FRINGE (9PM FOX, CTV in Canada)
Animal rights activists continue to take a prime-time beating (see: DOLLHOUSE and NUMB3RS) when a rescue mission at a laboratory backfires releasing a vicious beast on an unsuspecting public.

90210 (9PM CW, GlobalTV in Canada)
Not only did Donna Martin graduate, it turns out she may have put those smarts to good use. How else to explain Tori Spelling returning to 90210 on the same exact day her new book Mommywood hits the shelves. Daddy would be proud. Candy, well… not so much.

NEW & NOTABLE:
ACCORDING TO JIM (8PM ABC)
Just when you thought it was safe to return to ABC at 8PM on Tuesday night… along comes ACCORDING TO JIM with back-to-back episodes.

CUPID (10PM ABC)
It’s not quite the My Girl reunion fans, we’ve been clamoring for. But it’s still a pretty big coincidence that Anna Chlumsky guest stars on tonight’s CUPID mere days before My Girl co-star Macaulay Culkin drops by KINGS. Agreed?

FRINGE (8PM FOX, CTV in Canada)
Serial killer, creepy kids, dancing Walter…. we can’t wait!

90210 (9PM CW, Global in Canada)
Jason Priestly… directed this outing, which pretty much revolves around Silver and the fallout from that whole video mess that unfolded in the last episode.

CUPID (10PM ABC)
I ain’t gonna lie: I went into this show last week hating it. Call it THE LOVE BOAT syndrome, but by the end of the pilot, I’d been lulled into a state of somnambulistic-like bliss that left me… well, not exactly eager for more, per se, but somehow not opposed to the idea.

NEW & NOTABLE:
IT’S THE EASTER BEAGLE, CHARLIE BROWN! (8PM ABC)
Everyone mocks Linus for believing in the Easter Beagle. The life lesson here? The cool kids don’t have all the answers, and the geeky kids often walk away with the candy.

NCIS (8PM CBS, Global in Canada)
When a scientist who was working on a hush-hush project goes missing, Abby is asked to take his place. Here’s hoping she has a great insurance plan.

REAPER (8PM CW)
A tentacled beast wants to take over a small town and Sock tries sleeping with his stepsister. Hard to say which is creepier.

THE BIGGEST LOSER (8PM NBC, E! in Canada)
Is there no show celebriwhore chef Rocco DiSpirito won’t do? As of tonight, I think we all know the answer.

DANCING WITH THE STARS (9PM ABC)
Beyonce may have sung “At Last” at the inauguration, but Etta James croons the tune she’s best known for on tonight’s results show. That’s almost — not quite, but almost — enough to get me to watch.

THE MENTALIST (9PM CBS)
THE NANNY alum Nicholle Tom plays Marilyn Monroe as the team heads to Hollywood to try and solve the murder of a movie producer. What am I saying, “try to solve”? I’m pretty sure we all know they’ll be successful. Perhaps instead they should focus on finding out what the heck Tom has been doing in the years since her sitcom went off the air!

LAW & ORDER: SVU (10PM NBC, CTV in Canada)
When one case seems connected to another, the hunt is on for a serial killer. Unfortunately, another cop — one who is pretty territorial — is already on the case.

WITHOUT A TRACE (10PM CBS)
Matchmaker, matchmaker make me a match… just try and get that diddy out of your head! Tonight’s outing has a Russian matchmaker vanishing (all together now: without a trace!) and leaving behind a long, long list of suspects who probably wish they’d just gone the Craigslist route.

Tonight marks the premiere of CUPID Version 2.0 on ABC and to help spread the word were stars Jeremy Piven Bobby Cannavale and Paula Marshall Sarah Paulson who were kind enough to spend a few minutes chatting it up with theTVaddict.com.

Before we get into CUPID, I have to ask [Sarah] the obligatory STUDIO 6O ON THE SUNSET STRIP question. Were you apprehensive about jumping back into television after what happened with your last show?
Sarah Paulson: If anything, STUDIO 60 further wetted my appetite to want to do something really good on television. Although I know it had its problems, the words I got to say were sort of unprecedented so really, my only apprehension was that I wouldn’t get to bite into the same type of material. And although it’s a totally different kind of show, Rob [Thomas] writes incredibly funny and witty repartee, a different version of the Aaron Sorkin rat-atat-tat… yeah that’s right, I said rat-atat-tat…
Bobby Cannavale: And “repartee”

Were you familiar with Rob Thomas’ original version of CUPID?
Sarah Paulson: I knew it existed, but I really didn’t want to watch it because I’m just a copycat anyways and would have ended up just copying anything that was done.
Bobby Cannavale: I don’t believe that.
Sarah Paulson: I was worried that I would get ideas based on what came before me, you know?
Bobby Cannavale: I don’t watch any television.

