Month: December 2021

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. Read more…

1) “Ghosts,” 9 p.m., CBS. It’s been a long time since anyone held a dinner party in this big old house. When the new owners (shown here, foreground) invite the nosy neighbors, the ghosts want to join in; they soon create problems … and a solution. That’s in a fairly good, all-rerun night for the CBS comedies, starting with “Young Sheldon” being a lab assistant. Read more…

1) “The Masked Singer” finale, 8-10 p.m., Fox. Last week, the show unmasked a pair of big-time music stars – David Foster, 72, a producer and 16-time Grammy-winner, and Katharine McPhee, 37, an “American Idol” runner-up and “Scorpion” star. They’re married (her second, his fifth) and appeared as Banana Split. Now the singer who beat them, Queen of Hearts (shown here), faces Bull, who topped Faith Evans. Read more…

1) “The Voice” finale, 9-11 p.m., NBC. At the end of the night, the show names its 21st champion. The final five acts include two with Blake Shelton (Wendy Moten and Paris Winningham), two with Kelly Clarkson (the Girl Named Tom sibling trio, shown here, and Hailey Mia), one with John Legend (Jershika Maple), none with Ariana Grande. First comes a flood of music, from the finalists and coaches, plus Coldplay, Alicia Keys, Ed Sheeran, Walker Hayes, Carrie Underwood (with Legend) and a Keke Palmer/Tori Kelly duet. Read more…

1) “American Auto” (shown here) debut, 10 and 10:30 p.m, NBC. Trying to survive against auto giants, Payne Motors pins its hopes on two changes – a new CEO (Ana Gasteyer) and a self-driving car. Alas, the CEO doesn’t know (or care) much about cars. And the self-driver … well, there’s a funny surprise we won’t spoil. This show – which gets a weekly spot Jan. 4 – is another delight for producer Justin Spitzer (“Superstore”) and for Gasteyer, whose recent “Clusterfunke Christmas” is a delight. Read more…

1) “A Christmas Proposal,” 8:30 p.m., CBS. For the first time in nine years, CBS has a made-for-TV movie. It has two, actually – Christmas films on consecutive Sundays. This one takes a half-hour to get its plot in motion, but is mostly worth the wait. Jessica Camacho (“All Rise”) is radiant as a smart and skilled chef who gets by as an Uber-type driver; Adam Rodriguez (“CSI: Miami”) plays a lawyer who – like most Christmas-movie guys – keeps staring at his laptop. (They’re shown here.) Read more…