Tonight's TV Hot List: Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2010

Winter Olympics
8/7c NBC
With a win on this track in last year's World Cup, America's Shauna Rohbock has to be considered a favorite in tonight's women's bobsled final. With partner Michelle Rzepka, she's got some momentum, having also won the final World Cup event of this season. Lindsey Vonn races again tonight in what has been her weakest event this season, the giant slalom; but her teammate Julia Mancuso won the gold in this race in 2006. There are two exciting events in short-track: Apolo Ohno skates in the prelims of the wild 500m men's sprint (he led wire-to-wire to win gold in this event in Torino); and the frenetic women's 3000m relay. "I feel like we have a really good shot at the podium in the relays," says U.S. skater Katherine Reutter. "We've become a very deep team."  In freestyle skiing, China has been the dominant force in women's aerials; and in cross-country, the men's 4x10km relay final has traditionally been the sport's most thrilling race. — Dave Roeder
Faces of America with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
8/7c PBS
The arrival of Europeans to the New World is explored via the ancestral stories of Meryl Streep and Eva Longoria. One of Streep's distant paternal relatives, it turns out, fought in Metacom's War, an English-Native American conflict in 1675-76 that's also known as King Philip's War. As for Longoria, her ancestors arrived on these shores in the early 1600s, having left their native Spain due to a land dispute. The episode also explores cellist Yo-Yo Ma's family history in China. — Jeff Gemmill
American Idol
8/7c Fox
You've got male: After all that girl power last night when the Top 12 female contestants took the stage, the focus now turns to some male-pattern bonding tonight. In the second of three Idol episodes this week, the Top 12 male singers deliver performances in a two-hour live musical bash. Tomorrow night's episode marks Season 9's first live results installment, in which two male semifinalists and two female semifinalists will be eliminated. — Dean Maurer
Shear Genius
10/9c Bravo
So far in Season 3's early progress, our hair artisans whipped up styles for a steamy swimsuit show, dyed hard in a color-repair challenge and extended their talents by applying hair extensions to men. So their flair for hair should be blooming, particularly tonight when they integrate flowers into their hair creations. Later, an Indian wedding is the backdrop when the contestants shape hair for bridesmaids. The contestants are in the crosshairs, too: Super cutter and saucy Aussie Tabatha Coffey (Tabatha's Salon Takeover), never one to mince words, is a guest judge. — Dean Maurer
Real World
10/9c MTV
The D.C. crew members tend to get rowdy after a couple of cocktails. You'd think that after the first few fights turned ugly, they'd learn that drinking and roughhousing are a volatile combination. But that's clearly not the case tonight when playful fighting turns into the real thing, and this time, someone gets hurt. Meanwhile, Josh kick-started his singing career last week, and this week he may get kicked to the curb when his girlfriend at home learns about his chronic infidelity. — Karen Andzejewicz