One thing that a lot of successful reality shows have in common is that they get fortunate with their initial casts, and I think that's one reason why I'm enjoying Greatest American Dog, even though objectively not very much is going on. The closest thing to a villain has been a woman who believed in tormenting her dog to get a good photo, and the mutts themselves are of course uniformly fantastic. I worry a bit about the well-being of Beth Joy, who was bounced on last week's show; she seems not to completely understand that her aging dog is not cut out for the role of permanent soul mate.

Dogs are fearless when protecting their families, but even they might balk at tonight's (CBS, 8 PM) big challenge, when they are brought face-to-face with elephants. Another challenge calls for the pooches to ride a zip line, which could separate the anxious from the poised. And speaking of losing poise, what was up with two of the judges last week suddenly going off on each other about which one was more qualified? If the judges can't hold it together, then there's no hope for the animals. Anarchy and leg humping will reign!

Democratic National Convention: The big speeches tonight (the major networks join the coverage at 10:00; the news channels will be there all night) will come from two men who are so famously voluble that they may turn this into a Thursday listing: Bill Clinton and vice presidential nominee Joe Biden.

America's Got Talent (NBC, 8 PM): Ten more acts go tonight, as this series moves towards its conclusion sometime in 2073. Seriously, did it take this long last season to really start cutting people? Neal Boyd got place of honor at the end of last night's airing, as if it wasn't already clear he's being pimped to the high heavens.

Mythbusters (Discovery, 9 PM): Put on your tinfoil hats: the mythbusters look into whether the moon landings were faked, including an examination of how you'd pull off such a stunt on a humble soundstage. You have to remember, though, this happened in 1969. Special effects were in their infancy; CGI was unheard of. We would look at Gumby cartoons and sit open-mouthed in wonder. There's no way they could have pulled off a moon hoax.

Project Runway (Bravo, 9 PM): Bravo is more interested at this point in plugging its future offerings than this season of Runway, so it's not surprising that freeze-dried celebrity stylist Rachel Zoe, whose own series begins in two weeks, is tonight's guest judge. I think Heidi is intentionally filling the guest chairs with women who are in her age range, but can't approach her fabulousness. Except for Natalie Portman.

Criss Angel Mindfreak (A&E, 10 PM and 10:30 PM): There's no one in modern America more associated with the bow and arrow than Ted Nugent, and he shows up this week to fire an arrow at Angel, who will hopefully catch it. Er, with his hands. Another stunt calls on Angel to be locked in an oil drum, and to pass through both it and a manhole cover into an adjoining drum.

Dinner: Impossible (Food Network, 10 PM): Michael Symon is fixin' to do dinner for 300 country music devotees at the Grand Ole Opry. The meal is inspired by the Charlie Daniels classic "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," so I guess there's chicken in there. The only thing that thoughts of Charlie Daniels make me want to put in my mouth is tobacco.

Jurassic Fight Club (History, 10 PM): It turns out you couldn't even go swimming safely in the Jurassic Period, as danger lurked there, as well in the form of characters like carnivorous whales and Megalodon, who was a lot like the great white shark, except twice as big.

Run's House (MTV, 10 PM): Going against the usual grain for a parent, Run tries to talk Russy out of quitting skateboarding. Also, JoJo and his group prepare for their CD release party with some coaching from the King of Rock himself.

Shear Genius (Bravo, 10 PM): The season finale, as someone passes on to haircutting immortality. Magazine maven Linda Wells appraises the finalists, who show off their talents on a collection of models. Is it so wrong that I'm pulling for Charlie? We Charlies have so few role models. The Manson kid looked promising, and then he got all weird on us.

Lewis Black's Root of All Evil (Comedy Central, 10:30 PM): Patton Oswalt and Paul Tompkins debate the always hard-fought issue of which is worse: the Red States or the Blue States. Let's see: Red has the Grand Canyon, but Blue has Times Square. Red has Walt Disney World, but Blue has Fenway Park. I'm Purple, so I can laugh at both of y'all.

Recommend (0)

|  Comments (0)

|  Email

|  Share

Share  Facebook Digg del.icio.us