The numbers will tell: Tonight we'll see how the second episode of Matthew Perry's "Mr. Sunshine" performs. Last week's premiere was the best Wednesday @ 9:30pm premiere ABC has had since "Cougar Town" launched in 2009. This didn't surprise us, as we surmised last week, because of the star power each of the "Friends" cast still commands. Since we don't have access to the Nielsen data that would show if/how many viewers dropped off during the airing we won't truly know how the show is doing until after tonight.
"Mr. Sunshine," starring Matthew Perry as a frazzled sports/events arena-manager named Ben, does have some great cast members: we loved Andrea Anders in "Better Off Ted" and hope to see more of her, and Allison Janney of "The West Wing" showed us in Josh Malina's web series, "Backwash," that she was willing to go there with comedy. The question is, are we going to be feeling nostalgic for these now-defunct shows while watching "Mr. Sunshine" instead of giving this series a fair shake? If you watched last week's premiere, let us know, does "Mr. Sunshine" deserve more time?
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The Night In Preview: Yes, there will be new episode of "Modern Family" on as well tonight, but we're really hankering for the new episode of "Justified" (10pm on FX). We're predicting that this will be the breakout season for this series and last week's premiere only whetted our appetite for more of Timothy Olyphant's performance as US Marshall Raylan Givens, as well as his lovely costars Natalie Zea and Joelle Carter (please see our video interview with her at the end of this post!). Late night looks good as well with both Fred Armisen (congrats on the renewal of "Portlandia"!) and Reggie Watts on "Conan" while Rosie O'Donnell promises to cause a ruckus over on Jimmy Fallon's show.
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The TV Junkie Must-Watch Plan: "Modern Family," "Mr. Sunshine," "Justified," "Conan" (Martin Lawrence, Fred Armisen, comic Reggie Watts), "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon" (Rosie O'Donnell, actor Brandon T. Jackson, Odd Future performs)
7:00pm Lawrence of Arabia TCM - (1962) Controversial British officer T.E. Lawrence (Peter O'Toole) learns the culture of Arabs (Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn) and unites their tribes against the Turks.
8:00pm Survivor: Redemption Island CBS - The 18 contestants arrive in Nicaragua to begin competing for a million-dollar prize; castaways Russell Hantz and Rob Mariano return.
9:00pm Modern Family ABC - Fizbo is disinvited from Lily's birthday party; Mitchell and Clarie's mother DeDe (Shelley Long) comes to the party with Claire's ex-boyfriend (Matt Dillon)
9:00pm NOVA PBS/KOCE - Crash of Flight 447 The 2009 crash of Air France Flight 447 leaves questions about the airplane's flight path straight into a deadly storm.
9:30pm Mr. Sunshine ABC - Crystal holds a contest for Employee of the Year despite having chosen a winner already; Ben must cater to the needs of a teen heartthrob (Nick Jonas) who is set to perform at the arena.
10:00pm Justified FX - Raylan chases a pregnant fugitive who has fallen into the hands of human traffickers.
10:00pm Nova scienceNOW PBS/KOCE - Where Did We Come From? Origin of the very first living thing.
11:00pm Conan TBS - Actor Martin Lawrence; actor Fred Armisen; comic Reggie Watts.
11:35pm Late Show With David Letterman CBS - Amos Lee performs.
11:35pm The Tonight Show With Jay Leno NBC - Sports commentator Charles Barkley; reality-TV personality Jenni "JWoww" Farley; Red performs.
12:00am Lopez Tonight TBS - Actor Liam Neeson; Eddie Griffin.
12:05am Jimmy Kimmel Live ABC - Actor Javier Bardem; TV personality Flavor Flav; Stone Sour performs.
12:35am Late Night With Jimmy Fallon NBC - Comic Rosie O'Donnell; actor Brandon T. Jackson; Odd Future performs.