1) “Saturday Night Live,” 11:29 p.m., NBC. The “SNL” summer ends the same way the regular season ended — with Will Ferrell hosting and Paul McCartney as music guest. Ferrell even shows up in chains as the ghost of Jeffrey Epstein (shown here), haunting Donald Trump. Next Saturday, “SNL” has its earliest opener in 14 years, with basketball’s Jalen Brunson hosting. Read more…
Here’s another sign that Madonna is forever:
She’ll do the opening number in this year’s Video Music Awards — 42 years after she was nominated as best new artist.
Back then, the VMA’s were strictly on MTV; this year, they’re 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. ET Sept. 27 on CBS, MTV and other networks. And this year, at 68, Madonna (shown here_ leads with 11 nominations, including song of the year (“Bring Your Love”) and artist of the year. Read more…
Here are this fall’s new, broadcast-network TV shows — a meager list,
Lumping together six networks, there are still only eight new series. ABC and Fox each contribute zero.
Networks seem to be waiting for mid-season, when they’ll have “Baywatch” and “Rockford Files” reboots, a “Grey’s Anatomy” spin-off and more.
Some of the new fall shows — especially “Cupertino” (shown here) — are instantly likable, some not. The list is chronological, by category; three of the eight — “Newlyweds,” “NCIS: New York” and “Private Eyes West Coast” — still didn’t have episodes available for review, as of Sept. 16: Read more…
1) “Greatest @Home Videos,” 8 p.m., CBS. This amiable series was created during the pandemic, showing the creativity of people confined to their homes. Now it merely has scattered specials. In this one, the first in 16 months, Cedric the Entertainer has his “annual” Cedy awards, shown here. Read more…
As TV networks celebrate their new season, streamers are ready to spoil their party. Again.
The networks try to be giddy about their new shows — which are scarce. This fall, CBS and NBC have three each, CW has one, ABC and Fox have zero.
By comparison? The list here (not exhaustive) has 40 shows arriving this fall on streamers or premium channels; 23 of them new. It has epic ones — adapting “Lord of the Rings” and “Percy Jackson” (shown here), re-adapting “Harry Potter — and basic ones, including new takes on Steinbeck and Ali. Read more…
1) “The Traitors: New Blood” debut, 8 and 9 p.m., NBC. The Peacock version and Alan Cumming (shown here) have already won three straight Emmys for best reality show and best host. Now we get the network version, with strangers (including “killers”) in a Scottish castle. This one skips celebrities; instead, it has a doctor, a nurse, a pilot and two lawyers, plus a rodeo guy, an ironworker, a dog groomer and more. Read more…
1) “Nation’s Dumbest” finale, 9 p.m., Fox. A fun season ends with two bright people (shown here) who never quite win. Chase Hudson, 24, from a family of Berkeley grads, spent much of his youth as a Tik-Tok star and online student. Hilaria Baldwin, 42, the daughter of a doctor and a lawyer, has dyslexia, ADHD and seven children. Their final round is a delight. Read more…
1) “Dancing With the Stars” opener, 8-10 p.m., ABC; continues Wednesday. Some people start this with no dance experience. Others? Jenna Dewan and Julia Stiles have starred in dance movies; Dewan (shown here in “Step Up”) is a trained dancer; Stiles had two months of intense training. Now they’re in an interesting line-up, alongside Paralympic champ Ezra Frech and more. Read more…
1) Emmy awards, 8 p.m. ET, NBC. Mariska Hargitay (shown here). not known for comedy, is this year’s host. Maybe there will be fun moments from the presenters, including Amy Poehler and Marcello Hernandez of “Saturday Night Live,” Keke Palmer, Dan Levy, Niecy Nash-Betts and Alan Cumming. Others include Sally Field, Macaulay Culkin and Zendaya. Read more…
1) “Best of VMAs: Iconic Vanguard Performances,” 9:30 p.m., CBS. In 1984, the Video Music Awards started the Video Vanguard Award. Early ones went to the Beatles, David Bowie (shown here) and Michael Jackson; lately, eight in a row have gone to women … a string that will be broken Sept. 27, when Nirvana is honored. First, here are past performances by Vanguard winners. Read more…
Best-bets for Sept. 19: Ferrell wraps the “SNL” summer 
Best-bets for Sept. 18: fun, dance and warfare 
Best-bets for Sept. 17: “Traitors” and lots of laughs 
