SUNDAY
MARCH 11
2018

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

ABC, 8:00 p.m. ET

SERIES PREMIERE: Two years after this Fox reality-TV musical competition juggernaut left the air, it’s back – on a new network, and, save for host Ryan Seacrest, with an all-new lineup. The hosts for this comeback lap, presented by ABC instead of Fox, are Katy Perry, Luke Bryan, and Lionel Richie. The question is, will viewers show up this time, even out of curiosity?

 
  
 
 

Fox, 8:00 p.m. ET

SPECIAL PREMIERE: Here’s an obvious bit of network street-fighting nastiness. On the same night and time that ABC tries to relaunch former Fox hit American Idol, Fox counters by presenting a special it’s been promoting heavily, and one for which the tune-in curiosity factor is at least as formidable. This special is built around a program that Fox had recorded, and scheduled to run, back in 2006, featuring O.J. Simpson being interviewed by publisher Judith Regan in a “hypothetical” conversation titled If I Did It.  Simpson’s ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ronald Goldman had been brutally murdered in 1994, with O.J. Simpson accused of the murders and tried. In 1995, he was found not guilty. And 11 years later, Fox planned to release a special, and Regan a Simpson book, asking the former football star to talk about what might have happened had he… well, you get it. And the outcry from the general public then, and from Goldman’s family (who didn’t want O.J. profiting in any way from the murders), was strong enough to scrap the project – a rare instance, those days, of the Fox network exhibiting good taste. Well, somehow, seemingly out of nowhere, here it comes again. That long-shelved footage has been repackaged as a new Fox special, hosted by Soledad O’Brien and overseen by producer Terry Wrong, whose resume up to this point, in such ABC documentaries as Boston 24/7, has been both impressive and free of controversy. Part of that streak, at least, just ended. But supposedly, since no proceeds from this special go to Simpson, the Goldman family has no problem with this unexpected peek into the mind of the man accused of killing Nicole.

 
  
 
 

Starz!, 8:00 p.m. ET

Last week, J.K. Simmons got a break as Nazanin Boniadi, as Claire and her doppelganger, filled the entire episode – and deepened the series even more as a result. Whatever happens tonight, we at least know one of the other characters a lot more. Two, actually, since Claire’s significant other now is more significant as well.

 
  
 
 

AMC, 9:00 p.m. ET

Last week’s episode presented individual segments focused on six different players from the Walking Dead universe. And even all that narrative catch-up, in the wake of Carl’s demise, doesn’t fully get us up to speed.  Expect more of the same tonight, as the overall story keep building towards a climax Carl was hoping to avoid: one more deadly showdown between Rick and Negan.

 
  
 
 

Showtime, 9:00 p.m. ET

Last week’s episode had Carrie (Claire Danes) caught for not taking her meds, and had Saul (Many Patinkin) caught in the middle of a violent shootout at the cult compound. But tonight, the plot also revolves around the escalation and dissemination of fake news – as embodied by an inflammatorily captioned and misleading photograph.

 
  
 
 

NBC, 10:00 p.m. ET

SEASON PREMIERE: This show wasn’t supposed to have a Season 2. It was canceled by NBC, then quickly reinstated – and after that smart reconsideration, returns tonight, with new time-travel episodes heading the team directly into the paths of Hedy Lamarr, Robert Johnson, Ronald Reagan and others.

 
  
 
 

HBO, 11:00 p.m. ET

The smartest of all the topical comedy shows presents another fresh episode tonight. That’s all I need to know to tune in – and after each week of wallowing in the latest news, I need to tune in.

 
  
 
 
 
 
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David Bianculli

Founder / Editor

David Bianculli has been a TV critic since 1975, including a 14-year stint at the New York Daily News, and sees no reason to stop now. Currently, he's TV critic for NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, and is an occasional substitute host for that show. He's also an author and teaches TV and film history at New Jersey's Rowan University. His 2009 Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour', has been purchased for film rights. His latest, The Platinum Age of Television: From I Love Lucy to the Walking Dead, How TV Became Terrific, is an effusive guidebook that plots the path from the 1950s’ Golden Age to today’s era of quality TV.