1) Football, 8 p.m. ET, NBC. It’s the final game of the season – just three weeks before NFL training camps begin for a new year. This is the USFL, in its second season since being revived. The defending champion, Birmingham (8-2 in the regular season), behind quarterback Alex McGough (shown here), rolled to a 47-22 win over New Orleans (7-3) in the South division semi-finals. Now it faces Pittsburgh, which had an overtime win over Michigan, in a North battle of teams with 4-6 records.
2) “Saturday Night Live,” 11:29 p.m., NBC (or later, with a football overrun). After watching Pedro Pascal in “The Last of Us” and “The Mandalorian,” few people would have pegged him for comedy. But here he is in this rerun, successfully hosting “SNL”; Coldplay is the music guest.
3) “Shakespeare & Hathaway,” 7 and 8 p.m. ET, Ovation. Newly added last week, this offers light mysteries filmed at Stratford-on-Avon. It’s a welcome boost to a slow night … even if the stories are uneven. Tonight’s first one – an undertaker is told of his upcoming death – feels flat and contrived. But the second one – a magician’s act gone terribly wrong – has some clever twists.
4) Movies. On the night before the National Geographic Channel’s “SharkFest” begins, here’s “Jaws” (1975), at 7 and 9:51 p.m. on Syfy. We can also jump 47 years ahead in Steven Spielberg’s career for “The Fablemans” (2022), at 9 on Showtime. Also, MGM+ has entertaining films – “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” (2023) at 5:40 p.m. and “Top Gun: Maverick” (2022) at 10:40.
5) ALSO: The Paramount Network continues its “Yellowstone” rerun marathon, from 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. At 8 p.m., CBS reruns “NCIS: Los Angeles” (someone has bombed a building where drones were assembled) … ABC has three straight “America’s Funniest Home Videos” reruns … and HBO has a live Brandi Carlile concert.
— Mike Hughes, TV America