(ALL TIMES ET)

10PM | Showtime
Nurse Jackie – When Jackie finds Kevin’s little sister sleeping off a hangover in her daughters’ room, she suspects Kevin brought his sis there to keep an eye on Jackie after the failed intervention. The phrase “fox guarding the hen house” is coming to mind here …

8PM | NBC
Chuck – Chuck has been a great show, and, as several save-the-series campaigns prove, a real fan favorite, and I’ll watch it ’til the end. But, as the return of Volkoff, Ellie’s continuing obsession with her dad’s computer and yet another Chuck/Sarah relationship issue make up tonight’s tired storylines, the time for it to end may be at hand.

8PM | NGC
Civil Warriors – To mark the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, the National Geographic Channel has two nights of special programming on tap, including a three-hour block of this series, in which descendants of Civil War vets – including Frederick Douglass – go on a research mission to find out about their relatives’ experiences.

8PM | GSN – SERIES PREMIERE
Drew Carey’s Improv-a-Ganza – Drew and his improv buddies Colin Mochrie, Ryan Stiles and Wayne Brady are back!

8PM | FOX
House – In the show’s 150th episode, Thirteen (Olivia Wilde) is sprung from jail, and finds House waiting for her to 1) find out why she went to the hoosegow in the first place and 2) take her to a … spud-gun competition? Yup.

8PM | CBS
How I Met Your Mother – Ted and Zoey have another tiff, which may mean good news for fans, ‘cuz this coupling just isn’t working. In a more fun storyline, Marshall quits his job to do volunteer work.

9PM | FOX
Chicago Code – A Windy City heatwave has led to the possibility blackouts, which is only fueling emotions when Wysocki and Evers are assigned to the heartbreaking case of a son who witnessed his dad’s murder.

9PM | PBS
The Great Famine – Yet another compelling entry in the American Experience series covers U.S. efforts to help Russian citizens during a famine in the early 1920s, including archival footage and the story of the many obstacles American volunteers had to overcome just to get sustenance to the starving Soviets.

9PM | NBC
Law & Order: Los Angeles – The spin-off returns as Skeet Ulrich‘s Rex Winters makes his exit. A permanent exit.

10PM | BRAVO
Bethenny Ever After – On the heels of her birthday breakdown, Bethenny faces another big drama when she has to leave beautiful baby Bryn for the first time as she heads off on a Skinny Girl business trip.

10PM | ABC
Castle – Crime novelists Dennis Lehane and Michael Connelly guest star as themselves and, during a poker game, try to help Castle unravel the complicated case of an aspiring Olympic swimmer who’s been found dead in a pool.

10PM | THE HUB
Family Ties – It’s a classic: Tom Hanks guest stars as Uncle Ned, Alex’s hero, until it becomes clear that his great uncle has a huge drinking problem.

10PM | LOGO
The NewNowNext Awards – The pop culture kudosfest, taped last week in Hollywood, is hosted by The Beek – Ke$hia Blow video scene stealer James Van Der Beek – and includes appearances by Panic! At the Disco, Adam Lambert, Paula Abdul, the Fabulous Beekman Boys and Robyn.

Worth flipping to during commercials:
– It’s week four of competition on Dancing With the Stars (8PM, ABC);
– Intervention: Hillbilly Heroin (8PM, A&E) focuses on the oxycodone problem in Scioto County, a southern Ohio community that’s on the DEA’s list of the top 10 illegal drug trafficking spots;
– Ben proposes on The Secret Life of the American Teenager (8PM, ABC Family);
– Adam visits businesses making yummy and unusual chocolate treats on Kid in a Candy Store (8:30PM, Food Network);
– All new episodes of All Worked Up kick off on truTV (9PM);
– In the first season finale of Being Human (9PM, Syfy), we flashback to when Aidan and Josh first met;
– Buddy serves as grand marshal for the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Hoboken on Cake Boss (9PM, TLC);
– Emily wonders whether gymnastics is worth giving up life as a regular teen on Make It or Break It (9PM, ABC Family);
– Carl wigs when Mike invites Molly to join them for Cubs opening day on Mike & Molly (9PM, CBS);
– On The Hard Times of RJ Berger (10PM, MTV), Jenny freaks out over getting her first-ever zit, while Lily’s big pimpin’ with her settlement check from the bus company;
– Kono gets the scoop on what really ended Chin Ho’s police career on Hawaii Five-O (10PM, CBS);
– A&E kicks off the sixth season of Paranormal State with back-to-back episodes (10PM);
– Back-to-back new episodes of Pawn Stars on History (10PM);
– LaToya Jackson is a judge when the contestants don dressed made of money on RuPaul’s Drag Race (10PM, Logo).

