1) “Extended Family” debut, about 8 p.m. (after football), NBC. For one night, the post-strike TV season begins. This show has Jon Cryer navigating a life with his ex-wife (Abigail Spencer, they’re shown here), their two kids and her boyfriend (Donald Faison). There are the situation-comedy traditions, including a flailing dad and a dead fish. Still, this is fairly funny … and it’s good to finally have a new sitcom. Read more…
By now, Jon Cryer should be expert on divorce, with all its potential for comedy or drama.
Like many people, he’s a child of divorce and an adult who divorced. Unlike most, he has a mother who wrote a musical partly about divorce. Also, he spent a dozen years playing a divorced dad on CBS.
Now he’s back and in full comedy mode. “Extended Family” (shown here) debuts at about 8 p.m. Saturday (Dec. 23), after football, on NBC, becoming the first show in TV’s staggered, post-strike comeback..That opener reruns at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, with new episodes starting a week later.
This is a tale of a modern-day, amicable splits. Jim (Cryer, right) and Julia (Abigail Spencer) alternate weeks at their home, allowing their daughter and son to stay put. Read more…
1) “A Home For the Holidays,” 8 p.m., CBS. Each year, this offers a warm finale to a crowded season of new Christmas specials. It’s the 25th year for “Home,” which has profiles of adoptions, alongside passionate music. This time Katharine McPhee (shown here in aprevious event) hosts and performs with her husbannd, David Foster. Also performing are Pentatonix, Gavin DeGraw, CeCe Winans and Lauren Daigle. Read more…
1) “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve,” 8-10 p.m. and 10:30 to 2:13 a.m. Sunday, ABC. Dick Clark’s clever scheme – live coverage at Times Square (shown here), a taped party in Los Angeles – has turned into a global event. Ryan Seacrest and Rita Ora will be at the Square, cutting to music in Korea (NewJeans), Puerto Rico (Ivy Queen), Las Vegas (Post Malone) and Californis, with Janelle Monae, Ludacris, Bebe Rexha, Green Day, Coco Jones, Nile Rodgers & Chic and more. Read more…
1) “iHeartRadio Jingle Ball,” 8-10 p.m., ABC. Holiday music gets a brisk, pop-music feel from Olivia Rodrigo (shown here in a previous concert), Niall Horan, Sza, Sabrina Carpenter and more. There’s Pentatonix, OneRepublic, Jelly Roll, AJR, Flo Ridda, Melanie Martinez, David Kushner, Doechii, Paul Russell and Big Time Rush. And alongside that youthful bunch, Cher, 77, performs “Believe,” her hit from 25 years ago. Read more…
Somewhere beyond all the elves and snowmen and differently-nosed reindeer, TV occasionally remembers the serious side of Christmas.
That seems to be on the upswing lately, partly because of “The Chosen” (shown here), the crowdfunded series about Jesus. Originally planned to simply be online, it found audiences on several cable channels, including Trinity, UPtv and BYU-TV.
Now it’s also had Sunday nights on CW … where it will wrap its current run (three seasons, with four more planned) on Christmas Eve. The same producer will have a two-hour music-and-monologue special Dec. 23 on CW … and a similar special will be Christmas Eve on Great American Family. Read more…
1) “Survivor” finale, 8-11 p.m., CBS. This started with three lawyers (some of them keeping that a secret) and 15 others, including a nurse, a bartender and a truck driver. And now? All the lawyers are still there – Julie Alley, 49, and Katarah Topps, 35 (they’re shown here, center and right, in a glimpse from last week) plus Jake O’Kane, 26. But 13 of the others are gone, leaving only Austin Li Coon, a grad student, and Dee Valladares, an entrepreneur, both 26. Tonight, we’ll have a winner and a 10 p.m. after-show. Read more…
1) “A Murder at the End of the World” finale, Hulu. Over six previous episodes, we’ve seen strangers meet in an eerily futuristic house, in a menacingly remote piece of Iceland. Now three of them are dead and the police are stymied by a snowstorm. A youmg genius (superbly played by Emma Corrin, shown here, who was the first Diana in “The Crown”) must solve this. In the best mystery tradition, it’s a result few people would have predicted. Read more…
1) “The Voice,” 8-10, NBC. The final five get one more chance. There are two singers apiece with Reba McEntire (Jacquie Roar and Ruby Leigh) and Niall Horan (Huntley, shown here, and Mara Justine), one with John Legend (Lila Forde) and none with Gwen Stefani. They’ll each do a ballad and an uptempo song; Also, Bryce Leatherwood, the winner a year ago, performs. Viewers will vote and learn Tuesday who won. Read more…
Wrapping up its six-season run, “The Crown” (shown here) showed how good long-form TV can be.
Writer-producr Peter Morgan had already mastered the short take: His Oscar-nominated “The Queen” (2006) was a brilliant visit to a brief, befuddling time after Diana’s death.
Then he took the big sweep: In seven years, six seasons and 60 episodes, he viewed the first 54 years of Elizabeth II’s reign.
The story ended with Charles’ wedding in 2005, with his mom ready for 17 more years. Getting to that point was fascinating, in the six episodes that arrived Thursday (Dec. 14). Read more…
