July 4 TV: Is ‘Last Comic Standing,’ ‘Undateable,’ or ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ new tonight?

Typically with summer TV, the majority of the time you can expect a new show to run from start to finish without any real breaks … with maybe one exception right around Independence Day. This is a time of the year that it is extremely hard to predict which shows are going to be airing new episodes and which will not, mostly because each network has a very different way of going about doing things.

Our general rule of thumb is this: Unless you are a show like “Big Brother” where the network needs to continue to air new episodes for the sake of continuity, you are in repeats from July 3-5 unless you are a show that probably has little shot of returning. So read into that with the following shows as you will.

Some of the new programming tonight includes the live “Big Brother” eviction, three new episodes of the funny-but-probably doomed “Undateable,” the basically-canceled “Black Box,” the suddenly-struggling “Rookie Blue,” and “NY Med.” “Hell’s Kitchen” is to us the most surprising show to air a new episode given its strong ratings, but Fox probably feels like Gordon Ramsay will continue to be Teflon for anything that comes their way.

To us, the biggest omission tonight is “Last Comic Standing,” which is airing another repeat in an effort to keep the show as fresh as possible moving into the final weeks. This proves that NBC has something invested in making the series work, especially since they aired a recap episode on Sunday and will air a “best jokes of the season” bit tonight. The ratings have not been amazing, but we would love to see the series stick around if at all possible.

Which one of these shows will you miss the most tonight? Share your thoughts with a comment, and head over here to get some more glorious TV scoop on all we cover!

Photo: NBC