The Academy Awards have become one of those annual TV events that we’ve started to look forward to not because we know we’re going to love it, but because we know we’re going to hate it. The joy comes from speculating which aspect of the telecast is going to leave us completely joyless. A few years back, the motion picture academy began naming more than five Best Picture nominees, so as to heighten the possibility that crowd-pleasing films would finally win something. The end result was Avatar losing to The Hurt Locker; now this year’s favorite is a silent movie starring something named Jean Dujardin. The more the academy tries, the more popular appeal seems to elude it.

This year’s Oscars (Sunday, ABC 8:30 p.m.) dealt with the (relatively) last-minute departure of its producer and host by going back to onetime perennial emcee Billy Crystal. This lessens the possibility of a complete disaster, but there’s not much chance Crystal’s edgeless humor will make for anything truly memorable either. Most of the intrigue will surround the awards for Best Actor and Actress: can the aforementioned Dujardin repeat his SAG upset of George Clooney, and will Meryl Streep end her long Oscar drought? Try to stay awake long enough to find out.

Also this week:

Monday: Bethenny Ever After (Bravo, 9 p.m.): Now that they have officially run out of ways to extend the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills season, it’s back to Bethenny Frankel and her long-suffering hubby  (I know they just got married, but it just seems like “long-suffering” is the correct term here). The season premiere finds Bethenny enjoying the perks of being a cocktail mogul, while Jason deals with the “Mr. Frankel” issue.

Tuesday: Doomsday Preppers (National Geographic, 9 p.m.): There’s a lot of buzz about this latest entry in reality TV’s abnormal psychology wing. The future doomsdays this week’s subjects are looking out for: rising seas, economic meltdown, and pandemic. What about plagues of locusts? The locusts are coming for us and no one seems to care!

Wednesday: Survivor: One World (CBS, 8 p.m.): The women’s tribe tries to pull itself together before getting routed, while the men show some cracks in their façade. I like the ideas they’re trying this season, but I sure hope this cast is better than my first impression. Right now it seems like too many are self-consciously trying to fill a “type.”

Thursday: American Idol (Fox, 8 p.m.): We learn the identities of the remainder of our top 24. I sure hope the three hours of Idol we have this week give us something more to go on, because an Idol pundit is supposed to have some solid ideas by now as to who might win. I can’t see them actually  letting Heejun Han face the voters, but he’s the most memorable person we’ve seen thus far.

Friday: Grimm (NBC, 9 p.m.): A double homicide finds Nick and Monroe looking into the inner workings of a fight club for bizarre beings. I wonder if they will get anyone to talk to them? Nick is also forced to come to Monroe’s aid, which is a positive thing since the so-called supporting character is pretty much the only reason viewers care about this show.

Saturday: Witchslayer Gretl (Syfy, 9 p.m.): I figured we’d see attempts to capitalize on the success of Once Upon a Time before long, and here we go – the now-grown Hansel returns to the woods to seek revenge on the witch that killed his sister, only to find that Gretl is still alive and being played by Shannon Doherty.

Tags: 2012 academy awards, 2012 oscars, 84th academy awards, academy awards, american idol, american idol 11, bethenny ever after, bethenny frankel, Billy Crystal, doomsday preppers, george clooney, grimm, Jean Dujardin, meryl streep, oscars, shannen doherty, survivor, survivor 24, survivor: one world, syfy movies