What to Watch Tonight: Switched at Birth Winter Premiere, Jane by Design Series Premiere, Parenthood & More

News & Notes

Tonight, ABC has the series premiere of Work It! and NBC has the 13th season premiere of The Biggest Loser.

Over on cable, ABC Family has the first winter season premiere of Switched at Birth and the series premiere of Jane by Design, BBC America has the series premiere of Jamie’s American Road Trip, and Cooking Channel has the third season premiere of United Tastes of America.

Prime Picks

Switched at Birth (ABC Family): Winter Premiere. Bay gets a small look at what life might have been like with her biological parents. All the kids end up at the music festival. Plays again later. This is a solid return for this very good little show.

Jane by Design (ABC Family): Series Premiere. A high school girl ends up with a job at a fashion house for a very demanding executive. Plays twice. This show is a whole lot of fun. I very much enjoyed the first couple episodes. It’s kind of like mixing The Devil Wears Prada with the former ABC Family show 10 Things I Hate About You, at least that’s the feel I got. I really liked the main relationship between the girl and her male, and straight, best friend. In that there is no sign that either of them has a secret crush on the other. Since everything pretty much works out as you’d expect in the opening episode, it was nice to see they didn’t go there too. It’s a nice little tweak that I hope stays as the show goes along. This show should do well. I look forward to seeing more.

Parenthood (NBC): New. The whole family goes on a road trip. Kristina is having trouble holding up Max’s punishment.

Solid Selections

NCIS (CBS): New. An investigation into the murder of a Navy commander leads the team to E.J. Barrett.

NCIS: Los Angeles (CBS): New. Nell gets sent undercover for a dead researcher at the Defense Department. The team has to deal with the new assistant director.

Body of Proof (ABC): New. Megan is investigating the cause of death for a bride that died on her wedding day.

Other Options

• Last Man Standing (ABC): New. Vanessa wonders if Mike is feeling too tied down. Mandy decides to become a vegan.
• Work It! (ABC): Series Premiere. Two out of work guys dress up like women to get a sales job at a drug company. This show is terrible. People seem to not like it for all kinds of reasons. Mine is that it is a terrible portrayal of men, in addition to not being funny. Also, how exactly do these unemployed dudes spend so much time drinking at the local bar?

Sports Notes

• ESPN has college football action with the Sugar Bowl with Virginia Tech vs. Michigan.
• ESPN2 has college basketball action with Michigan State at Wisconsin.
• NBA TV has doubleheader action with the Atlanta Hawks at the Chicago Bulls followed by the Houston Rockets at the Los Angeles Lakers.
• NBC Sports has NHL action.

TV Marathons

ABC Family has 10 episodes of Switched at Birth.
Discovery Channel has seven episodes of Dirty Jobs.
Spike TV has six episodes of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
USA Network has 20 episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.