Wednesday’s TV highlights

SERIES

America’s Next Top Model: Nutritionist Heather Bauer tests the models’ knowledge about healthful foods and offers tips on how to improve their diets, which leads to a verbal fight over a piece of chicken in this new episode (8 p.m. KTLA).

The Middle: Doris Roberts returns as Brick’s (Atticus Shaffer) third-grade teacher, who asks Frankie and Mike (Patricia Heaton, Neil Flynn) to attend a math class after Frankie questions her teaching skills in this new episode (8 p.m. ABC).

American Idol: The female semifinalists perform in this new episode (8 p.m. Fox).

American Masters: This new documentary looks at how Carole King and James Taylor’s collaboration 40 years ago became a focal point of a 1970s music movement that was nurtured at the Troubadour (8 p.m. KOCE).

Modern Family: Claire (Julie Bowen) wears herself out trying to make peace between Alex and Haley (Ariel Winter, Sarah Hyland), while Phil (Ty Burrell) sneaks off for a day at the spa in this new episode (9 p.m. ABC).

Traffic Light: Thrifty Adam (Nelson Franklin) is horrified when Callie (Aya Cash) is forced to admit she is in major debt, and their radically opposing attitudes about money may mean trouble for their relationship in this new episode (9:30 p.m. Fox).

Mr. Sunshine: Heather (Portia Doubleday) must find a new halftime act when the Sunshine Center mascot (guest star David Pressman) quits in this new episode (9:30 p.m. ABC).

SPECIALS

Cigarette Wars: This new episode reports on an industry that continues to thrive despite all that is known about the dangers of smoking (7, 9 and 10 p.m. CNBC).

MOVIES

Thurgood: Laurence Fishburne stars as Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall in this 2011 TV docudrama (8 p.m. HBO).

SPORTS

Pro basketball: The Houston Rockets visit the Clippers (7:30 p.m. FS Prime).