Here’s what’s up in the world of television for Monday, August 11. All times are Eastern.
TOP PICK
Running Wild with Bear Grylls AND CHANNING TATUM (NBC, 8 p.m.): Now that the latest Bachelorette has officially left her bachelorette days behind her, Bear Grylls emerges from the summer reality show season to remind us that hey wait a minute, he’s been doing some weird things with weird people all along! Tonight, he and noted daredevil Channing Tatum take on the elements. We here at What’s On Tonight are constant defenders of Channing Tatum—we’re not sure how this happened but we blame this moment—and when we heard about this guest spot we remembered the 2011 GQ cover story featuring Tatum, tequila, and impromptu camping in the desert. Channing Tatum “running wild” just makes sense. Observe: Channing Tatum doing a backflip out of a helicopter!
Everything else suddenly seems so small.
ALSO NOTED
There are many reality television shows about tattoos out there, and none of them are safe from Sonia Saraiya’s latest For Our Consideration feature.
Wait—we’re afraid what you just heard was, “Sonia reviewed a lot of reality television shows about tattoos.” It’s important that you know that we really do mean none of them are safe. Seriously. She reviewed them all. We assume Channing Tatum has some questionable tattoos, but an image search for “Channing Tatum tattoos” brought up this and now we’re too confused to proceed.
REGULAR COVERAGE
Switched At Birth (ABC Family, 8 p.m.) and The Fosters (ABC Family, 9 p.m.)
Under The Dome (CBS, 10 p.m.)
Teen Wolf (MTV, 10 p.m.)
Gravity Falls (DisneyXD, 9:30 p.m.)
REGULAR MOMENT IN THE LIFE OF CHANNING TATUM
TV CLUB CLASSIC
The Young Ones (11 a.m.): Things are getting “Interesting” for the unstoppable yobs, and Jason Heller has all the salacious, excruciating details.
CHANNING TATUM CLASSIC
CSI:Miami (2004), which is credited as Channing Tatum’s first television role, but since we could not find it in English anywhere on this godforsaken Internet here it is in German:
WHAT ELSE IS CHANNING TATUM UP TO ON?
The Gordon Ramsay Split Personality Hour (MasterChef/Hotel Hell, FOX, 8 p.m./9 p.m.): Gordon Ramsay is the Hydra of the reality show world. He seems to have a show on at any given moment in time, and if one goes down in flames, there’s another five formats in which Ramsay can pop a vein waiting to take its place. But no one will ever take Channing Tatum’s place, despite Alex Pettyfer’s adorable efforts.
Big Brother: After Dark (TVGN, 11 p.m.): What’s On Tonight’s new roommate has been watching a metric shit-ton of Big Brother, but we have only seen sporadic clips, so we only know that Ariana Grande’s brother is apparently a human cockatoo, and that if you put a camera on a gaggle of bros long enough, they will forget stigma and just openly admire other bros’ bubble butts. It’s kind of beautiful. Much like this. (If you’re surprised at where this link leads you at this point, we don’t know what to tell you.)
Whose Line Is It Anyway? (The CW, 8 p.m.): Tonight’s improv-off brings Padma Lakshmi into the mix. Her Top Chef banter is…not the most natural, but since reality show faux-banter is the worst, we’ll give her the benefit of the doubt and hope she can Step Up. (For those of you playing at home: that is, in fact, a reference to Channing Tatum.)
MLB Baseball: Dodgers at Braves (ESPN, 4 p.m.): Pretty quiet day for sports, as far as sports go, so we might as well plug the home team. Meanwhile, Channing Tatum has never played a baseball player, but he has played two different characters named “Duke,” so that’s pretty close.
21 Jump Street (FX, 6:30 p.m.): As sequel 22 Jump Street trickles out of theaters, remind yourself why it happened at all with its predecessor, a surprisingly sharp high school bro-down featuring the many talents of one Mr. Jonah Hill.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
True Blood: may have finally cracked Carrie Raisler.
IN CASE WE MISSED IT
Channing Tatum may have finally cracked What’s On Tonight.