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Coming Distractions: Chinese Whiskers

By Maura Elizabeth Cunningham

Pallavi Aiyar’s 2008 memoir, Smoke and Mirrors: An Experience of China, details the six years she spent living in Beijing, first teaching English and then becoming a reporter for The Hindu. Now stationed in Brussels with the Business Standard, Aiyar’s articles tend to focus on topics such as Belgium’s cultural conflicts and the uneven parallels drawn between India and China. For this reason, I was quite surprised to learn that Aiyar’s second book, to be released by Harper Collins India in early 2011, is a story of Beijing narrated by two cats: Tofu and Soyabean, the protagonists of Chinese Whiskers, share the story of their hutong life amidst the backdrop of the SARS epidemic and pre-Olympic construction. In a concise and gripping tale, Aiyar conveys the chaotic and ever-changing landscape of Beijing in the early 2000s as experienced by some of the city’s most vulnerable residents, both human and feline. Eager to learn more about this unusual book, I posed a few questions to Aiyar via e-mail:

MEC: How did you come to write a book that views Beijing from a cats’-eye perspective?

PA: I spent five years living in Beijing’s hutongs. These were neighbourhoods that reflected many of the tensions generated by the intersection of China’s almost remorseless embrace of modernity with persisting forms of a more traditional, communal way of life.

Animals were an intrinsic part of the hutongscape. At twilight you could sometimes spot the elongated silhouette of huang shu lang (??? the yellow weasel), the Beijing equivalent of the city fox, tip toeing across the roofs of courtyard houses sniffing for prey. Regardless of the season old men in patched up Mao suits would sit around corner stores on low stools, their caged song birds proudly on display next to them.

And then there were the dogs. The hutongs were disproportionately peopled with retirees and their pet dogs; the ever dwindling younger generation having taken off for swankier addresses. The aural backdrop to life in these alleyways was therefore punctuated by the yapping of Pekinese dogs who were as pampered and loved by their elderly owners as a favoured grandchild.

This was an environment where people and animals lived cheek to jowl, the cramped spaces of the living quarters forcing everyone out on the street.

In my previous book, Smoke and Mirrors, I wrote extensively about my life in the hutongs and this was one aspect of the book that people across the world, be it in India, China or the US, seemed fascinated by. It seemed natural therefore to situate my novel in this geography and the cats just seemed an intuitive and interesting way to gain entry into this world.

Especially since in 2006 my husband and I adopted two kittens ourselves and through that process became acquainted with a whole new side to Chinese society. We came to meet dedicated cat protection activists, disillusioned veterinarians and wise grandmothers, some of whom ended up as characters in the novel.

That said, I’m also a hopeless anthropomorphiser and have always loved books with animals as principle characters.

MEC: Your website calls Chinese Whiskers “a modern fable.” What do you mean by this? Have you read other works that fit into this genre?

PA: A fable is usually defined as a traditional morality tale which uses animal stories to teach a moral. At heart Chinese Whiskers is a fable. Through the eyes of Tofu and Soyabean we are warned of the corruption that can result from a society experiencing fast paced change, where long-established moorings are coming undone, leaving people without a moral compass.

But although it’s a fable, it’s in an updated form, set in a modern-day context. Beijing in the early 2000s was a time that witnessed a frenetic recasting of the city’s topography and also placed strenuous demands on people to come to grips with new ideas and realities. Hence I call it a “modern fable.”

In the current context, anthropomorphic works tend to be considered unfashionable and commercially unviable by the publishing world. I was extraordinarily lucky in having my story accepted. But that means I haven’t come across other works that fit this genre of late which makes Chinese Whiskers quite a unique attempt.

MEC: In what way is Chinese Whiskers a follow-up to Smoke and Mirrors? In your view, how do the two books fit together?

PA: On the surface the two books are very different. Smoke and Mirrors was a work of non-fiction that blended reportage and memoir to tease out the divergent implications of the choices the modern Chinese and Indian states have made. It was received with some enthusiasm by China watchers, geo-strategic analysts, diplomats, journalists and the general reader with an interest in international relations.

Chinese Whiskers, on the other hand, is a novel with cats in it. Many of those who enjoyed Smoke and Mirrors don’t know what to make of this, when I tell them. Cats are not serious. Cats don’t make for analytic insight.

