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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Tube Notes

By Mike Hughes
Gannett News Service

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Jeremy Sisto joins "Law & Order" as Detective Cyrus Lupo, for the show's 18th season.

MARY ALTAFFER | Associated Press

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TONIGHT'S MUST-SEE

"Law & Order" season openers, 8 and 9 p.m., NBC. Jeremy Sisto and Linus Roache have been added to "Law & Order." It's the sort of intensity injection this once-sleepy show needed. Sisto gets to be an action hero during the second hour here, in a couple of early chase scenes. In some other week, viewers will probably see just how intense he can be. But the real passion comes from Roache, as the chief assistant district attorney. That's the position previously held by Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston), who kept his emotions just under the surface. Now McCoy moves up to district attorney; Roache takes his old job, often seeming ready to explode.

OF NOTE

"Wife Swap" season opener, 7 p.m., ABC. One woman encourages her daughter to enter beauty pageants; another pushes academics and independence. Now they trade places.

"The Power of Ten," 7 p.m., CBS. In its summer run, this was a surprisingly enjoyable show. The game, trying to guess the public's answers to a poll, within a margin, has great play-along fun. (Each question is about 12 times more interesting than anything on ABC's recent "Duel.") Also, Drew Carey makes a fine host; that led to his daytime gig on "The Price Is Right" and to this new "Power," getting a temporary run during the main season.

"Deal or No Deal," 7 p.m., NBC. It's game-vs.-game, as networks try to survive during the writers' strike. Throw in "Wife Swap" on ABC, "Crowned" on CW, football on Fox and the new "Whacked Out Videos" on MyNetwork TV and you have six networks cramming unscripted shows into the same slot.

"Futurama," 6-7:30 p.m., Comedy Central. Here's the sort of scripted humor we need now — even if we've seen some of the episodes before. Comedy Central plans to rerun the complete cartoon series, including some episodes that went directly to video stores. That starts with the pilot, a fairly good one, in which a pizza delivery guy accidentally ends up 1,000 years in the future.

"Andrew Jackson: Good, Evil and the Presidency," 9 p.m., PBS. Few lives can match the highs and lows of Andrew Jackson. Praised as a defender of the common man, he also owned more than 100 slaves, led an unauthorized invasion of Florida and violently wrenched land from the Indians. This documentary includes the summary of James Parton, Jackson's first biographer: "He was a democratic autocrat, an urbane savage, an atrocious saint."

"Supernanny" season openers, 8 and 9 p.m., ABC. Both hours involve twins — 3-year-olds first, then 4-year-olds who are often cared for by their teen siblings.

"Celebrity Daredevils," 8 p.m., MyNetwork TV. Former basketball star Dennis Rodman drives off a cliff. Who knew he was open to suggestions?

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