CBS, 8:00 p.m. ET
Earlier this week, A Charlie Brown Christmas celebrated its 50th anniversary. Well, tonight on CBS, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, with that Burl Ives song leading the way, is celebrating its 51st. Take that, Charlie Brown!
CW, 8:00 p.m. ET
Part 1 of 2. It’s another crossover adventure, with a story beginning tonight on The Flash that isn’t concluded until tomorrow’s new installment of Arrow. There was a crossover story last season as well, but this one’s especially complicated, also serving as the back-door pilot for a midseason spinoff, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, premiering in January. This is where Hawkman tells Kendra that she’s a reincarnated soul, destined to be his lover and fellow superhero Hawkgirl, another stuff I don’t know about because, as a kid, I read Marvel Comics, not DC.
Fox, 8:30 p.m. ET
I’ve just previewed the new batch of midseason comedies, and have come to one inescapable conclusion: The Grinder is by far the funniest of this year’s broadcast network sitcoms. And overall, it’s one of the funniest too, on a par with Aziz Ansari’s new Netflix comedy, Master of None. In tonight’s episode, Timothy Olyphant continues his guest appearance as a rival TV hunk.
Fox, 9:00 p.m. ET
Let other shows devote themselves to presenting special Thanksgiving episodes. This show, with all its snooty sorority girls, focuses instead on the retail aftermath, and a different “holiday” entirely: Black Friday.
ABC Family, 9:00 p.m. ET
Ron Howard directs this 2000 live-action version of the Dr. Seuss villain, starring Jim Carrey in a Christmas fable proving that, even for the holiday-hating Grinch, it’s not easy being green.