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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Fan favorites in MLB All-Star game

By MIKE HUGHES Gannett News Service

Tonight’s must-see

MLB All-Star game, 5 p.m. Fox.

Yankee Stadium has seen some of baseball’s great moments and great players. Now — with a new stadium being finished — it gets one final All-Star game.

These games bring lots of emotion and ceremony (especially tonight), plus a tad of importance: The winning league gets home-field advantage (and its rules, with or without a designated hitter) in four of the seven World Series games.

Lately, that’s been easy to predict: The National League hasn’t won since 1996; it did, however, manage one tie.

Tonight’s alternative

“Must Love Kids,” 9 p.m., TLC.

Here’s a dating show with a difference: We meet three single moms, each sifting through several guys.

Kristin has three children, Vanessa has two. Tracy has only one, but she’s a blur of a 5-year-old redhead who seems like a dozen.

Each mom is in her 30s, with a day job (patent agent, massage therapist, etc.) that keeps her busy. Each seems to have a playful approach to kids. Now each begins a search for the right guy.

Other choices include

“NCIS,” 8 p.m., CBS. When a crypt is opened, a variety of body parts are discovered. Now the team searches for a serial killer.

“Celebrity Family Feud,” 8 p.m., NBC. Two guys from the “Blue Collar Comedy Tour” – Bill Engvall and Larry the Cable Guy – bring their families for a face-off. Also, it’s Vivica Fox against Mo’Nique.

“Secret Life of the American Teenager,” 8 p.m., ABC Family. Amy still hasn’t told her parents she’s pregnant. Tonight, however, she tells her sister. She also grows closer to Ben, a sweet guy who isn’t the father.

“America’s Got Talent” (NBC) and “Big Brother” (CBS), both 9 p.m. Two popular summer shows collide — on All-Star night, no less.

“Earth: The Biography” conclusion, 10 p.m., Tuesday. National Geographic Channel. This is a terrific, five-hour series. (For proof of that, check the reruns on ice at 8 p.m. and volcanoes at 9.) Now comes a finale that takes a fresh approach: “Rare Planet” suggests that the Earth might really be unique in the universe. It views all the remarkable forces that worked just right to let complex creatures live here.

“POV: The Last Conquistador,” 10 p.m., KUID. The idea seemed bold and ambitious: To celebrate its Hispanic roots, El Paso, Texas, hired sculptor John Houser to create an epic statue of Juan de Onate. Then came the protests: This man and his Spanish soldiers had charged through the native villages. They killed most of the people, enslaved others. In a gesture toward “leniency,” de Onate ordered that some merely have one foot chopped off. This would be a statue to a terrorist, American Indians complained. This even-handed documentary finds sympathy for both sides and shows a human dilemma that allows no happy ending.

“The Cleaner” debut, 10 p.m., A&E. Give this show credit for intense drama, strong actors, high-energy camerawork – everything except variety. Benjamin Bratt plays a former drug addict, now heading a team that snatches people and pushes them into rehab. All of his staffers are former addicts. There’s a darkly morose tone here that works powerfully in spurts but needs some variety of look and tone.

Mike Hughes covers television for the Lansing State (Mich.) Journal and Gannett News Service. Reach him at mhughes@lsj.com.