To begin with I beg to differ vis-a-vis the imputed lack of seriousness of cats. But the larger point for me is that there is in fact a logical continuity between Smoke and Mirrors and Chinese Whiskers. Several chapters in the former sought to evoke the rhythm and texture of life in Beijing at a particular moment. Themes that came up in Smoke and Mirrors included those of a sense of moral anomie in the wake of fierce materialism, corruption, the role physical architecture plays in moulding social relations. These are all themes and issues that Chinese Whiskers addresses. But I think its appeal is wider than that of Smoke and Mirrors. It is intended for people who may be more interested in cats than China to begin with, but hopefully might end up being drawn to learn more about a country and culture they once knew little of. It also works for a broader age group, including younger readers. And hopefully it will be an entertaining diversion for the more “serious” China watchers as well.

MEC: It’s become fairly common for Western reporters to write stories about the growing importance of pets as status symbols for upwardly mobile Chinese, but most of those articles focus only on dogs (here’s a recent example from the New York Times). How are attitudes about cat ownership different?

PA: I think despite the surge in popularity of dogs as pets, there is a fairly mainstream attitude in China that persists in seeing them as social pests. The (mistaken) idea that large dogs are aggressive and prone to attack people lies behind the rule in most big cities that specifies the size and breed of dog that one can own. They are also seen as a source of rabies and stories of anti-dog mob rampages resulting in the massacre of animals sporadically emerge.

Cats on the other hand, with the exception of the SARS epidemic, are not seen as a public health menace and there is greater tolerance of them. Their ownership is not restricted in number and there is no cat license fee, unlike for dogs. At the same time they are not seen as a prestigious accoutrement in the manner in which some middle class people look at expensive breeds of dogs.

In the hutongs if they are kept as pets it’s for utilitarian reasons; for catching rats rather than as is common with small dogs, as child substitutes.

At the same time there is a sub culture of cat protection societies which are fiercely committed to feline rights and working with stray animals to house and sterilize them. There is no exact equivalent for dogs since stray dogs are so much rarer in an urban context.

Differences apart, both cats and dogs share a similar and uncomfortable middle ground in China, somewhere between pet and food. While dogs are eaten in the north as a warming meal in the winter, cats are consumed quite commonly in southern China.

MEC: How did your own cats react to the move from Beijing to Brussels, and do you see that experience leading to a sequel to Chinese Whiskers?

PA: Our cats have taken to non-hutong life in Brussels’ stately maison de maître, as though they were born to a life of cheese and chocolates. I suppose I can envisage a sequel titled from “From Dustbin to Diplomats” detailing the transformation in their fortunes. On the other hand, life in Brussels lacks the elemental drama of hutong existence and Belgium as a whole just doesn’t compare as a setting to China at the time of SARS and the Olympics. But who knows? Intrigue in the corridors of the European Commission might just lend itself to a sequel.

Central Florida News 13 a ratings force in the mornnigs

When the November ratings came out last week, we didn’t discuss Central Florida News 13.

But the cable news channel, which is available only to Bright House Networks customers, certainly has its fans, especially in the morning.

At 6 a.m. during the November ratings period, WFTV-Channel 9 and WESH-Channel 2 tied in the 25-to-54 audience, which is most important to news advertisers. Each station drew 31,000 viewers in that age group. (WESH simulcasts its news on sister station WKCF-Channel 18, where 3,100 additional viewers watched.) WKMG-Channel 6 was third with 18,700.

And then there’s Central Florida News 13, which  averaged 13,300 viewers in the 25-to-54 age group at 6 a.m., outpaced WOFL-Channel 35 with 8,800 viewers.

In November, Central Florida News 13 drew its most viewers at 7 a.m., when it averaged 22,000 homes.

The channel’s second best time slot was 6 a.m., when it averaged 19,000 homes. In the same time slot, WFTV was the leader with 58,900 homes, followed by WESH with 44,700 and WKMG with 22,500.

Planning to Write a China Book? Just Say No

We wrote to Jonathan Watts to ask him to write a commentary on the book tour he’s been on to promote When a Billion Chinese Jump, which included a stop at UC Irvine, but he said he was too busy being whisked from champagne receptions to meetings with Hollywood directors seeking to buy the film rights to the book to craft something suitable. Watts was, however, good enough to offer us permission to run (in slightly trimmed-down form) a piece he wrote—with tongue firmly in cheek—for a 2009 issue of the newsletter of the Beijing Foreign Correspondents’ Club. Composed while he was working on When a Billion Chinese Jump, it explores all the reasons why a journalist should resist the siren call of writing a China book:

By Jonathan Watts

Don’t do it. Stop now, before it is too late.

