Today on TV

• NCIS (7 p.m., Ch. 2): McGee takes matters into his own hands when his sister is the victim of a crime.

• American Music Awards (7 p.m., Ch. 4): Jimmy Kimmel hosts, and the performances — by Beyonce, the Dixie Chicks, Nelly Furtado, Josh Groban, Jay-Z, the Pussycat Dolls, Gwen Stefani, Carrie Underwood and Tenacious D, among others — always overshadow the rather meaningless awards themselves. (Tape-delayed in this time zone.)

• Tony Bennett: An American Classic (7 p.m., Ch. 5): At the age of 80, Bennett is still going strong. This beautifully filmed hour features songs from his new "Duets" album, which he performs with Barbra Streisand, Christina Aguilera, Elton John, Diana Krall, Stevie Wonder, k.d. lang and more.

• Nova ScienceNow (7 p.m., Ch. 7): BYU professor Roger Macfarlane is featured in a segment about high-tech efforts to read badly damaged, 2,000-year-old papyri.

• Gilmore Girls (7 p.m., Ch. 30): Lorelai and Christopher tell Rory they got married; a frantic Luke turns to Lorelai in an emergency.

• The Unit (8 p.m., Ch. 2): Jonas is ordered to carry out an assassination.

• Law & Order: Criminal Intent (8 p.m., Ch. 5): A former child star is murdered.

• House (8 p.m., Ch. 13): A teenager suffers an apparent heart attack.

• Veronica Mars (8 p.m., Ch. 30): OK, stick with me here. Veronica (Kristin Bell) attends (fictional) Hearst College. In tonight's episode, the heiress granddaughter of the college's extremely wealthy founder is kidnapped on the eve of a vote by the college board that could ban sororities and fraternities. The granddaughter is played by Patricia Hearst, the real granddaughter of an extremely wealthy man. She was, of course, kidnapped in real life back in the '70s. (And, by the way, The CW has ordered seven more episodes of "Veronica" for a total of 20 this season.)

• College basketball (8 p.m., The mtn.): Colorado at Utah

• Law & Order: SVU (9 p.m., Ch. 5): A car accident uncovers abuse of foster children.

• Frontline (9 p.m., Ch. 7): A look at the fastest-growing segment of our population — people over the age of 85.