TV Daily

Salon’s guide to what to watch

Prime Pick

Heroes

Photo: NBC

This season of NBC's "Heroes" (9 p.m. EDT Mondays) hasn't begun to match the magic of the first season so far. Without a clear goal, aka "Save the cheerleader, save the world," all we have is a loose collection of spiritually lost superheroes looking for redemption. Hiro is screwing around in ancient times, Mohinder and Matt are spinning their superpowered wheels with their little adopted daughter, Ali Larter refuses to make herself scarce as promised, and that dorky post-kiss flying scene between Claire and her new boyfriend gave us a terrible flashback of "Superman's" Margot Kidder and Christopher Reeve, grinning at each other while taking a smooth-jazz soar through the atmosphere. But tonight, there's new hope for the heroic: Kristen Bell, who, thanks to the sad cancellation of "Veronica Mars," joins the cast as Elle, an evil operative for the Company who goes to Ireland looking for Peter.

Also…

MTV takes another shot at a scripted series with "Kaya" (premieres at 10:30 p.m. EDT), which follows the ups and downs of a young lady rocker and her band. CW's "Aliens in America" airs at 8:30 p.m. EDT. "Weeds" airs at 10 p.m. EDT on Showtime.

On the talk shows

Regis and Kelly

ABC, 9 a.m. EDT
Adrian Pasdar, Ashley Tisdale, Vanna White, guest co-host Jimmy Kimmel

The View

ABC, 11 a.m. EDT
Ricki Lake, James Lipton, the Wiggles

Ellen DeGeneres

Syndicated, check local listings
John and Elizabeth Edwards, Keith Urban

Oprah Winfrey

Syndicated, check local listings
TBA

Charlie Rose

PBS, check local listings
Gen. Michael Hayden

Larry King

CNN, 9 p.m. EDT
Valerie Plame, ambassador Joe Wilson

Jon Stewart

Comedy Central, 11 p.m. EDT
TBA

Stephen Colbert

Comedy Central, 11:30 p.m. EDT
TBA

David Letterman

CBS, 11:30 p.m. EDT
Jude Law, Sarah Silverman, John Fogerty (repeat)

Jay Leno

NBC, 11:35 p.m. EDT
Steve Carell, Madison Pettis, Bright Eyes (repeat)

Tavis Smiley

PBS, check local listings
Halle Berry

Jimmy Kimmel

ABC, 12:05 a.m. EDT
Kelly Ripa, Sara Bareilles

Conan O'Brien

NBC, 12:35 a.m. EDT
Kyra Sedgwick, John Cena, Andrew Bird (repeat)

Craig Ferguson

CBS, 12:35 a.m. EDT
Holly Hunter, Adam Goldberg, Ferraby Lionheart (repeat)

Contributors: Megan Doll, Heather Havrilesky, Eryn Loeb, Amy Reiter

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