Best-bets for Oct. 14: Long-delayed awards and “Race”

1) “Billboard Music Awards,” 8-11 p.m., NBC. Delayed a half-year by COVID, the awards arrive with lots of big names. Kelly Clarkson (the host), Garth Brooks (who’s shown here and will get the Icon Award) and Post Malone (leading with 16 nominations) will perform. So will BTS, Sia, Alicia Keys, Luke Combs and key collaborations – Deja Cat with Tyga, Khalid with Swae Lee and Kane Brown. Songs will range from a premiere by Demi Lovato to En Vogue celebrating the 30th anniversary of “Free Your Mind.” Read more…

1) “Billboard Music Awards,” 8-11 p.m., NBC. Delayed a half-year by COVID, the awards arrive with lots of big names. Kelly Clarkson (the host), Garth Brooks (who’s shown here and will get the Icon Award) and Post Malone (leading with 16 nominations) will perform. So will BTS, Sia, Alicia Keys, Luke Combs and key collaborations – Deja Cat with Tyga, Khalid with Swae Lee and Kane Brown. Songs will range from a premiere by Demi Lovato to En Vogue celebrating the 30th anniversary of “Free Your Mind.”

2) “The Amazing Race” season-opener, 9 p.m., CBS. Clearly, people can keep a secret. This race ended almost two years ago, but the airdate kept being delayed. CBS planned it for this summer; when many shows (including the next “Race”) were delayed by COVID, it held it to help the fall line-up. Now it comes on a reality-stuffed night; 8 p.m. has CBS’ “Big Brother” and Fox’s “The Masked Singer.”

3) “Coco” (2017), 8 p.m., ABC. This animated gem fits neatly into the Halloween season. Set during Mexico’s “Day of the Dead,” it has a boy trace his family’s secret musical past. It’s a popular Pixar film that won Academy Awards for best song (“Remember Me”) and best animated feature.

4) “The Con” debut, 10:02 p.m., ABC. Benita Alexander is a TV producer – first for NBC News and now doing true-crime shows for Investigation Discovery – who was enmeshed in her own true-crime tale. She helped investigate her fiance, Paulo Machiarini, a prominent surgeon eventually accused of fraud in his research and in his surgery techniques; in one case, seven of eight patients died. That’s the start of a series, hosted by Whoopi Goldberg, looking into major scams.

5) “Baroness Von Sketch” season-opener, midnight ET, IFC. From “Kids in the Hall” to key “Saturday Night Live:” people, Canadians have often mastered sketch comedy. Now four Canadian women start their fifth and final season. Like most sketch shows (including “SNL”), it’s wildly inconsistent, but worth catching. The opener starts with a clever bit, as a judge is accused of being … well, judgmental. Other bits sometimes over-stretch a single gag … but survive because of a richly cinematic style.

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