TONIGHT'S MUST-SEE: "Drunk History" season-opener, 10 p.m., Comedy Central. This show delivers history, as told by a drunk. The stories are true; the emphasis can be wildly funny. Now comes a daring attempt to give that mistreatment to beloved civil rights stories. The first (science genius Percy Julian, played by Jordan Peele) is hilarious; the others are fairly good, offering the tales of boxer Joe Louis and Claudette Colvin, a teen whose arrest on a Montgomery bus preceded Rosa Parks.

TONIGHT'S MIGHT-SEE: "Brooklyn Nine-Nine," 8:30 and 9 p.m., Fox. It was a giddy first season for this above-average show. That included Golden Globes for best comedy and best-comedy actor (Andy Samberg) and a spot after the Super Bowl. Now its reruns are back, to replace the failed "I Wanna Marry 'Harry''' and "Riot." Tonight's first rerun starts and ends badly, with a clumsy take-off on "Hurt Locker." In between are good moments when Jake (Samberg) meets a hard-boiled reporter (Stacy Keach) and great ones when Rosa feigns warmth on the witness stand. The second is fun, with Jake and Amy concluding their arrests bet.

TONIGHT'S ALTERNATIVE: "Tyrant," 10 p.m., FX. After a faltering start last week, "Tyrant" shows signs it could become excellent. It focuses on a staple of fact or fiction, from John Kennedy to Michael Corleone – the human knack for transformation. Barry was a Pasadena pediatrician, quiet and diligent. But in his homeland, he's Bassam Al-Fayeed; his father's death and brother's near-assassination put him at the edge of ruling a country he hadn't seen in 19 years. Tonight's hour cuts back on the anti-Arab stereotypes and gives humanity to key characters. It avoids the shrill-spouse cliché; Molly (Jennifer Finnigan) struggles to understand her enigmatic husband.

Other choices include:

"Extreme Weight Loss," 8-10 p.m., ABC. When Melissa's husband (an Afghanistan veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress) committed suicide, she turned to food for comfort. Four years later, at 301 pounds, she asked for help; now we see the year-long change.

"NCIS," 8 p.m., CBS. In a rerun, Tony's in a shoot-out and his dad (Robert Wagner) is the only witness.

"NCIS: Los Angeles," 9 p.m., CBS. Sam and Deeks have been rescued from torture, but this rerun finds the team with more lives to save and a nuclear weapon to locate.

"Celebrity Wife Swap," 10 p.m., ABC. Penn Jillette and Judy Gold have little in common except that they're tall, clever and each have two kids. She has a cramped Manhattan apartment; he has desert expanse near Las Vegas. She follows Jewish tradition each Friday; he has mocked religion. She has a fiancé Elisa; he has a wife. Tonight, Jillette and Gold temporarily change homes.

"The Night Shift," 10:01 p.m., NBC. After a terrific episode last week, this wildly erratic show has an one that's mostly awful. As in some early episodes, it's wildly overwrought, this time with a mariachi band, a lame attempt at psych-patient humor and (really) a brawl between surgeons. A potentially moving portion (involving a closeted gay doctor) fails because of a wooden performance.

"Nathan For You" season-opener 10:30 p.m., Comedy Central. Nathan Fielder brings a wonderfully quiet approach, while helping real-life business people. Tonight, he brings a lie-detector to a mechanic and a bizarre ghost-buster to a real-estate agent. Absurd notions are offered with deadpan wit.

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