1) “Bear Grylls is Running Wild,” 9 p.m., Fox. Elizabeth Banks is an actress and game-show host, but she was also the director of the successful movie, “Cocaine Bear.” Now she’s with Bear (Grylls, not Cocaine), heading into the frigid wilderness. (They’re shown here.) They try to navigate the crevasses of a melting glacier, then kayak to the site of a cold extraction. Read more…
1) “American Music Awards,” 8-11 p.m. ET, CBS. Queen Latifah hosts a night stuffed with music. Performing will be Karol G (shown here) and Billy Idol (both getting special honors), country’s Keith Urban and Riley Green and more, including Teddy Swims, Teyana Taylor, Sombr, Twenty One Pilots, Katseye, Pussycat Dolls, BTS, New Kids on the Block and Hootie & The Blowfish. Read more…
1) “National Memorial Day Concert,” 8 p.m., PBS, rerunning at 9:30. Building toward the country’s 250th birthday on July 4, this recalls the soldiers who got us here; one segment (with Noah Wyle) goes back to 1776. Music is from country’s Alan Jackson (shown here), Mickey Guyton and Jamey Johnson, plus Blessing Offor, Laura Osnes and the National Symphony. Read more…
It’s time to probe two of life’s persistent stereotypes:
A) Older folks have trouble keeping up with modern times; and B) Canadians are really, really nice.
Our guides (via a Zoom interview) are Brooke Shields, 60, and Amalia Williamson, 31. They star in “You’re Killing Me” (shown here), the “cozy mystery” series that streams new episodes Mondays at www.acorn.tv. Read more…
It’s great to have new ideas, Josh Johnson says … except sometimes it’s not.
“Sometimes, something hasn’t been done before because it’s a bad idea,” Johnson, who has a new HBO special, said in a video press conference.
“Things like peanut-butter-and pickle sandwiches: No one’s done that before, because it’s a bad idea.”
He’s impressed critics with good ideas — both in his comedy and in the way he presents it. Now his “Josh Johnson: Symphony” special (debuting at 8 p.m. Friday and 10:10 p.m. Saturday, May 22-23, and also on HBO Max) offers a fresh approach, including the way he uses music. Read more…
1) “Schitt’s Creek,” 11 a.m. ro midnight, Pop. Here’s the show that lifted Pop out of obscurity (briefly). Created by Dan Levy and his father Eugene (who’s shown here with Catherine O’Hara), it had lots of quiet character humor. In its sixth and final season, it dominated the Emmys; then Pop sagged. Now here are the first two “Creek” seasons; the second two are on Sunday, the final ones Monday. Read more…
1) “An Evening With Nicole Scherzinger,” 9 p.m., PBS. Amid the glamour of Royal Albert Hall, Scherzinger (shown here at a previous event) has poor stage patter, but awesome vocals. She glides from Broadway to rock, re-visiting hers past in theater (“Sunset Boulevard”) and with the Pussycat Dolls, convincingly asking: “Don’t Cha Wish Your Girlfriend Was Hot Like Me?” Read more…
A very old comedian will be working on “Very Young Frankenstein.”
Mel Brooks –who turns 100 on June 28 — is one of the producers of the comedy, which will be on FX and Hulu.
The show is from the people behind FX’s “What We Do in the Shadows,” the vampire comedy that drew four Emmy nominations for best comedy series. Taika Waititi, co-creator of “Shadows,” directed the pilot film, which stars Zach Galifianakis, Dolly Wells and Spencer House.
This is based on Brooks’ 1974 “Young Frankenstein” (shown here) which the American Film Institute puts at No. 13 on its list of all-time funniest movies. (Brooks’ “Blazing Saddles” and “The Producers” are No. 6 and 11.) Read more…
1) Stephen Colbert farewell, 11:35 p.m., CBS. A great CBS tradition — late-night wit, with 22 years of David Letterman and 11 of Colbert (shown here) — skids to an end. CBS says the show was losing money; others say the change was made to appease Donald Trump. Either way, a once-great network is diminished … but not until it has a big-deal farewell. Read more…
The summer TV season looms, bringing a little of this, a little of that and a lot of sports.
A lot. Basketball has staked out June 3-19 on ABC; baseball has Saturdays on Fox and Sundays on NBC. And this year, Fox obsesses on soccer’s World Cup, from June 11 to July 19.
Around that, however, there’s room for a modest number of non-reruns, including (shown here” NBC’s “Surviving Earth.”
The streamers will keep pouring out new shows, year-round. (Netflix, for instance, has its promising “Little House on the Prairie” reboot July 9.) But for this overview, we’ll look at the five major broadcast networks.
Most of the big summer shows are back (“America’s Got Talent,” “Big Brother,” “Family Feud,” etc.), except for the troubled “Bachelorette.” Fox started two of the best shows — “The 1% Club” and “MasterChef” — early. Also, PBS has its Sunday dramas, plus lots of documentaries, new and old.
Added to that are three new series. We’ll start there: Read more…
Best-bets for May 26: fun with a non-cocaine Bear 
Best-bets for May 25: music and Memorial Day films 
Best-bets for May 24: Memorial music, movies, more 
