1) Academy Awards, 7 p.m. ET, ABC. This one should actually be fun. There’s a clever host — Jimmy Kimmel (shown here), for the second straight year and fourth overall. There are movies – led by “Barbie,” “Oppenheimer” and “Killers of the Flower Moon” – people have actually seen. And there’s music: Billie Eilish, Becky G, Jon Btatiste, Ryan Gosling and Mark Ronson, Scott George and the Osage Singers.
2) Pre-Oscar. ABC has its own Oscar preview at 1 p.m. ET, plus a quick red-carpet bit at 6:30. The E channel starts its previews at 2 and reaches the red carpet at 4. After the ceremony (about 10:30 p.m. ET), ABC has a new “Abbott Elementary” episode and E has a 90-minute “after party.”
3) Oscar history. Wrapping up its Oscar month, Turner Classic Movies has potent films — “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” (1958) at noon ET; “Bonnie and Clyde” (1967), 2 p.m.; “Gone With the Wind” (1939), 4. “Wind” won for best-picture ; the others were merely nominated for the top prize and more, including their stars – Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.
4) New shows. Some spots try new episodes on Oscar night. That includes three Fox cartoons (8:30 to 10 p.m.) and two rounds of CBS’ “60 Minutes” (7 and 8). Cable has Showtime’s The Mayor of Kingstown” at 8:15 and a lot at 9: AMC’s “The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live,” Hallmark’s “The Way Home,” MGM+’s “Belgravia” and HBO’s “Regime,” with “Curb Your Enthusiasm” at 10.
5) ALSO: Others will simply wait a week. At 7 p.m., NBC has the second Harry Potter movie and CW has Jim Carrey’s “Bruce Almighty. “At 8 on Fox, a “Simpsons” rerun has Maggie solving a crime on a pop-culture cruse. At 9 and 10, CBS has reruns of the amiable “So Help Me Todd.” And PBS dramas (good ones) arrive next Sunday.
— Mike Hughes, TV America