1) Rose Parade, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET , NBC, ABC, Peacock and RFD-TV. The New Year’s Day party begins — a day late. With Jan. 1 on a Sunday, the parade (shown here in a previous year) was delayed a day; now it booms through Pasadena, with 21 bands, including ones from Italy, Japan, Mexico, Panama and Taiwan. The theme is “Turning the Corner” and there are 40 floats … some of which, in the past, had trouble turning corners. Read more…
1) “Dionne Warwick: Don’t Make Me Over,” 9 p.m. and midnight ET, CNN. Warwick (shown here) has had plenty of hits – a dozen in the top-10, 56 on Billboard charts, with 100 million records sold. We hear pieces of 40 songs here. But she did much more, this terrific film says. She confronted racists. She sang the anthem of HIV awareness … and nudged Ronald Reagan to finally say “AIDS.” She told “gangster rappers” to arrive at 7 a.m., for a lecture on misogyny; they were there at 6:52. Read more…
This sounds like a piece of Old West fiction.
A circuit judge travels empty stretches of Nevada. In county seats where the Earps once lived, she’s quick with her gavel and her voice; she also packs a pistol.
But this is true and it’s nowadays. Judge Kim Wanker has been nicknamed The Hammer; now Reba McEntire (shown here) stars in a vibrant cable movie (8 p.m. Jan. 7 and 10:03 p.m. Jan. 8) with that name.
“She is quite the character,” McEntire said of the real judge. “She’s amazing. She’s strong. Little, bitty gal. But what she does and how she stands up to people who have done other people wrong; she makes it all fair.” Read more…
1) “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve,” 8-11 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. to 2 a.m., ABC. Fifty years ago, Dick Clark hatched this idea – live coverage at Times Square, entwined with taped performances in California. Now Times Square (shown here) has its own performers, with Ryan Seacrest hosing; that includes Duran Duran, New Edition, j-hope (from BTS) and Jax. Billy Porter performs live in New Orleans; taped performers include Ciara, Shaggy, Ben Platt, Halle Bailey, Wiz Khalifa, Dove Cameron and more. Read more…
1) Orange Bowl, 8 p.m. ET, ESPN. We’re one day from the semi-finals, with the four teams that have a shot at the national championship. First, we see the teams that almost got there; this has Tennessee and Clemson (hown here), ranked No. 6 and 7 … which means the Orange Bowl has two teams with orange as their school color. (Alabama, at No. 5, is in the Sugar Bowl on Saturday.) ESPN has two more bowls, with Maryland-North Carolina State at noon and Notre Dame-South Carolina at 3:30; CBS has Pittsburgh and UCLA at 2. Read more…
Wednesdays, it seems, have become TV’s designated tough days.
This fall, “Survivor” and “Amazing Race” had ordinary folks facing extraordinary challenges. Now come two more shows; they overlap on Jan. 4, then share the night:
— CBS’ “Tough as Nails” is 9-11 p.m. the first week, then 10 p.m.. Regular folks – a carpenter, welder, firefighter, construction worker, etc. — face demanding, blue-collar tasks.
— Fox’s “Special Forces: The World’s Toughest Test”is 8-10 p..m. the first week, then 9 p.m. “It is actual Special Forces training, without votes, alliances or eliminations,” Dwight Howard (shown here, second from right) said in a Television Critics Association press conference. “You just have to survive.” Read more…
1) Rose Parade, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET today, NBC, ABC, Peacock and RFD-TV. The New Year’s Day party begins — a day late. With Jan. 1 on a Sunday, the parade (shown here in a previous year) was nudged back; now it booms down 5.5 miles of Pasadena. Six of the 21 bands are from California, but others are from Italy, Japan, Mexico, Panama and Taiwan. The 40 floats include two states and four colleges. The theme is “Turning the Corner”; occasionally, floats get stuck turning corners. Read more…
1) “So Help Me Todd” (shown here), 9 and 10 p.m., CBS. A week before the season resumes, here’s a dandy way to get familiar wth this above-average show. First, the clever pilot film: A by-the-book lawyer (Marcia Gay Harden) and her ignore-the-book son Todd (Skyler Astin), whose detective license was suspended, scramble to find her husband. Then the second hour gets too silly at times, as Todd shirks his own case to work on hers, but is still sort of fun. Read more…
1) “Kennedy Center Honors,” 8-10 p.m. Wednesday, CBS. Here are passionate tributes, ranging from serious (Sean Penn on U2) to mocking (Matt Damon on George Clooney; they’re shown here). That’s joined by key music: Eddie Vedder for U2; Dianne Reeves for Clooney; the Highwomen supergroup and gospel greats for Amy Grant; instrumentalists for composer Tanis Leon; and Garth Brooks, Patti LaBelle, Mickey Guyton and Ariana DeBose for Gladys Knight. Read more…
1) “The Rookie: Feds,” 9 and 10 p.m., ABC. A week before it starts the second half of its season, “Feds” lets us catch up. First is the series opener: When Simone (Niecy Nash, shown here), a former school counselor, starts work at the FBI, Garza assigns her to paperwork; she resists. The rest defies credibility, yet is thoroughly entertaining. Then the most recent episode: Garza is accused of being a mole; Simone and others link to clear his name. Read more…
