Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Nov. 6: Fox is back; Halloween lingers

1) “The Masked Singer,” 8 and 9 p.m., Fox. When the World Series went seven games, it wiped out two Wednesdays for Fox, creating confusion. Fox scheduled “Masked Singer” and “Almost Family” for tonight, then detoured. “Almost” (a good show) will sit out for its third straight week, so “Masked” can double up. Things starts with a terrific performance by “Rottweiler” and an interesting one by “Ladybug”(shown here) … whom Jenny McCarthy promptly proclaims “the Lady Gaga of ladybugs.” Read more…

Best-bets for Nov. 5: Mayans, mermaid & medics

1) “Mayans M.C.” season-finale,10 p.m. FX; rerunning at 11:36 p.m. and 1:12 a.m. Rippling with macho energy – off-camera, as well as on – this has been a tough ride. Kurt Sutter, the co-creator and co-producer, was recently fired; he granted that his own hard-charging approach has been part of the problem. But “Mayans” remains, flaws and all, what we need – intense, involving TV. Now two wars loom: The Mayans against another biker club and EZ (shown here) and his brother against efforts to deport their dad. Read more…

Best-bets for Nov. 4: Master minds collide

1) “Jeopardy,” check local listings. James Holzhauer stirred fresh interest in a show that’s been around for 55 years. He won 32 straight nights and amassed $2.46 million, close to the non-tourney record of Ken Jennings ($2.52 million, with 75 wins). Then Emma Boettcher, a young librarian, beat him; she won twice more, totaling $98,000. Now the two-week “Tournament of Champions” begins. The schedule has him on Wednesday and her on Thursday; they could collide next week. Read more…

Best-bets for Nov. 3: Farewell to “Durrells” and “Affair”

1) “The Durrells in Corfu” finale, 8 p.m., PBS. This has been an amiable, four-season run, following the real people described in Gerald Durrell’s books. Widowed and broke, Louisa moved with her four children to a Greek island in the 1930s. Now their boarding house is doing fine, their lives are settled … but the Germans have invaded Albania, just two miles away. Larry has returned home, Margo is on the way and Louisa scrambles anew, in a well-crafted farewell episode. Read more…

Best-bets for Nov. 2: Kristen Stewart, all day

1) “Twilight Saga” and/or “Saturday Night Live.” Clearly, this is Kristen Stewart’s day. The entire saga – in which she finds love and/or lust with a vampire and a werewolf – is on the Paramount Network at noon and 3, 6, 9 and 11:30 p.m. And if you skip that last one, you can see her second time as “SNL” host, at 11:29 p.m. on NBC; Coldplay is the music guest. Read more…

Best-bets for Nov. 1: The streaming war heats up

1) “The Morning Show,” any time, Apple TV+. A new streaming service is born – with an even newer (and bigger) one looming. Unlike other streamers, Apple doesn’t have a backlog of classic shows. What it has, however, is starpower. “Morning Show” has Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon and Steve Carell. Another series — “For All Mankind,” imagining an accelerated NASA – is from Ronald Moore, the “Outlander” and “Battlestar: Galactica” producer. And Disney’s streamer will follow on Nov. 12. Read more…

Best-bets for Oct. 31: Laughs or gore on Halloween

1) “The Good Place,” 9 p.m., NBC. Ratings go down a tad on Halloween, so CBS’ comedies have reruns tonight. Not so with the NBC ones, which are new. “Superstore” and “Perfect Harmony” (8 and 8:30 p.m.) have Halloween episodes, big and busy and intermittently funny. Avoiding the holiday are “Will & Grace” (9:30) and this show, which has lunk-headed Brent writing an awful novel. It’s a clever episode, punctuated by wonderfully stylized moments in which Michael (Ted Danson, shown here) tells the story to Bad Janet. Read more…

Best-bets for Oct. 29: Halloween, sitcom-style

1) “The Conners,” 8 p.m., ABC. Back when “Roseanne” was in its prime, the sisters (Roseanne and Jackie) opened the Lunch Box diner. A lot has changed since then – the Roseanne character died, the show changed its name – but now Jackie wants to re-open the diner. Also, Darlene (Sara Gilbert, shown here in a previous episode with John Goodman) tries to straighten out her own life: After secretly dating both David and Ben, she now has neither. Read more…

Best-bets for Oct. 28: Judge Lola rises from the norm

1) “All Rise,” 9 p.m., CBS. At its best, this show does it all: It has a serious case-of-the-week, but has time for humor or human drama involving Judge Lola and her colleagues. That’s complicated, though: After rising to its best in its pilot film, it sagged for a couple weeks; now it’s back: A TV star is dead and her assistant is tried for murder. That draws a high-profile lawyer (Jere Burns, right in the photo here) and press coverage that calls Lola “fierce and fabulous.” She is, but this hour also has great moments for the show’s five co-stars. Read more…