1. Mid-Season Premieres/Returns! Not too much tonight to get excited about. Discovery returns the aging classic American Chopper at 9pm and debuts World’s Toughest Trucker at 10pm.
2. TV Tonight! CBS is all new with its Monday comedies: How I Met Your Mother, 2 Broke Girls, Two and a Half Men, Mike & Molly followed by Hawaii Five-O. On NBC, we have two hours of The Voice (Blind Auditions 3) and the second outing of Smash. Fox brings new House at 8pm and Alcatraz at 9, while ABC continues the march of The Bachelor followed by new Castle. On CW, we have new Gossip Girl followed by Hart of Dixie. On cable, A&E depresses you with Hoarders at 9 and Intervention at 10; ABC Family has Pretty Little Liars at 8 and The Lying Game at 9; History has an entire night of Pawn Stars with two new episodes in the 10pm hour; Bravo goes for hour 3 of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills: Reunion; SyFy has new Being Human at 9 and Lost Girl at 10; and BET has the BET Honors 2012 starting at 9 (so expect lots of Whitney Houston mentions).
3 Casting News! Desmond Lives! Sort Of! Ok, Not At All, Really! Henry Ian Cusick (Desmond Hume from LOST) is set to guest star on Fringe later this season! James Wolk (Lone Star) has been added to the cast of Political Animals, the new Greg Berlanti-drama hitting USA Network this summer (and previously mentioned in The Morning News). Blythe Danner (the mom in the Meet the Parents movies) has been cast in the new Shonda Rhimes (period piece) drama for ABC, Gilded Lilys. Becki Newton (Ugly Betty) has been cast in a Fox comedy pilot from Carter-Bays (How I Met Your Mother) called The Goodwin Games, which is funny since she is set to begin an arc on How I Met Your Mother tonight! Synergy FTW! Lots of Community casting news here that I can’t bring myself to write about until NBC returns it to air! The ever awesome Stephen Root (everything awesome, including Office Space) is joining Boardwalk Empire for its upcoming Season 3. Don’t take his stapler, Nucky, or he’ll burn the bulding down.
4. Old New Show News! “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” I guess is the motto of this new Roseanne Barr show. For Standing Blogger, Michael B. Jordan (Friday Night Lights) has been cast in the NBC drama pilot, County, from Friday Night Lights executive producer, Jason Katims. Jason Ritter is also set to star.
Tonight’s episode of Smash will be make or break for me. If I like the episode and the numbers seem stable, then I’ll be blogging the show for the remainder of the season. So, if you were a fan, keep your fingers crossed for tonight!