Tonight's TV Hot List: Thursday, June 24, 2010

Rookie Blue
9/8c ABC
Five hot young Canadian actors (Missy Peregrym, Gregory Smith, Enuka Okuma, Travis Milne and Charlotte Sullivan) hit the ground running as ambitious, fresh-out-of-the-academy rookie cops in this character-driven drama. Their rule of thumb? "Fake it 'til you make it." In the opener, Andy McNally (Peregrym) shows how green she is when she botches an undercover drug sting with a rookie mistake. Later, a confrontation with a gunman offers her a chance to redeem herself or compound the error. — Fred Mitchell
NBA Draft
7:30/6:30c ESPN
It took a while, but this year the NFL finally caught on to what the NBA has know for years: The draft is a ready-for-prime-time event. A big edge enjoyed by the hoops version at Madison Square Garden is that most people have heard of the guards that are drafted. In fact, the first two players likely to shake Commissioner David Stern's hand are guards, in Kentucky's John Wall and Ohio State's Evan Turner. What follows is anybody's guess, but up to four more Wildcats could hear their names called in the lucrative first round before Stern steps aside, the panel of analysts gets punchy and the boisterous New York crowd steals the show. — Roger Leister
Royal Pains
10/9c USA
Hank's job as a concierge doctor thrusts him into yet another unusual situation. Boris decides to fly the good doctor to Cuba in hopes that Hank can make progress on finding ways to beat the genetic disease that's looming on the horizon for Boris. While there, Hank works with a local doctor, and the two look into gene therapies as a potential fix for Boris' condition. — Brie Hearn
Futurama
10/9c Comedy Central
As proof that good things come to those who wait, the animated 31st-century space comedy is back with its first new episodes since Fox banished it to the black hole of cancellation in 2003. So it's only natural that this born-again cartoon kicks off a 26-episode run with one called "Rebirth," in which the Planet Express crew owes their lives to the Professor's resuscitation machine. And there's more good news: The original voice cast is back, and guest voices include Katee Sackhoff, Chris Elliott and Al Gore. — Joe Friedrich
Boston Med
10/9c ABC
Building on a cinema-verité resumé that includes Hopkins, Boston 24/7 and NYPD 24/7, executive producer Terence Wrong returns to The Hub for an eight-part series that profiles the staffs and patients at three Boston hospitals. As with those previous works, not all the stories have happy endings, and much of the footage is not for the squeamish, including a segment in tonight's premiere in which an oral-maxillofacial surgeon operates on a police officer who was shot in the face in the line of duty. — Joe Friedrich
The OCD Project
10/9c VH1
An overnight field trip to an abandoned hospital brings the patients face-to-face with some of their worst fears, including things which any rational person would be afraid of, such as HIV, cancer and death. There are also other bugaboos to deal with at this unique locale: fear of blood and fear of the supernatural. — Fred Mitchell
Penn & Teller: Bull!
10/9c Showtime
Is kung fu a bunch of fooey? Is karate kid's stuff? Is jujitsu only so-so? Are the dojos filled with bozos? There sure is a lot of magical, mystical, mythical mystique to the martial arts. And that's just the kind of thing Penn and Teller get their kicks taking swings at. There are defenders, pretenders and contenders to hear from and opinions from teachers and instructors. But doesn't it ultimately come down to whether you can catch a fly with chopsticks or snatch a pebble from the hand of Master Po? — Ray Stackhouse