This is my advice if you are thinking of writing a book. It may sound a mite negative, but believe me, I write from bitter experience out of compassion for my fellow man.

In my case, it started innocently enough: A flattering email from an agent that played on my ego and a vague ambition to become an author. I thought long and hard for, oh, what? about a minute and then, yes, yes, why not.

I persuaded myself I had noble motives. It really wasn’t the promise of fame and fortune, it was the chance to do something worthwhile, to dig deeper into a subject than the day-to-day news agenda allows.

Don’t get me wrong. I love our trade. Journalism is a search for the truth on expenses. But isn’t there also an element of the job that makes us treat knowledge like disposable plastic cups? We fill our heads with facts, figures and comments in the hours or—if we are lucky—days before deadline. Then we empty out all the juiciest bits into our stories and discard what is left to make mental space for the next subject.

That, of course, is the also the beauty of what we do. No high-falutin dreams of eternal glory for us. Nope, we are so in harmony with the mutable and the down-to-earth that we are throwaway, we are garbage. Today’s newspaper is tomorrow’s chip wrapper, as they used to say in the UK. (That was before health-and-safety standards were tightened. Newspapers today are not considered good enough even for chip wrappers.)

But I have a confession. As the years go by, I increasingly crave depth, longevity. I know it is wrong. Really, I feel guilty. The journalistic gods know I have tried to fight it. But it’s no use. The book demon won’t go away. I have become, gulp, earnest.

So earnest, in fact, that not only did I take the plunge into the book world, but I picked that most earnest—and least likely to be a bestseller—of subjects: the environment.

My friends, bless them, tried to save me. Why waste your time, they said. There’s no money in books, they said. The last thing the world needs now is another journalist writing a book about China, they said. One acquaintance even started a club for China correspondents who are not writing books. It is the only club in Beijing that gets smaller every year, he said.

But I didn’t listen.

It really isn’t for the money. By March 2009, I must write 120,000 words. The advance is less than a fifth of the amount a freelancer could earn writing that many words at New York rates.

Add in the extra grief with family, friends, employers and it is a truly rank return on the investment of time and emotion. My life has been turned upside down. At every step I have created expectations of myself that have proved impossible to live up to. Instead, I discovered hidden talents of procrastination. I tried spending a couple of hours on the book each day before work. Total failure. Kind (pitying?) friend have provided refuges in the wilds of Norway, Japan and the Chinese countryside. The result? I’ve developed a penchant for new distractions of weeding, cooking and cycling.

Oh yeah, and then there is the book beard, the hair I must bear until the bloody thing is finished. What a stupid idea that was. But thanks, dear friends for your supportive comments. I count myself lucky that you are still willing to be seen in public with someone that you have variously described as having the facial hair of a Unabomber, Bin-Laden, gulag inmate, Karl Marx, Worzel Gummidge, tramp and scrumpy drinker. My children have forbidden me from attending their school until it is shaven.

But will that day ever come? On my darkest days, alone, starting at my laptop, I begin to doubt. The deadline is looming. The daily word count is rising. With each day that passes, I fear I will go to my grave with an unfinished book on my hard drive and an unruly thicket on my chin.

In desperation, I have sought advice from wiser heads, all published authors—Paul French, John Gittings, James Kynge, Rob Gifford, Richard McGregor, Catherine Sampson, Zhang Lijia, Phil Pan, Alexandra Harney. Their answers were inspiring, though I wish I had heeded their warnings at an earlier stage. In brief, I have condensed their advice to 10 commandments.

1) MOTIVATION: Don’t start unless you are utterly committed to your subject and prepared for your life to change (Everyone).

2) TIME: Don’t think about combining a book with regular work. Take a long sabbatical or sign up to a university course (Gifford).

3) MONEY: Make sure you have a financial cushion, especially if you have a family. Writing and doing original research cost time and money (McGregor).

4) RYHYTHM: Follow Graham Greene and set realistic daily targets (Kynge 384 words per day, Zhang 500, and McGregor 703). Or alternatively, write when the mood strikes and occasionally endure marathons until your forehead hits the table with exhaustion (Gifford).

5) MOMENTUM: If film making is about bums on seats, then book writing is about words on the page (Gittings). You have to keep your “run-rate” up to avoid a last minute rush (McGregor).

