Today at 5 p.m., Fox posted on Hulu the pilots for two of the best new sitcoms of the fall -- "The Mindy Project" and "Ben and Kate."

Both sitcoms are set to premiere on September 25, but you can watch them now if you're eager. I like both of them but "Ben and Kate" is my favorite. It's about a grown-up brother and sister duo (plus Kate's little girl) just figuring out their lives (Nat Faxon, who plays Ben, is hilarious with Maggie Jones, the young actress from "We Bought a Zoo," who plays Kate's little girl). In "The Mindy Project," Mindy Kaling (Kelly from "The Office") plays a single obstetrician looking for love.

I'll have more on both shows closer to their debut dates, but they're worth checking out (click titles above) if you don't want to wait for September 25.

The promotional material for Fox's new "Hotel Hell" reality series promises to show host Gordon Ramsay ("Hell's Kitchen," "Kitchen Nightmares," "MasterChef") traveling across the United States offering help to problem hotels, inns and B&Bs. And in the process, they say, Ramsay will sleep in hotel beds covered in "shocking stains," shower in moldy bathrooms and eat crappy room service.

I'm looking forward to seeing all that, but the premiere episode, debuting tonight at 8, doesn't really have any of the big gross-out moments I had braced myself for (Gordon doesn't even unpack his black light to look for mystery stains!).

What the episode does have is plenty of gross incompetence and stunning displays of unethical behavior from the arrogant owners of the Juniper Hill Inn in Windsor, Vermont.

And somehow, that ends up being just as interesting.

For those following along on the web series "Daybreak," a companion series to Fox's "Touch," this is a reminder that the second 10-minute episode is available tonight at 8 p.m.

The action-packed "Daybreak" is the product of a collaboration between "Touch" (and "Heroes") creator Tim Kring and the folks at AT&T, whose technology is used throughout the web series.

If you're really into the series, there's a mobile app called JackBoxers that can help you piece together clues in the show. If you can't wait for the second chapter to drop at 8, here's a clip already on Youtube called Professor Wilkins Video Diary and a clip on Dodecahedron testing. Enjoy, fellow nerds!

The last time “American Idol” held auditions in North Carolina -- Greensboro in 2005 -- the state ended up with three singers in that season’s Top 10.

The Tar Heel state will get another chance to load the deck with homegrown talent on June 19, when “Idol” makes an audition pit stop in Charlotte.
 

This Thursday night after the Season 1 finale of Keifer Sutherland's "Touch" on Fox, a new related web series from she show's creator Tim Kring ("Heroes") will debut online.

"Daybreak," a collaboration between Kring and AT&T, will consist of five 10-minute online films, each "exploring different facets of a complex character journey." (Hint: The mysterious "dodecahedron" object introduced in a recent "Touch" episode, will appear again in the show's finale and then become a "central character" in "Daybreak.")

Here in Raleigh, AT&T is sponsoring a viewing party of the "Touch" finale and the web series premiere at Tobacco Road Sports Cafe. Fans of this blog and the Tech Junkie Blog are exclusively invited to attend.

Community (8pm, NBC) - Jeff is debilitated by his narcissism, which skyrockets when his confidence is boosted by anti-anxiety drugs and regular visits to a shrink. Also, the gang try to help Abed pay of his debt from a celebrity-impersonator habit. Also tonight, two new episodes of "30 Rock" (the 9:30 ep has Weird Al Yankovich) and a new "Up All Night" featuring Henry Winkler as Ava's dad.

Missing (8pm, ABC) - In the second episode of Ashley Judd's "special gift to America" (her own description of this series from a "Live with Kelly" interview), Becca makes a deal with the head of French Intelligence while searching for her missing son. Believe it or not, I'm still not a fan of this show even after Judd called me a "brat" on Twitter. 

Touch (9pm, Fox) - Fox previewed this episode of the new Keifer Sutherland (left) drama back in January, but it starts for real tonight. Possibly the same episode from the preview but record it anyway, just in case.

