1) Figure skating, 8-11 p.m., NBC. The national championships continue through Sunday, but this is the night viewers prefer – the women’s finals. (Shown here, in a previous event, is returning champion Isabeau Levito.) Still coming are finals for dance (2:30 p.m. Saturday, NBC), pairs (8 p.m. Saturday, USA Network) and men (2 p.m. Sunday, NBC).
2) “Benjamin Franklin” conclusion, 9-11 p.m., PBS. Franklin had already stuffed his life with inventions, romance and clever writing. Now, at 69, he begins his most important phase – helping Jefferson mold the Declaration of Independence, soliciting crucial support from the French and forging the peace treaty with England. It’s a strong ending to a beautifully crafted Ken Burns documentary.
3) “SWAT,” 8 p.m., CBS. This reruns the season-finale, with Timothy Hutton as a DEA boss, obsessed with crushing the cartel that killed his son. That’s followed by reruns of “Fire Country” (a deadly explosion in an abandoned mine) and “Blue Bloods”: Frank and Joe react to an insult to the cop who was Joe’s father and Frank’s son.
4) “Expats” opener, Amazon Prime. Nicole Kidman is the current mini-series champion. She did “Big Little Lies” and its sequel, plus “Nine Perfect Strangers” and the “Top of the Lake” sequel; even her “Australia” movie was re-cut into the six-part “Faraway Downs.” Now she and Jack Huston joins an Asian cast, for a six-parter about outsiders living in Hong Kong; two hours arrive today.
5) More streaming. On Thursday, Netflix debuted “Griselda” (with Sofia Vergara as a real-life drug kingpin) and Peacock added “In the Know,” with improvised chats between puppets and celebrities. Now Apple TV+ has the first two episodes of the nine-part “Masters of the Air,” with Austin Butler (“Elvis”) as a World War II pilot.
— Mike Hughes, TV America