6) CRAP: Don’t stop to clean up the crap. Leave that till last. Books are sculpted as much as written (Gittings, Kynge, Gifford, McGregor, Hemingway).

7) ISOLATION: Avoid the internet—or strictly ration your daily use (Sampson, McGregor).

EXERCISE: Exercise before starting each writing session to purge the pacing urge (Sampson).

9) AMBIENCE: If you like to work with music, avoid anything with vocals (Sampson).

10) HELP: Show the manuscript to a frank friend who will tell you just much crap you need to cut or clean up (Gifford, Harney).

Closest to my own feeling at the moment is Paul French’s advice to “Forget it” unless you are pervertedly obsessed. In my case, it comes too late. The pain of this bloody book has exposed a truly masochistic streak—I even sometimes enjoy it. Though this probably isn’t the type of perverted obsession Paul was referring to.

I am now locking myself away in an empty factory-studio in north Beijing, where there is nothing to do but stare at the concrete walls and stroke my ever lengthening beard. Oh, yes, and write. I really must so more of that. Less than four months left and 80,000 words to go . . .

So apologies if I seem a bit anti-social over the coming weeks. Please allow for the stranger than usual behaviour and appearance. Forgive me if I occasionally neglect duties to family, club and company.

Our esteemed published colleagues assure me it will all be worth it in the end. I hope so. I really do. But in the meantime, please sympathise—and learn from this pathetic wretch. Just say No.

Casey Anthony: Defense claims success on finding searchers; Mark NeJame calls comment ‘preposterous’

What was the biggest headline in the Casey Anthony case today? I’ll pick one from outside the status hearing.

Anthony defense attorney Cheney Mason told WESH-Channel 2 that the questioning of Texas EquuSearch volunteers was paying dividends for the defense. Mason estimated that 15 to 20 of 75 volunteers questioned said there was no was body at the spot where Caylee Anthony’s remains were later found. Casey Anthony is charged with first-degree murder in the death of her daughter.

Mason’s point suggests that someone else deposited the toddler’s remains after her mother was in jail, WESH’s Bob Kealing explained.

Mason said he will give the list of witnesses to the court Friday, Kealing added.

But Kealing also quoted “one source close to the investigation” who is “highly skeptical of this new defense claim of all these witnesses that they’ve identified.”

And Mark NeJame, attorney for Texas EquuSearch, told Kealing that Mason’s comment was “preposterous.”

WESH, WOFL-Channel 35 and WFTV-Channel 9 highlighted Chief Judge Belvin Perry’s decisions during the status hearing. The defense must give the prosecution all the notes, photos and videos taken by defense experts. But Perry rejected the prosecution’s request to get the financial records for defense experts.

Later WFTV-Channel 9’s Kathi Belich asked defense attorney Jose Baez what the defense paid its experts before the defense ran out of money. Baez said the information was client-business dealings. “We do know that the defense spent almost $200,000 before taxpayers started picking up the tab for Casey’s defense,” Belich added.

In another report, Belich look at prosecution’s expenses. She reported that the state attorney’s office says prosecuting the case has cost $42,000 after two years, but that figure doesn’t include prosecutors’ salaries or the “very high” investigation costs of various agencies.

Belich also noted that the defense seemed to be backing away from any attempts to discredit Roy Kronk, the meter reader who found Caylee’s remains.

The defense said it might have been “premature” to suggest that Kronk be investigated as a suspect, Belich reported.

WESH showed Baez telling reporters, “A lot of it is premature. After looking at certain things, we may not want to address some of them until a later time.”

But Perry warned Baez that “all most motions must be heard by the end of the year or possibly not at all,” Kealing explained.

There were the personal bits, too:

Kealing highlighted the “new hands-on approach” that deputies were using to escort Anthony into the court. She had tripped this summer and chipped a tooth at the courthouse.

WOFL’s Holly Bristow said that Anthony “walked into court today wearing a bright orange shirt with her hair pulled back and a smile on her face. Her mom, Cindy, sat two rows back. Noticeably absent: Casey’s dad, George.”

WFTV anchor Martie Salt observed, “Casey looked like she was having a good time in court today.”

Kathi Belich agreed, “She was laughing with one of the defense staffers when the lawyers were all up at the bench talking to the judge. At one point, she seemed to catch herself   and put on a more serious expression.”

Belich described the shirt as peach-colored.

Leslie Nielsen: the wonder of getting better with age

Leslie Nielsen left us a wonderful example: You can get better with time.

