1) “The Year: 2025,” 8-10 p.m., ABC. Others have taken one-hour looks at the year in pop culture, but now ABC takes two hours to do it both ways. There’s the serious side — wars, wildfires, domestic turmoil, new pope, etc. — and the light side. The latter has interviews with Robert Irwin (shown here), the Jonas Brothers, Luke Bryan, podcasters, influencers and more. Read more…
1) “A Grammy Celebration of Latin Music,” 8-10 p.m., CBS. The night is stuffed with music from Gloria Estefan, Jon Secada, Angela Aguilar (shown here), Andrea Bocelli, Luis Fonsi, Michael Buble, Robin Thicke, the cast of Broadway’s “Buena Vista Social Club” and more. Also, there are comments by Carlos Santana, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Rita Moreno and others. Read more…
1) Bowl games. Eight bowls are packed into one day. ABC has Penn State and Clemson at noon ET, Brigham Young (shown here, ranked No. 12) and Georgia Tech (No. 22) at 3:30, and Virginia (No. 19) and Missouri at 7:30. There’s more on ESPN (11 a.m. amd 3:15 a.m., 5:45 and 9:15 p.m.) And CW has the Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl (really) at 4:30. Read more…
For TV viewers, this will be a New Year’s Eve of fewer and more.
Fewer networks are trying full-scale, music parties. NBC announced one, then dropped it. Fox and the cable networks never got that far. Only ABC and CBS are going ahead.
But ABC’s will be bigger than ever. It will sprawl across four cities (including New York City, shown here) and run for eight hours (minus a newscast), with at least 40 performers and 85 songs.
Once you add some more things — a couple mostly-talk shows and some musical reruns — you have lots of choices. Details include: Read more…
1) Football, ESPN. After a one-day pause, the bowl binge is back with three games today and eight (really) on Saturday. Today has Northwestern (shown here) and Central Michigan at 1 p.m ET., New Mexico and Minnesota at 4:30 and Florida International and Texas — San Antonio at 8. Read more…
1) “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve,” 8 p.m. Wednesday to 4 a.m., ABC. It’s the longest Eve show ever — eight hours (minus the news at 10). Ryan Seacrest (shown here in a previous year) is at Times Square, where Diana Ross sings live. Others are in Chicago, Las Vegas and Puerto Rico, with music (mostly taped) ranging from Mariah Carey to Post Malone, Chappell Roan and BigXthePlug. Read more…
1) “Christmas Day Parade,” 10 a.m. ET (but 5 a.m. PT, ABC. Bouncing through the Disney parks, this gives Christmas a cheery star.t It includes music by Coco Jones, Gwen Stefani, Lady A, Bebe Rexha, Nicole Scherzinger (shown here), Iam Tongi and Mariah the Scientist. Read more…
1) “A Christmas Story” (1983) marathon, 8 p.m., TBS; 9 p.m., TNT. This modest-budgeted gem (shown here) reruns every two hours, for 24 hours. It’s filled with memories of a 1940s childhood — some of them dark, some nostalgic and many of them surprisingly funny.
Read more…
Slogging through the post-Christmas lull, TV viewers can find quick comfort. Or maybe semi-quick.
Current shows will have new episodes in early January on most networks … or late February on CBS. And they’ll be joined by:
— Nine new scripted series, led by Fox’s amiable “Doc Martin” reboot, starring Josh Charles (shown here on one of the doctor’s many bad days).
— The season-openers of 11 scripted shows, including ABC’s “Will Trent” and “The Rookie.”
— Three new unscripted shows, starting with a Harlan Coban true-crime series, Jan. 8. Read more…
1) “Kennedy Center Honors,” 8-10:30 p.m., CBS. This used to be one of TV’s best shows. Now a politicized version has Trump-approved honorees (George Strait, Sylvester Stallone, Gloria Gaynor, Michael Crawford, KISS) and mid-level performers. Still, it also has Kelsey Grammer, plus stars of country (Garth Brooks, Miranda Lambert, Brooks & Dunn), gospel and more. (Shown here are David Phelps and Laura Osnes.) Read more…
Best-bets for Dec. 29: reviewing the year, rerunning the shows 
Best-bets for Dec. 28: lots of music, plus animals 
Best-bets for Dec. 27: bowl blitz, plus “Wonk,” more 