And the late-night line-up:
– Conan (11PM, TBS): Chris O’Donnell, Lil Jon and P.J. Harvey;
– The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (11PM, Comedy Central): Foo Fighters;
– The Colbert Report (11:30PM, Comedy Central): Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage;
– The Late Show with David Letterman (11:35PM, CBS): Alec Baldwin;
– The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (11:35PM, NBC): Jamie Foxx;
– Lopez Tonight (Midnight, TBS): Russell Brand;
– Jimmy Kimmel Live (12:05AM, ABC): David Arquette;
– Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (12:35AM, NBC): Miley Cyrus and Michael Stipe (REPEAT);
– The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (12:37AM, CBS): Isabella Rosselini;
– Last Call with Carson Daly (1:35AM, NBC): Lykke Li (REPEAT).

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• Filed in Chuck, Classic TV, Late Night, TV Picks
• Tags: Bethenny Ever After, Castle, Chicago Code, Chuck, Drew Carey's Improv-a-Ganza, Family Ties, House, How I Met Your Mother, Law & Order: Los Angeles, NewNowNext Awards, Nurse Jackie

All the tube news that’s fit to surf …

– Freshman hits Glee and Modern Family have not only gotten second season renewals this week, but were also just nominated for GLAAD Media Awards. Also getting season two renewals at ABC: Cougar Town and The Middle.

– CBS must be laughing at NBC and the Conan/Leno brouhaha, because both David Letterman and Craig Ferguson (the most underrated host in late night, IMHO) are both reportedly close to extending their current contracts.

– Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul, together again? That’s been the rumor, and TMZ.com reports that talks are underway for Abdul to join her former American Idol cohort on The X Factor.

– This is quite a lineup of TV talent: Betty White, Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves and Wendie Malick will star in TV Land’s pilot for Hot in Cleveland, a sitcom about three fortysomething BFFs (Bertinelli, Leeves and Malick) who get stuck in Cleveland and decide to move there permanently because the locals think they’re glamorous. Betty White will play a crabby lady who lives in a cottage near the house where the pals live in Cleveland.

– Big Love season four premiere? Big ratings, up 49 percent vs. last season’s premiere.

– Mad Men star Jon Hamm is coming back to 30 Rock, right around Valentine’s Day. Is this good news, at last, for Liz Lemon’s love life?

– A musical 24? That really doesn’t seem like something Jack Bauer would, or should, do, does it?

– Are Lisa Rinna and hubby Harry Hamlin the new Lucy and Ricky? TV Land hopes so, as the celebs will star in a new comedy reality series that focuses on their marriage, children and careers.

– This isn’t coming a moment too soon for troubled soapland: Victor Newman, a.k.a. The Young and the Restless star Eric Braeden, returns to Genoa City in Friday’s episode.

– There’s another Law & Order spin-off coming, and this time it’s being set outside NYC: It’ll be in Los Angeles. Why? NBC’s programming chief says it’s because there’s a lack of cop shows set in L.A. Was she not aware Southland was set in La La Land before her network canceled it?

– Rita Rocks, Lifetime’s Nicole Sullivan sitcom? It’s dunzo.

– The Bachelor still hasn’t resulted in a marriage, but it will get a spin-off. A sort of all-star (and I use that term very loosely) collection of former contestants from The Bachelor and The Bachelorette will live together in a manse, with the purpose of … that remains to be seen, though they will compete to not get evicted, reportedly. The show will be called, of course, Bachelor Pad.

– Congratulate Howie Mandel on being named David Hasselhoff‘s replacement on America’s Got Talent. Just don’t touch him when you do it.

– And tonight in primetime: Another round of American Idol auditions on Fox (8PM ET); The Sopranos Michael “Christufuh” Imperioli guests on Mercy (8PM, NBC); Brick runs for “school historian (whut?) on The Middle (8:30PM, ABC); Gloria and Jay argue about a piece of decor on Modern Family (9PM, ABC); Lost‘s Naveen Andrews guest stars on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (9PM, NBC); Scott Foley continues his guest gig on Cougar Town (9:30PM, ABC); It’s the third season premiere of High School Reunion on TV Land (10PM); Leverage returns with new eps on TNT (10PM); Christian lets his junk food freak flag fly on tonight’s Nip/Tuck (10PM, FX), but he won’t feel so free when he finds out what (rather, who) is wife is up to; Must-hear-TV: Ray LaMontagne chats with and performs on Spectacle: Elvis Costello With … (10PM, Sundance); New Ugly Betty at 10PM on ABC; The designers have to work with denim on Launch My Line (10PM, Brav0); and Ty and Callie butt heads on a new Real World on MTV (10PM).

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• Filed in TV News
• Tags: Eric Braeden Young and the Restless return, Glee season 2, Howie Mandel America's Got Talent, Jon Hamm 30 Rock, Law & Order: Los Angeles, Lisa Rinna Harry Hamlin TV Land, Modern Family season 2, Paula Abdul X Factor