Daily Best Bets

1) “Magnum P.I.” season-finale, 9 p.m. CBS. The Friday-night finales are spread out – “MacGyver” last week … “Magnum” now … “Blue Bloods” next week. (“MacGyver,’ with an 8 p.m. rerun, won’t be back next year; the others will.) In this one, a woman who has no idea why she’s being stalked. Also, friends try to nudge Magnum and Higgins (shown here in a previous episode) together romantically, at a key time: Higgins’ boyfriend, Ethan Shah, wants her to join him on an extended Doctors Without Borders journey. Read more…

1) “United States of Al,” 8:31 p.m., CBS. In its first season, “Al” has offered few big laughs, but lots of pleasant, little ones … plus some immensely likable characters, Now it adds some solid emotion: A veterans’ group wants to honor the guys, but that requires a speech – which is an ordeal for Riley (shown here, right), but a breeze for Al (center), his former Afghan translator. Read more…

1) “Chicago P.D.,” 10 p.m., NBC. For Kim (Marina Squerciati, shown here, front, in a previous episode), here’s a potent hour on two fronts. At home, she’s working on adopting a sweet and troubled girl whose mother was murdered. At work, she and other cops start with a body that landed on a car, then get into something much bigger. It’s a solid story and “P.D.” – the best of NBC’s three Chicago shows – does it well. Read more…

1) “Prodigal Son,” 9 p.m., Fox. Last week, a jailbreak set three people free – including Malcolm’s dad, who is both a charming surgeon and a serial killer. Now the search begins, as Malcolm works with a federal marshal (shown here, left), his sister, their mother and the prison doctor (Catherine Zeta-Jones). It’s an intense hour that delivers some surprises – then pushes things ahead to next week. Read more…

1) “American Masters: Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir,” 9-11 p.m., PBS. Tan (shown here) was a successful business writer, working on “all the subjects I had no interest in.” She was interested in people – and had known some vivid ones. Her sweet-spirited father and brother died of brain tumors, leaving her, she said, as “a very angry girl … with this crazy, suicidal mother.” Later, fictionalizing slightly, she wrote “The Joy Luck Club”; she had a best-seller at 36, with more to follow. Here’s a fascinating proile. Read more…

1) “The Story of Latenight,” 9 p.m. and midnight ET, CNN. It was almost 60 years ago that TV jumped into the giant, late-night void. After launching “Today,” NBC’s Pat Weaver (Sigourney’s dad) started “Tonight” in 1952. He wanted news and sports; Steve Allen (shown here), the host, preferred comedy, music and talk. The result, one person says, was “chaotic” and “joyous.” When Allen went to prime time, NBC stumbled, then discovered Jack Paar and Johnny Carson … which is where this fun opener ends. Read more…

1) “Tenet” (2020), 8 p.m., HBO. Here’s the film that tried to revive moviegoing. Christoper Nolan (“Inception”) spent $200 million for a time-twisting science-fiction film starring John David Washington (shown here) aimed at big screens. Americans, however, weren’t ready to go back to theaters; it made only $58.5 million here and in Canada, doing better overseas. In the aftermath, other big-budget films were delayed or moved to streaming. “Tenet” did win an Oscar for its special effects and a nomination for its set design. Read more…

1) “MacGyver” series finale (shown here), 8 p.m., CBS. This reboot lasted five seasons (two fewer than the original version), generally doing wel. But the Nielsen ratings dropped 22 percent this year, so Mac won’t be back. Tonight, he and Riley go missing. They wake up in a corn field, with no idea what happened; they must figure out who took them … and how to get nanotrackers out of their bodies. Read more…

1) Football draft, 8-11:30 p.m. ET, ABC, ESPN and NFL Network. As other shows stumble in the ratings, live events get extra attention. This year, ABC will be there for the full ride – the first round tonight (expected to start with Jacksonville choosing Trevor Lawrence, shown here) … the second and third, 7-11:30 p.m. ET Friday … and the final four, noon to 7 p.m. Saturday. Only 224 players will be drafted, but ABC says it has prepared packages on 450 possibilities, with vignettes on 35. It will have 50 cameras in the draft hall, plus others with 40 players and each of the 32 teams. Read more…

1) Presidential speech, 9 p.m. ET, ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, PBS and news channels. There’s no official State of the Union speech in the first year, but most presidents do a variation. Two days shy of the 100-day mark, Joe Biden has his turn. Networks have set aside two hours for the speech plus the Republican response and news analysis; in western time zones, they’ll give two primetime hours to local stations. Either way, we’ll list some 9 p.m. alternatives (including “Nancy Drew,” shown here) at the end. Read more…