Best-bets for March 15: Oscars bring dazzle, music and (maybe) more

1) Academy Awards, 7 p.m. ET, ABC and Hulu. Conan O’Brien hosts and “Sinners” leads with 16 nominations. Its song, “I Lied to You,” will have a big-scale production. “Golden,” from “KPop Demon Hunters,” will also be done live, with others in videos. “One Battle After Another,” “Hamnet” and Timothee Chalamet’s “Marty Supreme”(shown here) also could be prominent.
Read more…

Week’s top-10 for March 16: basketball barrage and a super Sunday

1) College basketball tournament. This starts at 3:30 and 6 p.m. PT Tuesday and Wednesday on TruTV, filling the last four spots. Then comes the cascade: On Thursday and Friday, CBS has games at 9 and 11:30 a.m. PT and 4 and 6:30 p.m. Then it’s 9 and 11:30 a.m. and 2 and 4:30 p.m. Saturday; 9, 11:30 and 2 Sunday. There’s more on TBS, TNT and TruTV.(Shown here is top-rated Duke.) Read more…

Best-bets for March 13: stumbling fun; Oscar prep

1) “Stumble” season-finale, 8:30 p.m., NBC. Gradually, this has evolved into an above-average comedy. It offers interesting characters, sharp sight gags and, at times, dandy cheer-team moves. Last week (shown here) the coach picked her 16-person team, with one alternate. Now they’re at the national championships, where she collides with her enemies. The result is inconsistent, but has some excellent moments Read more…

Daytime talk is fading, but Drew’s been renewed

In the dwindling land of syndicated TV talk shows, Drew Barrymore (shown here) offers an exception.
Her show, already in its sixth season, has just been renewed for two years.
That’s a counterpoint to the current trend: Two shows — Kelly Clarkson and Sherri Shepherd — will stop at the end of this year, with others wobbling. Read more…

Oscar night preview: “Sinners” song gets big boost

On Academy Award nights, many nominated songs have been sort of ignored.
Now, however, comes the opposite. At this year’s show (7 p.m. ET Sunday, March 15), the “Sinners” song will get a big-deal presentation, complete with blues stars, a dancer and special visuals.
That’s one of the belated announcements by ABC, which has also added some red-carpet details. Here’s an updated version of my previous story:

When the Oscar ceremony arrives Sunday, it might actually entertain us. It will have a clever host (Conan O’Brien), a few funny presenters and a couple of live songs. And it will have movies people have actually seen.
Gone are the days of hostless, songless, joyless Oscars. And gone, for now, is the domination of obscure films. This year has “Sinners” (shown here), “One Battle After Another,” “Marty Supreme” and more. Here’s an overview: Read more…

Best-bets for March 11: “Squares” and “Cup” lead a reality overload

1) “Hollywood Squares” return, 10:30 p.m., CBS. After a four-week break, “Squares” returns … but is trimmed to a half-hour slot. Drew Barrymore (shown here with Thomas Lennon, a frequent panelist) lives in the center square. Tonight, she’s with reality-show veterans Rob Mariano, Niecy Nash Betts and Ms. Pat, plus singer Ariana DeBose and comedians Ron Funches, Tiffany Haddish, Pete Holmes and Jo Koy. Read more…

Best-bets for March 10: cops, crime, Count, etc.

1) “Best Medicine,” 8 p.m., Fox. With this show’s format, anything is possible. Things can be goofy — sometimes too goofy — one moment, serious the next. This time. that leans mostly to the serious side. The story starts with a spinster who loves great birds and bad poetry, then (shown here) has a disaster. From therem it spins in many interesting directions. Read more…