Tonight's TV Hot List for Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2009

George Carlin: The Mark Twain Prize
9 pm/ET PBS (check local listings)
Calling George Carlin "cranky" is akin to calling the Mona Lisa "well done" — it's on target but misses the mark. The comedian, who passed away last year, was best known for spurring a Supreme Court case, hosting the first Saturday Night Live, and provoking much thought and many more laughs. Here, he's posthumously awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., where spiritual heirs Lewis Black, Bill Maher, Garry Shandling and Jon Stewart as well as contemporaries Joan Rivers and Lily Tomlin are on hand. —Jeff Gemmill
Katie Couric: "All Access" Grammy Special
9 pm/ET CBS
"My dream is to die on CSI," Taylor Swift tells Katie Couric in this fan-pleasing hour of interviews leading up to Sunday's Grammy Awards. And Swift reveals her dream is coming true! Also chatting with Couric are Justin Timberlake, Lil Wayne and Katy Perry. But that's not all. There are a dozen shorter segments with the Jonas Brothers, Carrie Underwood, Metallica, Ne-Yo, John Legend, Rascal Flatts, Duffy, Adele, Kid Rock, Jazmine Sullivan, Jordin Sparks and T-Pain. —Tim Holland
Lost
9 pm/ET ABC
"I have to make them come back," Locke tells Sawyer in the promo for tonight's episode. "Even if it kills me." Wink, wink. Yes, the island's a dangerous place, a point that's constantly reinforced. So what makes the Oceanic 6's return so inevitable? We'll find out eventually, but you can expect that they'll be persuaded to go back. Meanwhile, Kate's problems with keeping Aaron aren't going away, and the return of Carol Littleton, Claire's mother (and Aaron's grandmother), isn't likely to help matters. —Paul Droesch
Spectacle
9 pm/ET Sundance
Elvis Costello welcomes Grammy-winning jazz pianist and composer Herbie Hancock in this episode. While sitting at a grand piano, Hancock breaks into demonstrations of keyboard techniques and talks candidly about his nearly six decades in the music business, which includes work with Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell and others. Later, he and Elvis team up for a performance of Hancock's jazz standard "Watermelon Man" from his 1962 debut album, Takin' Off. —Michael Scheinfeld
Life
9 pm/ET NBC
Life begins again as the quirky cop show returns from its winter hiatus. Tonight's installment finds Crews and Reese investigating the in-flight shooting of a retired NASA pilot. While they round up suspects, including the man's son and business partner, they discover the pilot was preparing to pay the Russians $35 million in exchange for hopping a ride back into space. And as if this weren't enough for Crews to process, he's also got the small task of trying to remember who shot him. —Brie Hearn