1) “Great Performances: The Conductor,” 9-10:30 p.m., PBS. “I’ve never been good with a lot of rules,” Marin Alsop (shown here) says. She quit a stern music school and created String Fever – 14 women doing swing music on orchestral instruments. She resisted the idea that conductors must be men; at one point, she led orchestras in three cities (Baltimore, Vienna, Sao Paolo), on three continents, in three languages. It’s a great story, told with surges of soaring music.
2) Basketball. After pulling big upsets in the college tournament, underdogs try to do it again, on CBS. Saint Peter’s (seeded No. 15 in a 16-team regional) beat Kentucky (No. 2); now it faces Purdue (No. 3) at 7:09 p.m. North Carolina (No. 8) beat Baylor (No. 1); it faces UCLA (No. 4) at 9:39. On TBS, it’s Kansas (No. 1 in its region) and Providence (No. 4) at 7:29; Miami (No. 10) faces Iowa State (No. 11) at 9:59.
3) “Janet Jackson” (2022) and more, Lifetime Movie Network. Lately, Lifetime has discovered an easy niche – films about the lives of music or media stars. Now its sister channel reruns them in a 14-hour marathon. “Salt-N-Pepa,” at 6 p.m., is scripted; the others are documentaries. They trace Whitney Houston and her daughter at 2 p.m.; Wendy Williams at 4 and Jackson at 8, rerunning at midnight.
4) More movies. Broadway buffs get a double-feature from gifted directors – Norman Jewison’s “Fiddler on the Roof” (1971) at 8 p.m. and Bob Fosse’s twisted take on his own life in “All That Jazz,” at 11:15. If you prefer something less musical, catch Bradley Cooper in Clint Eastwood’s terrific “American Sniper” (2014) at 8 p.m. or the “Karate Kid” trilogy at 8 and 11 p.m. and 1:30 a.m. on CMT.
5) ALSO: Fresh from triumphing with “Inventing Anna,” writer-producer Shonda Rhimes has the second season of another Netflix hit, “Bridgerton.” The first year traced the love life of Daphne Bridgerton; she married Simon (Rege-Jean Page, who left the show) and now her brother Anthony gets the focus. That’s one of two big – and opposite – streaming shows; on Thursday, Paramount+ launched a big-budget version of the “Halo” videogame.