8pm, Modern Family, Sky1
Claire and Phil threaten to take Christmas away when their kids play up, Gloria and Manny want to add some Colombian touches to Jay’s holiday traditions, and Cameron and Mitchell take Lily to the mall for her first picture with Santa. You know that’s going to end in tears, and they’re not going to be coming from Lily…
9pm, Bones, Sky1
Booth and Brennan find out just how competitive video gamers can be after one of them is found dead in a big vat of gloop behind a restaurant. If you like the look of the game he died defending, you can play Ponky Pong yourself on the Fox website. Look out for them bananas!
9pm, Scrubs, E4 SERIES FINALE Gosh, this series has flown by - at least we can console ourselves with the fact there’s another one in full flow in the States. In the double bill, JD’s planning to leave Sacred Heart, but before he goes there are just a few things he needs to take care of. Meanwhile, Elliot starts secretly moving her furniture into JD’s apartment!
Ah Scrubs - we all thought it had breathed its last breath when NBC cancelled it, so we were all extremely relieved when the show’s original owners, ABC, performed a dramatic piece of telly resuscitation and promised one final series.
The show has begun already in the US but, as usual, we’re patiently sitting in the waiting room, hoping the docs will see us soon. Thankfully we’re not stuck flicking through an old copy of the Readers’ Digest in the meantime - here’s an excellent interview with the show’s creator, Bill Lawrence, with the lowdown on the battle with NBC, how the series will pan out, and what other projects he has in the pipeline. Now where’s my Lucozade?
Oh, one other little treat - here’s a compilation of some of Scrubs’ funniest ever guest star moments… Go on, it’s Friday!
7pm, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, FX
In a classic Buffy episode from season five, Giles is away and the tension between Anya and Willow finally spills over into a full-on fight. In the middle of their sniping they accidentally let loose giant troll Olaf, who proceeds to cause chaos for the whole Scooby gang. Tight writing and lots of great comedy moments make the whole episode a real gem.
10pm, CSI: NY, Five US
Season five of the forensics drama starts on Saturday on Five, and episodes like this season two finale remind you why you watch the show - Mac and the gang find themselves in the path of a bomber in New York, forcing Mac to rely on skills he learned as a marine to save Flack’s life, and there’s a perfect blend of action and interaction between the characters, as they await the fate of their colleague.
9.30pm, Scrubs, Paramount
Our American friends are celebrating the return of Scrubs, rescued by ABC after being dumped by NBC last year. Hopefully we’ll be getting season eight over here in the not too distant future but, in the meantime, console yourselves with Paramount’s reruns - tonight it’s the classic musical episode again, with a patient suffering a condition that means she hears everything in song. I wonder if we can persuade Holby City to do an instalment like this?
Scrubs returns in America next month, switching channels from NBC to ABC. And though it seems as though Zach ‘JD’ Braff will be signing out of Sacred Heart permanently soon, there will be a new arrival in the shape of chief of medicine Courteney Cox. Here’s a sneak peek at her arrival…
9pm, Scrubs, E4 SERIES FINALE The Sacred Heart team swap scalpels for swords in a fairy tale-themed homage to cult movie The Princess Bride, as JD dreams up a bedside story for his son turning all his workmates into characters in a whimsical yarn. You might like to get yourself in the mood by watching the Paramount double bill at 7pm featuring former ER star Julianna Margulies - there’s a clip below. Boy has she lost her bedside manner.
10pm, Grey’s Anatomy, Five
After all the drama of the past three weeks things lighten up a bit - well, temporarily anyway. The docs are all bickering over the chief-of-staff post, especially when an outside competitor shows up. Meredith, still feeling all warm and fuzzy inside after her near-death experience, starts building bridges with her dad, and George and Izzy do something very very bad.
11pm, Empire, Sky One
No it hasn’t disappeared from Thursday nights, Sky have just moved it closer to the graveyard shift - we forgive them though, since they’ve put re-runs of the always watchable Bones in the 10pm slot. Back to Empire, and Marc Antony saves Octavius and Tyrannus, and offers them shelter at his villa in the countryside, but Tyrannus is suspicious of his motives. Don’t eat the dormice, Octavius!