The actor, who died Sunday at age 84 at a Fort Lauderdale hospital near his home, was a competent and handsome leading man early in his career. For examples, look to the movies “Tammy and the Bachelor” and “The Opposite Sex” in the 1950s.

Over the next few decades, he logged dozens of guest appearances on TV shows from “Bonanza” and “Gunsmoke” to “M*A*S*H” and “Fantasy Island” to “Murder, She Wrote” and “Who’s the Boss?” He set a marvelous example for the working actor.

The turning point in his career came in 1980, when he delivered an uproarious performance as the goofy doctor in “Airplane!”

Surely, greater things were in store.

That movie’s creators cast Nielsen as Detective Frank Drebin in “Police Squad,” an ABC series. The show was short-lived, but cancellation wasn’t the end — another encouraging sign in Nielsen’s long career.

Drebin found new life in “The Naked Gun,” a 1988 film comedy, and Nielsen gained his greatest fame for his droll work in that slapstick comedy.

Two “Naked Gun” sequels followed, and Nielsen worked in many other comedies. He also married Dorothy (Bea Arthur) in the final episode of “The Golden Girls.”

He was a golden man. In an industry that often wants to ignore age and airbrush all the wrinkles, Nielsen matured beautifully. He had been a handsome male ingenue and a solid player in memorable films, such as “Forbidden Planet” and “The Poseidon Adventure.”

He was a familiar face in many TV series and TV movies who morphed into a big star and a beloved figure. Surely, it’s a remarkable feat in a difficult industry.

‘60 Minutes’ talks to former Justice John Paul Stevens tonight

Interviews with former justices of the U.S. Supreme Court are unusual, but “60 Minutes” offers one tonight with John Paul Stevens.

Stevens, who spent 35 years on the Supreme Court, will weigh in on several decisions, including the one in the 2000 election between Al Gore and George W. Bush. Stevens also has written an essay about capital punishment for The New York Review of Books. Scott Pelley is the correspondent.

The CBS newsmagazine airs at 7 p.m. on WKMG-Channel 6.

In another segment on the Afghan police, Anderson Cooper talks to Peter Galbraith, the former No. 2 United Nations diplomat in Afghanistan.

“The police are incapable of being reformed,” Galbraith tells Cooper. “We’re talking about something that will take 100 years, generations.”

The program also offers a preview of “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,” the $60 million musical that begins previews on Broadway tonight. Lesley Stahl and a camera crew have followed the delayed musical for more than a year and a half.

‘Blue Bloods’ rerun beats Barack Obama in the ratings

Friday was not a good night for President Barack Obama in the ratings. He got a shellacking there, too, to follow the one in the midterm elections.

His conversation with Barbara Walters placed second in total viewers to a rerun of CBS’ “Blue Bloods” and third in the 10 p.m. time slot in the 18-to-49 age group. On that count, Obama was behind Tom Selleck and NBC’s broadcast of the fantasy film “Enchanted.”

The Walters interview averaged 5.7 million viewers for ABC. The “Blue Bloods” repeat, the second of two Friday night, pulled in 7.6 million for CBS.

Here are the prime-time averages for the broadcast networks: CBS with 7.2 million, Disney-owned ABC with 4.9 million, Fox with 3.9 million for the two-hour “TV’s Funniest Holiday Moments,” NBC with 3.1 million and The CW with 1.5 million for reruns.

Yet there was a three-way tie in the 18-to-49 age group among CBS, ABC and Fox.

CBS offered reruns of “CSI: NY” (6.7 million) at 8 and “Blue Bloods” (7.3 million) at 9.

ABC started its night with a repeat of “Happy Feet” (4.5 million). NBC countered with “School Pride” (2.3 million) and “Enchanted” (3.5 million).

Casey Anthony: What’s coming at Monday hearing?

The next status hearing in the Casey Anthony case starts at 1 p.m. Monday.

Anthony, who is charged with first-degree murder in the death of her daughter, Caylee Marie, will be there.

On Thanksgiving night, WFTV-Channel 9 provided a preview. WFTV’s Kathi Belich explained that prosecutors want to know how much the Anthony defense team spent on experts, such as Dr. Henry Lee, before Anthony was declared indigent.

“Prosecutors will ask Chief Judge Belvin Perry to compel Casey Anthony’s defense team to hand over their contracts with their experts; bills of payment; travel, meal and entertainment records; and photographs, communications and notes pertaining to the experts and their work on the case,” Belich said.

