TV: Five shows worth watching tonight: July 26
Your select viewing guide for Thursday, July 26
REALITY: America’s Supernanny (Slice, 8 p.m.) There’s a new nanny in town. In case you lost track, Jo Frost walked away from this popular series last year in a salary dispute. Her replacement is the no less imposing Deborah Tillman, who we’re told is a mother herself and runs several “learning centers” for children in Virginia. Like her predecessor, Ms. Tillman adheres to a semi-tough-love approach to childcare, and the each episode in the series presents her with a new set of parents at wits’ end with their bothersome brats. Tonight, for example, she moves in with a frazzled couple saddled with rambunctious two-year-old quadruplets and two older siblings desperately seeking attention.
BIOGRAPHY: Private Screenings: Ernest Borgnine (TCM, 8 p.m.) The late Ernest Borgnine was one of a kind. The veteran character actor, who passed away earlier this month at age 95, spent more than 50 years in film and television and was working right up to the end of his life (one of his final roles was voicing Mermaid Man on Spongebob Squarepants). Borgnine joyously looks back at his life in this 2009 interview with TCM host Robert Osborne. Among other revelations, we learn that he only went into acting at his mother’s urging and that his inspiration to switch from film to the TV series McHale’s Navy came from a kid selling chocolate bars door to door. Best of all, Borgnine recounts several behind-the-scenes stories about winning the Best Actor Oscar for the 1955 drama Marty, which airs on TCM immediately after this program.The Associated Press
DRAMA: The Protector (Bravo!, 9 p.m.) Hailing from the U.S. Lifetime cable channel, this gritty crime drama stars TV veteran Ally Walker (Profiler, Sons of Anarchy) as Gloria, an LAPD homicide detective and also the mother of adorable twin boys. Ergo, each episode is neatly split between Gloria solving crime and life on the home front. As in tonight’s show, in which Gloria grills suspects in the murder of a successful Beverly Hills plastic surgeon and then has to deal with the sudden reappearance of her ex-husband.The Associated Press
REALITY: 3 (CBS, 10 p.m.) Most love-connection series resemble a cattle call but this new series narrows down the search. Debuting tonight , the format follows three single ladies in the quest to find true love. The ladies: model Libby Lopez, 24, sales rep Rachel, 34 and entrepreneur April, 29. Over the course of eight episodes, the trio will collectively screen more than 100 eligible bachelors, but of course it’s not a simple process. In tonight’s opener, April tries to lower her expectations, Rachel struggles with re-entering the dating scene as a widow and Libby tries to find that special guy who shares her religious beliefs.
MOVIE: From Here to Eternity TCM, 10:45 p.m.) (Epic in scope and boasting one of the best casts in cinema history, this 1953 drama has lost none of its impact. Set in Honolulu in the days immediately before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the story focuses primarily on two wartime characters: Sergeant Warden (Burt Lancaster) wants to romance the wife (Deborah Kerr) of his commanding officer; brooding Private Prewitt (Montgomery Clift), meanwhile, simply wants to be left alone. Everything changes of course, on Dec. 7, 1941, when the skies above Pearl Harbor are full of Japanese bombers. Winner of eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor trophies for Frank Sinatra and Donna Reed.