Today on TV

• 8 Simple Rules (7 p.m., Ch. 4): The girls are shocked to find Cate at their father's favorite saloon with a mysterious stranger.

• The New Americans (7 p.m., Ch. 7): Part 2 of 3.

• American Idol (7 p.m., Ch. 13): The 10 remaining finalists perform, including BYU-Idaho student/goofball (and I mean that in a nice way) Jon Peter Lewis.

• Venom ER (7 and 9 p.m., Animal Planet): Well, under the best of circumstances I don't really find snakes entertaining. (Yes, I do suffer from ophidiophobia.) And this new show is hardly the best of circumstances between snakes and people — like the guy in tonight's episode who kept a rattlesnake as a pet and, well, it gets pretty gross when it escapes.

• I'm With Her (7:30 p.m., Ch. 4): Patrick isn't aware he's talking to a reporter until he sees his words twisted into a tabloid story.

• Century City (8 p.m., Ch. 2): A client is suing the government because it has decided to terminate an experimental program that put an implant in his brain — he'd rather risk death than be mentally disabled again.

• Frasier (8 p.m., Ch. 5): Frasier hires a professional matchmaker (Laura Linney, who'll be around until the series ends in May), but he demands a refund after a string of bad dates.

• 24 (8 p.m., Ch. 13): What's this? A new episode of "24"? But it's only been five weeks. And this means that tonight's installment of "American Idol" will be only an hour long? Ah, well, at least "Idol" will give "24" a great lead-in. And we're promised that this is the first of nine consecutive original episodes that will carry us through the end of the season. Tonight, Jack lets Amador escape so that he can find out who he's working for; Sherry threatens her ex-husband, the president; and CTU quarantines the hotel where the virus has been released. It's as exciting as ever . . . once you recall what was going on the last time Fox actually aired an episode.

• Wild West Tech (8 and 9 p.m., History): A look at the "technology" employed by cowboys, including spurs, saddles and guns.

• It's all Relative (8:30 p.m., Ch. 4): Bobby's bachelor party takes all the guys camping.

• Scrubs (8:30 p.m., Ch. 5): The return of Dr. Ron Ramirez (Nestor Carbonell) sparks some doubts in Carla's mind about her feelings for Turk.

• NYPD Blue (9 p.m., Ch. 4): Sipowicz suspects an off-duty cop who got shot is dirty.

• Law & Order: SVU (9 p.m., Ch. 5): A rich guy befriends children, gives them fabulous gifts and invites them to spend the night in his fabulous home, where he sexually abuses them. Any similarities to actual events are, of course, purely coincidental. Well, maybe not.