Tonight's TV Hot List: Friday, Aug. 7, 2009
Monk
Monk
9/8 CT USA
Monk kicks off its eighth and final season tonight as the obsessive-compulsive detective takes a case that messes with his sense of reality...well, a little more than usual. Monk eagerly becomes a bodyguard for a former child star (played by Elizabeth Perkins) who's receiving death threats. But his excitement fades when he learns the actress is nothing like her TV alter ego. — Brie Hearn
Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?
8/7 CT Fox
A number of folks who have succeeded at making themselves famous (Star Jones, Larry the Cable Guy, Sugar Ray Leonard) have appeared on the show this summer, but the notoriety that tonight's contestants have achieved is certainly unwanted: Surfer Bethany Hamilton lost an arm in a shark attack, and Jill Finley awoke from a supposedly irreversible coma in 2007. Dealing with fifth-grade geography has to be easier than that. — Paul Droesch
Eureka
9/8 CT Syfy
Sleepwalking leads to sleep-building when a Stonehenge-like structure made of electronics and stolen scrap metal is raised in a field. In the course of his investigation, Sheriff Carter learns that the town's youths are the architects. So much for the stereotype of teenagers being lazy and unfocused. — Michael Chant
NUMB3RS
10/9 CT CBS
Actor-rapper Eve guest stars in this sometimes comical episode from February about a prized pair of stolen sneakers. The shoes in question belong to a foreign ambassador who purchased the kicks for $250,000 at auction. What makes them so valuable? They are the first pair of the final edition of a classic brand. Eve's La-La Buendia is particularly anxious that the sneaks be found because she won't receive her commission money for selling them until they are tracked down. — Tim Holland
Chefs vs. City
10/9 CT Food Network
In the premiere of this reality series, New York becomes a battleground for chefs-turned-hosts Aaron Sanchez and Chris Consentino, who go head-to-head with contemporaries (and network colleagues) Kelsey Nixon (Next Food Network Star) and Claire Robinson (5 Ingredient Fix) to find the Big Apple's most appealing spots to chow down. And that's just the start: Future episodes of the series, in which Sanchez and Consentino take on foodies across the country, visit such locales as Malibu and Las Vegas. — Michael Chant