1) Bahamas Bowl, noon ET, ESPN. Few people will be in the stands, watching teams that barely averted losing records. But the weather and scenery should be splendid and this starts the 42-game bowl flurry. Toledo (7-5) and Middle Tennessee (6-6) play in a 15,000-seat stadium. The first game, in 2014, had acrea of empty seats (shown here), but was a spectacular, 49-48 shoot-out, so this could be fun. There’s one more bowl today – Coastal Carolina (10-3) and Northern Illinois (9-4) at 6 p.m. ET on ESPN2 – and six more on Saturday.
2) “Greatest #AtHome Videos,” 8 and 9 p.m., CBS. Back in the summer of 2020, this was a likable byproduct of the pandemic: Cedric the Entertainer showed the creative videos people were making while stuck at home. The show returned in the late-summer of 2021 and now has two holiday-themed hours. The first includes Paula Abdul (showing TikTok videos) and Daniela Ruha; the second has Anthony Anderson (showing dance videos) and Shaquille O’Neal.
3) Hollywood Christmas Parade, 8-10 p.m., CW. Here are highlights of the Nov. 28 parade, which had celebrities whose roles have ranged from Beaver Cleaver (Jerry Mathers) to a machete murderer (Danny Trejo). Others include Kel Mitchel, the Jet Velocity Band and Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis.
4) Family-friendly movies, 8 p.m. Five days before “Sing 2” debuts, NBC has the original. It’s a fun story about a singing competition that draws some strong talents – including characters voiced by Tori Kelly and Jennifer Hudson. At the same time, Lifetime has “Mistletoe in Montana,” with a rancher (Melissa Joan Hart) and a city-slicker (Duane Henry). The settings are so pretty that we occasionally overlook the fact that every plot twist is utterly predictable.
5) “The Witcher,” any time, Netflix. Alongside all the feel-good seasonal stuff, Netflix offers some detours. This is the second season, with Henry Cavill hunting monsters. Also, Amazon Prime has “With Love,” a series following a brother and sister through their romances. Hulu has “Mother/Android,” a movie in which a dying man (Mahershala Ali) considers secretly replacing himself with a clone.