Belich, citing WFTV legal analyst Bill Sheaffer, said such information is usually turned automatically over to the prosecution.

“There may be a reason why the defense does not want to make that known because of the amount of money that these experts have been charging,” Sheaffer told Belich.

A private investigator for the defense has billed taxpayers nearly $8,000 in September and October in part for looking for a hundred Texas EquuSearch volunteers, WFTV reported. But the prosecution has countered there are ”more like 10 people who might have relevant information” about the spot where Caylee’s remains were found, Belich said.

‘Modern Family’ is Wednesday’s most-watched show

Here’s a reason to be thankful: ABC’s wonderful “Modern Family” has connected with viewers. The Emmy-winning sitcom had the most viewers Wednesday night, drawing 10.5 million.

ABC won the night in the 18-to-49 age group, thanks to “Modern Family,” “Cougar Town” and “The Middle.”

But CBS attracted the most viewers with a “Survivor” clip show and repeats of “Criminal Minds” and “The Defenders.”

Here are the prime-time averages: CBS with 8.2 million, ABC with 7.4 million, Fox with 5.3 million, NBC with 5.2 million and The CW with 1.4 million. Fox edged CBS for second in the 18-to-49 age group.

Here’s how the CBS lineup fared: “Survivor” with 8 million, “Criminal Minds” with 9.2 million and “The Defenders” with 7.3 million.

And here’s the rest of the ABC lineup: “The Middle” with 8.2 million, “Better With You” with 6.8 million, ”Cougar Town” with 6.7 million and a “Primetime” special on plastic surgery with 6 million.

Fox offered “Human Target” (5.6 million) and “Hell’s Kitchen” (5 million). NBC aired the specials “Merry Madagascar” (5.9 million), “Kung Fu Panda Holiday Special” (5.9 million) and a “Biggest Loser” update (4.9 million). The CW provided “America’s Next Top Model” (1.9 million) and “Hellcats” (1 million).

Thanksgiving TV menu: Macy’s parade; CNN Heroes; Discovery’s ‘Punkin Chunkin’; specials from Taylor Swift and Beyonce

What to watch on Thanksgiving Day? Here are some quick suggestions:

1. The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will put you in a New York state of mind. NBC offers coverage from 9 a.m. to noon. Matt Lauer, Meredith Vieira and Al Roker host. You’ll see the casts from Broadway’s “American Idiot,” “Elf,” “Memphis” and “Million Dollar Quartet.” The stars include Gladys Knight, Joan and Melissa Rivers, Kanye West, Betty Buckley, Ann Hampton Callaway, Arlo Guthrie, Miranda Cosgrove, the Muppets, Jessica Simpson, Jimmy Fallon and the Roots.

2. The Thanksgiving Day Parade on CBS runs from 9 a.m. to noon ET. Maggie Rodriguez and Dave Price will host. Viewers will see part of the Macy’s parade in New York plus performances by Carrie Underwood and the Broadway musicals “Billy Elliot” and “Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles.”

3. John O’Hurley hosts “The National Dog Show Presented by Purina” from noon to 2 p.m. on NBC.

4. Taylor Swift gives a look at the making of her latest album, “Speak Now,” in an NBC special at 8 p.m.

5. Discovery Channel delivers “Punkin Chunkin” at 8 p.m. Adam Savage and Jamie Hyman of “Mythbusters” host this celebration of pumpkin tossing and exploding in Bridgeville, Del.

6. Fox will air “The Simpsons Movie” at 8 p.m. and provide a preview of the new animated series “Bob’s Burgers.”

7. The rescued Chilean miners will grace “CNN Heroes” at 8 p.m. Anderson Cooper hosts. The celebrities taking part include Halle Berry, Demi Moore, Jessica Alba, Kid Rock, LL Cool J, Renee Zellweger, Gerard Butler, Kiefer Sutherland, Marisa Tomei, Bon Jovi, Sugarland and John Legend.

8. Matt Lauer talks to NBC’s “People of the Year” at 9 p.m. They include Justin Timberlake, Kim Kardashian, LeBron James and James Willie Jones, the Sanford father who boarded a school bus and ranted against bullying.

9. “Beyonce’s I Am … World Tour” offers a look at her 32-country tour and runs 90 minutes. The special features Kanye West and Beyonce’s husband, Jay-Z. The program starts at 9:30 p.m. on ABC.