As Americans feel financially pinched, will they still enjoy watching others consume like there’s no tomorrow (and no taste)? Will amusement toward profligate TV characters turn to resentment? And, if so, when? Bravo, the network dedicated to viewers who define themselves as hip, cutting-edge consumers, unleashes a festival of the nouveaux riche. Will the nouveaux broke watch?

“The Real Housewives of Atlanta Go Wild!” (8 p.m., Bravo) offers a reunion special with few inhibitions. The fourth-season premiere of “Real Housewives of Orange County” (9 p.m., Bravo) follows the catty, vapid women you’ve learned to love to hate.

• Tales of life and death unfold on the “Nova” (7 p.m., PBS, check local listings) presentation “Ocean Animal Emergency.” Based in Sausalito, Calif., this special ER employs veterinarians dedicated to saving ocean wildlife. In their practice, they have detected ominous trends for the local sea lions and sea pups, a plague of neurological illnesses linked to environmental blight. Like many doctors and biologists, they are also seeing the harmful effects of tons of garbage in the ocean.

• “Frontline” (8 p.m., PBS, check local listings) presents “The Hugo Chavez Show,” a look at how the Venezuelan leader has used the mass media to maintain his grip on power. Every week, Chavez hosts a program called “Alo Presidente” (“Hello, President”), in which he speaks directly to the viewers about policy decisions and changes — often for five to eight hours at a time, leavening his political orations with poetry and even songs. He uses the show to demonize foreign leaders and even to single out government officials and former allies who have fallen out of favor.

• Richard Roeper hosts “Fashion in Film” (9 p.m., Starz), a look at how films featuring fashion have flourished in the era of product placement.

• “The Shield” (9 p.m., FX) wraps up its seventh and final season with a 90-minute episode.

Tonight’s other highlights

• Anakin’s back story unfolds on “Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith” (6 p.m., Spike).

• A boy and his dog host a holiday feast in the 1973 special “Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” (7 p.m., ABC).

• A gun-wielding patient (Zeljko Ivanek, “Damages”) demands a diagnosis on “House” (7 p.m., Fox).

• Mandy Moore, Peter Gallagher and Allison Janney star in the 2003 drama “How to Deal” (7 p.m., CW), airing in lieu of “90210” and “Privileged.”

• Gavin’s mother goes on a rampage on “Gavin & Stacy” (7:40 p.m., BBC America).

• Key witnesses are found murdered “The Mentalist” (8 p.m., CBS).

• Harvesting hops and animal hides on “Dirty Jobs” (8 p.m., Discovery).

• Butterflies aren’t free on “Fringe” (8 p.m., Fox).

• Benson takes the side of an abused housewife on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” (9 p.m., NBC).

• “REAL Sports With Bryant Gumbel” (9 p.m., HBO) looks at the decline of a promising sprinter and a high-school football player with Down syndrome.

Cult choice

Tobey Maguire stars in director Ang Lee’s 1999 Civil War drama, “Ride with the Devil,” which focuses on Quantrill’s raid on Lawrence (8 p.m., AMC).