If celebrity is a form of royalty, then certainly Kathy Griffin is the court jester. She needles and tweaks the egos of the A-list courtiers, but she never questions their exalted status. With comedy specials like “Kathy Griffin is … Not Nicole Kidman” (8 p.m., Bravo), she joyously assumes the mantle of Hollywood’s most besotted fan, albeit one who uses her position on the fringes of celebrity to occasionally mingle with the stars and observe them up close.

Griffin’s delicate dance between insider and outsider status is what makes her stand-up so dishy and delicious – and, sadly, it’s precisely what’s missing from the predictably disappointing new “reality” series “Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List” (9 p.m., Bravo).

In her “Kidman” special, taped before a live audience, Griffin shares minute details of her well-documented encounter with Ryan Seacrest at the Billboard Music Awards, her adoration of “American Idol,” her fascination with all things “Oprah” and her prickly relationship with Clay Aiken.

Griffin exults in long digressions about celebrity behavior. But at heart she is not a gossip. Most of her discussions about Oprah come not from her experiences on the set, but from watching the show every day. “And I mean,” she adds for emphasis, “Every day.”

She deconstructs moments like Oprah’s interview with Barbra Streisand as only a deranged fan can, or like a TV critic who has walked through the looking glass. She employs a stand-up comic’s caustic wit to skewer the ones she loves, questioning why Oprah “thinks she’s Jesus” or wondering just how long Clay Aiken’s legions of passionate fans will believe that “he just hasn’t found the right girl.”

Marinated in celebrity, Griffin’s best stand-up work gives voice to fans’ paradoxical feelings, which run the gamut from “Just who do these people think they are?” to “I just can’t get enough of them.”

Tonight’s other highlights

¢ Competition continues on “So You Think You Can Dance” (8 p.m., Fox).

¢ A sicko targets expectant mothers on “The Inside” (8 p.m., Fox).