Here’s what’s up in the world of TV for Monday, February 27. All times are Eastern.
Note: Fox's House and Alcatraz, previously written about in this space, have been preempted by the Daytona 500, which was rain delayed to tonight. No news yet on when they'll be airing.
TOP PICK
How I Met Your Mother (CBS, 8 p.m.): As TV heads into the final three days of February sweeps and into one of the emptiest periods of the viewing year, it seems like this stalwart CBS comedy has a bit of momentum, after a nicely handled little arc about Ted’s feelings for Robin’s seemingly reigniting. In tonight’s episode, Barney confronts his feelings for a new woman in his life, whose secret has just become common knowledge, while Marshall and Lily welcome an old friend into their new home in the suburbs. Donna Bowman’s greatest secret has always been common knowledge. If you don’t know it, you’re obviously not “with it.” (It's that she's secretly Katherine Miller!)
REGULAR COVERAGE
The Voice (NBC, 8 p.m.): If The Voice has to sacrifice 27 virgin goats to come up with a reality show that’s all auditions, no competition rounds, it’s going to do so, because, seriously, tonight we have the fourth straight week and fifth straight episode of auditions. Emily Yoshida tears her hair out tunefully.
2 Broke Girls (CBS, 8:30 p.m.): We’re finally going to meet the mysterious Martin Channing, as Caroline and Max go to visit him in prison, and we learn that although he’s a thinly veiled Bernie Madoff, he was a nice guy. Or so Todd VanDerWerff assumes. He just expects the worst nowadays for some reason.
Being Human (Syfy, 9 p.m.): Tonight, Sally finds out who’s been haunting her, which leads Phil Dyess-Nugent to the obvious question: Can you haunt a ghost? Because if he dies and comes back as a ghost, he’s totally going to find William Henry Harrison and just haunt the shit out of that sorry guy.
RuPaul’s Drag Race (Logo, 9 p.m.): We don’t know what’s going to happen on the Race this week, because TV Guide doesn’t carry listings for Logo for some reason. But we’re just going to assume there will be potato sack races. Oliver Sava, longtime potato sack race enthusiast, will hoot and cheer loudly.
Castle (ABC, 10 p.m.): Castle closes out February sweeps by tipping its hat to one of ABC’s other drama hits, the goofy Once Upon A Time. In this one, Castle and Beckett keep finding corpses dressed like fairy tale characters. Phil Dyess-Nugent wonders just why today’s serial killers stick to the public domain.
Smash (NBC, 10 p.m.): Look, it might not be perfect, and it might not be the “adult” alternative to Glee so many people wanted it to be, but this show has at least one thing going for it over that other one: Its lead has never performed Sisqo’s “Thong Song” for her boyfriend. Noel Murray is just a bit sad over that.
TV CLUB CLASSIC
Scrubs (11 a.m.): Myles McNutt settles in for two solid, early season two episodes and reflects on what a roll the show was on as it entered its second year on the telly. He calls it the telly because, like all of those of Canadian origin, he doesn’t trust our American ways. (He keeps spelling things with u’s, too.)
Batman: The Animated Series (1 p.m.): This week’s villains are listed by Wikipedia as “the whole Arkham Asylum.” Oliver Sava thinks there was a time when that seemed pretty impressive, but now, after that whole video game thing, it just seems like small potatoes. C’mon, Batman! Defeat a planet!
WHAT ELSE IS ON
Academy Awards Red Carpet Fashion Wrap (TV Guide Network, 8 p.m.): If you just can’t let this year’s super boring, ultra dull Oscars go, here’s a chance to relive all of the greatest moments in… fashion. Look, if we’re Straight Guys Talking About Oscars-ing this, Jessica Chastain has to win, right?
Holmes On Homes (Do It Yourself, 8 p.m.): Last week, Richard Lawson of the Atlantic wrote about how taking TV seriously is ruining it. In it, he asked why everybody just writes about the same shows and doesn’t cover stuff like Holmes On Homes. Challenge accepted, Richard. When the show’s not in reruns.
In Performance At The White House (PBS, 9 p.m.): If you saw that video last week of President Obama singing “Sweet Home Chicago” at some thing with a bunch of blues musicians, well, it came from this concert, which PBS has been good enough to televise for those of you awaiting his greatest hits album.
American Masters: Cab Calloway: Sketches (PBS, 10 p.m.): Cab Calloway, bandleader of one of the top black big bands of his era, was known as the “Hi De Ho Man,” which, honestly, is a pretty great nickname. You can check out this biographical look at his life and shout “Hey, it’s the Hi De Ho Man!”
The Cutting Edge (Lifetime, 8 p.m.): You can pretend you weren’t secretly sucked in to this awful, awful romantic drama about figure skaters starring D.B. Sweeney and Moira Kelly, but then you’d just be lying to us and to yourself. And the person a liar hurts the most is him or herself. Isn’t that right, folks?
I Married A Witch (TCM, 8 p.m.): Honestly, here’s the thing we don’t understand (which this movie takes great pains to explain away): How do you just “accidentally” marry a witch? That seems like a thing you would have figured out, particularly if she’s a movie witch and she keeps levitating your shit.
NHL Hockey: Devils at Rangers (NBC Sports, 7:30 p.m.): It’s a game for the greater New York City metropolitan area, as the New York Rangers take on the New Jersey Devils in a game of the “iced hockey.” The Devils won in a 1-0 thriller, with 30 saves from goalie Martin Brodeur, earlier in the month.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
The Celebrity Apprentice (Sunday): We don’t know why NBC decided to schedule a new episode of one of its franchise reality shows up against the Oscars, even though we suspect the Oscars will garner fairly low ratings. We do know that Margaret Eby watched, and if you watch too, you should check it out.