TV tonight: 'Time Machine Chefs,' 'The Next'

By Robert Bianco, USA TODAY

Posted August 15, 2012

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Charlie Sheen's real-life dad Martin, right, plays his onscreen dad named Martin in 'Anger Management' tonight on FX. (Credit: By Greg Gayne, FX Network)

•We're nearing the end of the odd days of summer, as the gap season begins to give way to fall — but there are still some strange shows to go through before we get there.

Such as ABC's Time Machine Chefs (tonight, 9 ET/PT), which deprives four celebrity chefs of all modern conveniences as they compete to see who would have been best suited to cook for the king back in Tudor England.

From the portraits we have, it doesn't look like Henry VIII was all that picky an eater, at least not in his later days, but perhaps the Time Machine knows something Holbein didn't.

•Another group of singers compete for a recording contract as CW launches The Next (9 ET/PT).

The twist is that the mentors —Gloria Estefan, Joe Jonas, Nelly and John Rich— prepare them for the contest by following them to their homes and workplaces.

Which, if it were done to them, would be called stalking rather than mentoring.

•Martin Sheen guests on his son Charlie's sadly hackish sitcom Anger Management (FX, 9:30 ET/PT) tonight, which either makes him a very bad judge of material or a very supportive father. Go with the latter.