1) “iHeartRadio Jingle Ball,” 8-9:30 p.m., CW. It’s a double-Lizzo (shown here) night. She’s on a new “Saturday Night Live” (see) next item, shortly after this special, which is packed with pop stars. Also performing are Jack Harlow, Dua Lipa, Pitbull, Demi Lovado, Sam Smith, Khalid, Black Eyed Peas, Backstreet Boys, The Kid Laroi, Tate McRae, Lewis Capaldi and more. Read more…
Maybe wisdom involves learning from mistakes, getting it right the second time.
If so, the Disney people have made a genius move: “Beauty and the Beast: A 30th Celebration” is terrific … which makes it approximately a zillion-percent better than “Little Mermaid Live.”
You can catch “Beauty” from 8-10 p.m. Dec. 15 on ABC or any time starting Dec. 16 on Disney+. You’ll see two gifted stars – H.E.R. (shown here) and Josh Groban – and some clever staging and direction … a surprise compared to to the first try. Read more…
1) Football, ESPN. The bowl season starts this morning – yes, morning – with the Bahama Bowl at 11:30 a.m. ET; two 6-6 teams collide, with Miami of Ohio (shown here) and Alabama-Birmingham. That’s followed at 3 p.m. by the Cure Bowl, with 11-2 teams. Texas – San Antonio (ranked No. 25) faces Troty (the one in Alabama, not the one in Greece), No. 24. Seven more bowls follow on Saturday. Read more…
“Sanditon” – the show that took two centuries to launch – will end this spring.
PBS has announced that the third sepason, starting March 19, will be the last. In that season, several newcomers will arrive to complicate the fractured love life of Charlotte (Rose Williams, shown here).
Jane Austen had barely started her “Sanditon” novel when she died in 1817, at 41. Afterward, some authors tried to complete the story, with little success. Then came the PBS/British co-production. Read more…
1) “Beauty and the Beast: A 30th Celebration,” 8-10 p.m., ABC. The 1991 “Beauty and the Beast” was a gem. The first animated film to be nominated for a best-picture Oscar, it also had three of the five song nominations – for “Belle,” “Be Our Guest” and the Oscar-winning title song. Now we get a hybrid – scenes from the film, along with live performances by H.E.R. (shown here), Josh Groban, Shania Twain, David Alan Grier, Rizwan Manji and Jon Jon Briones. Read more…
Fresh from a classy British drama school, Karen David jumped into her first professional job.
It seemed like an odd one at the time – a musical that simply patched together pop hits.
“I remember all my classmates just saying, ‘You’re going to ruin your whole career before it even starts …. This is going to be the biggest flop and you’ve just done Chekhov and Ibsen and Shakespeare at the Globe,’” David recalled in a press conference for her new movie (shown here), “When Christmas Was Young.”
The show, “Mamma Mia,” didn’t flop. It’s still in London, 23 years later; it did 14 years on Broadway, has been seen by 65 million people worldwide and been spurred two movies. And David’s career didn’t flop, either; she stars in “When Christmas Was Young,” at 8:30 p.m. Sunday (but 8 p.m. on the West Coast) on CBS. Read more…
1) “Survivor” finale, 8-10 p.m., CBS, with reunion at 10. There’s one sorta-old guy, surrounded by youth. That’s Mike Gabler, 52, (shown here, left, in last week’s episode) who works with surgeons who insert heart-valve catheters. He faces Cassidy Clark, 26, a designer; Karla Cruz Godoy, 28, an educational project manager; Owen Knight, 30, a college admissions director; and Jesse Lopez, 30, who has a doctorate in political science. Read more…
1) “The Voice” finale, 8-11 p.m., NBC. It’s time for the 22nd champion … eventually. At 8 p.m. is a recap of previous performances; from 9-11 p.m. is a surge of music — Blake Shelton with his three finalists (Brayden Lape, Bryce Leatherwood, Bodie) and with Kane Brown. Camila Cabello and John Legend sing with their finalists, Morgan Myles and Omar Cardona. Also: Kelly Clarkson, Adam Lambert and more, including the previous winners (shown here), the sibling trio Girl Named Tom. Read more…
1) “The Voice,” 8-10 p.m., NBC. The five finalists have one last chance to get viewer votes. Three — Brayden Lape, Bryce Leatherwood and Bodie – are with Blake Shelton; Camila Cabello has Morgan Myles (shown here), John Legend has Omar Cardona … and Gwen Stefani, alas, has no one. Read more…
“Reservation Dogs” – a quiet show in a noisy TV world – has received one of the top honors … again.
For the second straight time, it’s on the American Film Insiitute’s list of 10 TV “programs of the year.” Also repeating were “White Lotus” (which ends its season at 9 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 11) and “Hacks.”
Those two are on HBO and HBO Max, which are known for big stars, big budgets and top honors. “Reservation Dogs” (shown here) is something else. A modest show with relatively unknown American Indian actors playing teens in small-town Oklahoma, it slides between comedy and drama, with occasional trips to the surreal. That’s produced by FX for Hulu; also on the list are: Read more…
