Year: 2020

Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for March 29: Music from Garth, Elton, Zoey

1) “Gershwin Prize: Garth Brooks,” 9-11 p.m., PBS. The music greats, from Paul McCartney to Stevie Wonder, have won the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. Now Brooks(shown here) is the 11th winner, the second country person (after Willie Nelson) and the youngest. At 58, he’s sold 148 million albums in the U.S., trailing only the Beatles. He performs here; so does his wife Trisha Yearwood, plus Keith Urban, Chris Stapleton, Ricky Skaggs, Keb’ Mo, Lee Brice and the Howard University Chorus; Jay Leno hosts. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 27, 2020
Stories

This one is a jet-fueled “Project Runway”

When “Project Runway” began, Tim Gunn had modest expectations.
“I thought, ‘Well, this will be good cocktail-party talk. This will never happen again,’” he recalled.
Then it happened again and again and …
There were 16 seasons with Heidi Klum (shown here) as host and Gunn as mentor; there have been two more since they left to plan “Making the Cut,” the designer show that’s debuting now on Amazon Prime. There have been two junior editions with Klum and Gunn and seven all-star editions without them. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 26, 2020
News and Quick Comments

Country special has … well, almost everyone

When CBS said it would have some country stars for an April 5 special, it wasn’t kidding.
The list, announced this morning (March 26), seems to include most of Nashville and beyond. It has top country stars – Luke Bryan (shown here), Carrie Underwood, Blake Shelton and more – and even adds pop stars, including John Legend, Sheryl Crow, Brandi Carlisle and Gwen Stefani.
That will be 8 p.m. on April 5. The Academy of Country Music awards were originally scheduled then, but they’ve been pushed back to Sept. 16, with Keith Urban hosting. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 26, 2020
News and Quick Comments

Another postponement: The Tonys

For years, TV has depended on award shows to provide fresh musical energy … and strong ratings.
Not any more. The Tonys (shown here last year, with host James Corden) are the latest to be potponed. They weren’t scheduled until June 7 and follow the postponements of  the Billboard, iHeartRadio, Academy of Country Music and Kids Choice awards.
Two of those will compensate by having specials in which people perform at home. It will be pop music this Sunday (March 29) on Fox, then country music a week later on CBS. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 26, 2020
Weekly Previews

Week’s top-10 for March 30: Three shows exit, two arrive

1) “Hawaii Five-0” (shown here) series-finale, 9 p.m. Friday, CBS. This has been almost eternal – 12 years in the original series, 10 more for this reboot. Now it closes with flashbacks that include three deceased people – Steve McGarrett’s father, the man who killed him (Victor Hesse) and the man who ordered it (Wo Fat). There’s more: McGarrett finally solves the case that his father left him. Also, Wo Fat’s widow – desperate to get the coded message sent by McGarrett’s late mother – has kidnapped Danny. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 26, 2020
Daily Best Bets

Best bets for March 28: Reruns fill virus-caused gaps

1) “Saturday Night Live,” 11:29 p.m., NBC. For the first time, the coronavirus has forced “SNL” to switch to a rerun. Other latenight shows had adjusted, but “SNL” – with reruns already scheduled – wasn’t affected. But it had planned a new episode tonight, with John Krasinski hosting and Dua Lipa as music guest. Instead, this rerun has Scarlett Johansson (shown here) hosting and mocking her fiance, anchor and head writer Colin Jost; Niall Horan is music guest. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 26, 2020
News and Quick Comments

Elton hosts a music-from-home special Sunday

Another music-from-home special has been set up, entertaining TV viewers during the coronavirus shutdown.
This one will be be 9 p.m. Sunday (March 29) on Fox, with top pop stars. “The iHeart Living Room Concert For America” will be hosted by Elton John (shown here), with at-home music by Billie Eilish, Tim McGraw, Mariah Carey, Alicia Keys, Billie Joe Armstrong and the Backstreet Boys. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 25, 2020
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for March 27: Old Hollywood and new dramas

1) “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” (2019), 8 p.m. Starz. This movie is sprawling and ambitious, eccentric and inconsistent. In short, it’s a QuentinTarantino film. There are whole scenes you could take out, without affecting the plot; many of those scenes, however, are wonderful. In the 1960s, we see (shown here) a fading star (Leonard DiCaprio, right) and his stunt double (Brad Pitt, who won a supporting-actor Oscar). They meet Bruce Lee, Charles Manson and others, in ways that slyly rewrite history. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 25, 2020
Stories

McNally conquered everything … except coronavirus

Terrence McNally (shown here in his early days) survived a previous epidemic, when AIDS decimated the gay community.
Two of his boyfriends died, but he survived the era. He also beat lung cancer, alcoholism and bigotry … but not the current pandemic. He died recent;y at 81, of complications from COVID-19; PBS has its excellent “American Masters” portrait available until Wednesday (April 1) at www.pbs.org/americanmasters..
Praise flowed in quickly. Lin-Manuel Miranda, the “Hamilton” creator, called him “a giant in our world.” Bill de Blasio, the New York City mayor, called him “a great New Yorker, one of the most renowned members of our cultural community.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 25, 2020
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for March 26: Season ends for “Deputy,” “Million”

1) “Deputy” season-finale, 9 p.m., Fox. The first season ends the way it started – with fierce waves of emotion. We’ve grumbled about some overwrought episodes in-between, but this one makes the passions feel justified. Sheriff Hollister rage at the outing of his informants,but also savors the joy of his daughter (Latina on her mom’s side) at her quinceanera (shown here). Things are wrapped up potently. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 24, 2020