1) CMT Music Awards, 8 p.m. today, CBS. Eight days after the Grammys, CBS focuses on country. It has the Judds’ first TV performance in 20 years, plus other duos – Maren Morris with Ryan Hurd, Cole Swindell with Lainey Wilson, Mickey Guyton with Black Pumas, Jason Aldean with Bryan Adams, Thomas Rhett with Riley Green, Jimmie Allen with Monica and Little Big Town. Also: Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban, Kane Brown, Miranda Lambert and Kelsea Ballerini (shown here), who hosts with Anthony Mackie).
2) More country. What about CMT (formerly Country Music Television), which started these awards? It still has country videos from 4-9 a.m. daily and the top-20 from 9 a.m. to noon weekends. It has the awards red-carpet at 7 p.m. today and reruns the awards at 8 p.m. Friday. It also has specials – Little Big Town (8 p.m. Tuesday, 9:30 p.m. Thursday), Brooks & Dunn (8 p.m. Wednesday), then LeAnn Rimes, joined by Guyton, Pearce, Ashley McBryde and Brandy Clark (8 and 10:30 p.m. Thurday).
3) “The First Lady” debut, 9 p.m. Sunday, Showtime, rerunning at 10. Over the next eight weeks, we’ll see three fascinating stories entwine. This opener focuses on the start of the presidency, but other weeks flash back and forward. Michelle Pfeiffer is especially good as Betty Ford – brashly outspoken in the White House, struggling with pills and alcoholism afterward. Gillian Anderson is a deeply empathetic Eleanor Roosevelt; Viola Davis is fairly good as Michelle Obama.
4) “9-1-1,” 8 p.m. today, Fox. It’s a pivotal episode, as Maddie (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and “Chimney” (Kenneth Choi) finally rejoin their colleagues. They were lovers and have a baby, but Maddie had severe postpartum depression. Now (after Hewitt’s real-life maternity leave) they have issues to sort out. That comes in an episode that also has spiders, sharks and even a dousing of gasoline. It’s a strong hour … followed at 9, oddly, by a relative so-so “9-1-1: Lone Star.”
5) “Abbott Elementary” season-finale, 9 p.m. Tuesday, ABC. It’s a key time for two comedies. Next week, the much-honored “Black-ish” ends its eighth and final season; first, “Abbott” – which has been a quick success – wraps its first year. The annual school trip to the zoo comes as lives are in transition. Janine faces a big choice … Tariq has been offered a job in New York … and Barbara ponders her future, after her favorite reptile (a tuatara) is retired because of age.
6) “The Thing About Pam” finale, 10 p.m. Tuesday, NBC. For five episodes, we’ve seen Pam Hupp (wonderfully played by Renee Zellweger) scurry around, forever being “helpful.” Her friend Betsy has been brutally killed; Pam’s mom has died under suspicious circumstances. In both cases, Pam has received insurance money. Now, in this true story, sentiment has started to swing against her … and against the prosecutor who convicted Betsy’s husband, then lost the re-trial.
7) “Nature: American Arctic,” 8 p.m. Wednesday, PBS. Sprawling across 19 million acres in northeastern Alaska, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge offers goats, grizzlies, geese and more. Here is gorgeous footage of contrasting lives: The expanding snow goose population has reached 20 million; the polar bear population has shrunk in half. Caribou – some 160,000 of them — make a 1,000-mile round trip each year; the 800-pound musk oxen stay stubbornly in place, poking through the snow.
8) “Young Sheldon,” 8 p.m. Thursday, CBS. After pausing for a week of reruns, three CBS comedies are back, starting with a troubled Georgie: At 17, he lied about his age and dated an older woman (Emily Osment); now she’s pregnant and he frets about telling his parents. That’s followed at 8:30 by “United States of Al,” with Al dating two very different women. And at 9, “Ghosts” meets a teen who died on her prom night; that triggers Samantha’s own memory of a prom gone bad.
9) “Come Dance With Me” debut, 8-10 p.m., CBS. This is partly a dance competition and mostly a feel-good reality show. We meet kids who are serious dancers – some of them prizewinners – and parents who aren’t. With lot of help from costumes and choreographers, each duo does a dance number. Then the judges rave, say everyone is wonderful and choose the most wonderful. There’s a noisy blandness, but the dancing (especially from the kids) is impressive; so is the razzle-dazzle.
10) Easter specials, Sunday. Turner Classic Movies has the cheery “Easter Parade” (1948) musical at 8 p.m. ET, surrounding it with religious classics – “Barabbas” (1962) at 2:30 p.m., “The Shoes of the Fisherman” (1968) at 5, “King of Kings” (1961) at 10. CMT has “All Saints” (2017) at 3:15 p.m. and “Miracles From Heaven“ (2016) at 6. And UpTV has an entire week of religious movies, plus a gospel concert (10 a.m. to noon ET Sunday) hosted by Jonathan McReynolds and Kierra Sheard-Kelly.