1) Thanksgiving episodes, Wednesday, ABC. Comedies are at their best during Thanksgiving dinner; now three shows have their turns. On “The Conners” (8 p.m.), Jackie frets about her mother’s health and Darlene scrambles to find a job. On “The Goldbergs” (8:30), Beverly (shown here) prepares for her first holiday as a widow … and an unexpected relative arrives. “Home Economics” (9:30) also has an unexpected guest — Tom’s lone superfan, who is also his half-sister.
2) “The Walking Dead” finale, 9-10:30 Sunday, AMC, rerunning at midnight and 1:30 a.m. It’s been a huge run – 11 seasons, 177 episodes, countless zombies. Last week’s episode (rerunning at 7:25 p.m.) saw a swarm heading for the city; now we get the final confrontation. AMC will make this an event, with a live preview at 8:30 and Chris Hardwick’s “Talking Dead” from 10:30 p.m. to midnight. Coming up are three spin-offs and some Anne Rice series.
3) American Music Awards, 8-11 p.m. Sunday, ABC. Wayne Brady hosts a night of performances by Carrie Underwood, Imagine Dragons, Yola, Pink, J.I.D., Tems, Wizkid and more. Up for artist of the year are Bad Bunny (who leads with 8 nominations); Taylor Swift, Drake and Beyonce (6 apiece) and Adele, Harry Styles and The Weeknd (5 apiece). Lionel Richie wins the Icon Award; he already has 10 AMA’s, four Grammys, an Oscar and the Gershwin Prize.
4) “American Experience: Taken Hostage,’ 9-11 p.m., today and Tuesday, PBS. On Nov. 4, 1979, Iranian students took over the U.S. embassy, holding 52 Americans hostage. The crisis lasted 444 days. This richly detailed hour includes hostages telling of their ordeal, but starts much earlier: Coveting his oil, the U.S. remained close to the Shah of Iran, overlooking his excesses. After he was overthrown in ‘79, he came here for cancer treatment, fueling rage.
5) “FBI,” 8 p.m. Tuesday, CBS. Missy Peregrym has been popular in several series. A preacher’s kid from Canada, she did “Black Sash” and “Reaper,” played a new cop in six seasons of “Rookie Blue,” then became Maggie, a top FBI agent. Peregrym, 40, missed the season’s first six episodes, after having her second child on June 6. Now Maggie (recovering from sarin-gas exposure) returns, thrown into a double homicide and perilous undercover work.
6) “Pickled,” 9-11 p.m. Thursday, CBS. After steady growth for decades, pickleball soared during the pandemic. In the U.S., the number of players almost doubled, nearing five million. Here’s a celebrity tournney, with singers – (Kelly Rowland, Dierks Bentley, Jimmie Allen), a boxer (Sugar Ray Leonard), a comedian (Tig Nataro) and actors, including Emma Watson, Daniel Dae Kim, Jaime Camil, Aisha Tyler, Luis Guzman, Paul Scheer and Max Greenfield.
7) “Fleishman is in Trouble,” Thursday, Hulu. Toby Fleishman (a neatly typecast Jesse Eisenberg) is a decent chap. A doctor and a dad, he’s struggling with divorce … but kind of likes the new emphasis on dating apps and sex. Then his cold-hearted wife (Claire Danes, very much against type) disappears. Adapting her first novel, Taffy Brodesser-Akner fills this nine-part mini-series with witty dialog and narration, satirizing an elite corner of the world.
8) “Next at the Kennedy Center,” 9 p.m. Friday, PBS. Two decades ago, Joni Mitchell did two albums with an orchestra. She drew praise, but only had a brief tour with local groups. Now the National Symphony backs elegant vocals by Renee Fleming, Aoife O’Donovan, Jimmie Herrod and (on “Both Sides Now”) Lalah Hathaway. Amid these Mitchell ballads, Raul Milon adds pulsating renditions of “Be Cool” and (with Hathaway) “Sex Kills.”
9) Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 8 p.m. Saturday, HBO. In its 36 years, the Hall’s performer category has inducted three people who are mainly country — Conway Twitty, Johnny Cash and now Dolly Parton. This inductee group ranges from the rap of Eminem to the love songs of Lionel Richie; it also has Carly Simon, Pat Benatar, Duran Duran and the Eurythmics. HBO has highlights of a night with Bruce Springsteen, Pink, Janet Jackson and more.
10) ALSO: Alongside the zombies and the music awards, Sunday has more. At 8 p.m., CW has “A Waltons Thanksgiving,” the second movie reboot from the warm family series. Also at 8, PBS has a strong season-finale for “Miss Scarlet and the Duke,” trying to catch a gunman and sort out a romance. At 9, it has the terrific “Magpie Murders” conclusion, with two mysteries: Who killed the author … and who was the killer in the missing chapter?