(ALL TIMES ET)

9 and 9:30PM | LIFETIME – SERIES PREMIERE
Roseanne’s Nuts – Roseanne Barr, the star of one of the greatest sitcoms of all time, returns to TV with this reality series, which finds her operating a 40-acre macadamia nut farm in Hawaii. Does the title of the show refer to her farm, or Roseanne herself? As she would, and does, say, a little of both. It’s an entertaining viewing experience either way.

8PM | CBS
Big Brother – The episode’s supposed to unfold the whole story behind why Evel Dick already quit.

9PM | ESPN
ESPY Awards – Seth Meyers hosts the 19th annual sports awards show, live from Los Angeles, where Best Male Athlete nominees include Jimmie Johnson and Aaron Rodgers, Best Female Athlete contenders include Lindsey Vonn and Lauren Jackson, and presenters include Jason Bateman, Justin Timberlake, Cee Lo Green, Danica Patrick and Serena Williams.

10PM | DIRECTV – 4TH SEASON PREMIERE
Damages – The same night Roseanne is back on the tube with her reality series, her former TV hubby, the always fantastic John Goodman, debuts on Damages as Howard T. Erickson, the CEO of military contracting company High Star. And, yes, he’s this season’s bad dude.

10PM | SHOWTIME – SERIES PREMIERE
The Franchise: A Season with the San Francisco Giants – The docuseries follows the Giants as they return to defend their World Series crown, including pitcher Barry Zito‘s early season stint on the DL.

10PM | DISCOVERY – SERIES PREMIERE
One Man Army – Green Beret Mykel Hawke hosts this extreme reality competition, in which special forces  ops, law enforcement officials, mixed martial arts athletes and other extreme sports practitioners are pitted against each other in physical competitions that the average person would have no shot at pulling off.

10PM | FX – 7TH SEASON PREMIERE
Rescue Me – The final season begins, and a new friendship – Janet and Sheila! – spells trouble for Tommy. Meanwhile, Mickey and Teddy start a business together, Black Shawn wants to get more serious with Colleen and Damien is still wheelchair-bound after his accident last season.

10:30PM | ID – SERIES PREMIERE
I Married a Mobster – There are the Mob Wives, and then there are the women in this new reality series – narrated by The Sopranos and Goodfellas star Lorraine Bracco – which details the very non-glamorous lives of real New York mafia wives.

Worth flipping to during commercials:
– The top 12 perform on So You Think You Can Dance (8PM, Fox), while Modern Family star Jesse Tyler Ferguson is a guest judge;
– Tonight’s Franklin & Bash episode (9PM, TNT) is titled “Franklin vs. Bash” … uh oh;
– On Royal Pains (9PM, USA), best friends and business partners come to Hank when they worry the cleaning product they sell is making one of them sick;
– On The Challenge: Rivals (10PM, MTV), CT stirs up trouble by trying to pit a couple of the females against each other, but he’s the one in for a surprise;
– Dangerous Liaison: What Happened in Room 2806 (10PM, CNBC) goes behind-the-scenes on the Dominique Strauss-Kahn case;
– Chef Irvine helps a twentysomething revamp her family’s Italian restaurant in Philadelphia on Restaurant: Impossible (10PM, Food Network);
– It’s the season 2 premiere of Who the (Bleep) Did I Marry (10PM, ID), the reality series about spouses who find out shocking truths about the people they married;
– Jon gives a dog owner a makeover on Jon Benjamin Has a Van (10:30PM, Comedy Central).

And the late-night line-up:
– Conan (11PM, TBS): Morgan Spurlock, Tyler Perry and the Strokes (REPEAT);
– The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (11PM, Comedy Central): Matthew Richardson;
– The Colbert Report (11:30PM, Comedy Central): David McCullough;
– The Late Show with David Letterman (11:35PM, CBS): Ryan Gosling;
– The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (11:35PM, NBC): Craig Ferguson;
– Lopez Tonight (Midnight, TBS): Randy Jackson (REPEAT);
– Jimmy Kimmel Live (12:05AM, ABC): Jason Bateman (REPEAT);
– Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (12:35AM, NBC): Blake Shelton, Joe Jonas and Gabourey Sidibe;
– The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (12:37AM, CBS): DJ Qualls;
– Last Call with Carson Daly (1:35AM, NBC): Adam Carolla (REPEAT).

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• Filed in Award shows, Celebreality, Late Night, TV Picks
• Tags: Damages season 4, ESPY Awards, Evel Dick, I Married a Mobster, John Goodman, One Man Army, Rescue Me season 7, Roseanne, Roseanne's Nuts, The Franchise: A Season with the San Francisco Giants

Who else was completely bummed out by that Rescue Me season finale last night?

It was a downer of a capper to a sixth season that was a letdown overall. It often felt like some of the show’s funnier moments, which have always been so clever and sometimes outrageous, in the past, were strung together like one-liners, and the ongoing bit with Garrity (Steven Pasquale) and Mike (Mike Lombardi) trying to help doomed firefighter Pat (Will Chase) slipped into farce more than once (and not particularly good farce).

It was also with a heavy-handed dose of foreshadowing that the writers kept letting us know something, something really bad, was going to happen to Damien. Actor Michael Zegen talked to the Los Angeles Times about the fate of his character, and hints at what will happen in the show’s seventh, and final, season, which kicks off next summer and is scheduled to wrap right around the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

Appropriate time to end the show, but I still think a better, wholly more appropriate ending would have been to end the series with the fifth season finale, when Uncle Teddy (Lenny Clarke) shot Tommy (Denis Leary) and left him bleeding on the floor of the bar. Sure, it would have been devoid of the show’s lighter elements, but it also would have been a fitting ending for a character who’s caused so much trouble, for so many people who love him, throughout the series, and The Sopranos-esque ending of leaving Tommy’s dead-or-alive fate hanging might have angered fans initially, but, again, would have been better than what’s already happened in season six.

The cast and crew have already filmed the nine episodes that will make up season seven, so expect spoilers to leak before they find their way to air on FX in June 2011.

In the meantime, what do other Rescue Me fans think about the just-concluded season? Was Damien’s accident a shocker? And what about Lou (John Scurti)? Is the lovable fireman skating away without taking his fair share of the blame for what happened to Damien, since it might not have happened had he retired, as his doctor suggested? And what do you want to see happen, ultimately, to the Gavin clan?

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• Filed in Drama, Review - TV
• Tags: Rescue Me season 7, Rescue Me seasoon 6 finale