1) “The Parent Test” (shown here) opener, 9 p.m., ABC. “Grey’s Anatomy” and other dramas won’t return until Feb. 23. Filling the gap is a non-fiction night – “Celebrity Jeopardy” at 8 p.m. (tonight with actors Michael Cera, Zoe Chao and Brianne Howey) and “The Chase” at 10. They sandwich this show, which had a one-shot preview last month. Varying parenting styles face fine-dining and home-alone challenges. Read more…
1) Golden Globe Awards, 8-11 p.m. Tuesday, NBC. After a one-year pause (to fix diversity failures), the telecast is back, with Jerrod Carmichael hosting. The drama-movie nominees are strong, with “Top Gun” and “Avatar” sequels facing “Elvis,” “Tar” and Steven Spielberg’s “Fabelmans,” Comedy-movie nominees are “Glass Onion” (shown here with Daniel Craig, who’s also nominated), “Babylon,” “Triangle of Sadness,” “The Banshees of Inishirin” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” Read more…
1) “Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test” debut, 8-10 p.m., Fox. In a torrid Jordan desert, 16 celebrities face military-style training (shown here). Some are athletes – Dwight Howard, Danny Amendola, Carli Lloyd, Nastia Liukin, Gus Kenworthy – but many aren’t. We’ll see reality stars (Kate Gosselin, Hannah Brown, Kenya Moore, Dr. Drew Pinsky), performers (Mel B., Jamie Lynn Sears, etc.), chef Tyler Florence and former Trump official Anthony Scaramucci. Read more…
1) “New Amsterdam” return, 10 p.m., NBC. Two weeks before its series-finale, the show has an hour that is both powerful and (at times) extremely upsetting. Helen is suddenly back in town and Max is reluctant to see her. (They’re shown here in a previous season.) Instead, he takes his hospital staff on an outdoor “retreat” – where new crises appear. One is physical and horrendous; another plays out in the mind of the psychiatrist. “New Amsterdam” is doing great work as it departs. Read more…
1) Rose Parade, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET , NBC, ABC, Peacock and RFD-TV. The New Year’s Day party begins — a day late. With Jan. 1 on a Sunday, the parade (shown here in a previous year) was delayed a day; now it booms through Pasadena, with 21 bands, including ones from Italy, Japan, Mexico, Panama and Taiwan. The theme is “Turning the Corner” and there are 40 floats … some of which, in the past, had trouble turning corners. Read more…
1) “Dionne Warwick: Don’t Make Me Over,” 9 p.m. and midnight ET, CNN. Warwick (shown here) has had plenty of hits – a dozen in the top-10, 56 on Billboard charts, with 100 million records sold. We hear pieces of 40 songs here. But she did much more, this terrific film says. She confronted racists. She sang the anthem of HIV awareness … and nudged Ronald Reagan to finally say “AIDS.” She told “gangster rappers” to arrive at 7 a.m., for a lecture on misogyny; they were there at 6:52. Read more…
This sounds like a piece of Old West fiction.
A circuit judge travels empty stretches of Nevada. In county seats where the Earps once lived, she’s quick with her gavel and her voice; she also packs a pistol.
But this is true and it’s nowadays. Judge Kim Wanker has been nicknamed The Hammer; now Reba McEntire (shown here) stars in a vibrant cable movie (8 p.m. Jan. 7 and 10:03 p.m. Jan. 8) with that name.
“She is quite the character,” McEntire said of the real judge. “She’s amazing. She’s strong. Little, bitty gal. But what she does and how she stands up to people who have done other people wrong; she makes it all fair.” Read more…
1) “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve,” 8-11 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. to 2 a.m., ABC. Fifty years ago, Dick Clark hatched this idea – live coverage at Times Square, entwined with taped performances in California. Now Times Square (shown here) has its own performers, with Ryan Seacrest hosing; that includes Duran Duran, New Edition, j-hope (from BTS) and Jax. Billy Porter performs live in New Orleans; taped performers include Ciara, Shaggy, Ben Platt, Halle Bailey, Wiz Khalifa, Dove Cameron and more. Read more…
1) Orange Bowl, 8 p.m. ET, ESPN. We’re one day from the semi-finals, with the four teams that have a shot at the national championship. First, we see the teams that almost got there; this has Tennessee and Clemson (hown here), ranked No. 6 and 7 … which means the Orange Bowl has two teams with orange as their school color. (Alabama, at No. 5, is in the Sugar Bowl on Saturday.) ESPN has two more bowls, with Maryland-North Carolina State at noon and Notre Dame-South Carolina at 3:30; CBS has Pittsburgh and UCLA at 2. Read more…
Wednesdays, it seems, have become TV’s designated tough days.
This fall, “Survivor” and “Amazing Race” had ordinary folks facing extraordinary challenges. Now come two more shows; they overlap on Jan. 4, then share the night:
— CBS’ “Tough as Nails” is 9-11 p.m. the first week, then 10 p.m.. Regular folks – a carpenter, welder, firefighter, construction worker, etc. — face demanding, blue-collar tasks.
— Fox’s “Special Forces: The World’s Toughest Test”is 8-10 p..m. the first week, then 9 p.m. “It is actual Special Forces training, without votes, alliances or eliminations,” Dwight Howard (shown here, second from right) said in a Television Critics Association press conference. “You just have to survive.” Read more…
