TONIGHT'S MUST-SEE

"American Idol" season opener, 7 p.m., Fox. As "Idol" returns, Fox — and the TV season in general — finally gets near full strength. For now, the big change is the addition of a fourth judge, songwriter Kara DioGuardi. In the past, the few moments with a four-person panel (adding a guest judge) have been clumsy; we'll see what happens now. Audition cities ranged from San Francisco and Phoenix in the West to East Rutherford, N.J., Jacksonville, Fla., and San Juan, Puerto Rico. Others were Louisville, Salt Lake City and Kansas City, Mo. They'll be shown over three weeks and seven nights, through Jan. 29. That's slightly less time than auditions had in previous seasons; instead, "Idol" will spend an extra week on its next round, in Hollywood.

TONIGHT'S MIGHT-SEES

"Made in China: The People's Republic of Profits," CNBC, 4 and 8 p.m., or "The Ascent of Money," PBS, 9 p.m. CNBC reruns a special from July. Among the 1-billion-plus people in China, Melissa Lee says, there are 400,000 millionaires. She looks at the new entrepreneurs, how they spend their money and how American businesses are adjusting. On PBS, money crises have rippled through much of human history, Niall Ferguson, a Harvard professor, says in this special. Countries have kept confronting (and, usually, surviving) financial troubles; he takes a historic overview, as a prelude to the Barack Obama presidency.

OF NOTE

"I, Robot" (2004), 5:30 p.m., FX. Will Smith investigates an evil robot company.

"NCIS," 7 p.m., CBS. This show has been one of the few to thrive against "American Idol." Tonight, Ducky (David McCallum) is stabbed and team members learn more about his past.

"The Mentalist," 8 p.m., CBS. Patrick Jane — a former fake mentalist himself — has a good eye for phonies. Now what should he make of someone who says she's a witch whose spell killed a football star?

"Scrubs," 8 and 8:30 p.m., ABC. Even after he retired as chief of medicine, Dr. Kelso is still around. In the first episode tonight, he's scheming to get rid of his beautiful but unethical replacement (Courteney Cox). In the second, J.D. and Elliot try to get him to stop hanging around the hospital coffee shop all day.

"Leverage," 8 p.m., TNT. The team has lots of macho instincts, but now it goes in the opposite direction: It pretends to be a wedding-planning group for a mobster's daughter.

"Nip/Tuck," 8 p.m., FX. By the end of last week's season-opener, Sean was in a wheelchair and Christian had been diagnosed with male breast cancer. Now those problems bring these guys closer to people. Sean re-links with his troubled family; Christian gets closer to Liz (Roma Maffia).