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TV This Week

‘Scandal,’ a whole lotta crazy going on

The vice president's gone off the deep end, people

By Louisa Ada Seltzer

February 27, 2014

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The craziest drama on broadcast returns from a nearly three-month hiatus tonight with the spring premiere of “Scandal” at 10 p.m. on ABC.

Only on “Scandal” would the vice president of the United States murder her husband, who incidentally was gay, as she plans a bid to usurp the power of the president, who still wishes he was canoodling with professional scandal fixer Olivia, who has the wardrobe every woman wants and the job no one would have.

By the end of the episode no doubt the plotline will have swung in 20 other unexpected directions, which is the fun of “Scandal.”

Like “Grey’s Anatomy” in its prime, there’s no storyline too absurd, and yet somehow it still works. Not coincidentally, executive producer Shonda Rhimes is behind both shows, and in its third season “Scandal” has eclipsed “Grey’s” in the ratings.

“Scandal” is averaging a 3.1 adults 18-49 Nielsen rating, 0.3 ahead of “Grey’s.” In fact, “Scandal” is now ABC’s No. 2 show overall behind “Modern Family.”

But in a twist worthy of “Scandal” itself, the drama only has a handful of episodes left this season. Kerry Washington, who stars as Olivia, is pregnant and so the network had to cut its episode order from 22 to 18.

Undoubtedly it will try to order a few extra episodes for next year. In the meantime, the writers have surely come up with some utterly absurd way to work her pregnancy into the plot.

A look at this week’s top TV draws
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27
Time	Network	Program	Description
8 p.m.	CBS	“The Big Bang Theory” (C)	Sheldon takes a good look at his life after Leonard buys a dining room table for the apartment.
8:30 p.m.	NBC	“Parks and Recreation” (C)	Ben plans a surprise for his anniversary, and April and Donna clash at work.
9 p.m.	ABC	“Grey’s Anatomy” (D)	Alex gets upset after hearing news about his dad, and Meredith feels betrayed by Derek.
9 p.m.	Sundance	“The Red Road” (D)	Series premiere. New drama following a sheriff working in the New Jersey town where he grew up.
10 p.m.	History	“Vikings” (D)	Season premiere. The new season starts with a battle that sees Ragnar and King Horik’s armies face those of Jarl Borg and Rollo.
10 p.m.	IFC	“Portlandia” (C)	Season premiere. Sandra finds a soulmate, and intelligent ghosts haunt a young woman.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28
Time	Network	Program	Description
8 p.m.	ESPN	“NBA Basketball” (S)	The fun-to-watch Golden State Warriors take on the Knicks in New York.
8 p.m.	CBS	“Undercover Boss” (R)	The CEO of the Utah Jazz works as part of the halftime entertainment.
9 p.m.	TNT	“Inside Job” (R)	Series premiere. Reality competition in which contestants compete for a job. First up is the House of Blues.
10 p.m.	A&E	“Beyond Scared Straight” (R)	Season premiere. Two sisters and their cousin stay at jail in Virginia.
10 p.m.	Lifetime	“Betty White’s Off Their Rockers” (C)	Season premiere. Betty rolls out a new brand of salad dressing and gives out awards for best pranks.
10 p.m.	NBC	“Hannibal” (D)	Season premiere. Cynthia Nixon and Gillian Anderson guest on the season-two premiere.
SATURDAY, MARCH 1
Time	Network	Program	Description
9:55 a.m.	NBCSN	“Barclays Premier League Soccer” (S)	Stoke City takes on title hopefuls Arsenal in London.
3 p.m.	NBC	“PGA Golf” (S)	Coverage of the third round of the Honda Classic from Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.
4 p.m.	ESPN	“College Basketball” (S)	A key late-season ACC matchup between Syracuse and Virginia.
8 p.m.	Lifetime	“Happy Face Killer” (M)	An FBI agent tracks the 1990s serial murderer known as the Happy Face Killer.
8 p.m.	NBC	“NHL Hockey” (S)	Two of the league’s top teams, Chicago and Pittsburgh, face off in primetime.
9:45 p.m.	HBO	“Boxing” (S)	Among the matches is a featherweight title fight between Orlando Salido and Vasyl Lomachenko.
SUNDAY, MARCH 2
Time	Network	Program	Description
2:30 p.m.	Fox	“NASCAR Racing” (S)	The Subway Fresh Fit 500 from Phoenix International Raceway.
3 p.m.	NBC	“PGA Golf” (S)	Final round of the Honda Classic, won last year by Michael Thompson.
5:30 p.m.	E!	“Live From the Red Carpet” (A)	Ryan Seacrest and Giulana Rancic interview stars as they arrive at the Oscars.
8:30 p.m.	ABC	“Academy Awards” (A)	The 86th annual awards ceremony, hosted by Ellen DeGeneres.
9 p.m.	AMC	“The Walking Dead” (D)	The group ends up heading out on what turns out to be a strange mission.
9 p.m.	HBO	“True Detective” (D)	Hart and Cohle put their differences aside to look into a series of disappearances.
A = awards show or special, C = comedy, D = drama, DD = daytime drama, G = game show, K = kids, M = movie, N = news/documentary, R = reality, S = sports, T = talk/variety show.