Sunday Are you smarter than an 11th-grader? You have to be -- or at least able to fake it -- to keep up with "The Wire" (8 p.m., HBO), which returns for its final season tonight. Smart and demanding, no other series since "Cosmos" will tax your brain more. It's worth the strain.
Monday It's going to be tough for "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" (10 p.m., COM) and "The Colbert Report" (10:30 p.m., COM) to return tonight without writers, but with the political race in full heat, the jokes should write themselves.
Tuesday Because of the writers' strike, "The People's Choice Awards" (8 p.m., WCCO, Ch. 4) will probably look more like a Barbara Walters special than an all-star party, with a lot of pretaped segments and acceptance speeches. Despite the absence of a red carpet, Paris Hilton is still expected to show up and demand some screen time.
Wednesday "The Jewish Americans" (8 p.m., KTCA, Ch. 2), a three-night documentary that continues over the next two Wednesdays, profiles several people -- some well-known, some not so well-known -- who were instrumental in shaping our country. Sid Caesar, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Mandy Patinkin are among the talking heads in this never-a-dull-moment history lesson.
Thursday The synopsis for a new episode of "My Name Is Earl" (7 p.m., KARE, Ch. 11) suggests that postprison life is a real bummer for Earl. Then, in the very next sentence, we're told that he's visited by Alyssa Milano. Major contradiction, folks.
NEAL JUSTIN