The TV Addict: Oddly enough you’re not the first actor who has told me that.
Bobby Cannavale: It takes a lot of time and you have to really commit to sitting in front of a screen and I have other things I’d rather be doing. I work a lot for one, I like to read, it’s just not something I was into as a kid. Although that doesn’t mean I don’t watch TV shows. The DVD thing… these new  things the kids are watching, I really like them.
Sarah Paulson: Didn’t you just finish watching DEXTER on DVD?
Bobby Cannavale: I just finished watching the first three seasons of DEXTER in two weeks

The TV Addict Ahh… so you watch TV, just on DVD.
Bobby Cannavale: Yeah, pretty much.

What attracted you two to the series?
Sarah Paulson: I get to work with Bobby everyday. 

Bobby and were you equally excited to work with Sarah?
Bobby Cannavale: That’s what drew me to the project initially. As well as the character and his extraordinary circumstances and the fun that I’d be able to have playing this kind of part. The relationshp between Trevor and Claire is really the heart of the show. And being able to watch it from the first step and see where it takes us. The building of that relationship is where the meat of the story lies.
Sarah Paulson: You just wanted to find a way to get ‘meat of the story-line” in there.

I understand you’ve shot seven episodes this season. But should the unthinkable happen and CUPID not get picked up for a second season, will fans be left with a dreaded cliffhanger?
Bobby Cannavale: I would definitely say that by the end of the first season, Trevor and Claire’s relationship hasn’t gotten all the way where it’s supposed to be. We do get closer and certainly I think the audience will be left with a feeling that maybe there’s something that is about to happen.

I suppose if thing go as well as you’re hoping, Trevor and Claire Cupid’s last love connection.
Sarah Paulson: That’s the conceit of the show. Cupid ended up with a mortal, named Psyche… and since my character’s a psychologies, you can pretty much guess the rest from there!

CUPID premieres Tuesday March 31 at 10PM on ABC

CUPID (10PM ABC)
The person who said there are no new ideas under the sun is apparently proven right tonight as ABC launches this remake of a show that failed miserably the first time around. On the plus side, Bobby Cannavale (WILL & GRACE) deserves a series and is wildly appealing. This, however, probably won’t be it.

NEW & NOTABLE:
BETTER OFF TED (8PM ABC)
Hoping to get an audience for this quirky comedy, ABC is re-running the first two episodes back-to-back. The series is wildly uneven, but it has its moments… and that’s more than you can say for a lot of currently-airing shows.

NCIS (8PM CBS)
Sometimes, you’ve gotta do things you don’t want to in order to get the job done. For me, that involves going to work. For Gibbs, it means working with bad guy Trent Kort in order to capture a major criminal.
 
REAPER (8PM CW)
Andi gets a shock when she finds out that the devil is Sam’s babydaddy.
 

BIGGEST LOSER (8PM NBC)
Former winners Ali Vincent and Michelle Aguilar step in to take over the hostessing duties of Alison Sweeney. But the fun won’t stop as a player suffers a medical problem, new players shake things up and a competition leaves several players suspended above a pool!
 
SEX AND THE CITY (8PM HBO)
Frankly, I thought this movie was pretty awful. There was about 30 minutes of good stuff, but then… blech. Finding out the sequel is being shot in London doesn’t inspire me with confidence. After all, the series was a love letter to New York City… not London or, for that matter, California (where Samantha spends most of this flick). Rant over. (Your thoughts, folks?)
 
DANCING WITH THE STARS (9PM ABC)
Two more contestants are eliminated. But wait, that’s not all! Tune in tonight and you’ll also get a special performance by Boyz II Men. Now how much would you pay? Watch now, and as an added extra bonus you’ll also get Kevin Rudolf singing the tune “Let It Rock.” Still not enough to get you to watch? Yeah, me neither. Call me when something scripted returns to this slot.
 
