Highlights of the Week

• Woah, man, like let’s get totally stoned tonight and watch Woodstock: Then & Now. Ever seen a burned out hippie? I have. It’s not pretty. (Mon. 8pm, History)
• The first season of Merlin wraps with a two-hour block starting at 7pm. While it’s been picked up for a second run in native Britain, there’s no word on whether NBC will go again with it. (Sun.)
• I can take him. And while I don’t think we’re going to see Shaq vs. Jason Hughes anytime soon, the series does premiere with the basketball behemoth taking on Ben Roethlisberger. The kick is that Shaq takes them on in their sport, not his. (Tue. 9pm, ABC)
• It’s Invitation Only with Reba McEntire, but don’t worry, CMT has yours so you can check it out. (Fri. 9pm)
• I’ll call this a lowlight of the week … so of course it’s on FOX. Hopefully, they’ll show her for the disaster she is. That’s right, it’s Octomom: The Incredible Unseen Footage. (Wed. 8pm, FOX)
• Project Runway flexes its muscles on its new home, Lifetime, with a two hour “All Star Challenge” special. That’s followed by the season premiere, so you get three hours for the price of one! (Thu. 8pm)
• But it’s still not over. Lifetime is so stoked, they’re debuting Models of the Runway, which follows the models of Project Runway as they try and make it in the world of high fashion. (Thu. 11pm)

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8:00p/7:00 Central

• Cuddy moves in with House on FOX?! It’s not like that; her house is just being worked on; but you know it’s like that. Oh, and someone’s dying and only House can save them. But you knew that.
• The investigation into a petty officer’s death leads CBS’s NCIS team into the world of underground street fighting. It’s domestic squabbling on Lifetime’s Rita Rocks at the half hour.
• Tyra Banks is on hand for the big “makeover” installment of NBC’s The Biggest Loser. MyNetwork TV has the 2008 World Music Awards, while BBC America is offering up a “Winter Olympics” special edition of Top Gear, followed by Gavin & Stacey at 8:40p/7:40 Central.

9:00p/8:00 Central

• Mike Rowe gets to see what life is like as a maggot farmer on Discovery’s Dirty Jobs. History takes a look at “Sex in Space” on The Universe. With “Sex” in the title, it’ll probably be the highest-rated episode of the entire series so far. And ECW is new on Sci Fi.
• Jane goes undercover on CBS’s The Mentalist to see if a National Guard unit member is killing the rest of his unit. A crook who winds up embedded in a vault wall turns out to be after something of Walter’s on FOX’s Fringe.
• But none of that really matters because tonight is the one hour season premiere of According to Jim on ABC. Oh how we’ve missed you, Jim Belushi. Tonight, a Christmas blankie goes missing, as does Cheryl’s best friend. It’s up to Jim to save the day!

10:00p/9:00 Central

• The name of TruTV’s Rehab: Party at the Hard Rock Hotel just seems an oxymoron to me. There’s so much reality this hour it’s not funny … it’s reality. Like the third season premiere of The Bad Girls Club on Oxygen, now expanded to a full hour and promising a whole new crew of women with bad habits that are hindering their lives.
• How about BET’s Keyshia Cole: The Way It Is? Or do you prefer Health’s Deliver Me? There’s also Lifetime’s Blush: The Search for the Next Great Make-Up Artist, Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Orange County, A&E’s The Rookies: Tampa, Animal Planet’s Living With the Wolfman season finale, History’s Extreme Trains, and BET’s Brothers to Brutha at the half hour.
• It’s the season finale of Paris Hilton’s My New BFF on MTV. Find out which person she picks to be her new best friend for as long as the cameras are still running. I’m sure she’s already bored. Maybe she’ll put them on Sci Fi’s Cha$e, and send her henchmen after them to kill them for her amusement.
• Just for fun, the Discovery Channel has put together a show extrapolating what could happen should a massive earthquake hit the nation’s most populous city on Sci-Trek: New York Earthquake. Just for fun!
• William Shatner has his own talk show. The man just keeps on going! Now, I love me some Shat, so expect this to be pretty damned entertaining. In tonight’s back-to-back premiere he sits down with Valerie Bertinelli and Tim Allen on Biography’s Shatner’s Raw Nerve.
• NBC’s Law & Order: Special Victims Unit looks at a rape case. I know, right?! Still, this case stirs up memories from Det. Benson’s past. It’s just a missing doctor on CBS’s Without a Trace. Not nearly as dramatic.
• Eli Stone’s visions have him in his father’s body on his brother’s birthday, but it all ties into his case. He’s trying to help a sixteen-year old boy emancipate himself from his powerful and intimidating father on ABC’s visionary, musical and probably canceled (they didn’t pick up the back-half order) show.

11:00p/10:00 Central

• You know what I want to see on MTV’s Paris Hilton’s My New BFF reunion special? I want them to trot out the winner and have Paris say, “Who are you?”
• A&E is back with an hour of The Rookies: Jefferson because they were feeling slighted after an hour of Tampa. And WE looks at Cosmetic Surgery from Hell, and believe you me there’s been some nasty looking results out there. Have you seen “the cat lady?”
• TBS has a new Frank TV as well. I really want that show to be better than it is because I like Frank Calliendo. He’s great at impressions and he seems like a really nice guy. Maybe he just needs some better writers. It has its moments, but not enough of them.

8:00p/7:00 Central

• Who here is planning a big block party for the season finale of MyNetwork TV’s Street Patrol? We’re going to watch it and then go tip a patrol car.
• The ’80s invade NBC’s The Biggest Loser, with wardrobe and workout routines inspired from the decade. ABC sticks with their moneymaker, opting for a recap show of last night’s performances on Dancing With the Stars.
• Annie and Naomi stop arguing enough to deal with the arrival of their stepbrother in a new 90210 on The CW, also featuring appearances by Shannen Doherty and Jennie Garth. It’s war games for the gang on CBS’s NCIS.
• Foreman takes on a case with no involvement with House on FOX, while the old adage that the patient always lies comes into play again with an emancipated teen suffering with fluid in her lungs (to start with).
• Tony Danza guests on Lifetime’s Rita Rocks, where Rita gets Jay in trouble with his buddies by revealing that he cried at the end of Charlotte’s Web. At 8:40p/7:40p, BBC America’s Gavin & Stacey features Bryn trying to throw a surprise party for Gwen.

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Sci Fi

8:00p/7:00 Central

• It’s prom night on ABC Family’s Lincoln Heights. ABC offers up a special performance recap show of Dancing With the Stars. At 8:40p/7:40 Central Gavin and Stacey learn that house hunting is harder on a relationship than one might think over on BBC America.
• Gibbs finds himself second-guessing his judgment on the case of a deadly robbery on CBS’s NCIS. Alternately, FOX’s House never second-guesses himself. Even when he’s wrong. Tonight he’ll probably get it wrong at least twice when treating an agoraphobic man in his home.
• The winner of last season’s The Biggest Loser joins a show full of surprises. The contestants will start competing individually while the eliminated contestants will return for a chance to get back in the competition. That’s on NBC. On Lifetime at the half hour, Rita Rocks has proven itself well enough to get a full season order.
• Over on The CW, you’ve got Annie’s sweet sixteen and Jennie Garth returning to 90210. In honor of this Veteran’s Day, MyNetwork TV offers up Heroes at Home, a special showcasing the sacrifices and experiences of six real-life service men and women of the war in Iraq.

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