Best-bets for Dec. 9: Bright lights, grim Grinch

1) “The Grinch Musical,” 8 p.m., NBC. This has lingered on the fringe of the theater world. It was on Broadway (2006, 2007) and on tour (four times), but always confined to two-month, holiday spurts. Now it’s been done in London for NBC, with Matthew Morrison (shown here) starring, amid a “Grinch” overload. FX has the animated movie (2018) at 8 and 10 today and Saturday, then 9 and 11 p.m. Sunday. Freeform has the Jim Carrey film, at 8:20 p.m. Thursday; TBS has the cartoon classic at 8 p.m. Sunday. Read more…

1) “The Grinch Musical,” 8 p.m., NBC. This has lingered on the fringe of the theater world. It was on Broadway (2006, 2007) and on tour (four times), but always confined to two-month, holiday spurts. Now it’s been done in London for NBC, with Matthew Morrison (shown here) starring, amid a “Grinch” overload. FX has the animated movie (2018) at 8 and 10 today and Saturday, then 9 and 11 p.m. Sunday. Freeform has the Jim Carrey film, at 8:20 p.m. Thursday; TBS has the cartoon classic at 8 p.m. Sunday.

2) “The Great Christmas Light Fight” season-opener, 8 and 9 p.m., ABC. The pandemic can’t stop people from going to wild extremes to decorate their homes and yards. Now we’ll see 24 examples – four per hour on three Wednesdays. In each hour, a host (Carter Oosterhouse or Taniya Nayak) picks a winner. Tonight includes one home with animatronic displays, another has more than 100 teddy bears. Others have a Christmas village, a castle, a mountain, a train, a giant storybook and more.

3) “The Masked Singer,” 8 p.m. Wednesday, Fox. A week before the finale, the show pauses for some holiday music. It has plenty of potential singers, including the judges and the recently unmasked. Last week, top pros (Tori Kelly and Taylor Dane) were revealed, alongside snowboarder Chloe Kim; earlier, it was Paul Anka and Dr. Elvis Francois (the “singing surgeon”), plus basketball’s Lonzo Ball.

4) “S.W.A.T.,” 10 p.m., CBS. Even before the fresh emphasis on the relationship between Blacks and police, this show has taken the issue seriously. Now Hondo has mixed feelings about being the face of police in the mayor’s outreach. And the search for a bomber reminds Tan of a crisis in his childhood.

5) “Nurses,” 10 p.m., NBC. If you missed the opener on Monday, here’s a quick rerun. Five nurses – bright, attractive, optimistic – start their first day of work … then are instantly flung into a tragedy. This fairly good hour juggles fast-paced hospital action and the emotions of patients and nurses.

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