Best-bets for Feb. 6: all athletes, great and small

1) Olympics, 7-11:30 p.m., NBC. The figure-skating team portion concludes with finals in three popular categories – women, pairs (shown here in 2018) and dance. Also in prime time, NBC has live coverage of the women’s alpine giant slalom (which then concludes from midnight to 2 a.m.) and women’s freestyle skiing. Men’s freestyle skiing is live at 1:30 a.m. on USA. There’s more all day, including the USA network’s live coverage of U.S.-Switzerland women’s hockey, at 8:10 a.m. , rerunning at 5 p.m. Read more…

Week’s top-10 for Feb. 7: a super (and Olympic) time

1) Super Bowl, 6:30 p.m. ET Sunday, NBC. It’s a battle of newcomers: Until this year, Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford (shown here) hadn’t won a play-off game in his 12 seasons; the Cincinnati Bengals hadn’t won one in 31 years. Now they collide, with the world watching. The Rams were 12-5 during the regular season; the Bengals were 10-7, in a remarkable turnaround. Two years earlier, they were 2-14; that brought the first draft choice (Joe Burrow) and new life. Read more…

Best-bets for Feb. 5: ice, chocolate and Black power

1) “Malcolm X” (1992), 12:58 p.m., Sundance; and 3 p.m., TNT. Black History Month finds two marathons, both led by Spike Lee’s masterpiece, with Denzel Washington as the civil-right leader (shown here). Both channels also share “Ghosts of Mississippi” (1996); it’s 6 a.m. on TNT and 5:30 p.m. on Sundance, which then has “The Color Purple” (1996) and “Rosewood” (1997) at 8:30 and midnight. TNT has “Selma” (2014) at 12:15 p.m., “Black Panther” (2018) at 7:15 and “Just Mercy” (2019) at 10. Read more…

Best-bets for Feb. 4: Skiing, skating and spectacle

1) Olympics opening ceremony, 6:30 a.m. ET, NBC, USA, Peacock, Olympic Channel. Then 8 p.m. and 12:38 a.m., NBC. As the first city to host both the summer and winter Olympics, Beijing tries to match its previous success – on a smaller scale. In the summer of 2008, its spectacular ceremony (shown here) had 15,000 performers and a reported $100-million budget. Now it’s in the same building, with the same director; about 3,000 performers are expected. Read more…

“Halo,” “Trek” give Paramount its plus

The Paramount+ streaming service is ready to play with the big guys now.
That will be clear March 24, when the long-awaited (VERY long-awaited) “Halo” (shown here) arrives. Or May 5, when a new “Star Trek” series begins, shortly after two others return. Or sometime later, with new versions of “Frasier,” “Flashdance,” “Fatal Attraction” and more, including music-based “Grease” and “Urban Cowboy.”
“We’re taking some big swings,” said Nicole Clemens, the network’s president of original content.
And some little ones. At Television Critics Association sessions, the network said it’s renewing “SEAL Team,” “The Game” and “Mayor of Kingston”; that follows renewals of “Evil” and “The Good Fight.” Read more…

Jeans? They’re eternal and everywhere

Strange things have happened to bluejeans, it seems.
They were supposed to be practical; then they were fashionable. They were supposed to be cheap; then they weren’t. They were supposed to be a niche item; then they were everywhere (shown here).
That left filmmaker Anna Lee Strachan with a logical question: “Why is everyone in the world walking around in the same pair of pants?”
So she created “Riveted: The History of Jeans,” which debuts at 9 p.m. Monday (Feb. 7), to open PBS’ “American Experience” season. It tells of changes that kept surprising people. Read more…

Best-bets for Feb. 3: Olympics has pre-ceremony action

1) Olympic competition begins, 8 p.m. to midnight and 12:35-2 a.m., NBC. Figure-skating is starting early, because of double duty: Skaters compete for the team championship first, then will start over in the push for individual medals. Tonight’s skating has rhythm dance, plus the short programs for men (Nathan Chen, shown here, as an American skater with three world championships) in prime time and pairs after midnight. That will be shown live, but prime time will also have taped coverage of alpine skiing, with the men’s and women’s moguls. Read more…

Best-bets for Feb. 2: “celebrities,” curlers and pumas

1) “Celebrity Big Brother” debut, 8 p.m., CBS. Well, semi-celebrities, anyway. The line-up includes Khloe Kardashian’s ex-husband (Lamar Odom), Travis Barker’s ex-wife (Shanna Moakler), Justin Timberlake’s ex-bandmate (Chris Kirkpatrick), John Mellencamp’s daughter (Teddi, shown heere) and Gary Coleman’s TV brother (Todd Bridges). Joined by former champs (fighter Miesha Tate, skater Mirai Nagasu) and others, their show will continue most days, through Feb. 23. Read more…

After changes and scrambles, “Sanditon” returns

Even before “Sanditon” reached America two years ago, PBS had a dilemma.
Like virtually everything on “Masterpiece Theatre,” this was a global project, with a British network paying more and getting it first. And that network had already decided not to do a second season.
“We knew that (it) had been canceled before it even aired on ‘Masterpiece,’” Susanne Simpsons, the “Masterpiece” producer, said in a Television Critics Association virtual press conference.
The new season (shown here) finally returns March 20, but she was taking a chance: If there never was a second year, characters would have been left hanging; viewers would have been bitter. Since this is based on a novel that Jane Austen had barely started before her death in 1817, they couldn’t check a book to see how it ends. Read more…

Best-bets for Feb. 1: One Fox show scores, another vanishes

1) “The Resident” return, 8 p.m., Fox. After a seven-week break, here’s a big hour, complete with three potent stories. Two had started previously – Dr. Bell’s secret ailment and Dr. Austin’s mother’s cancer. Now a third has a personal link for Conrad. There’s more — Devon’s clinical trial, a new doctor (shown here with Conrad) with an elusive past – in a packed hour. Despite a few excesses, it’s well-crafted and moving. Read more…