Ryan Seacrest, Dick Clark, Carson Daly New Year's hosts

Last night, I did something I rarely do. I turned off the TV. Seriously, 300 plus TV channels and I couldn't find a single show worth spending time with. I tried a little Third Rock from the Sun, some Food Network Challenge, a little NCIS but in the end I opted for a book. Of course, the book I'm reading is a tie-in novel based on Primeval, so it's kind of like watching TV, only without the images. I won't be reading much tonight as it's New Year's Eve and in addition to the cool variety programming, there's a new Knight Rider and lots of great marathons. Let's have a look.

Tonight On TV -- Wednesday, December 31

ABC Fills the night with Shrek 2 then rolls into Dick Clark's Primetime New Year's Rocking Eve. NBC has a new Knight Rider and then its Law and Order: SVU and New Year's Eve with Carson Daly. CBS goes with their usual line-up of New Adventures of Old Christine, Gary Unmarried, Criminal Minds and CSI: NY. Fox has a repeat of the two-hour season premiere of Bones. The CW airs the Mandy Moore movie How to Deal.

Over on cable

You can have a very Miley Cyrus New Year when MTV Presents: A Miley-Sized Surprise...New Year's Eve 2009. Then it's New Years' marathons galore! A&E - Dog, The Bounty Hunter ABCFamily -- America's Funniest Home Videos BBCAmerica -- Absolutely Fabulous National Geographic - Dog Whisperer SCI FI Channel - Twilight Zone SPIKE -- CSI

TBS -- House of Payne

Travel -- Disney Travel Specials VH1 -- Hard Rock Songs WGN -- The Honeymooners

News and notable

Bad news for Time Warner Cable customers. The cable company is threatening to cut off access to all of the Viacom TV channels as of the first of the New Year due to a dispute over fees. This means no MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and a dozen other channels will go dark. Don't know for sure if it will happen, but I'm just letting you know. It's also been a bad week for the young men of The CW. First Michael Cassidy was released from his contract with Privileged, now Gossip Girl's John Patrick Amedori has been sent packing with producers saying that his character, Aaron Rose, never really caught on. Photo credit:
NBC's New Years Eve with Carson Daly -- Pictured: (l-r) Carson Daly, Katy Perry -- NBC Photo: Virginia Sherwood
Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest -- Pictured: (l-r) Fergie, Dick Clark, Ryan Seacrest. Photo: ABC/Craig Sjodin