Year: 2019

Best-bets for Jan. 2: Fox has the old and new

1) “Last Man Standing” season-opener, 8 and 8:30 p.m., Fox. It’s been a wild ride for Tim Allen’s comedy – six years on ABC … a year in limbo … a year on Fox … then another five months on the shelf. Now it’s back and in its usual form – sometimes clever, sometimes not, but generally enjoyable. In the first episode, Mike’ and Vanessa (Allen and Nancy Travis, shown here) see two daughters feud, while the third snipes from the sidelines; the story is contrived, but the dialog is fun. The second episode is lame, but it’s still good to have “Man” back. Read more…

Best-bets for Jan. 1: A rosy day of parades and punts

1) Rose Parade, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET, NBC and ABC. Here’s an upbeat start of 2020, awash in bright colors and brassy sounds. There are 20 bands, 39 floats (one from last year is shown here) and 17 horse units. There’s also an Hispanic emphasis: The bands include ones from Mexico, Costa Rico, Puerto Rico and El Salvador; the grand marshals are Olympic gymnast Laurie Hernandez and actresses Gina Torres (the “Pearson” star) and Rita Moreno, 88, who has ranged from “West Side Story” to the current “One Day at a Time” reboot. Read more…

Best-bets for Dec. 31: Music, music and (yes) music

1) “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve,” 8-11 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. to 2:13 a.m., ABC. The music comes from all directions tonight. In Times Square, Ryan Seacrest has Post Malone, BTS, Sam Hunt and Alanis Morissette … in New Orleans, Billy Porter has Usher and Sheryl Crow … in Hollywood (taped in advance), Ciara has Paula Abdul, Kelsea Ballerini, Green Day, Dan + Shea, Dua Lipa, Salt-N-Pepqa, Ava Max and more. And in Miami, the first performance of the new year is from the Jonas Brothers (shown here). Read more…

Best-bets for Dec. 30: Bowls, ‘Bob’ & ‘BFG’

1) Orange Bowl, 8 p.m. ET, ESPN. Here’s one of the bowl giants. This one goes back to 1935, tying it with two others (Sugar and Sun) for the second-oldest bowl game, behind only the Rose. For 9th-ranked Florida (shown here), this Miami game is almost a home game, facing Virginia (No. 24). That wraps up an ESPN bowl day that has Western Michigan and Western Kentucky at 12:30 p.m. ET and Louisville and Mississippi State at 4. Also at 4, California face Illinois – those are big states, you know – on Fox. Read more…

Film savors Ronstadt, who “could sing anything”

At first, the music world wasn’t sure what to do with Linda Ronstadt.
Was she folk? … Or country? … Or rock?
Then people realized she was all of that and more – from 1940s pop to Spanish-language ballads to operettas. “Linda could literally sing anything,” Dolly Parton says in a documentary.
Now that film – fascinating and well-crafted – reaches CNN … which is where it started. Read more…

Best-bets for Dec. 29: Some flirty, daring debuts

1) “Flirty Dancing” debut, 8 p.m., Fox. The holiday season hasn’t finished yet, but tonight TV has two new series – one silly and one not. Here’s the silly one (shown here), based on a British series: Two singles learn their halves of a dance; then they’re brought together to perform it without talking. Romance may or may not ensue. Jenna Dewan, the dancer-actress who hosted “World of Dance,” hosts. After this debut, “Flirty” will borrow a Wednesday slot until “The Masked Singer” returns in February. Read more…

Cheerleading isn’t cheery in intense “Dare Me”

Humans have a knack for turning fun into competition and one-upsmanship.
Dancers compete. So do singers and cooks and more. Even cheerleaders can’t simply be cheery.
That emerges in “Dare Me,” an intense novel that’s now a drama series (shown here), starting Sunday (Dec. 29) on the USA Network. Teen cheerleaders struggle to be at the top of the pyramid, literally and figuratively.
Alison Thornton, 20, one of the co-stars, sees it that as logical. “I think I understand the competition, because of all the dancing I did,” she said. Read more…

Week’s top-10 for Dec. 30; Eve parties and beyond

1) “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve,” 8-11 p.m. Tuesday and 11:30 p.m. to 2:13 a.m., ABC. Here’s the plan Dick Clark created 47 years ago: Tape music in advance … put someone (now Ryan Seacrest) live at Times Square … then blend them. This year that adds live music from Times Square (BTS, shown here, plyus Post Malone, Sam Hunt and Alanis Morissette), Miami (Jonas Brothers) and New Orleans (Usher, Sheryl Crow). Ciara heads the taped party, with Paula Abdul, Kelsea Ballerini, Green Day, Dan + Shea and more. Read more…

Best-bets for Dec. 28: Football’s final four collide

1) College football, 4 and 8 p.m. ET, ESPN. Sure, we’ve had some funny little bowl games – ones with funny names and little stadiums. But now comes the battle for the national championship. First, the Peach Bowl has top-ranked LSU (with quarterback Joe Burrow, shown here) and fourth-ranked Oklahoma; then the Fiesta Bowl has Ohio State (No. 2) and Clemson (No. 3). The winners collide Jan. 13, in the Superdome. Read more…