SUNDAY
JANUARY 15
2017

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

NBC, 8:20 p.m. ET

Today, in the first of two Sunday divisional playoff games, it’s the AFC contest, with the Pittsburgh Steelers visiting the Kansas City Chiefs. When Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger faced the Chiefs earlier this season, the Steelers won by a brutal 43-14 spread.

 
  
 
 

Fox, 4:30 p.m. ET

The weekend’s final divisional game pits the NFL’s Green Bay Packers against the Dallas Cowboys, who have home-field advantage. But the Packers have QB Aaron Rodgers, who basically is the league’s hottest player right now, peaking at the exact right time.

 
  
 
 

PBS, 7:00 p.m. ET

SEASON FINALE: If it seems as though this new season of Sherlock just started, that’s because it did. Two weeks ago, Season 4 premiered. Tonight, with the episode The Final Problem, the series Sherlock on Masterpiece presents its season finale, with an episode focusing, fittingly, on the long and potentially deadly rivalry between Holmes and Moriarty. Benedict Cumberbatch stars. Check local listings.

 
  
 
 

CBS, 7:00 p.m. ET

60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft has interviewed Barack Obama one-on-one more than any other TV journalist. Tonight, the two of them engage in a recently recorded final, 11th-hour debriefing.

 
  
 
 

Fox, 8:00 p.m. ET

The Simpsons has been presenting TV episodes since 1989, and even mounted a full-length movie a decade ago – but tonight’s installment, “The Great Phatsby,” is the first one-hour episode in its amazingly long and impressive history. It’s about a long-time rival of Mr. Burns, a successful rapper named “Jay-G.” And the Great Gatsby references go on from there – as do the references to Empire, a fellow Fox TV hit. Taraji P. Henson, who plays the outrageously flamboyant Cookie on Empire, steals the show here, too, as the hip-hop mogul’s ex-wife, here called Praline. Other stars lending their vocal talents to this episode include Keegan-Michael Key, Snoop Dogg, Common, and RZA.

 
  
 
 

PBS, 9:00 p.m. ET

SERIES PREMIERE: Jenna Coleman, who impressed me very much when she played the companion on Doctor Who from 2012 to 2015, gets a role here that befits the talent she displayed on that long-running cult series. Here, she plays Queen Victoria, starting from the day the teenager became queen of England in 1837. This first season follows her first three years as Queen – and even if you don’t think of this as an unofficial companion series to Netflix’s The Crown, about Queen Elizabeth II, it’s something you should seek out and watch. Check local listings. For a full review and additional insight into Victoria, the monarch, see David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower.

 
  
 
 

Showtime, 9:00 p.m. ET

SEASON PREMIERE: For this new season, Carrie (Claire Danes) comes to New York, as does the series – for a prescient new season in which there’s an incoming U.S. president with a strong distrust of the intelligence community. The only thing the writers of this show got wrong: The new POTUS is a woman. New York, New York, it’s a wonderful town. The Bronx is up, and Carrie is down… For a full review, see Ed Bark's Uncle Barky's Bytes and information on what to expect from the new season at David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower.

 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.