Jilted by “Bachelor” Jason Mesnick, Jillian Harris has been anointed “The Bachelorette” (8 p.m., ABC). She’ll spend many weeks winnowing down a McMansion full of Ken dolls to see whether one is her One True Love. There are probably worse ways to earn a living.
When she’s not an emotional exhibitionist, Jillian, 29, works as a restaurant interior designer in Vancouver, British Columbia. Notice the specificity in that résumé. She doesn’t do home interiors, or banks, bakeries or floral shops. Just restaurants. Will that laser-like focus make her too picky to find Mr. Right?
She is said to have participated in — and I quote — “one of the steamiest hot tubs in ‘Bachelor’ history.”
If you really care about this, I don’t want to know you.
• Sometimes it seems that TV programmers have schemed to keep men and women apart. While one audience sits glued to “The Bachelorette,” another huddles before “4th and Long” (9 p.m., Spike), Michael Irvin’s reality TV quest to find the next great Dallas Cowboy.
There’s great tragedy (or potential comedy) in all of these separate screening rooms.
• I’ve come to the conclusion that “24” (7 p.m., Fox) is just like “The Wizard of Oz.” OK, forget the flying monkeys. But in “Oz,” Dorothy learns that if you ever go looking for your heart’s desire and don’t find it in your own backyard, then you probably never lost it in the first place. On “24,” we learn that you don’t have to go looking for terrorists in the Swat Valley of Afghanistan. They’re right in our own governmental backyard.
And when terror doesn’t find you, there’s always family trouble. As Jack’s long day winds down to its final two hours, it seems that both his dilemma and the president’s woes revolve around their once-estranged daughters.
• “American Experience” (8 p.m., PBS, check local listings) dusted off its 1992 epic history “The Kennedys” and updated it to include Sen. Edward Kennedy’s 2008 illness and his role in supporting the Obama candidacy.
The vast majority of viewers who tune into “The Kennedys” will probably know every fact and have seen every photo and inch of footage presented here.
Sitting through “The Kennedys” is an act not unlike screening “The Godfather” for the 34th time. You don’t have to watch it. You want to.
Tonight’s season finales
• Graduation day on “Gossip Girl” (7 p.m., CW).
• Ted flogs his business on “How I Met Your Mother” (7:30 p.m., CBS).
• Charlie has second thoughts on “Two and a Half Men” (8 p.m., CBS).
• Big changes for key characters on “One Tree Hill” (8 p.m., CW).
• Jeff has doubts on “Rules of Engagement” (8:30 p.m., CBS).
• Horatio fights for Yelina on “CSI: Miami” (9 p.m., CBS).
• After disturbing dreams about a young woman (Rumer Willis), Allison reaches out to her imprisoned former colleague (Angelica Huston) on “Medium” (9 p.m., NBC).
Tonight’s other highlights
• “Dancing with the Stars” (7 p.m., ABC) continues.
• Maria Bartiromo hosts “Meeting of the Minds: The Future of Capitalism” (8 p.m., CNBC).
Cult choice
Years before “It’s a Wonderful Life,” Frank Capra made the 1932 drama “American Madness” (3:45 p.m., TCM), starring Walter Huston as an idealist trying to protect his independent bank and save his customers.
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