Project Runway All Stars (9pm, Lifetime) - A winner is picked in the season finale, and Tommy Hilfiger appears as a guest judge.

Awake (10pm, NBC) - A purported suicide during a high-end yacht party leads Michael to an encounter with Rex's ex-babysitter, Kate. In his other realm, Michael happens upon Kate again, but this time she appears as a suspect.

Archer (10pm, FX) - In the conclusion of the Season 3 finale, Archer and his ISIS colleagues travel to the final frontier to prevent a catastrophe aboard the International Space Station.

As I was starting this review, a commercial for CBS' "Person of Interest" came on, a nice coincidence since like "Touch" (9 tonight, Fox), it too has a post-9/11 perspective.

"Person of Interest" sees the world post-9/11 through darkened lens; Big Brother is watching, we need a crusader to work against a machine that knows when our number is up, and yet the future is murky. "Touch" takes a more soulful view. It suggests that what's been lost in the last decade is what binds us.  It is a show about our need to connect, a near desperate need, and the ways we can and we do, whether we are aware or not.  Unfortunately, while I can get behind that idea, I can't throw my full support behind "Touch."

"Alcatraz" - DVR Record Series Options: ALL NEW EPISODES.

Easy call. If the first two episodes of Fox's new mystery-drama "Alcatraz" (8 p.m. tonight) are any indication, I'm enthusiastically in.

The premise of this captivating new JJ Abrams show is that when the legendary Alcatraz prison shut down in March of 1963 and prisoners and guards were transferred off the island, 302 of them vanished into thin air. Then suddenly, the missing people begin showing up one by one in present day San Francisco. The action of the show flips back and forth in time from 1960 (or 1963) to 2012.

The missing, dubbed The 63s, are being tracked by federal agent Emerson Hauser, played by a scowling Sam Neill. Neill, who can be menacing in the role, has a unique connection to The Rock and to the missing 63s. Sarah Jones plays San Francisco detective Rebecca Madsen, one of those beautiful-but-slightly-damaged TV cops that every crime show apparently needs. Her damage (at least the damage we know about so far): her last partner was killed in front of her in the line of duty and her parents died when she was a child. She was raised by "uncle" Ray (Robert Forster), who was a guard on Alcatraz, as was her long-deceased grandfather.

We have a special guest reviewer today with his thoughts on Fox's new animated series, "Napoleon Dynamite." Tom Edwards  lives in Raleigh and is a Systems Administrator for a local engineering firm, but also writes for websites like Popbunker.net and Geek Shui Living. He a husband and father of three sons, and describes himself as a baseball and comics geek. You can follow Tom on Twitter at @mrworkrate or read his blog, Buhner Dot Com.

When it comes to TV and films, there’s a concept I like to call the “Titanic Paradox.” It’s when a TV show or film comes out and everyone you know sees it, tells you how great it is, and how you have to see it, so much to the point that you don’t want to watch it, just out of spite. Titanic, the James Cameron opus that told us what would happen if the History Channel and Lifetime ever had a big budget baby, lends its name to the principle.

For me, "Napoleon Dynamite" was one of those films.

You can see it in the easy bromance between Geoff Stults and Michael Clarke Duncan. You can see it in the assortment of oddball Florida swamp characters. You can tell by the fact that suddenly you're being treated to a John Fogerty jam. "The Finder" (Fox, 9 tonight) has potential.

So even though this first episode doesn't quite gel, I have a feeling we shouldn't give up on this show.

If you didn't see the "Bones" episode that introduced the characters, "The Finder" is Walter Sherman (Stults), a war vet with a brain injury that gives him the ability, and the unceasing desire, to find things. His best bud Leo (Duncan) is kind of his manager, but he also has this wise man protector thing going too. They live and hang out at a bar called the Ends of the Earth on Looking Glass Key, along with Willa Monday (Maddie Hasson), a young grifter, who may or may not be reforming her ways. They've also got a Deputy U.S. Marshal friend (Mercedes Masohn).