Daily Best Bets

1) “The Masked Singer” (shown here), 8-10 p.m., Fox. The semi-finals begin and things get serious. The early rounds dumped a skateboarder (Tony Hawk), a rapper (Lil Wayne), two TV hosts (Tom Bergeron, Drew Carey) and an almost-vice president (Sarah Palin). They also dumped two semi-singers (JoJo Siwa and Bella Thorne) and, oddly, music greats Dionne Warwick and Chaka Khan. That leaves the top nine, some quite talented, dressed as a kangaroo, banana, rhino and such. Read more…

1) “Miracle Workers: Dark Ages” finale, 10:30 p.m., TBS, rerunning at 11:30. As an enemy army approaches the village, King Cragnoor the Heartless springs into action: He loads up his gold and flees. His son, Prince Chauncely the Pretty Cool (Daniel Radcliffe, shown here), has a different approach. He wants to rescue the villagers in general and the woman he loves in particular. It’s a tough task, so this will take a clever scheme. The result is very funny … and a reminder that these weren’t the good old days. Read more…

1) “Homefest,” 10 p.m., CBS. Here’s an agreeable mini-trend – stars performing from their homes. Fox had a special Sunday; CBS wil have another (with country stars) this Sunday. First, it’s James Corden (shown here in his usual setting) from his garage, with performances from Korea (BTS), Italy (Andrea Bocelli), London (Dua Lipa, who was going to be on the “Saturday Night Live” that was postponed) and Los Angeles (Billie Eilish, who was also in Fox’s special) and John Legend. Read more…

1) “Gershwin Prize: Garth Brooks,” 9-11 p.m., PBS. The music greats, from Paul McCartney to Stevie Wonder, have won the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. Now Brooks(shown here) is the 11th winner, the second country person (after Willie Nelson) and the youngest. At 58, he’s sold 148 million albums in the U.S., trailing only the Beatles. He performs here; so does his wife Trisha Yearwood, plus Keith Urban, Chris Stapleton, Ricky Skaggs, Keb’ Mo, Lee Brice and the Howard University Chorus; Jay Leno hosts. Read more…

1) “Saturday Night Live,” 11:29 p.m., NBC. For the first time, the coronavirus has forced “SNL” to switch to a rerun. Other latenight shows had adjusted, but “SNL” – with reruns already scheduled – wasn’t affected. But it had planned a new episode tonight, with John Krasinski hosting and Dua Lipa as music guest. Instead, this rerun has Scarlett Johansson (shown here) hosting and mocking her fiance, anchor and head writer Colin Jost; Niall Horan is music guest. Read more…

1) “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” (2019), 8 p.m. Starz. This movie is sprawling and ambitious, eccentric and inconsistent. In short, it’s a QuentinTarantino film. There are whole scenes you could take out, without affecting the plot; many of those scenes, however, are wonderful. In the 1960s, we see (shown here) a fading star (Leonard DiCaprio, right) and his stunt double (Brad Pitt, who won a supporting-actor Oscar). They meet Bruce Lee, Charles Manson and others, in ways that slyly rewrite history. Read more…

1) “Deputy” season-finale, 9 p.m., Fox. The first season ends the way it started – with fierce waves of emotion. We’ve grumbled about some overwrought episodes in-between, but this one makes the passions feel justified. Sheriff Hollister rage at the outing of his informants,but also savors the joy of his daughter (Latina on her mom’s side) at her quinceanera (shown here). Things are wrapped up potently. Read more…

1) “CMT Crossroads” (shown here), 10 p.m., CMT. Here are gifted stars with opposite roots: Kelsea Ballerini grew up on a farm near Knoxville and sang in church. Halsey is a city kid from New Jersey; she had some rough years and homelessness in Manhattan. But they’re similar in age (26 and 25 respectively) and in the ability to propel emotion. A sampling of this concert hour shows great duets on Halsey’s “Graveyard” and on Ballerini’s “Homecoming Queen.” Read more…

1) “This Is Us” season-finale, 9 p.m., NBC. This richly layered drama manages to end each season with jolts of emotion. We’ll expect that tonight, much of it coming from the two brothers. As last week’s fascinating episode ended, their mom reluctantly agreed to go away for a clinical trial, trying to head off Alzheimer’s disease. That soothed Randall (Sterling K. Brown, show here), but may enrage Kevin. They collide tonight, at the first birthday party for Jack, the blind son of their sister Kate and her husband Toby. Read more…

1) “The Hidden Kingdoms of China” debut, 8-11 p.m. ET, Nat Geo Wild; reruns at 11 ET, then concludes March 30. China is known for its cities and its 1.4 billion people. Still, this is a sprawling place – almost 20 percent bigger than the U.S., minus Alaska – with lots of wilderness. That’s captured here with stunning beauty. The first hour sees the mountain creatures; the second has the South Hunan jungles. The third is a delight, with giant pandas (shown here)P, golden pheasants, bamboo bats and moustache toads. Read more…