‘DWTS’ and new CBS lineup: Just too familiar
Have there really been 23 seasons of “Dancing With the Stars” (8 p.m., ABC, TV-PG)? Or merely 23 variations on the same theme?
The new cast offers a virtual checklist of the series’ archetypal characters. It includes sports stars, music celebrities, ingenues from the Disney/ Freeform youth celebrity factory, a bad boy still in the media doghouse, a reality star who defies expectations of shape and beauty, and most curiously, the show’s second once-indicted right-wing Texas politician to attempt a paso doble.
Albert Einstein is credited with the saying, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.” Could he have also devised the formula for “Dancing With the Stars?”
OLD IS NEW — AGAIN
Kevin James hosts the “CBS Fall Preview” (8:30 p.m., CBS), a glance at a new season that puts special emphasis on the familiar. James (“King of Queens”) will return as a retired policeman adjusting to retirement and more time with his family in the sitcom “Kevin Can Wait.” A similar theme runs through “Man With a Plan,” starring Matt LeBlanc. Along with Matthew Perry in “Odd Couple,” CBS now has two former “Friends” stars on its sitcom roster. “Plan” also will feature familiar face: Kevin Nealon.
Joel McHale (“Community”) returns to prime time on CBS in “The Great Indoors” as a macho adventurer-type adjusting to office life and the conversational stylings of millennials. Any similarities between “Indoors” and Tim Allen’s “Last Man Standing” are strictly intentional.
Did I mention that CBS is rebooting “MacGyver?”
WEIRD SCIENCE
Good news. Some of the geeky gang from the recently departed “MythBusters” will be producing a series called the “White Rabbit Project” for Netflix. “MythBusters” was a Discovery series with an assured tone, helmed by people who believed in science and engineering and were smart and confident enough to have fun.
Too many Discovery series now chase a male blue-collar demographic with a certain panting desperation. I liked its “Harley and the Davidsons” miniseries, except for large wads of dialogue that seemed lifted from beer commercials. A new series, “Sacred Steel Bikes” (10 p.m., Discovery, TV-14), celebrates a crew of motorcycle builders and chopper enthusiasts with all the usual camaraderie and shenanigans. But seriously, “Sacred Steel”? That title is a joke.
TONIGHT’S HIGHLIGHTS
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A winner is crowned on both “American Ninja Warrior” (8 p.m., NBC, TV-PG) and “So You Think You Can Dance” (8 p.m., Fox, TV-PG). ›
Beginning tonight, Acorn streams the BBC period drama “The Secret Agent,” based on the novel by Joseph Conrad and starring Toby Jones (“Detectorists”) and Vicky McClure (“Line of Duty”). ›
A rogue agent kidnaps Toby on “Scorpion” (10 p.m., CBS, repeat, TV-14). ›
Marshawn Lynch goes “Running Wild With Bear Grylls” (10 p.m., NBC, TV-PG). ›
Rosie O’Donnell faces off with Kathy Najimy on the season finale of “The $100,000 Pyramid” (10 p.m., ABC, TV-14). ›
Darnell’s murder remains a mystery on “Major Crimes” (10 p.m., TNT, TV-14).