Psych

• Couldn't be at the Led Zeppelin reunion show in London last night? Vulture has cell phone footage of the performance of "Stairway to Heaven."
• Popwatch confesses to having some "pop culture blind spots," like the movie All About Eve and Bruce Springsteen in general. What are yours?
• Want to know the top 50 American Idol finalists right now? You might be able to do that; TV Squad explains how.
• Cinematical has heard it through the grapevine that the A-Team movie is a go, and that there is even a director on board.
• The MTV Movies Blog has perhaps the most awkward interview ever, and it's with James Franco.
• TV Cocktail remembers when Heidi from The Hills was nice.
• Stereogum has a great video of Dewey Cox covering Amy Winehouse's "Rehab" live.
• TV with MeeVee has discovered that the boys from Psych are getting animated.

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Apparently, this is the week of one-off holiday specials on cable. Following Monday's holiday installment of The Closer, tonight brings seasonal episodes of Monk and Psych on USA.

First up is "Mr. Monk and the Man Who Shot Santa," which finds Monk looking like the enemy of holiday cheer after he shoots a man dressed as a mall Santa who was throwing toys off a roof. Monk just wants to figure out what the man was really doing there, but being painted as a Santa-shooting bad guy in the press interferes with his mission.

The plot of "Gus' Dad May Have Killed an Old Guy," meanwhile, is about what you'd expect from a title like that. The episode finds the Psych boys settling in for a good, old-fashioned Christmas . . . until a neighbor turns up murdered and the evidence points to Gus' dad.

Hey, nothing says "happy holidays!" like murder and mayhem, right? To check out previews for the two episodes, just read more

• Sunday's Emmy awards drew the second-smallest audience ever, Variety reports. It drew just 13.1 million viewers, and only the 1990 telecast did worse.
• The Hollywood Reporter rounds up who was censored during the Emmy broadcast: Sally Field, Katherine Heigl and Ray Romano.
• HBO has picked up a TV series pitch from the Will Ferrell-Adam McKay production company Sanchez Productions, ComingSoon reports.
• "Office" producer Greg Daniels wants to take his writing staff on a field trip to Scranton for October's "Office" convention, the Scranton Times-Tribune reports.
• Variety has news that A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini's follow-up novel to The Kite Runner, has already been snatched up for film adaptation.
• Billboard names Reba McEntire its Woman of the Year.
• Thursday's premiere of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" got the show's best ratings ever, Zap2it reports.
• MTV Films will make a feature-length movie version of the YouTube creation Million Dollar Strong, writes Variety.
• "Psych" has been renewed for a third season, TV Guide reports.

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USA is making quite a name for itself this summer, between the success of "The Starter Wife" and the strong premiere of "Burn Notice." Tonight, two of its more established shows — "Monk" and "Psych" — return to start their new seasons, with a special appearance by Sarah Silverman on "Monk" as Monk's biggest fan.

This is the sixth season of "Monk," a consistent if not always spectacular drama that has delivered a boatload of well-deserved award nominations for star Tony Shalhoub. But now, Shalhoub has started to wonder if it's time to move on; his contract is up in November, and if he doesn't sign a new one, this season could be the show's last. "Psych," meanwhile, gained itself a strong following in its first season, mostly thanks to the silly interplay between stars James Roday and Dule Hill; it's even gotten some Emmy buzz, though it wasn't on the leaked list of comedy series finalists. To watch previews for both shows — the "Monk" one, in particular, perfectly showcases Shalhoub's charms while making me crave a Monk bobblehead — if you read more

USA really seems to like its screwed-up detectives. Two of the network's original series, "Monk" and "Psych," focus on crime-solvers who are unconventional at best — and total frauds at worst. New episodes of both shows start airing tonight, Jan. 19.

I'm not a huge fan of "Monk," but I do like watching Tony Shalhoub bumble his way through crime scenes as the everything-phobic Mr. Monk. And while I haven't seen "Psych," which focuses on a police consultant who pretends he's psychic, the presence of "The West Wing" alum Dule Hill as the sidekick might be enough to make me check it out. To see previews of both shows, read more