“The Oprah Winfrey Show”
Wednesday 4pm, NBC29
After 25 seasons and more than 5,000 episodes, the Queen of Talk ends her award-winning talk show. It’s impossible to overstate Oprah Winfrey’s influence on modern American culture. Her show has been home to some major pop-culture moments. Ellen DeGeneres came out on her stage in 1997. Liberace gave Oprah his last interview in 1986. And Tom Cruise will never live down that insane couch-jumping incident in 2005. Details on the final show are being kept under wraps, but rumor has it you can expect major stars like Beyoncé, Madonna, Will Smith, Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and John Travolta.
“So You Think You Can Dance”
Thursday 8pm, Fox
Another new season, another fairly major shake-up for “So You Think You Can Dance.” Last year saw the ousting of screaming ballroom expert/Hot Tamale Train conductor Mary Murphy from the judging panel, replaced by mega-talented but mercurial contemporary-dance genius Mia Michaels. Michaels is gone again—reportedly she’s not involved in Season 8 at all—and Murphy is back where she belongs, alongside producer/judge Nigel Lythgoe and, regrettably, Broadway guy Adam Shankman. But the bigger change is a hybrid of the original Top 20 format with last year’s all-stars experiment. After the initial auditions and the grueling Vegas week, 20 dancers will compete on the live shows. When they’re whittled to a Top 10 they’ll be paired with great dancers from seasons past. Sounds like a brilliant idea to me, especially if it means more time with Pasha and Anya.
“My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding”
Sunday 9pm, TLC
After exposing the secret lives of polygamists, hoarders, child-pageant mothers, and strangest of all, the Palin family, TLC turns its attention to another bizarre subsection of humanity: the gypsy/traveler community. “Gypsy” is actually a British documentary series that scored major ratings when it premiered in the U.K. The seven-part series offers a look at a group of people who follow very different, very old religious and cultural traditions, but who also embrace the modern celebrity-obsessed culture. Look for an American gypsy doc from TLC later this year.