Month: June 2020

1) “World of Dance,” 10 p.m., NBC. The bad news is that Fox’s first-rate “So You Think You Can Dance” has made it official: It will have to skip this summer. Fortunately, this show is a solid substitute, with smart judges and gifted dancers. Tonight, the callbacks have 10 teams competing for four spots. Our only complaint is a lack of variety: With a few exceptions – including Latin rhythms from Showstoppers (shown here) – there’s a sameness to the numbers. Read more…

1) “Independent Lens: Pipe Dreams,” 10 p.m., PBS (check local listings). Here’s a documentary formula that has worked well lately: Pick a competition, meet some contestants in advance, then follow them and hope you get lucky. That’s worked for a spelling bee, a crossword contest, a science fair and even duck-stamp artists. Now it works wonderfully for a pipe-organ competition. “Dreams” (shown here with Alcee Chriss) has great visuals, powerful music and interesting people from the U.S., China and Germany. You’ll root for them. Read more…

1) “United We Sing,” 8-10 p.m., CBS. Harry Connick Jr. and his filmmaker daughter Georgia (they’re show here) take a road trip to honor workers. They meet famous friends (Oprah Winfrey, Brad Pitt, Queen Latifah, Drew Brees) and hear music from the greats of jazz (Herbie Hancock, Jon Batiste, Wynton and Branford Marsalis) and more (Tim McGraw, Cyndi Lauper. John Fogerty, Andra Day, Jame Foxx, Little Big Town). Then Connick, Irma Thomas and Trombone Shorty perform in iconic New Orleans locations. Read more…

1) “Saturday Night Live,” 11:29 p.m., NBC. Fresh from her Emmy triumphs, Phoebe Waller-Bridge hosted the season’s second “SNL.” She had some great sketches – including a gem (shown here) involving wartime letters – and had Taylor Swift as the music guest. It added up to one of the year’s best “SNL” episodes … a neat follow-up to winning three Emmys as the “Fleabag” writer-producer-star. Read more…

1) Juneteenth” programs, ABC, FX, FXX and FXM. There’s fresh interested in Juneteenth, marking the day (June 19, 1865) Texas slaves finally learned they were free. At 8 p.m., ABC News has a special, looking at the history and at current celebrations. Also, the FX channels have replaced their schedules with a simulcast of movies (“Hidden Figures” at 7 a.m., “Selma” at 10 a.m., “Get Out” latenight at 12:47 and 3:17 a.m.) and TV reruns – “Black-ish” from 1-8 p.m., “Atlanta” from 8 p.m. to 12:47 a.m. Read more…