Best-bets for March 19: Basketball tourney hits full-speed

1) Basketball, CBS. The first full day of the NCAA tournament wipes out CBS’ soap operas and cop shows, plus various talk and game shows. The best games should be the ones with similar seeds: On CBS, that’s 12:15 p.m. ET (Florida, No. 7 seed in a 16-team region, and Virginia Tech, No. 10) and 7:10 (North Carolina, No. 8, and Wisconsin, shown here, No. 9). The others are at 3 p.m. ET (Ohio State, No. 2), and Oral Roberts, No. 15) and 9:40 (San Diego State, No. 6, and Syracuse, No. 11). Read more…

1) Basketball, CBS. The first full day of the NCAA tournament wipes out CBS’ soap operas and cop shows, plus various talk and game shows. The best games should be the ones with similar seeds: On CBS, that’s 12:15 p.m. ET (Florida, No. 7 seed in a 16-team region, and Virginia Tech, No. 10) and 7:10 (North Carolina, No. 8, and Wisconsin, shown here, No. 9). The others are at 3 p.m. ET (Ohio State, No. 2), and Oral Roberts, No. 15) and 9:40 (San Diego State, No. 6, and Syracuse, No. 11).

2) More basketball, cable. There are three cable channels, competing with CBS for our attention. In the daytime, doubleheaders start at 12:45 p.m. ET on Tru TV, 1:15 p.m. on TBS and 1:45 on TNT. At night, new doubleheaders are 6:25 p.m. on TBS, 7:15 on Tru TV and 7:25 on TNT.

3) “The Blacklist,” 8 p.m., NBC, and “Wynonna Earp.” 10 p.m., Syfy. With CBS’ shows shelved by basketball, these two have the drama-series audience to themselves. On “Blacklist,” Liz continues her vengeance against Red, her former mentor. On “Earp,” Wynonna is in her hometown, near the Rockies. This is its “trivia night” and Syfy says that means murder and mayhem.

4) “Great Performances at the Met,” 9 p.m., PBS (check local listings). Social distancing has stymied opera and orchestras, so PBS has solo concerts in elegant settings. That starts with Renee Fleming – looking regal in gold and purple – in a mansion near Washington, D.C., joined only by a pianist and four cameras, two of them robotic. The arias are surrounded by songs about hope – a new one at the beginning and familiar ones – “Over the Rainbow” and Brahms’ lullaby – at the end.

5) “Adventureland” (2009), 8:05 p.m., HBO. This amiable little movie didn’t draw crowds, but its young stars went on to “Social Network,” “Twilight Saga” and more. Jesse Eisenberg plays a college grad who ends up at a declining amusement park, where Kristen Stewart works. Other good movie choices include “Silver Linings Playbook” (2012), at 8 p.m. on Showtime, and “Back to the Future” (1985) at 6 p.m. on AMC, with its sequel (1989) at 8:30.

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