1) College football championship, 8 p.m. ET, ESPN. This is the way all seasons should end, with two undefeated powerhouses colliding. There were some doubts about Ohio State, because it had only played six games in the regular season; then, in the Rose Bowl, it thumped second-ranked Clemson, 49-28; Alabama followed with its 12th win, beating Notre Dame, 31-14; its receiver and quarterback (DeVonta Smith, shown here, and Mac Jones) finished first and third in Heisman voting. This should be a fun game.
2) “The Bachelor,” 8-10 p.m., ABC. It’s a night for wide receivers, current (Smith) and past. The latter is Matt James, 29, a former Wake Forest receiver and now a New York real-estate broker. He still has 24 women to choose from, ranging from a New York fashion entrepreneur, 21, to an Ethiopian pharmacist, 32. Tonight, he tries a simultaneous date with 18 women.
3) “The Good Doctor,” 10 p.m., ABC. Struggling with the residual emotional trauma of COVID, Dr. Lim meets a young war veteran wth PTSD. Also in this episode – the first new one in six weeks – Shaun wants to quit teaching new residents, after one was unable to save a patient.
4) “American Experience,” 9 p.m., PBS. Elizabeth Smith disliked the ordinary feel of her life and her name. The youngest of 10 children in a Quaker family in small-town Indiana, she became a teacher … then met someone who wanted her to break “codes,” proving Francis Bacon wrote Shakespeare’s plays. That failed, but Elizabeth Smith Friedman (her husband was also a codebreaker) would go on to crack the codes of enemies during two world wars and of mobsters during Prohibition. It’s a fascinating story.
5) “Finding Joy,” any time, www.acorn.tv. Amy Huberman has been a consistent plus for Irish TV. She was Daisy the receptionist in “The Clinic” … starred as a lawyer taking a career detour in “Striking Out” (which is also on Acorn) … and co-created this clever series. Huberman plays Joy, once shy and now tackling adventures for a video-blog. This second six-episode season starts with life’s most difficult mission – returning to her old school and facing long-ago angst.