• At 8, ABC has a new Surviving Suburbia, followed by a new episode of The Goode Family.
• FOX has the two-hour Virtuality movie at 8.
• NBC has a new episode of The Chopping Block at 8, then a new, two-hour Dateline.
• PBS has a new Washington Week at 8, followed by new episodes of NOW and Bill Moyers Journal.
• MyNetwork TV has a new Smackdown! at 8.
• At 9, Animal Planet has a new Whale Wars.
• Travel Channel has two new episodes of Ghost Adventures at 9.
• At 10, E! has a new episode of The Soup.
• HBO has a new Real Time with Bill Maher at 10.

Check your local TV listings for more.

After the jump, the late night talk shows.

I was deciding whether or not to include exclamation points in that headline, so it read Yes! Chopping Block returns to NBC tonight! But I realized that this is one show that doesn't really deserve them.

Does anyone really remember this show? And if you do remember it but didn't watch it, are you interested in checking it out? And if you did watch it, were you breathlessly awaiting its return or did you simply forget about it because it wasn't very good and/or you didn't think it would be coming back so you didn't want to get to invested in it? I watched and reviewed the first episode, and I found it rather underwhelming. This might be the ultimate example of a network burning off a canceled show during the summer.

NBC is using an exclamation point on the show's web site, so maybe the return of The Chopping Block is more important than we think.

• At 8, ABC has a new Surviving Suburbia, followed by a new episode of The Goode Family.
• NBC has a new episode of The Chopping Block, then a new, two-hour Dateline.
• FOX has a new Don't Forget The Lyrics at 8.
• PBS has new episodes of Washington Week, NOW, and Bill Moyers Journal.
• MyNetwork TV has a new Smackdown! at 8.
• ESPN has coverage of The U.S. Open at 8.
• BBC America has a new Friday Night with Jonathan Ross at 8.
• Also at 8: Cartoon Network has a new Secret Saturdays, then a new Batman: The Brave and the Bold.
• At 9, Animal Planet has a new Whale Wars.
• USA repeats the two-part NCIS that serves as the intro to the NCIS: LA cast.
• At 10, ABC has a new 20/20.
• HBO has a new Real Time with Bill Maher at 10.
• E! has a new episode of The Soup at 10.

Check your local TV listings for more.

After the jump, the late night talk shows.

It cannot come as a big surprise that NBC's reality series The Chopping Block has been chopped after three episodes. The show started poorly in the ratings and have sunk lower in the subsequent two broadcasts.

Ratings alone aren't the reason for The Chopping Block being sent back to the kitchen, or thrown down the garbage disposal, or any other food euphemism you might want to suggest. The Chopping Block was dumped and deservedly so because it was not a good reality competition show.

(S01E01) "He invented food. Almost." - Kelsey

Marco Pierre White must be a little ticked off. Here he is one of the most renowned chefs alive today, and he's pretty much eclipsed by one of his most famous proteges, Gordon Ramsay. Supposedly they're even on the outs. Sure, White is well-known overseas and very well-known to cooks and aspiring chefs, but I would bet 9 out of 10 people in the U.S. wouldn't know who he is. Maybe The Chopping Block will change that, maybe not.

I'm leaning towards maybe not, since this is yet another reality/food competition show and offers little that's new or different.

There's more reality being served up by NBC: a food-based competition show in which couples vie to open a restaurant. British chef Marco Pierre White will be the judge. NBC has greenlit The Chopping Block for next season, calling it a sort of Top Chef meets Hell's Kitchen. Actually, it sounds like a twin for BBC America's Last Restaurant Standing. That one has nine couples competing for one restaurant with Chef Raymond Blanc as the judge. The NBC incarnation will have eight couples, and unlike Chef Blanc who has earned two Michelin stars for his restaurants, Chef White has three.