THE MENTALIST (9PM CTV)
Someone out there is using hypnosis to kill! Who ya gonna call? Why, THE MENTALIST, of course, otherwise, this whole blurb would be under some other show!
 
ONE LIFE TO LIVE (9PM SOAPnet)
Jess decides the time is right to tell hunka-hunka-burnin’-love Brody that she’s got the hots for him. Um, yeah, trust us, Jess: The time could not be wronger. More wrong? In any case, this won’t be pretty.
 
OSBOURNES RELOADED (9:25PM FOX)
Just when you thought maybe they’d gone away, no, the obscenity-spewing, spotlight-hogging clan is back with… a variety show? Featuring a segment in which Kelly and Ozzy work in a fast-food restaurant? I’ll bet dollars to donuts this bit’ll include people not being able to understand a word Ozzy says.
 
WITHOUT A TRACE (10PM CBS)
Geez, get convicted for serial rape once and everybody looks at you crosseyed every time the milk is left out overnight or your brother goes missing!

CUPID (a remake of the 1998 dramedy starring Jeremy Piven and Paula Marshall) opens with what will likely be many more Grand Gestures: Bobby Cannavale, playing the titular God of Love, helps a smitten Irishman rework the lights as the ball drops in Times Square to read as a giant sign displaying: “Holly I’m Here.” Said Irishman, in a stroke of luck, met who he felt was the love of his life when an American tourist (Holly) spends 20 minutes in his pub – so he dropped everything, and flew across the pond to find her. Altogether now: Oy.

Now here’s another: Cupid – under the guise of Trevor Pierce – has been sentenced to matching 100 couples in Manhattan, without his bow and arrows, before he can resume his life atop Mount Olympus. And after getting arrested for his stunt with the lightbulbs, is put under the care of Dr. Claire McCrae (Sara Paulson, rebounding from STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP) a psychiatrist who – surprise! – deals in the matters of pragmatic approaches to love.

It fits so perfectly into ABC’s current programming block: it’s like a romantic procedural, setting itself up to match two new guest stars together every week, with Trevor and Claire batting banter as they build their (synthetic) attraction to each other. Cannavale and Paulson, in their own respects and in their own scenes, are perfectly fine, committed actors. He can be effusive, yet never overbearing; she has the trickier job of getting a lame character, but pulls it off with a breadth of sanity. It’s just when they’re together that it really drags, because the two of them produce about as much chemistry as two glasses of water.

The lack of charisma is strange considering its creator, Rob Thomas, who no doubt must be thrilled to see the very show ABC pulled after one season live again, seems to not have brought what he’s learned since then: where’s the rapport between the characters, the sense of spirit and wit in the romantic foils’ sexually-charged exchanges? And how is it that Paulson’s Claire is the dullest, prickliest woman he’s ever written – did he extol all of his feminine gumption on Kristen Bell?

Whatever the case, there’s a good chance CUPID might be around long enough to develop itself beyond a weekly romantic comedy setup: it’s been paired with the DANCING WITH THE STARS performance show, a cushy ratings sweetspot that might give it the longevity it needs to realign its trajectory.

Cupid debuts tonight at 10 p.m. est on ABC

As promised, Friday’s sixth episode of DOLLHOUSE didn’t disappoint. Please tell me it wasn’t an aberration. — DrunkonDushku
The TV Addict: Rest assured, it wasn’t. With Whedon’s winning streak continuing this Friday when he reveals more of Echo’s backstory by sending her on a mission back to the very College campus that we’ve become accustomed to catching glimpses of in the mysterious ‘Caroline’ video. Fans will also learn how Sierra ended up in the Dollhouse, when she confronts the man responsible for putting her there (and trust me, it ain’t pretty.) Oh, and as for the big reveal that there are twenty or so Dollhouses strategically located around the world, Whedon joked on a recent conference call that it’s built-in franchising. In other-words, get ready for DOLLHOUSE: MIAMI!

What’s the word on tonight’s GOSSIP GIRL? — GossipGuy
The TV Addict: Does “ZZZZZZzzzzzz” count as a word? Because unfortunately, that is my reaction to tonight’s snooze-inducing Nate-centric story-line. Seriously. If the Dollhouse ever needs another pretty-boy to walk around with a vapid and emotionless expression on his face, Chace Crawford is their man. So much so that not even an inebriated and highly entertaining secret-spilling Blair could save tonight’s train-wreck of an episode.

