It’s been a couple of years since they’ve been in high school, and all but the most fervent followers have long since lost interest but “Gossip Girl” (The CW, 8 p.m.) finally comes to an end tonight, with some sort of decision regarding Serena and Dan, a probable society event that is wrecked in some way, and if we’re lucky, the identification of who “Gossip Girl” herself has been all these years.The new midseason comedy “1600 Penn” (NBC, 9:30 p.m.) is certainly lightweight when compared to, say, “Veep.” But in the realm of network comedies, it has a lot to offer, mainly through the bear-sized comic talent of Josh Gad, the star from Broadway’s “Book of Mormon” who has been in a few series, “Back to You,” “Woke Up Dead” and “Good Vibes.” Never has he been allowed to fully use his edgy comic talents, working in an almost parallel world than standard sit-com approaches, which pretty much covers the rest of the show — with Bill Pullman as the president and Jenna Elfman as his trophy wife. It’s not great in a Thursday night NBC way, but much better than most new sitcoms.
Here’s something unusual: A one-time, 30 minute short film in which Julia Louis-Dreyfus plays a Paris-obsessed American mom who travels to the City of Light after her son goes to college. Her husband, and fellow one time “Saturday Night Live” cast member, Brad Hall, wrote and directed the amusing and ultimately surprising trifle, titled “Picture Paris” (HBO, 9 p.m.).
Kicking off a week of finales on the two network talent shows, the final three — Nicholas David, Cassadee Pope and Terry McDermott — all sing on the final performance episode of “The Voice” (NBC, 8 p.m.). In a 90-minute show, presumably each will get 30 minutes (actually if they sing more than one song, we’ll be lucky).
The stars of “How to Train Your Dragon,” who went on to have their own Cartoon Network series noe host their own holiday special, “DreamworksDragons: GIft of the Night Fury” (Fox, 8 p.m.). It kicks off a night of specials, one Christmas, “Ice Age: Mammoth Christmas” (Fox, 8:30 p.m.), one only loosely associated with it, “Happiness is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown” (Fox, 9 p.m.). (It does have Charlie Brown, though no Charlie Brown Tree).
Yuletide movies include double plays of “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas” (ABC Family, 8 and 9:30 p.m.) and the George C. Scott “A Christmas Carol” (AMC, 8 and 10:30 p.m.).
The director returns to JFK and particularly the Bay of Pigs on this week’s lesson, “Oliver Stone’s Untold History of the United States” (Showtime, 8 p.m.).
Denial is the common theme on new episodes of “Hoarders” (A&E, 9 p.m.) and “Intervention” (A&E, 10 p.m.) and denial of truth may have been the theme all along on “Finding Bigfoot” (Animal Planet, 9 p.m.).
“How I Met Your Mother” (CBS, 8 p.m.) has a pair of back to back episodes followed by just single showins of “2 Broke Girls” (CBS, 9 p.m.) and “Mike & Molly” (CBS, 9:30 p.m.).
A first stab at a year in review comes in “Oh Yeah, That Happened 2012” (TV Guide Network, 9 p.m.).
A soldier wounded in Iraq gets a hand on a two hour holiday episode of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” (ABC, 8 p.m.).
George Takei guest stars on “Hawaii Five-0” (CBS, 10 p.m.).
Christmas in uniform is also the theme on Turner Classic Movies with “Destination Tokyo” (8 p.m.), “Battleground” (10:30 p.m.), “The Fighting 69th” (12:45 a.m.), “Never So Few” (2:30 a.m.) and “Salute to the Marines” (4:45 a.m.).
It’s New York Jets at Tennessee (ESPN, 8:30 p.m.) in Monday Night Football.
Men’s college hoops includes Detroit at Syracuse (ESPN2, 7 p.m.), Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne at Notre Dame (ESPNU, 7 p.m.), UNLV at Texas El Paso (CBS Sports, 8 p.m.) and Cornell at Vanderbilt (ESPNU, 9 p.m.).
Daytime Talk
Kelly & Michael: Paul Rudd, Christoph Waltz, Lizzie Post. The View: Kadee Strickland. The Talk: Nate Berkus, Tempestt Bledsoe, Renee Felice Smith, barrett Foa, Texas Battle, Carnie Wilson. Ellen DeGeneres: Anne Hathaway, Cee-Lo Green.