1) “MasterChef” return, 8 and 9 p.m,. Fox. After a three-week break, the show doubles up episodes. First (shown here), people make birthday cakes; then they’re in teams, with ingredients for each generation. So far, “Gen X” has lost two chefs and “Millennials” lost one; others are intact. Read more…
1) “America’s Got Talent” return, 8-10 p.m., NBC. After eight weeks of auditions and a two-week Olympic break, “Talent” (shown here) finally has live shows, with viewers voting. That’s for five Tuesdays (with a results hour at 8 p.m. Wednesdays, pointing to the finale, Sept. 17 and 18. Read more…
No one would accuse Hallmark of being trendy or jumpy.
The company has been around for 114 years, still family-owned. For years, its cable channels seemed to keep re-making the same movie.
But now it’s joining TV’s biggest trend – streaming services with a “+” in their names. And it’s doing it in a surprisingly ambitious way with everything from a mini-series (“Holidazed, shown here with Erin Cahill) to reality shows.
“Hallmark+ will be more than just a streaming platform,” Mike Perry, the Hallmark CEO, said. “It will be the very best of Hallmark all in one place.”
Details arrived Aug. 14 (see separate story), but the general idea was sketched earlier, at Television Critics Association sessions:
Read more…
1) “American Ninja Warrior,” 8-10 p.m., NBC. For 17 days, NBC’s summer shows were sidelined by the Olympics. Now they’re back, led by “Ninja” (shown here) on Mondays and “America’s Got Talent” on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Also: “Chicago” and “Law & Order” reruns (Wednesdays and Thursdays) and “Saturday Night Live.” Read more…
1) Olympics finale. Women’s basketball wraps ups, with the bronze-medal game at 5:30 a.m. ET on the USA Network and gold at 9:30 a.m. on NBC. Then comes NBC’s overall recap at 11 a.m. and the closing ceremony at noon, with Paris (shown here) trying to match the grandeur of the opening ceremony;. Both will repeat, from 7-11 p Read more…
1) Olympics (teams). It’s finals times for men’s teams. Volleyball has its gold-medal match at 7 a.m. ET on NBC; beach volleyball is on USA, with bronze at 3 p.m. and gold at 4:30. Basketball has bronze at 5 a.m. on USA, then gold at 3:30 p.m. on NBC, with the women’s finals on Sunday morning. Read more…
1) “America’s Got Talent” return, 8-10 p.m. Tuesday, NBC. After eight weeks of auditions and a two-week Olympic break, the summertime ratings leader (shown here) finally reaches its live episodes, with viewers voting. That will be on five Tuesdays (with a results hour at 8 p.m. Wednesdays), pointing to the Sept. 17-18 finals. Read more…
1) “Descendants: The Rise of Red,” 8 p.m., Disney Channel, repeating at 9:45. At first, this seems like it will be wonderful. There’s a vibrant musical chase scene with Red (Kylie Cantrall), then a potent song by her evil mom (Rita Ora, shown here). After that, this settles for being OK, with a time-travel plot, up-tempo songs and a so-so ending. Read more…
1) “Young Sheldon,” 9 p.m., CBS. A terrific rerun juggles two stories: Sheldon’s paper gets national attention, sparking a flurry of college recruiters. Also, his brother Georgie (shown here) tries to speak properly in front of the baby. That’s followed by a good “Ghost,” with someone claiming to be the real heiress to the manor. Read more…
As the election nears, we can fret about all the ways that vote-counts can go wrong. Or we can marvel that they rarely do.
“Think about what a miracle an election is,” said David Becker, head of the non-partisan Center for Election Innovation and Research. “We count 160 million pieces of paper” and do it “exceptionally fast.”
And it’s done in a wildly decentralized way. “We practice a fierce federalism,” said Ralph Ginsberg, a Republican election lawyer for 40 years.
Each state sets its own rules, often leaving room for local variations. The result, Becker said, is “a system of 10,000 different jurisdictions and hundreds of thousands of volunteers.”
They were talking to the Television Critics Association about “Counting the Vote,” a Margaret Hoover (shown here) film that airs Aug. 27 on PBS. And this was a truly bi-partisan collection. Read more…