Loved Friday’s episode of TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR chronicles, how about you? — LenaLikey
The TV Addict: You mean the one where John Connor finally grew a pair. No exaggeration, scenes like John’s confrontation with Jesse are why PVR’s were invented (Well, that and because it allowed me to attend my BSG Frakkin’ Finale Party worry-free.) John’s transformation from petulant emo-boy was long overdue and I for one loved getting to see a glimpse of the young man who has finally started to demonstrate that he has what it takes to fight for humanity’s future. A fight, which by the way, just got a whole lot more interesting with Friday’s future-reveal that not all robots are on the same side.

Any scoop on Rob Thomas’ CUPID re-boot? I loved the original and am cautiously optimistic about this new version. — Neptune4Eva
The TV Addict: Having completely missed the boat on the original CUPID starring Jeremy Piven and Paula Marshall I unfortunately can’t speak to how the two versions compare. What I can say, having just watched the pilot (premiering Tuesday March 31 on ABC) is that the new Bobby Cannavale and Sarah Paulson version is flirty, fun and the perfect fit on ABC, which outside of LOST is quickly becoming the CW for the older-skewing female set.

Since I’m far too lazy to read through your lengthy recap of Friday’s BATTLESTAR GALACTICA series finale, nutshell it for me: Loved it or loathed it? —HolyFrakitsOver
The TV Addict: Honestly, I’m torn. Because as much as I’m a complete sucker for a happy ending, I can’t help but feel that the one we got was an absolute betrayal of everything creator Ronald D. Moore had spent four years meticulously crafting. In one fowl swoop, the dark tone and mantra that life isn’t fair, there are no easy choices and sh*t happens was wiped away, as he took the easy way out and ended off the show with virtually every series regular alive. Joss Whedon he ain’t (and yes, we’re still reeling from [SERENITY SPOILER ALERT] Wash’s death.)

Is [you know who] really dead on BIG LOVE? — LoveAddict
The TV Addict: If this were your average run-of-the-mill television series, I would say that there is no way BIG LOVE would kill off their show’s Arvin Sloane equivalent. After-all, in television, a good guy like Bill Henrickson is only as entertaining as the villain in which he’s forced to bring down. That said, as the saying goes: it’s not TV, it’s HBO. So if I must put my money where my mouth is. Roman is 100% unequivocally dead (although I’m not about to rule out the return of Harry Dean Stanton in ghost form!)

Any word on NBC’s new Amy Poehler series PARKS & RECREATION? April 9th can’t come soon enough. — DunderMifflinDenizen
The TV Addict: Actually, it can. At least according to Nikki Finke who is reporting that a recent test screening of the pilot did not go well. With audiences characterizing the series premiere as “slow,” “tedious” and a “predictable carbon copy” of THE OFFICE. Which brings us to my completely uninformed take having not had the chance to watch the pilot: If NBC didn’t currently find itself teetering in fourth place among the major networks, PARKS & RECREATION would not have been rushed to make a spring premiere.

Obsessed Amy Acker fan here. What have you got for me? — AckerFanGirl21
The TV Addict: I’ve got good news for you because you are not alone. Turns out, Joss Whedon shares your love of both Acker and the character she plays on DOLLHOUSE. Revealing on a recent conference call that, “I love that character, not just because it’s Amy Acker, but because she wears misery and torture on her face literally. We will definitely learn how she came to this fabulous career and in the last few episodes, we get to turn the Acker up pretty hot and it’s very exciting.”

I don’t have a question, but just wanted to say how much I agree with your recent tweet that said, “Just finished watching Friday’s FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS. How this isn’t the most popular show on television I’ll never understand!” — Cleareyesfullhearts
The TV Addict: I know right? Between the Taylor’s dealing with Matt and Julie’s off-the-field extra-curriculers, Tyra finally giving something back to Landry, Momma McCoy allowing J.D. to escape from under the tyrannical grasp of his overbearing father and Garitty-Gate ’09, FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS is truly firing on all cylinders. Begging the question, why aren’t you watching?

Well that about wraps it up folks for this edition of “Ask the Addict.” if you’ve got a question for the TV Addict, you can email me directly at ask@thetvaddict.com or follow me on twitter at twitter.com/thetvaddict.