“Million Dollar Password”
Sunday 8pm, CBS
Regis Philbin is back, people! And he’s about to show Howie Mandel how a real man hosts a game show. Lest we forget, Reeg caught lightning in a bottle back in 1999 with “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” (The answer: apparently, every middle-aged, middle-class Midwesterner.) Can he do so again with this update of the game show classic? You probably know the drill: Contestants are fed a series of clues related to a “password” that they have to guess. And who will do the feeding? Celebrities! Or, more to the point, moderately famous people clinging to their waning celeb status. Neil Patrick Harris (love him), Rosie O’Donnell (becoming increasingly difficult to support), infernal harpy Rachael Ray and Miss Betty White (an inspiration, for reals) are among the star-adjacent.
“2008 MTV Movie Awards”
Sunday 8pm, MTV
I can’t begrudge MTV for timing this annual fete to cash in on some of that lucrative summer blockbuster ad money. But it does seem ill considered for a network that puts such a high premium on being au courant to celebrate movies that are practically a year old. Knocked Up, I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, Transformers—those movies are so last year. Also old: host Mike Myers, who previously oversaw this shindig in 1997. That’s 11 years ago. Half of the target demographic was either in utero at that point or watching “Barney.” Perhaps he’ll be extra topical and bust out some Wayne’s World gags. Actually, that would be preferable to what will almost certainly be an unyielding pitch for his awful new flick, The Love Guru.
“The Mole”
Monday 10pm, ABC
Back in 2001, ABC tapped into the then-new reality TV craze with “The Mole,” a show in which roughly a dozen contestants performed various tasks in order to win money. The twist was that one of the players was covertly working as a saboteur and, to stay in the game, the players had to try to use their wits to figure out which one of them was the mole. It was a slick, gripping mindf**k of a show, and of course nobody watched it, and it was shelved after a second regular season and two awful “celebrity” installments. The good news: “The Mole” is back, and without the Z-list “famous” people. The bad news: Silver fox host Anderson Cooper is too legit for this shit, and has been replaced by former “Extra” host Jon Kelley.
