1) Emmy awards, 8 p.m. ET, NBC. Mariska Hargitay (shown here). not known for comedy, is this year’s host. Maybe there will be fun moments from the presenters, including Amy Poehler and Marcello Hernandez of “Saturday Night Live,” Keke Palmer, Dan Levy, Niecy Nash-Betts and Alan Cumming. Others include Sally Field, Macaulay Culkin and Zendaya. Read more…
1) “Best of VMAs: Iconic Vanguard Performances,” 9:30 p.m., CBS. In 1984, the Video Music Awards started the Video Vanguard Award. Early ones went to the Beatles, David Bowie (shown here) and Michael Jackson; lately, eight in a row have gone to women … a string that will be broken Sept. 27, when Nirvana is honored. First, here are past performances by Vanguard winners. Read more…
1) Emmy awards, 8 p.m. ET today, NBC. Mariska Hargitay hosts, after winning two Emmys in advance, for her documentary about her mother, Jayne Mansfield. She’s had eight acting nominations (and one win), but none in the past 15 years. Instead, the Emmys are now a streaming stronghold: NBC has 29 nominations; HBO Max has 122. At least, NBC can root for the Peacock version of “Traitors” (shown here with Tara Lipinski) to win, three days before the network version (see No. 3) debuts. Read more…
1) “Saturday Night Live,” 11:29 p.m., NBC. The new season is only two weeks away and we can get in the mood with this rerun. Ryan Gosling hosted on March 7 (shown here), shortly before his “Project Hail Mary” opened to box office success. It was his fourth time hosting and the first for Gorillaz — which originally had “virtual” band members — as music guest Read more…
It will be a different sort of season-opener for “Saturday Night Live” this fall: No movie star, no comedian … but, instead, a basketball player.
That’s Jalen Brunson (shown here), who led the Knicks to the championship. He’ll host on Sept. 26, with Katseye as the music guest.
That will be followed by more-traditional hosts — a movie star (Dakota Johnson), a comedian (Shane Gillis) and — appropriately, on Halloween — a horror-film star (Inde Navarrette). Details, at 11:29 p.m. on NBC, are: Read more…
1) 9/11 events. At 8:30 a.m. ET, ceremonies in New York, at the Pentagon and in Shanksvillle, Pa., will mark the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks (shown here). Networks and news channels will be there; CBS, for instance, plans coverage from 7-10 a.m. Then coverage continues throughout the day.
Read more…
Apparently, we don’t have to wait until next month to get really, terribly, awfully frightened.
October is when Freeform has its “31 Days of Halloween” (with fairly gentle tales) and others — AMC, Syfy, etc. — have variations. But Paramount+ now helpfully tells us about the horror films it already has.
That includes all three “A Quiet Place” films, all four “Pet Semetary,” all seven “Paranormal Activity: and all eight “Scream” (depicted here). Horror movies seem to have lots of sequels. Read more…
1) “Colin From Accounts” final season, Paramount+. In one eight-episode clump, here’s the entire season. It’s written (beautifully) by the married duo of Patrick Brammall (left) and Harriet Dyer (third from left), who also star. Starting three years after his drunken proposal, this gets some big laughs, then ends with warmth and humor. Once you’re past the Australian accents, it’s a delight. Read more…
1) Football season-opener, 8:20 p.m. ET, NBC. The pros are back, ready to gobble our TV time. There’s a pre-game show at 7 p.m. and then a Super Bowl rematch, with the Seahawks and (shown here) the Patriots. The next day, Netflix has 49ers-Rams. And on Sunday (plus one game Monday) it will be all the rest. Read more…
1) “America’s Got Talent,” 8-11 p.m., NBC. There’s no waiting this time: Ten acts will perform — including an acrobat, a naked singer-comedian and (shown here) dancing robots — and viewers will vote. From 10-11 p.m., they’ll learn which acts will reach the semi-finals, next Tuesday. Read more…
Best-bets for Nov. 5: fun with Elsbeth and “Cupertino” 
Best-bets for Nov. 4: a night of emotion and evolution 
Best-bets for Nov. 3: election night … and alternatives 
