Tyler James Williams, the young title star of “Everybody Hates Chris,” hosts the hour-long “Family Entertainment Awards” (8 p.m., CW), honoring the dwindling number of network shows that parents, children and grandparents can watch in the same room without unbearable discomfort.

Guests and presenters include Blake Lively, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Mario Lopez, Ryan Seacrest and Simon Cowell. Lively plays Serena on “Gossip Girl,” a show that depicts casual sex and drug use among high school students. And like too many other shows, it portrays many teens as vain, shallow, materialistic and cruel.

Television rarely pays attention to the countless teens or 20-somethings working several jobs or assuming horrendous debt to put themselves through college. And what about the hundreds of thousands fighting in two war zones?

Instead, we’re shown young people as sex objects, sex-obsessed or shopaholics.

If any other group, or ethnic or racial minority, were depicted as negatively as people under 25, they would probably rise up in protest.

But maybe young people are demonstrating in their own way. Many have all but stopped watching network television.

• With fewer than three weeks left before the new year, the snarky clip series “Best Week Ever” (8 p.m., VH1) looks back at 2008. Host Paul F. Tompkins helps viewers glance back at a jumble of politics, pop culture, must-see and cringe-worthy videos and clips of celebrity misbehavior.

• The new series “Brink” (9 p.m., Science) explores the cutting edge of science and technology and profiles scientists and inventors on the cusp of new developments.

Host Josh Zepps looks at The Fit-5, a new chemical device that firefighters use to blow down small fires. Acting like a hand-grenade, it blows the flames out. We also visit with a team from Illinois that hopes to win the X Prize by building a practical car that gets 100 miles per gallon.

Holiday highlights

• Ernest Borgnine stars in the 2007 fable “A Grandpa for Christmas” (6 p.m., Ion).

• Jingle bells rock on “Greatest Holiday Moments: Songs of the Season Countdown” (7 p.m., NBC).

• Jimmy Durante narrates the 1969 cartoon “Frosty the Snowman” (7 p.m., CBS).

• Jonathan Winters and John Goodman narrate “Frosty Returns” (7:30 p.m., CBS) from 1992.

• Smug Californian teens are sentenced to perform a good deed in the 2008 spinoff “Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh” (7:30 p.m., Nickelodeon).

• A young reindeer learns the ropes in the 2008 computer-animated fable “The Flight Before Christmas” (8 p.m., CBS).

• A German civilian (Linda Hamilton) hosts soldiers on both sides of the Battle of the Bulge for the holiday in the 2002 World War II holiday drama “Silent Night” (8 p.m., Ion).

• Christmas cookies crumble in the 2005 comedy “Recipe for a Perfect Christmas” (8 p.m., Lifetime), starring Christine Baranski.

Tonight’s other highlights

• Natasha Bedingfield appears (as herself) on “Lipstick Jungle” (8 p.m., NBC).

• Keller is not feeling like herself on “Stargate: Atlantis” (8 p.m., Sci Fi).

• “True Hollywood Story” (8 p.m., E!) profiles Clay Aiken.

• A serial rapist may be hiding in a position of authority on “Numb3rs” (9 p.m., CBS).