Year: 2020

Weekly Previews

Week’s top-10 for June 22: It’s awards time … twice

1) BET Awards, 8-11 p.m. Sunday, CBS and BET. Amid the surge of interest in black history and culture, CBS decided (for the first time) to simulcast BET’s awards. Comedian Amanda Seales hosts a virtual ceremony stuffed with music. That includes Chloe x Halle (shwon here at the Super Bowl), Jennifer Hudson, John Legend, Alicia Keys, Lil Wayne, country’s Kane Brown and Wayne Brady, known for comedy until he won “The Masked Singer.” Others include DaBaby, D Smoke, Jonathan McReynolds and Megan Thee Stallion. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / June 19, 2020
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for June 21: A packed night of music and drama

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…

By Mike Hughes / June 19, 2020
News and Quick Comments

“Showman” bumped again, this time by Juneteenth

The movie “The Greatest Showman” keeps getting dumped by timely fare.
For the second time in 12 days, FX is pulling it from its schedule. This time, it’s being replaced Friday (June 19), as part of a full day of shows (including “Selma,” shown here) that help celebrate Juneteenth – a holiday recalling the day (June 19, 1865) when Texas slaves finally learned they were free. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / June 18, 2020
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for June 20: Greatness from Phoebe, Jordan

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…

By Mike Hughes / June 18, 2020
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for June 19: A Juneteenth surge

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…

By Mike Hughes / June 18, 2020
Stories

ABC this fall: Three new, lotsa old

For TV viewers, this fall will seem a lot like last fall.
ABC today (June 17) announced a schedule that has only three new shows — which still puts it at the top of the list. CBS will have two new ones … NBC will havbe one (a “Law & Order” spin-off) … Fox and CW will have makeshift line-up in the fall, with the big shows returning later.
The network also does some shuffling, including moving “The Bachelorette” (shown here with Clare Crawley) to fall. Such moves were needed because the coronavirus shutdown came just as producers were getting ready to shoot pilot films. The networks could: Read more…

By Mike Hughes / June 17, 2020
Stories

CW adds more summer pick-ups

While other networks recede into reruns this summer, the CW is trying an alternate route.
It keeps buying shows that have aired somewhere else, but haven’t been on a U.S. broadcast network.
Now it has added four more – three British, one Canadian. It has also set the second half of its summer schedule.
The British newcomers included a horror mystery show (“Killer Camp,” shown here), a reality competition (“Taskmaster”) and a reality show (“Being Reuben”) about a 14-year-old Welsh boy who became a social-media star as a singer and make-up expert. The Canadian show (“Fridge Wars”) has people scouring unknown contents of a refrigerator to assemble a meal. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / June 17, 2020
News and Quick Comments

ABC sets Juneteenth special

Juneteenth – a holiday that some Americans were unaware of – will be noted in a news special.
At 8 p.m. Friday, ABC will have “Juneteenth: A celebration of Overcoming.” It will include reports from Galeveston (where the celebration began) and Tulsa (where interest was stirred this year).
The Emancipation Proclamation was issued on Jan. 1, 1863 and the Civil War ended in April of 1865, but slavery persisted in Texas. It was on June 19, 1865, that Union troops reached Galveston with word that the slaves were free. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / June 16, 2020
Stories

Ann Richards: A supersized soul ruled Texas

Texas has always had its supersized souls. From Sam Houston to Lyndon Johnson, from Molly Ivins to the Bushes, it seems to savor larger-than-life people.
And Ann Richards fit in neatly. “She was a very positive person,” Holland Taylor said. “She believed the world rolls forward.”
Taylor wrote and starred in “Ann” (shown here), a one-woman show. Now it’s part of a two-Friday package – “Ann” at 9 p.m. June 19 (check local listings), Christine Lahti as Gloria Steinem on June 26 – in a PBS summer that leads to Aug. 26, the 100th anniversary of women’s right to vote.
Put those Friday shows together and you’ll see that the women’s movement has drawn opposite people. Verbally, Richards was easy, breezy and outgoing; Steinem is not. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / June 16, 2020
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for June 18: An OK show turns terrific

1) “In the Dark,” 9 p.m., CW. Occasionally – not often– an OK show turns terrific. That’s happened in the second season of this story. Previously (shown here) Murphy, who is blind, was almost caught slipping drugs to her ex-boyfriend Mas in . When her ex-boyfriend Max  in prison. Now forces converge – Max … a crooked cop … an almost-honest cop … Nia and Josiah, the competing drug lords … Jess, the ex-friend … Ben, the druggie employee. The first seven minutes and the final minute are sensational; the rest is very good. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / June 16, 2020