1) “Saturday Night Live,” 11:29 p.m., NBC. After two weeks of reruns, “SNL” is ready for the season’s final burst of new shows. Tonight’s host, Benedict Cumberbatch, might not seem like a funny chap in “The Power of the Dog” or the “Doctor Strange” (shown here) movies, the latest of which opened Friday. But he’s British, he was clever in “Sherlock” films and he’s hosted “SNL” twice before. Arcade Fire is the music guest. Read more…
1) “Blue Bloods” season-finale, 10 p.m., CBS. Nothing lasts forever on TV … unless cops and/or Tom Selleck are involved. “Blue Bloods” was recently renewed for its 13th season; first, this episode links the family of Frank Reagan (Selleck): His son Jamie and grandson Joe (Will Hochman, shown here) search for an undocumented teenager who was being sex-trafficked. Their probe converges with one by Danny (another son), after the murder of a woman who was in witness protection. Read more…
1) “Call Me Kat” season-finale, 9 p.m., Fox. Last week, Kat’s world crumbled. The new landlord (who was, briefly, her boyfriend) raised the rent on her café and apartment. Desperate, she laid off Phil … then collapsed with an anxiety attack. Both characters – played by Mayim Bialik (shown here) and Leslie Jordan – are thoroughly likable; so is the show, even when its humor is mild. Also tonight, Max gets a big break and Carter tries to control his jealousy. Read more…
Fame reached Sheryl Crow (shown here) at its own odd pace. It was slow and gradual … and then came in one big whoosh.
“There is no handbook for becoming famous when you’re a really private, small-town person,” she told the Television Critics Association. “It was emotional; it was exhausting.”
She’s still sorting it out in “Sheryl,” an involving documentary that debuts at 9 p.m. Friday (May 6) on Showtime. Read more…
1) “Good Sam” finale, 10 p.m., CBS. Shows are starting to wrap up now. Coming are the finales of Fox’s “Call Me Kat” on Thursday and CBS’ “Magnum P.I.” and “Blue Bloods” on Friday. First, we get “Sam,” which never quite caught on – in Nielsen ratings, it’s 30th of 31 CBS shows, topping only “Come Dance With Me” – despite likable people. Sam (Sofia Bush, shown here) became chief of surgery when her dad (Jason Isaacs) was ill; he’s not happy about it. Read more…
Life is different, Stephen McGann has found, when you’re married to an in-demand TV writer.
Books keep arriving, in hopes that Heidi Thomas will adapt them. They form “the growing mountain of night-time reading we stack by our bedside,” McGann wrote in “Call the Midwife: A Labour of Love” (2022, Neal Street Productions).
Thomas reads fast and discards quickly. But a dozen years ago, she announced: “You know, I think I might be able to do something with this.”
The result is “Call the Midwife” (shown here with McGann and Max Mcmillan, who plays his son),now at a key point: Previous episodes are at www.pbs.org and the 11th-season finale is at 8 p.m. Sunday (May 8) on PBS: Last week, a crash left three people on a train, near death — Sister Julienne and a former patient … and Dr. Turner, played by McGann. Read more…
1) “Holey Moley” season-opener, 8 p.m., ABC. Is it summer already? Apparently. This opened its past seasons on June 17, May 21 and June 20, fitting the light tone of a miniature-golf show. But here it is already, with the Muppets joining Joe Tessitore and Rob Riggle (shown here) for commentary. Jeannie Mai works the sidelines and Stephen Curry (who’s also quite good at basketball) is the golf pro. Read more…
It’s easy to dump on Jeff Zucker, the former head of NBC and CNN and more.
But let’s look at something that has turned out well: Under Zucker, CNN developed a strong lineup of shows on Saturday and Sunday nights; that’s clear now, with:
–Sundays: “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy” has just started its second season. Barring breaking news, it’s at 9 p.m. and midnight, with another travel-and-food show (“Nomad with Carlton McCoy”) at 10 and 1, plus a Tucci rerun at 11.
— Saturday, May 14: “Navalny” (shown here), a compelling documentary movie, reruns from 9-11 p.m., followed by Tucci and McCoy reruns. It had been set for May 7, but then was pushed back a week. Read more…
