1) Saturday Night Live,” 11:29 p.m., NBC. In her seven “SNL” seasons, Kristen Wiig became the show’s clear star. In the dozen years since she left, she’s had some success in movies (especially “Bridesmaids”) and streaming (the recent “Palm Royale,” shown here, on Apple TV+). Here’s a rerun of the April 6 episode, her fifth as host; Raye is the music guest. Read more…
It was the right book at (maybe) the wrong time. That was when Candice Carty-Williams discovered “Bridget Jones’s Diary.”
“I read the book when I was too young, probably,” she told the Television Critics Association. “I stole it from my aunt’s bookshelf and I read it in the summer.”
Later, that would influence “Queenie,” her award-winning debut novel. Heralded as “the Black ‘Bridget Jpones’s Diary,’” it won awards and is now a brief comedy series (shown here), with eight half-hours arriving in one gulp Friday (June 7) on Hulu. Read more…
1) Daytime Emmys, 8-10 p.m., CBS. After shrinking to four best-soap nominees, the field now has six. “General Hospital” (shown here) has won 16 times; others are “Young and the Restless” (11), “Days of Our Lives” (4), “Bold and Beautiful” (3), “Neighbors” and “The Bay.” Talk-show nominees are “The View,” plus the Kelly Clarkson, Jennifer Hudson, Tamron Hall and Robin Roberts shows. Read more…
1) “Saving Private Ryan” (1999), 8 p.m. ET, Turner Classic Movies. It was 80 years ago today that 24,000 Allied troops stormed the fortified beaches of Normandy. More than 4,000 would be killed on D-Day, another 5,000-plus were wounded, but they changed history. That’s marked here by Steven Spielberg’s masterpiece (shown here), other TCM films and documentaries on two other cable channels. Read more…
TV’s summer doldrums will be broken up by country singers, sharks and (at the end of summer) Jesus and his disciples.
That last one has “The Chosen” returning to the CW network for two-hour slots on September Sundays. The mini-network has also announced the renewal of two shows – “Penn & Teller: Fool Us” and (in a surprise) “All American.” Details include:
— “CMA Fest” is culled from concerts during the Country Music Association’s fan days in Nashville. This year it will be June 25, hosted by Ashley McBryde (shown here). That’s on ABC, which is stuffing June with special events – basketball and hockey finals, plus this concert – before returning its summer game shows in July. Read more…
1) “MasterChef: Generations,” 8 p.m., Fox.. Didn’t the baby-boomers start the youthquake? Aren’t they rockers and flower children? Somehow, they’ve aged. It’s their turn to audtion and, one guy says, to “show what the old folks can do.” Joe Bastianich even adds his mom Lidia, 77, as guest judge. (They’re show here with a contestant.) She’s an acclaimed food expert who will get an honorary Daytime Emmy on Friday. Read more…
In baseball’s two-team towns, there’s often been a sad-sibling syndrome.
It’s been the YANKEES and the mets in New York, the DODGERS and the angels in Los Angeles. Other sad siblings ran away from home, looking for love elsewhere; ask fans of the Boston Braves, Philadelphia A’s, St. Louis Browns or New York Giants.
And in pro basketball? Los Angeles has the Lakers and the Clippers, now with opposite TV series: “Winning Time: The Rise of the Laker Dynasty” had fun, flash, magic and Magic; Hulu’s “Clipped” (ahown here) — Tuesdays, starting June 4 — has a grimmer view. Read more…
1) “Clipped” opener, Hulu. On the surface, this is fun and flash: The 2013 Los Angeles Clippers had great players, a respected coach (Doc Rivers, played by Laurence Fishburne, shown here), a Hollywood setting … and a bizarre owner. As his team soared; his girlfriend leaked a tape of his rants. These first two hours try to humanize the people, Still, many viewers will find them hard to like. Read more…
1) “Mayor of Kingstown” season-opener, 9 p.m., Showtime. Now recovered from a near-fatal accident, Jerremy Renner (shown here)is back to playing a tough guy in a hard-scrabble prison town. On Jan. 1, 2023, Renner was severely injured while saving his nephew from a snowplow. Now third season begins, 14 months after the second ended. Read more…
