1) “Saturday Night Live,” 11:29 p.m., NBC. A good season could turn into a great one: Kate McKinnon (shown here) is hosting and Billie Eilish is the music guest. “SNL” often seems to have one person who dominates the sketches. It’s Bowen Yang now (with Kenan Thompson a close second); at other times, it’s been Eddie Murphy, Will Ferrell, Kristen Wiig and, especially, McKinnon. Add Eilish and you may have one of the show’s best episodes. Read more…
(This is an updated list, adding the schedule announced – see separate story – by Read more…
When the big networks return to full-budget, scripted shows, the CW will stand fast.
It will have the same sort of shows it (and others) settled for during the strikes. There will be lots a non-fiction, plus Canadian shows (including “Children Ruin Everything,” shown here) and a movie night.
For years, the CW had youthful shows — often high-octane, superhero ones. But 15 months ago, it got a new owner with plans to lower the costs; then the strikes saw all the networks trying that. Read more…
1) “National Christmas Tree Lighting,” 8 p.m., CBS. We don’t think of President Calvin Coolidge as a festive guy, but in 1923 he presided over the first lighting of the national tree. A century later, that’s a TV-ready celebration. Mickey Guyton (shown here) hosts and sings, with Dionne Warwick, Joe Walsh, Ledisi, Darren Criss, St. Vincent, Renee Rapp and Samara Joy. Read more…
A British custom – TV episodes planned for Christmas Day – is making modest inroads in the U.S.
The big one this year is a “Doctor Who,” introducing a new Doctor and his companion (the stgars are shown here). It marks the show’s move to Disney+.
In addition, however, there are two others arriving exactly on Dec. 25 (PBS’ “Call the Midwife” and Acorn’s “Madame Blanc Mysteries”), two that come a day earlier (Britbox’s “Lot 249” ghost story and its “Beyond Paradise”) and some others from earlier in the month. Read more…
1) “The Crown” conclusion, Netflix. A great series wraps up. In each of its previous five seasons, “The Crown” drew an Emmy nomination for best drama series. (It won once, with last season still pending.) It has 64 more nominations, 20 wins and an admiring audience. Four weeks ago, the season’s first four episodes arrived, taking us to Diana’s death; now the final six spend more time on the William-and-Kate (shown here) and Harry stories, and on the struggles of a changing monarchy. Read more…
In the tangled TV world, consider this:
— Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building”(shown here) is simultaneously up for best-comedy-series awards for its second season and its third season.
— It will learn about the third-season results a week BEFORE the second-season ones.
— And a week before that, its first season will rerun on ABC. Read more…
1) “Quantum Leap,” 8 p.m., NBC. Last week’s episode had a finish that was far-fetched, even by time-travel standards. Now “Leap” bounces back; an engaging story, set among spies in 1950s Egypt, marks the return of the show’s best character. Hannah (Eliza Taylor, the former “100” star) is the only person outside the lab who knows about Ben’s time-travel. He met her when she was an underemployed waitress and steered her toward her career as a physicist (shown here); now they meet again in Egypt. Read more…
As the real TV season finally nears, viewers can start to ask about their favorite shows.
They might wonder when the final seasons begin for “Young Sheldon,” shown here, or “Blue Bloods” (Feb. 15 and 16). They might want the first season of Jon Hamm’s animated “Grimsburg” (Jan. 7), the 20th of “Grey’s Anatomy” (March 14) or the 25th of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” (Jan. 18).
Most of those details are available now, so we’ve put them into two alphabetical lists. One has 14 new shows; the other has 49 returning ones.
This sticks to prime time in the five main broadcast networks, plus the Sunday dramas on PBS. It skips cable and streaming networks, which tend to have fluid schedules, even during the strikes. It also skips the few shows (“Simpsons” or “60 Minutes,” for instance) that never went away. A few shows haven’t been scheduled yet and everything is subject to change: Read more…
(This is an updated version, adding several CW shows)
After waiting semi-patiently for three months, TV viewers have a logical question:
Now that the strikes have ended, when will the real season start? The answer varies; it will be:
— Quite soon. Two comedies (one is shown here) arrive Dec. 23; 11 more shows arrive in the first week of January.
— Really late. Another 12 shows – led by the eternal “Grey’s Anatomy” – wait until March.
— Or somewhere in between. You could think of the Super Bowl, on Feb. 11, as the turning point. Read more…
