucks.
• ESPN2 has a two women’s college basketball games and later two men’s college basketball game.
• FOX has NASCAR racing action with Sprint Cup: Kobalt Tools 400.
• NBC has NHL action followed by PGA Tour coverage.

TV Marathons

A&E has eight episodes of Criminal Minds.
Animal Planet has 10 episodes of River Monsters: Unhooked.
BET has 12 episodes of Everybody Hates Chris.
Bravo has 12 episodes of The Real Housewives of Orange County.
Discovery Channel has 10 episodes of Auction Kings tonight.
Food Network has five episodes of Chopped.
History has five episodes of Ax Men.
Oxygen has 12 episodes of Snapped.
Syfy is playing Underworld, Underworld: Evolution, and Underworld: Rise of the Lycans today.
TLC has 15 episodes of Cake Boss.
TNT has six episodes of Law & Order early.
truTV has 12 episodes of Operation Repo.
USA is playing Indiana Jones and the Legend of the Crystal Skull, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and Raiders of the Lost Ark today.
WE has six episodes of Bridezillas followed by seven episodes of My Fair Wedding With David Tutera.