The Week Ahead – Teen Choice and Mad Men returns!

Highlights of the Week

• Ohmygodohmygodohmygod it’s THE JONAS BROTHERS! They’re going to be at Teen Choice 2009, the awards show so cool they took “Award” right out of the title. How badass are they (Mon. 8pm, FOX)?
• If you’re a little older, how about: Ohmygodohmygodohmygod it’s Neil Diamond – Hot August Night: NYC (Fri. 8pm, CBS).
• Ready to head back to Sterling Cooper? Want to see what those advertising geniuses have up their sleeves in the new season of Mad Men? Me too (Sun. 10pm, AMC).
• They lied to us last week, and pre-empted Better Off Ted for reality repeats. But this week, we’re promised the back-to-back season finale of the show so fun that nobody’s watching it. They’re really going to have to turn these ratings around in the new season if they want to survive. (Tue. 9pm, ABC).
• Tired of all those reality show whores filling up your TV with their 15 minutes of fame? Reality Hell turns the tables on them by faking the most outrageous realty shows they can fathom for these wannabe contestants. Finally, reality worth watching (Sun. 10:45, E!).
• Greg Giraldo wants to prove he’s more than just that guy at all the Comedy Central roasts that no one’s ever heard of. So they gave him a whole hour to be funny with Greg Giraldo: Midlife Vices (Sun. 10pm, Comedy Central).
• So, The Cleaner is okay television, but the true man behind the character is even better. Take a look at him right after the latest episode of The Cleaner with The Cleaner: Extreme Interventionist: The Man Behind The Cleaner. Can I say “Cleaner” any more times in one paragraph (Tue. 11pm, A&E)?
• I doubt we’ll see it come back, but I actually enjoyed The Philanthropist. It wraps its brief summer run this week with a trip to Haiti. I think the show did a great job of showcasing some of the global atrocities that we too often conveniently ignore (Wed. 10pm, NBC).

Premieres & Specials

• Do you like The Deadliest Catch? Then you’ll love Swords: Life on the Line. It appears to be essentially the same show, only this time it follows fishermen tracking tuna and swordfish. It’s even by the same people. Maybe they should have just franchised the name: The Deadliest Catch: Swordfish (Tue. 9pm, Discovery).
• Alone with a rogue pride of lions. That’s what you’ll get with Animal Planet’s new series Into the Pride. These majestic creatures remain endangered, so maybe by watching them on … television … they’ll live … uh? Yeah, I don’t know, but it’s got lions (Thu. 8pm)!
• Tired of those Real Housewives? Ready for Househusbands of Hollywood? It’s the same thing only with slightly more testosterone. Am I insulting the women or the men there? You decide (Sat. 9pm, Fox Reality).
• TLC is looking to get in on A&E’s OCD bandwagon with Truth Be Told. At least this first episode features a hoarder. Beyond that, it looks like they’re spreading out into other fare (Wed. 9pm, TLC).
• NBC is bringing gymnastics back to prime-time with the Visa Gymnastics Championships. So get out your leotard and play along at home (Sat. 8pm).
• Can’t get enough of them Kardashians? Kourtney & Khloe take the action to Miami in their own show (Sun. 10pm, E!).
• VH1 has an interesting new project. Every day this week, Lords of the Revolution will look back at the counter-culture icons of the ’60s and ’70s like Andy Warhol, Timothy Leary, the Black Panthers, and Cheech and Chong. They start us off with Muhammad Ali (M-F 8pm, VH1).
• If you want to keep the love flowing, stick around on Friday for Woodstock: Then and Now. Maybe they’ll interview some burned out hippies (Fri. 9pm, VH1).
• Other specials airing this week include The Nine Lives of Marion Barry (Mon. 9pm, HBO), Confessions of a Travel Writer (Mon. 9pm, Travel), Chain Gang Girls 2 (Tue. 9pm, WE),
• There are new seasons and new shows to get excited about, too, like Daddy’s Girls (Tue. 10pm, MTV), Primetime: The Outsiders (Tue. 10pm, ABC), Dog the Bounty Hunter (Wed. 9pm, A&E), Man vs. Wild (Wed. 9pm, Discovery), Criss Angel: Mindfreak (Wed. 10pm, A&E), Dinner: Impossible (Wed. 10pm, Food), Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Cincinnati Bengals (Wed. 10pm, HBO), American Loggers (Thu. 9pm, Discovery), 2 Months, $2 Million (Sun. 9pm, G4), My Antonio (Sun. 10pm, VH1), P. Diddy’s Starmaker (Sun. 10pm, MTV)

Finales

• It may be the end of the road for Obsessed, A&E’s fascinating look at people with severe OCD, but that doesn’t mean we’re done with the condition. Starting next week in the same slot, A&E turns the spotlight on just one aspect of OCD with Hoarders (Mon. 10pm).
• I guess there’s no point in posting that video of me making an ass of myself as Tosh.0 is wrapping it’s first season, so there’s no “Web Redemption” coming anytime soon (Thu. 10pm, Comedy Central).
• Other endings this week are Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List (Mon. 10pm, Bravo), NYC Prep (Tue. 9pm, Bravo), Bite Me with Dr. Mike (Tue. 10pm, Travel), That’s Impossible (Tue. 10pm, History), Ghost Hunters International(Wed. 9pm, Syfy), Wedding Day (Sat. 9am, TNT), Easy Money (Sun. 7pm, The CW), Gene Simmons Family Jewels (Sun. 9:30pm, A&E)

Clacked by Jason Hughes
on Aug 10, 2009 @ 17:00 EST5EDT