The after-party

If you had any doubts about the importance of late night talk shows, check out how CBS is utilizing the high-profile slot after the Super Bowl. "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert" landed the gig, the fourth time in five years a talk show has been granted that real estate. Following is "The Late Late Show With James Corden," featuring Elton John in "Carpool Karaoke" (see story on E3). I get it. Launching new shows in that period rarely has worked. (Remember "The Good Life"?) But I would have liked to have seen CBS call a bolder play by spotlighting "Supergirl," which could benefit from more believers. Better yet, why not borrow "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" from its sister network, the CW, and try to save TV's most underappreciated experiment? Instead, CBS is playing it safe. When it comes to taking chances, we'll just have to rely on the game itself. 9 p.m. Sun., WCCO, Ch. 4; could be delayed.

Any time, any place

Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis have Janet Jackson's back. Again. When the pop star couldn't make a proper appearance in "Fresh Off the Boat" due to her recovery from surgery, the Minneapolis-bred producers stepped up, slipping into their classic "Blues Brothers" duds to show Eddie (Hudson Yang) the way love goes. I chatted with the duo last month from the set, and they seemed genuinely tickled to appear on one of their families' favorite sitcoms. You will be, too. 7 p.m. Tue., KSTP, Ch. 5.

Bad to the bone

Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, the duo behind the senseless killing of a teenager in 1924, have inspired a murderers' row of films, including Hitchcock's "Rope," but their real-life story doesn't need the Hollywood treatment to give you a shock to the system. The documentary "The Perfect Crime" is a study in evil and courtroom theatrics, with leading man Clarence Darrow taking center stage. 8 p.m. Tue., TPT, Ch. 2.

Chief of surgery

Denzel Washington, who got his break starring in "St. Elsewhere," returns to the hospital ward, this time as a director. He's at the helm for the winter premiere of "Grey's Anatomy," a show that's been on hiatus so long you might have thought Seattle Grace had been shuttered due to an overpopulation of maniacal plot lines. Patient fans will most likely be rewarded with an episode so over the top it'll make Washington's upside-down landing in "Flight" look like standard procedure. 7 p.m. Thu., KSTP, Ch. 5.

Neal Justin