With Letterman's ratings spiking last week, it's more important than ever for Craig Ferguson to have a grabber at the beginning of his show. Well, the second year administrative assistant in CBS's Facilities department who is also in charged of overseeing The Late Late Show probably had a grabber of her own when she saw Tuesday night's cold open. Ferguson and two staff members donned wigs and lip sync-ed to Hanson's "mmmBop" with some puppets and an extra in a bondage outfit. Last night, Ferguson mentioned tonight's show would feature a cold open with a condor puppet so let's hope for more inspired performances.
Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson [12:35 AM, CBS]
Guests: Gerard Butler, Phoenix
The charm of the Late Late show is Ferguson's low-key attitude about everything from cold opens-gone-terribly-wrong to his guests. The most entertaining interview segments occur when Ferguson gets so caught up in his conversation that he forgets he is on camera, which will probably happen when he invites his fellow Scotsman (and Ugly Truth co-star), Butler onto the stage.
Wizards of Waverly Place [8 PM, Disney]
To bring you up to speed before tonight's third season premiere (you're going to have to find something to replace Southland), Selena Gomez plays one of three Italian-American siblings who has inherited the gift of witchcraft, but is only allowed to use it under the watchful eye of her sandwich shop-owning father. So when Justin (David Henrie) creates a monster to keep Alex out of his room tonight, you know that there will be some "hide-the-monster-from-dad" shenanigans. Like all Disney fare, Wizards never alludes to anything racy (as opposed to Pixar movies). Case in point, when Alex magically inserts herself into an ex-boyfriend's dream and tells him that he has the power to do anything, he chooses to play skeeball with Abraham Lincoln.
'Til Death [8:30 PM, Fox]
Brad Garrett gets to play top banana in Fox's Friday night sitcom, opposite Joely Fisher as his long-suffering wife of three decades. In tonight's new episode Joy (Fisher) and Eddie (Garrett) change up their sleeping arrangements with separate beds. Meanwhile, Eddie's school has a new principal (Kathleen Rose Perkins) who has a history with Eddie.
The Manchurian Candidate [8 PM, TCM]
Don't let Jonathan Demme's 2004 remake turn you off from John Frankenheimer's original, especially when Friday night's quality scripted programming continues to shrink. The film's star, Frank Sinatra, bought the rights to the Cold War political thriller and kept it out of release for two decades following the Kennedy assassination.