'A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa'
(8PM, NBC)
A little song, a little dance, and, since Kermit and Miss Piggy are involved, even a little romance?

This newest Muppets special finds Kermie and Piggy, their Muppet pals and a slew of celebs banding together to help get the Christmas wishes letters of three children into Santa's hands.

As the Muppets trek to the North Pole -- despite Piggy's desire to head to a more tropical climate -- they meet up with a cab driver played by Whoopi Goldberg, a cranky security guard played by Nathan Lane, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and Beaker's girlfriend, played by supermodel Petra Nemcova. Take that, Leonardo DiCaprio.

'Project Runway'
(9PM, Bravo) 5th season finale
It's time to say "auf wiedersehen": to Bravo, as the show moves from Bravo to Lifetime (once some legal wrangling is resolved); and to two of the finalists who'll be showing their collections at New York Fashion Week.

Last week's ouster of Jerell means it's an all-female finale, as Korto, Leanne and Kenley battle to win $100,000 to start a fashion line.

Leanne and Kenley, with their dramatic wedding dress designs, would seem to have an edge, especially since guest judge Tim Gunn already remarked that one of Korto's designs was, um, a bit too reminiscent of a Georgia O'Keefe painting.

They've been a bit sneaky about it. But it's there. It seems that A&E is creeping in more reality programming almost monthly. I have to ask myself ... is this art? Oh, without a doubt, no.

Is it entertainment? The jury is still out on that a bit--at least for me. What it definitely is is something for background noise as I read a novel, peeking up occasionally when something on the show sounds interesting. Now, none of the three shows will garner a full review, but I'm going to do a quick take on Intervention, Parking Wars, and The First 48.

Do you remember coming back from your first semester at college and running into a kid you used to go to high school with who decided to use college as an excuse to totally reinvent him or herself? Like he was the class dork and in three months he's all of a sudden a death-metal anarchist? Or she dated the basketball team (the varsity, junior varsity, AND the freshmen) and now she dresses like Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman?

There was always something disturbing about it. Not so much that they had changed -- everyone has a right to change -- but because what they now were was different from the template you had made for them. When the universe doesn't act like you expect it to, you get uneasy; it's a natural reaction. I couldn't help but feel that way this week, when I watched A&E's new show Parking Wars.