TVSquad

In a departure from past CBS specials, which spotlighted the Top 100 movies either of all time or in some specific category, the AFI has decided that this summer's special would be ten different Top 10 lists. We've already seen 100 Years ... 100 Movies, 100 Stars, Laughs, Thrills, Passions, Heroes & Villains, Songs, Movie Quotes, Cheers and 100 Years ... 100 Movies--10th Anniversary Edition. I guess it gets harder and harder to find 100 worthy entries in specific categories, so this is the compromise.

Yesterday, AFI sent out the ballots with 50 selections in the 10 categories to a pool of 1,500 industry leaders. These categories are animation, courtroom dramas, epic films, fantasy, gangster, mystery, romantic comedy, science fiction, sports and western. I think they made the right call, because if some of those specials had struggled a bit in the ratings already, that's nothing to what 100 Sports Movies or 100 Gangster Movies would do.

• At 8, ABC has a new The Next Best Thing, followed by new episodes of American Inventor and Traveler.
• CBS has the new special AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies at 8.
• NBC has two new episodes of Last Comic Standing starting at 8, then a new Dateline.
• FOX has a new, two-hour So You Think You Can Dance at 8.
• There's a new Hidden Palms on The CW at 8, then another new episode.
• At 9, Discovery has a new Mythbusters, followed by two new episodes of Cash Cab.
• Sci-Fi has a new Ghost Hunters at 9.
• The Travel Channel has a new World Poker Tour at 9.
• At 10, The History Channel has a new Modern Marvels.
• On Food Network at 10, a new Good Eats has Alton Brown looking at the world of pretzels.
• Also at 10: FX has a new Rescue Me.

Check your local TV listings for more.

(S32E11) I'm familiar with very few of Jeremy Piven's projects, but, from what I've seen, he's a great comedic actor. Unfortunately, sometimes even the great funnymen of television and film can really -- for lack of a better phrase -- totally suck it hard when it comes to live television. In Piven's case, before the monologue was even half-way over, I knew he was going to do fine. Aside from a few very minor reading flubs (I think he said "contact" instead of "connect" in the monologue, and stumbled over some lines in various skits), Piven did a flawless job. All in all, I thought this was a fairly strong episode.