If this is a time of underemployment, no one has told John Legend.
He’s about to have a special – this one on Father’s Day. It’s approximately his one-zillionth appearance since the COVID shutdown began. Read more…
For the second time in eight days, TV will rerun an in-depth look at the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
On June 8, PBS had “Twilight, Los Angeles”; from 8-10 p.m. next Tuesday (June 16), ABC will have “Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992″ (shown here). Read more…
Two longtime best friends, Oprah Winfrey and Gayle King (shown here), will be back-to-back on Tuesday.
By switching channels, viewers can catch their takes on the current racial crisis. That includes:
– 9 p.m.: Winfrey hosts “Where Do We Go From Here?” That’s on her own Oprah Winfrey Network and on others – Discovery, HGTV, TLC, Food, etc. – in the Discovery cable group.
– 10 p.m.: King hosts “Justice For All,” on CBS. It will also be on BET and CBSN, the news streaming service. Read more…
PBS will rerun two acclaimed documentaries Wednesday, as part of a crowded line-up of race-related films.
“Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution” (shown here, 2015) and “I Am Not Your Negro” (2016) will run back-to-back, at 8 and 9:44 p.m. (Check local listings.)
They join a line-up of films PBS is airing, amid national discussions triggered by the George Floyd death. They range from a rerun of “Twilight: Los Angeles” tonight (Monday, June 8) to “She Could Be Next” on June 29-30. Read more…
OK, we’re back up.
Technical problems shut down the system Sunday, just as TV was changing.
In a late move, the FX network made a change for Sunday night. It said it would show “Selma” (shown here) — the terrific film about Martin Luther King — at 8 p.m. that night, delaying “The Greatest Showman” until 11 p.m. Read more…
Oprah Winfrey (shown here) is entering the national discussion of racial issues, just when she’s needed the most.
Winfrey’s special – “Where Do We Go From Here?” – will sprawl over two nights and 19 cable networks. It will be 9 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday (June 9-10) on her own Oprah Winfrey Network and others (including Discovery, HGTV, TLC, ID and Food) in the Discovery system. Read more…
The “Sesame Street” gang will be back on CNN on Saturday – this time, talking about racism, not COVID-19.
“Coming Together: Standing Up to Racism” will be at 10 a.m. ET. It will also by on www.cnn.com, plus the CNN apps and CNN en Espanol. Read more…
PBS – already known for its coverage of racial issues – has set a fresh emphasis for this month.
On Wednesday (June 3), it announced a flurry of new shows and reruns, including a play (“Twilight Los Angeles: 1992, shown here) and many documentaries. That requires cooperation, because some will be on days (Thursdays through Saturdays) when stations have their own line-ups. The plan includes:
– Thursday (June 4): “The Talk – Race in America,” 9 p.m. It’s a 2017 documentary about black families telling their children how to react if stopped by police. Read more…
ABC has set a primetime news special for today (Tuesday, June 2).
At 9 p.m., it will air “America in Pain: What Comes Next?” Combining to anchor it will be three of its anchors – Robin Roberts (shown here, “Good Morning America”), David Muir (evening news) and Byron Pitts (“Nightline”). Read more…
It was a glimpse of American life, TV-style.
People raged over the death of an unarmed black man in police custody. They chanted, marched, threw rocks and bottles.
Also, Kelly Osborne worried about her hair color. And Rebecca Romijn fretted about her roots. And Lindsay Lohan (shown here), happy with her reddish hair-coloring, wanted to get just the right wave.
Both things were happening simultaneously Friday on our TV sets. Switch back and forth and you might decide that television is pretty strange. Or life is pretty strange. Or, at least, that social critics are correct when they say there are two Americas Read more…
