1) “A Nashville Christmas Carol,” 8 p.m., Hallmark. TV loves to mix music and romance. Graceland and Dollywood movies have thrived; a new Dolly Parton film (“Christmas On the Square”) arrives Sunday on Netflix. Here’s a movie filled with people who have had No. 1 country hits (Wynonna, Kixx Brooks, Sara Evans) … or might (RaeLyn) … or is married to somone who has them (Kimberly Williams-Paisley). A producer (Jessy Schram, shown here) does a country-music special with her ex-boyfriend,
2) “The Croods,” 8-10 p.m. NBC. After two natural disasters, a caveman family reluctantly jourmeys with a modern boy who keeps concocting inventions. That’s part of an NBC comedy night, with ”Saturday Night Live” reruns at 10 p.m. (Kerry Washington hosts, Eminem, is music guest) and 11:29.
3) “NCIS: New Orleans,” 8 p.m., CBS. The team tries to figure out why a man was shot in his home. Meanwhile, Tammy must protect his teen daughter, who is obsessed with research.
4) Football, all day. ABC has a pair of match-ups with ranked teams – Wisconsin (No. 10) at Northwestern (19) at 3:30 p.m.ET and Oklahoma State (14) at Oklahoma (17) at 7:30. Fox starts the day with an interesting one at noon ET – Indiana (9) at Ohio State (3); at 8, Arizona is at Washington.
5) “Dr. Strangelove” (1964), 4:15 p.m. ET, Turner Classic Movies. Think of this stretch as two double-features – wildly unrelated, except that each starts with a Stanley Kubrick classic. First is comedy — the sharp satire of “Strangelove,” with Peter Sellers in a triple role, followed at 6 p.m. by Billy Wilder’s brisk remake of “The Front Page” (1974). Then is science fiction – Kubrick’s slow-but-splendid “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968) at 8 p.m. ET and George Lucas’ “THX 1138” (1971) at 10:45.