Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior (CBS) — Series premiere. Forest Whitaker stars as the lazy-eyed head of an elite FBI team. Whoa whoa whoa! Hold the phone. A crime procedural spin-off? On CBS?!? Who could have foreseen such a development?
Survivor: Redemption Island (CBS) — Season premiere. I haven’t watched “Survivor” since the first season, so I don’t know anything about it now except that someone named “Russell” appears in every news story about the show. Anyway, the twist this season is that people who gets banished go to “Redemption Island” where they can compete to get back to main competition. Think of it as a losers’ bracket.
The Approval Matrix (Bravo) — Series premiere*. Based on New York Magazine’s excellent Approval Matrix infographic, this standalone show isn’t yet a series: Bravo’s going to see how it performs before it commits to more episodes. And seeing as how it’s not mentioned anywhere on Bravo’s website, that can’t be good news.
Modern Family/Mr. Sunshine (ABC) — Matt Dillon guest stars as Claire’s old boyfriend on “Family”; Matthew Perry’s “Sunshine” is already a hit, pulling in better ratings than “Cougar Town” in the same time slot.
Justified (FX) — Last week’s premiere did three separate things well: It provided a seamless transition from last season to this one, it introduced a new (and scary) batch of villains for Raylan Givens to battle this season, and it still served as a perfectly satisfying one-off episode with the sex offender plot. Props to the “Justified” writers for that one.
LATE NIGHT GUESTS: Brian Williams on “The Daily Show” always provides a hilarious give-and-take with Jon Stewart; Martin Lawrence/Fred Armisen/Reggie Watts on Conan; Charles Barkley and JWoww on Leno; Javier Bardem and Flavor Flav on Kimmel.
(full listings at TV Squad)
