1) Football, 3 p.m. ET, NBC and 6:30, CBS. The Tampa Bay Bucs host the Los Angeles Rams; then the Kansas City Chiefs host the Buffalo Bills. The opener offers two veteran quarterbacks: Last week, the Rams’ Matthew Stafford (shown here) got his first playoff win … and the Bucs’ Tom Brady, who has seven Super Bowl wins, got his 35th. In 2009, Stafford was the first person drafted; nine years earlier, Brady was the 199th. Read more…
1) “Resident Alien” season-opener, 9 p.m. Wednesday, Syfy. Here is one of TV’s best shows, rippling with wit and weirdness. It hasn’t received the attention and awards it deserves, but you can catch up via Hulu or Peacock or more. Or just start with this brilliant episode. An alien killed Dr. Harry, took over his body (shown here) and prepared to kill all humans. There were technical woes, so he tried to return home. Then there was a stowaway and a crash. Now he has a concussion and babbles the truth … which is ignored. Read more…
1) “Saturday Night Live,” 11:29 p.m., NBC. A decade after leaving “Saturday Night Live,” Will Forte finally returns as host. That fits neatly with the fact he’s now doing “MacGruber” (shown here) – originally an “SNL” character, then a failed movie, now a series – on Peacock. Forte did eight years on “SNL,” then had his own “Last Man on Earth” series for three years. He’s been busy with voice work and had a serious turn in “Nebraska.” Tonight’s music guest is Maneskin. Read more…
PBS – once considered mostly a cozy place for classical music, British dramas and French cooking – is broadening its scope.
Paula Kerger, the network CEO, has announced projects for this fall, ranging from Harriet Tubman to Chuck D (shown here) and hip hop history. She also announced long-range efforts that, she said, “will elevate new voices … and amplify diverse perspectives.” Read more…
1) “Stars on Stage,” 9 p.m., PBS. This wraps up a series that gave three Broadway-style talents each an hour-long concert. Now it’s Brandon Victor Dixon’s turn. On Broadway, he’s portrayed the music greats – Eubie Blake and Berry Gordy; he’s won a Tony (for producing the “Hedwig” revival) and been nominated for two more. Still, more people may know him from two live TV performances – in “Rent” and a sensational, Emmy-nominated turn as Judas in “Jesus Christ Superstar” (shown here). Read more…
For the third straight year, an awards show is being delayed by COVID.
This time, it’s the Grammys. Originally scheduled for Jan. 31 in Los Angeles, it’s now been moved to April 3 in Las Vegas. Read more…
1) “Women of the Movement” conclusion, 8 p.m., ABC. With the world watching, two women testified in a packed Mississippi courtroom. One was a store clerk, 27; after Emmett Till (14, visiting from Chicago) talked to her in 1955, he was kidnapped and killed. The other was Emmett’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley. The case would propel the civil rights movement; Till-Mobley (played by Adrienne Warren, shown here with Cedric Joe as Emmett) would go on to get a master’s degree and be an educator and an activist. This wraps an intense mini-series; a documentary follows at 10:31. Read more…
1) “The Wonder Years,” 8:30 p.m., ABC. Dean (shown here in a previous episode) loses his spot as first-chair saxophone in the school band. That annoys his dad (a professional musician), who pushed him to win it back. But do father and son really share the same dreams? Read more…
For years, Simone Finch was at the edge of great TV, hoping to be part of it.
Then her own life became a starting point. The result is “Single Drunk Female,” a comedy-drama that debuts at 10 and 10:30 p.m. Thursday (Jan. 20) on Freeform.
“I started writing this in 2012 – before I got sober, actually,” Finch said. “And then I got sober – and then I realized it was about a girl getting sober.”
Now she’s further along – almost eight years without a drink – and can look back at a precarious time. Her story finds Sam (Sofia Black-D’Elia, 30, shown here) back from rehab, living with a mother (Ally Sheedy, 59), who thinks, as Sheedy puts it: “She’s not going to come change my life and my habits.” Read more…
1)“Great Performances: The Broadway Revival,” 9 p.m., PBS. Right now, Adrienne Warren is starring as Emmett Till’s mother in an ABC mini-series that concludes Thursday. Before that, she drew raves in a Tina Turner musical (shown here) … until COV ID closed Broadway, “It crushed me,” she says here. After a 19-month break, the show returned … and she had to relearn everything. “It was hilarious,” she says, “and also terrifying.” She’s one of many people in an involving (but repetitive) look at Broadway’s comeback. Read more…
