1) “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve,” Tuesday, 8-10 p.m., 10:30 p.m. to 2:30 a.m., ABC. At Times Square, Carrie Underwood does the last songs of 2024 and the Jonas Brothers do the first of 2025. Ryan Seacrest (shown here) also has live music from Megan Moroney and Sophie Ellis-Bextor and a pre-taped concert with Lenny Kravitz, Teddy Swims, Renee Rapp. T-Pain, Hardy, more.
2) More New Year’s Eve. CBS has Keith Urban hosting in Nashville, from 8-10 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. There’s music from Luke Bryan, Kane Brown, Miranda Lambert, Shaboozey, Post Malone, Luke Combs, more. PBS has Sara Bareilles and the National Symphony at 8 p.m., rerunning at 9:30. CNN starts at 2:45 p.m., catching the new year around the globe.
3) Rose Parade, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET Wednesday, NBC and ABC. The year starts with size and spectacle. The parade booms ahead with 32 floats. It has at least 20 marching bands (including ones from Japan and Mexico) and 16 horse units, including Budweiser Clydesdales and the New Buffalo Soldiers. That puts us in the mood for the bowl games that follow.
4) Bowl games, Wednesday, ESPN. At 1 p.m. ET, the Peach Bowl has Texas and Arizona State. That’s followed by the Rose Bowl at 5 (Oregon-Ohio State) and the Sugar Bowl at 8:45 (Georgia-Notre Dame). The winners advance to the college championship semi-finals, along with the winner of the Fiesta Bowl (Penn State-Boise State), at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.
5) “Golden Globes,” 8-11p.m. Sunday, CBS. This show fixed its shabby voting system, but has had two straight sub-par hosts. Now that should be fixed with comedian Nikki Glaser in charge. Filmgoers will recognize a few nominated films (“Wicked,” “Dune: Part 2”) and people (Timothee Chalamet, Zendaya, Denzel Washington, Kate Winslet, Daniel Craig, etc.).
6) Jimmy Fallon’s 10th-anniversary special, 8-10 p.m. today, NBC. It’s closer to 11 years now. Fallon passed the 10-year mark on Feb. 17 and had this special three months later, offering clips of sketches (with Will Ferrell, Nicole Kidman and such), games and music. It reruns now, followed by a rerun of the first hour of Peacock’s “Day of the Jackal.”
7) “Animal Control” and “Going Dutch,” 9:01 p.m. Thursday, Fox. First is a season-opener that mixes great sight gags – a zoo break leaves animals amok – and OK character comedy. Then “Dutch” debuts, with a hardened colonel (Denis Leary) taking over a softened Army base, run by his estranged daughter. This episode is so-so, but next week’s is better.
8) “Only Murders in the Building,” 9-11 p.m. Thursday, ABC. In the first season of a Hulu gem, podcasters (Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez) solved the case. Now the building’s board president is dead and they’re suspects. It’s a great season, rerunning here. These first three episodes (of 10) follow the reboot of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.”
9) “Happy’s Place,” 8 p.m. Friday, NBC. Here’s one of the first shows to return with a new episode after the holidays: Bobbie (Reba McEntire) and Gabby (Melissa Peterman) compete to be a comedy emcee. The story requires four characters to be wildly overwrought; the other two – Takoda and Emmett – provide enough laughs to make it sort of fun.
10) ALSO: At 8 p.m. Saturday, CW has “I Am Sam Kinison,” profiling the Pentecostal preacher who became a shock comic, survived his addictions and, ironically, was killed by a drunken driver at 38. And at 10 p.m. Sunday, PBS has the first half of a dark “Vienna Blood” story; things brighten a week later, with “Miss Scarlet” and “All Creatures Great and Small.”