1) Football, 7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN and ESPN2. It’s the national championship game, with two frequent champs. In the past 95 years, Notre Dame has won the title 11 times, Ohio State (shown here) 8; only Alabama (14) and Southern Cal (9) compare. Each team had three playoff wins, two of them upsets, to get here.
2) Inauguration. Donald Trump will be sworn in at noon ET, then will give his speech. Earlier, there’s music (Carrie Underwood, Lee Greenwood) and talk; later, there’s a parade and more. Coverage plans include: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET on CBS; 10 to 4, NBC; 10:30 to 1, PBS; all day on news channels. ABC starts at 9 a.m. ET and recaps at 10 p.m. ET/PT.
3) “I Am MLK Jr.” (2018), 8 p.m., CW. Martin Luther King Jr. Day brings a movie surge. Linking to King are this documentary; plus “Selma” (2014), at 7:50 p.m. on Showtime; and “Boycott” (see below). Related to his issues are “The Butler” (2013), 6:45, Starz; “The Help” (2011), 7, FX; “Marshall” (2017), 8, HBO; and “John Lewis: Get in the Way,” 10, PBS.
4) More MLK Day films, Turner Classic Movies. A marathon starts with two moving portraits of Black youths in white, rural worlds – “The Learning Tree” (1969) and “Sounder” (1972), at 8 and 10 a.m. ET. There’s much more, including “Boycott” (2001), with Jeffrey Wright as King, at 10:15 p.m. and the brilliant “In the Heat of the Night” (1967) at 12:15 a.m.
5) ALSO: With so much going on elsewhere, many networks will stick with reruns. At 8 and 9 p.m., ABC has “Will Trent” … Fox has “9-1-1: Lone Star” and “Rescue Hi-Surf” … and CBS has “The Neighborhood,” “Poppa’s House” and “NCIS.” There are also two fairly good international dramas — the Canadian “Murdoch Mysteries” (see separate commentary) at 8 p.m. ET on Ovation with its 300th episode; and the Australian “Darby and Joan” on Acorn, setting up next week’s season-finale.