1) “NCIS” season-finale, 9 p.m., CBS. Probing the innards of a ship (shown here), the team finds three bodies. When Parker and Knight (Gary Cole and Katrina Law) investigate, thay’re trapped inside, as it’s about to be sunk. We’re betting they survive; “NCIS” seems unsinkable. It will be back next season, its 22nd; it will be joined then by a prequel (Mark Harmon narrating Gibbs’ early adventures) and by “NCIS: Sydney.” Read more…
As younger viewers drift away, TV networks pondered alternate solutions:
1) Go after them. Copy what the streaming networks are doing. Get guttier and grittier. Interweave some tough stories that stretch over eight or 10 hours.
2) Don’t chase them; they won’t be back anyway. Service the viewers you still have.
That second one has worked fairly well in the Nielsen ratings for CBS. Now it ripples through the play-it-safe line-up the network has announced for fall, including a “Matlock” reboot (shown here). Read more…
1) “Parish” season-finale, 9 p.m., AMC, repeating at 10. A great story has an ending that’s merely semi-great. Gray Parish (Giancarlo Esposito, shown here) is a former getaway driver with conflicting goals – revenge his son’s death or withdraw from the crime world, to preserve the rest of his family. Now those collide. The finale is well-crafted and high-octane, yet feels out-of-sync with what preceded it. Read more…
CBS has set a fall schedule filled with the familiar.
It will have two prequels (one of which is also a sequel), two familiar crimesolving names (Matlock and Dr. Watson) and few surprises.
The biggest surprise may be the omission of two shows (“NCIS: Hawaii” and “So Help Me Todd”) … and the name of the show that takes over the Sheldon space. It’s “Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage.”
That one (shown here) is a sequel to “Young Sheldon,” but still a prequel to “The Big Bang Theory” … and will occupy the same timeslot (8 p.m. Thursdays) both of those shows had. “Ghosts” will remain at 8:30, with “Elsbeth” at 10. Now “Matlock” – with Kathy Bates taking the Andy Griffith role as a folksy old lawyer – replaces “So Help Me Todd” at 9. Read more…
1) “NCIS” season-finale, 9 p.m. today, CBS. The 21st season ends, for a show that seems eternal. “NCIS” has already spawned four spin-offs and more than 1,000 episodes. It will be back next sason, alongside “NCIS: Hawaii” (which wraps its season at 10 p.m.) and a prequel. Tonight, Parker and Knight (Gary Cole and Katrina Law, shown here, left and center) are trapped in a ship that’s about to be sunk. Read more…
1) “Saturday Night Live,” 11:29 p.m., NBC, In a 32-episode stretch, only Bad Bunny has doubled as host and music guest. Now Dua Lipa (shown here) does. Also, “Weekend Update” could be interesting. We’ll see if Colin Jost or Michael Che have comments about Jost’s uneven (but often funny) turn at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. Read more…
The second season of “61st Street” (shown here) will arrive this summer – finally.
The opener – 9 p.m., July 22, on the CW network – comes more than two years after the first season ended on AMC. And 14 months after the CW bought the rights. It’s even a year after the second season streamed in Australia.
Now it’s part of CW’s summer plans: “All American” (now airing at 9 p.m. Mondays) is adding two more episodes, to continue through July 15. “All American Homecoming,” its spin-off, will air two episodes alongside it, then will be the lead-in to “61st Street.” Both will be anomalies, in a summer when scripted shows are rare on broadcast TV. Read more…
1) “Unfrosted,” Netflix. In the 26 years since his show ended, Jerry Seinfeld has avoided long-form projects. One exception was “The Bee Movie,” an animated film he co-wrote and voiced. Now he co-wrote and directed this film, about (really) the race to be create Pop-Tarts. He stars, alongside Melissa McCarthy (they’re shown here), Jim Gaffigan Amy Schumer, Jack McBrayer, Dan Levy, Hugh Grant and more. Read more…
For TV viewers, the Broadway season is coming up.
Well, maybe it’s a mini-season – five busy weeks, when Broadway-type shows get the focus. That starts May 10 with “Hamlet” on PBS … continues with three Friday concerts … then wraps up June 16, with the Tony Awards, which have just announced their nominations. And it includes some interesting crossovers:
— “Purlie Victorious” will be on PBS on May 24, three weeks before its shot at a Tony for best play revival.
— Audra McDonald (shown here), the all-time Tony champ, will be in two of the PBS specials. She has a solo concert May 17, then joins others May 31 for “Rodgers & Hammerstein’s 80th Anniversary.” McDonald is the only person to win six Tonys in competetive acting categories; Angela Lansbury and Julie Harris each won five plus an honorary one. Read more…
During the five-year run of “Bob (Hearts) Abishola” (shown here), lives have transformed.
Folake Olowofoyeku became a star, Gina Yashere became an American, Chuck Lorre became rich (well, richer). And Billy Gardell became barely more than half his size.
“I was in a place with my health that I needed to make a severe change,” Gardell told the Television Critics Association. He did, with bariatric surgery and careful living.
The Gardell we’ll see on the series finale (8:30 p.m., May 6, on CBS) is about 5-foot-11, 207 pounds. There were times when he apparently topped 370. Read more…
