1) Basketball return, 6:30 and 9 p.m. ET, TNT. Life may finally be better for sports fans. Baseball starts its second week and basketball resumes its broken season. It starts with the New Orleans Pelicans (hoping that powerhouse Zion Williamson, shown here, is healthy and ready to play), then has the Los Angeles Lakers and LA Clippers. Those names seem problematic, of course, because Los Angeles has no lakes and Utah has little jazz. One team moved from New Orleans, which has great jazz; another moved from Minnesota, which has great (or, at least, really good) lakes.
2) “Young Sheldon,” 8 p.m., CBS. After gently nourishing its side characters, this ca have a good episode, without needing much from Sheldon. In this rerun, a camping trip is supposed to be a bonding experience for his brother and dad; things gets complicated when the trip adds Meemaw’s past and current boyfriends (Wallace Shawn and Craig T. Nelson).
3) “Mom,” 9 and 9:30 p.m., CBS. Guest stars stir up some great moments in both reruns. First is Kate Micucci, wishing she had a mom like her AA sponsor, Bonnie; Christy feels obligated to recall sins from Christmases past. Then Kathleen Turner is Tammy’s long-lost aunt, looking for a big favor.
4) “Cannonball,” 8 p.m., USA, rerunning at 11:02. This bizarre show now has two homes – USA and (7 p.m. Sundays) NBC. Either way, you get people trying odd things after zooming out of water chutes.
5) “Cake,” 10 p.m., FX. Deftly adapting to COVID, this sticks mainly to animated bits. One is a fairly clever tale about a dad who’s a mumble-rap producer; another is funny and extremely dark … which is what you expect from a tale of a teen who buys a nuclear bomb. But the best moments come from live-action bits involving auditions; the dog one is hilarious.
– By Mike Hughes, TV America