1) Super Bowl, 6:30 p.m. ET Sunday, CBS. For the Kansas City Chiefs (shown here), this is familiar turf. It’s their fourth Super Bowl in five years; they’ve won two of those and their stars (Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce) fill pop culture. The San Francisco 49ers have five Super Bowl wins, but none in the past 30 years. They were 12-5 in the regular season (the Chiefs were 11-6), then needed two come-from-behind wins.
2) “Tracker,” post-game (possibly 10 or 10:30 p.m. Sunday), CBS. After years of open emotions in “This Is Us,” Justin Hartley goes the opposite way. He plays the classic strong-and-silent type, a survivalist with a troubled past, who uses his skills — plus some high-tech phone friends — to find people. This opener is a hardy mix of physical and mental trauma, ideal for post-game viewing.
3) “Abbott Elementary” season-opener, 9 and 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, ABC. While other comedies stumble, “Abbott” has been stromg. In its first two seasons, it had 15 Emmy nominations (two for best comedy series) and four wins, including two for Quinta Brunson (writer and star) and one for Sheryl Lee Ralph (co-star). Now this two-parter has Janine (Brunson) planning a district-wide Career Day.
4) “Gospel Liive,” 9 p.m. Friday, PBS. Spectacular voices and passionate songs link for a rousing hour. There are great moments from Erica Campbell, John Legend, Shelea, Anthony Hamilton and more – with similar highlights ahead. At 8 p.m. Saturday, CBS’ “Super Bowl Soulful Celebration” mixes gospel (Kirk Franklin, Mary Mary) and R&B; on Feb. 12-13, PBS has a gospel documentary.
5) Season-finale reruns, CBS. In a post-Super Bowl burst, most CBS shows will start their seasons Feb. 12-16. To get ready for that, 11 scripted shows have their final reruns this week; eight of them will rbe eplaying season-finales. That starts today with “NCIS” and “The Neighborhood.” The other finales are “FBI,” “FBI International,” “Ghosts,” “Young Sheldon,” “Fire Country” and “Blue Bloods.”
6) “Extended Family,” 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, NBC. With Julia gone, her ex-husband Jim (Jon Cryer) is watching the kids with her boyfriend (Donald Faison). This turns out to be the one area – teen trauma – that Jim is actually pretty good at. It’s a clever episode, leading into a key hour: Faced with endless crises in multiple time periods, “La Brea” (9 p.m.) is now down to its final two episodes.
7) “Not Dead Yet” season-opener, 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, ABC. The first season was fun, with Nell (Gina Rodriguez) as an obituary-writer with an advantage: She can often talk to the ghost she’s writing about. Now Brad Garrett arrives as the newspaper’s owner, who likes Nell and frustrates his daughter, the editor. Also opening their seasons are “The Conners” at 8 and “Judge Steve Harvey” at 10.
8) “Halo” season-opener, Thursday, Paramount+. After a decade of false starts, this mega-budget sci-fi show had a nine-episode season in the spring of 2022. Almost two years later, it has an eight-episode one, with the Master Chief trying to prove that humankind is in grave danger. Also streaming on Thursday is Peacock’s “Couple to Throuple,” which eyes three-way romances.
9) Super Bowl build-up, CBS. That starts from 9-11 p.m. Thursday with “NFL Honors”; Keegan-Michael Key hosts a night that includes Most Valuable Player, Hall of Fame and more. “Super Bowl Greatest Commercials” is 8 p.m. Friday and “Super Bowl Soulful Celebration” is 8 p.m. Saturday. On Sunday, there’s “NFL Slimetime” at 11:30 a.m ET, “Road to the Super Bowl” at noon and more.
10) Season-finales, Sunday, PBS. In a clumsy move, PBS’ dramas wrap their seasons on Super Bowl Sunday. Fortunately, “All Creatures Great and Small” has a new Christmas special to air next week. For now, it has a softly moving hour without James, who’s in military training. “Miss Scarlett and the Duke” has a so-so hour at 8, but “Funny Woman” closes smartly and vibrantly at 10.