Here’s what’s up in the world of television for Tuesday, April 5. All times are Eastern.
Top picks
NCIS/NCIS: New Orleans (CBS, 8 p.m./9 p.m.): The recent What’s On Tonight format shift has led some to wonder whether there’s still a place to give some much-needed attention to those incredibly highly rated procedural shows that none of you—fine, fine, one of you—watches but probably a good percentage of your parents do. And since our run as a heel What’s On Tonight correspondent mostly consists of calling you all losers even as we give you losers exactly what you demanded, here’s a double-barreled top pick for the NCISes! And let us tell you something, these descriptions sound pretty great in that NCIS sort of way, starting with original flavor: “Tony’s identity is stolen by multiple perpetrators who then start blackmailing senators.” The talk of multiple perpetrators has us hoping this episode is basically the It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World of identity theft and senator blackmail. And how about NCIS: The Sodom And Gomorrah On The Mississip? “The team investigates the murder of a Navy lieutenant during a second-line funeral procession, a New Orleans tradition involving a parade in honor of the deceased one’s life.” We think we can all agree: That story is quite Navy and/or New Orleans. All you can ask for, really.
10 Homes That Changed America/The Secrets Of Saint John Paul (PBS, 8 p.m./9 p.m.): Meanwhile, PBS takes a couple unusual angles to explore familiar topics. First up, 10 Homes That Changed America looks at everything from Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello to 19th century tenement buildings to understand the country’s history. Then, The Secrets Of Saint John Paul isn’t nearly as salacious as it might sound—this is PBS, not some reprobate channel like Fox or TLC or, sigh, History—as the documentary looks at the correspondence between the newly canonized Pope John Paul II and Polish-American philosopher Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine (Fox, 9:30 p.m.): American Idol is doing something stupid tonight—by which we mean, “airing 90 minutes of American Idol,” because we’re pretty sure we’ve all been done with American Idol for a while now—so Brooklyn Nine-Nine is left as the sole survivor of the Tuesday-night sitcom lineup, and even then it’s had to push back into The Grinder’s spot this week. Anyway, as we all try to pick up the pieces in the wake of Adrian Pimento’s departure, Amy goes undercover in a women’s prison, which, yes, LaToya Ferguson can see lots of way that could go well.
Premieres and finales
American Crime Story: The People Vs. O.J. Simpson (FX, 10 p.m.): This show is wrapping up its season this week, so let’s totally blur the lines between “Top Picks” and “Premieres and finales” by throwing it in here. (Hey, we had to make room for NCIS somehow, you jerks!) Anyway, tonight’s 93-minute finale has closing statements, jury deliberations, and the verdict, which unless American Crime Story feels like pulling an Inglourious Basterds-style swerve on us, is probably all going to be fairly predictable, at least right up to the point when the show does an extended flash-forward to the present-day Kardashians reflecting on the case. (We made that up, but it sounds terrifyingly plausible.) Pilot Viruet is ready to hear pitches for the next season of American Crime Story. While we’re intrigued by the instant history of American Crime Story: Hogan Vs. Gawker—which, whatever you might think of the legal merits of the case, is insane and perfect in all the ways that trashy prestige TV was made to explore—but we’re actually going to go historical with this one and stump for American Crime Story: The Trial Of Charles Guiteau.