Eva Longoria Parker and George Lopez host the 2009 ALMA Awards (7 p.m., ABC), honoring achievements by Hispanics in film, television, music and the arts. Salma Hayek will receive the Anthony Quinn Award for Industry Excellence. Hayek is the producer of “Ugly Betty,” an American adaptation of a telenovela from Colombia that now airs on Friday nights on ABC.

Rita Moreno will lead a tribute to Ricardo Montalban, who died earlier this year. Look for performances by Shakira, David Archuleta, Nelly Furtado, Sean Kingston and Pitbull.

• In other awards news, Kathy Griffin hosts the 2009 Creative Arts Emmy Awards (12 p.m., E!). While this afternoon special will not have the razzle-dazzle of Sunday night’s fete, look for more than 82 Emmys, including those for Outstanding Guest Actor/ Actress in both comedy and drama series, Outstanding Reality Series and Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special.

• Speaking of afternoon television, today marks the final airing of “Guiding Light” (check local listings), a soap opera that predates television itself and that goes dark after being broadcast for 72 years. To put that into some perspective, to match that record, “Law & Order” would have to run until 2061! I’m not sure Sam Waterston could handle it.

• Recycling works! That green message was brought to you by “The Troop” (7 p.m., Nickelodeon), a new live-action comedy series that offers viewers the latest version of “Men in Black.” The title refers to a super-secret society of teens who are the only people in their town with the power to control the paranormal creatures around them.

• “Crash” (9 p.m., Starz) enters its second season following the serendipitous connections between Los Angelenos of different backgrounds, incomes and ages. Eric Roberts joins the cast as a tycoon eager to bring a football team to the city with an ambitious stadium plan that runs into local opposition from the poor residents it may displace.

Dennis Hopper returns as a past-his-prime producer who has put his drug habit behind him in order to cope with his daughter’s murder.

Like many series and movies set in the sunny climes of Los Angeles, the makers of “Crash” seem intent on creating as dark a vision as possible. After a steady parade of degenerate gamblers, paid escorts, philandering cops and delusional addicts, it’s easy to lose interest and empathy.

Tonight’s other highlights

• An astrophysicist competes on the season finale of “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?” (7 p.m., Fox).

• Composer Oscar Hammerstein updates Bizet’s opera with an all-black cast in the 1954 musical “Carmen Jones” (7 p.m., TCM), starring Dorothy Dandridge, Harry Belafonte and Pearl Bailey.

• Allison pursues a drug lord who appears to have put her family in the crosshairs on the cliffhanger season finale of “Medium” (8 p.m., CBS).

• Confidence building on “Glee” (8 p.m., Fox).

• Tess mulls a job offer on the third-season finale of “Eureka” (8 p.m., SyFy).

• Adrian suspects that a critic (Dylan Baker) wields more than a poison pen on “Monk” (8 p.m., USA).

• A man fears the worst when several of his ex-girlfriends meet grim fates on “Psych” (9 p.m., USA).