During the first couple of minutes of “Close to Home” (9 p.m., CBS), we’re shown a good-looking mother with her adorable baby, then a slow-motion view of fire trucks racing past idyllic neighborhoods on their way to a horrific conflagration. Then it’s back to Madonna and Child, and then cut to fireman prying off the bars of a basement window, allowing folks to escape just before the house explodes. It’s domestic bliss vs. suburban tragedy. And that’s basically all you need to know about “Close to Home.”

Jennifer Finnigan (“The Bold and the Beautiful”) stars as Annabeth Chase, a hotshot prosecutor with a perfect conviction record who happens to be the mom on display in the opening scenes. She’s back to work for the first time since having her bundle of joy. She doesn’t even get through the lobby doors before a million “mommy track” issues arise and get handled with sledgehammer subtlety.

¢ “Frontline” (8 p.m., PBS) looks back at “The O.J. Verdict” 10 years to the day after it was rendered. Producer Ofra Bikel refers to the case and its conclusion as “a perfect storm” of celebrity, racial attitudes and the news media out of control.

But most of “The O.J. Verdict” is about race, and how blacks and whites greeted the outcome with very different reactions. The New Yorker legal writer Jeffrey Toobin is still appalled by defense lawyer Johnny Cochran’s use of “the race card.” Former CNN reporter Marc Watts, who is black, dismisses such arguments. “Whites who said it’s not a trial about race speak that way because they haven’t been on the receiving end of injustices at the hands of a white person,” Watts observed.

Other highlights

¢ Caroline Rhea is host of “The Biggest Loser” (7 p.m., NBC).

¢ Major League Baseball divisional playoffs (7 p.m., Fox).

¢ Lorelai reaches out to Rory on “Gilmore Girls” (7 p.m., WB).

¢ “Nova” (7 p.m., PBS, check local listings) explores the wreckage of the Japanese battleship Yamato, sunk in 1945.

¢ Earl tries to make up for fixing a high school football game on “My Name is Earl” (8 p.m., NBC).