1) “9-1-1: Lone Star” and “Ordinary Joe,” 8 p.m., Fox and 10 p.m., NBC. Suddenly, our TV sets are filled with snow.; both episodes have blizzards. For “Lone Star,” that’s a surprise; Texas doesn’t get much snow. It’s also a rerun of the season-opener, starting an excellent, multi-week story: Owen (Rob Lowe,shown here), bearded and brooding, is in a cabin when the world transforms. And for “Ordinary Joe,” all three of these extraordinary Joes – the cop, nurse and rock star – see their lives battered.
2) “The Cleaning Lady,” 9 p.m., Fox. In between blizzards, we can catch this rerun of the flawed (but interesting) pilot film. A doctor in Cambodia and the Philippines moved to the U.S., hoping to get a transplant for her son. With no license here, she becomes a cleaning lady; then lots of things happen, as the show teeters between taut crime story and overloaded soap opera.
3) Martin Luther King Day marathon, Turner Classic Movies. Sidney Poitier, who died Jan. 6 at 94, had lots of great roles, but “The Defiant Ones” (1958) was his breakthrough, bringing him an Oscar nomination. That’s at 11 a.m. ET, followed at 1 p.m. by two films by Gordon Parks – a documentary about his life and “The Learning Tree,” based on his childhood. There’s more, including the moving “Sounder” (1972) at 4:15, “Nothing But a Man” (1964) at 6:15 and then civil-rights documentaries.
4) Football, 8:15 p.m. ET, ABC and ESPN. We’ll call this the Leaving St. Louis Bowl. Two teams that used to be in St. Louis – the Cardinals and Rams – collide in Los Angeles. The winner goes on to the second round of the pro play-offs, Saturday and Sunday.
5) “Queens of Mystery,” any time, www.acorn.tv. For a moment, we’ll try not to wonder why an art gallery – trendy, hip and abstract – would be near a tiny English village, just south of Nowhere. Once we have that, this movie (the second of three) is a delight. It has strong visuals, a good story and a likeable young cop, working the case with (or despite) the help of her three mystery-writer aunts.
— Mike