Month: January 2026

Stories

“Gates” surprises doubters … including its creator

“Beyond the Gates” (shown here) is near its first anniversary now, surprising many people — including its creator.
“I didn’t think anything was going to come of it,” Michele Val Jean said.
Her doubts were logical. The number of soap operas on broadcast networks had sunk from 13 to three. There hadn’t been a new one since 1999 … and that one (“Passions”) had died in 2007.
Still, Val Jean had been hired to plan an ambitious soap, set in a gated enclave for rich Black families. “I thought, ‘It’s a good little project for me to do while Covid is going down. (I’ll) make a little extra money and then go on about my business,'” she told the Television Critics Association. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 31, 2026
Weekly Previews

Week’s top-10 for Feb. 2: Super Bowl, Olympics overlap

1) Super Bowl, 6:30 p.m. ET Sunday, NBC. The Seattle Seahawks (shown here) and New England Patriots, each 14-3, collide. It’s the 12th Super Bowl for the Patriots (going for their seventh win), but the first in\seven years. They got here with a snowy, 10-7 win over the Broncos. It’s the fourth Super Bowl for the Seahawks, eyeing their second win; they edged the Rams, 31-27. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 30, 2026
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Jan. 30: magic and blackout dazzle

1) “Stumble,” 8:30 p.m., NBC. After two straight hilarious episodes, here’s one that’s merely quite funny. Amid a town blackout, the cheer team can’t practice. Its coach fidgets, schemes and ignores her husband’s free-time suggestions. We miss seeing most of the cheer kids, but there’s a dazzling moment (shown here) near the end. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 28, 2026
News and Quick Comments

CBS sets details for reality shows and soaps

CBS has announced some reality-show and soap-opera details. They include:
— The 16 chefs — all of them award-winners or nominees — in “America’s Culinary Challenge,” which starts March 4.
— The 10 “classic episodes” that will rerun at 8 p.m. weekdays, leading into the Feb. 25 start of the 50th “Survivor.”
— And, jumping ahead to June, a multi-episode crossover between two soap operas — “Beyond the Gates” (shown here), which has its first anniversary Feb. 24, and “The Young and the Restless,” which began 53 years ago.
These came out during Zoom press conferences today with the Television Critics Association. Details include: Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 27, 2026
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Jan. 27: agony of past and present

1) “American Masters,” 9-10:30 p.m., PBS. The first half-hour is compelling and deeply moving. Using his words (plus photos and stylish art), it tells of the Holocaust experience of Elie Wiesel (shown here) and the dark years after he was freed at 16. The final minutes are also moving. Some middle portions (a modern classroom, a Reagan controversy) run too long. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 25, 2026