Best-bets for April 1: Masked stars, mask-less superstar

1) “The Masked Singer” (shown here), 8-10 p.m., Fox. The semi-finals begin and things get serious. The early rounds dumped a skateboarder (Tony Hawk), a rapper (Lil Wayne), two TV hosts (Tom Bergeron, Drew Carey) and an almost-vice president (Sarah Palin). They also dumped two semi-singers (JoJo Siwa and Bella Thorne) and, oddly, music greats Dionne Warwick and Chaka Khan. That leaves the top nine, some quite talented, dressed as a kangaroo, banana, rhino and such. Read more…

1) “The Masked Singer” (shown here), 8-10 p.m., Fox. The semi-finals begin and things get serious. The early rounds dumped a skateboarder (Tony Hawk), a rapper (Lil Wayne), two TV hosts (Tom Bergeron, Drew Carey) and an almost-vice president (Sarah Palin). They also dumped two semi-singers (JoJo Siwa and Bella Thorne) and, oddly, music greats Dionne Warwick and Chaka Khan. That leaves the top nine, some quite talented, dressed as a kangaroo, banana, rhino and such.

2) “Garth & Trisha Live,” 9 p.m., CBS. The perform-from-home trend is growing. We’ve already had specials Sunday and Monday (hosted by Elton John and James Corden) with at-home music; this Sunday (April 5), CBS will have most of the top country stars. In between is this husband-wife concert by Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood, from their home studio. A similar show, on their Facebook Live show March 23, quickly topped five million viewers.

3) “Nova: Cuba’s China Hope,” 9 p.m., PBS. Sixty years ago, Cuba virtually had to start over. Half of its doctors had left, but Fidel Castro preached the importance of science and medicine. That brought a surge of medical schools, plus 31 high-tech research facilities … and some innovative approaches. Now some U.S. doctors see promise in Cuban immunotherapy drugs. As part of a strong documentary, “Nova” follows a Colorado man who violates travel restrictions to have cancer treatments in Havana.

4) “The Magicians” series finale, 10 p.m., Syfy. From its start five years ago, this has rippled with imagination, intelligence and, at times, humor. Still, it’s not an easy show to jump onto for the finale. Whirling past us are an odd Santa, a librarian with perma-frost, time loops, a do-over and some walking dead. The goal is to destroy and then rebuild a world that was once considered fictional and then became sort of real. Some of the final scenes are worth the wait … and worth the confusion.

5) And much more. A week before its series finale, “Modern Family” (9 p.m., ABC) has the three Dunphy kids throwing a party while their parents are away. And movies? Ir’s a family day on FX, with “The Greatest Showman” (2017) at 12:30 p.m., “Sing” (2016) at 2:30, “Despicable Me 3” (2017) at 5 and “Peter Rabbit” (2018) at 7 and 9. In contrast, BBC America has Monty Python’s hilarious (but not for everyone) “Life of Brian” (1979) at 6 p.m. and midnight and “Holy Grail” (1974) at 8 and 10.

– Mike Hughes, TV America

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