Various Networks, 3:00 p.m. ET
In college basketball, they would refer to today’s pair of games as the Final Four: Two contests, with the victors of each game advancing to the national championship. Only in pro football, the championship game is the Super Bowl. The NFC Championship Game is played first – at 3 p.m. on Fox, with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers facing the Green Bay Packers. Then, at 6:30 p.m. on CBS, the AFC Championship Game follows with the Buffalo Bills vs. the Kansas City Chiefs. And in both games, there’s a duel between marquee quarterbacks: the 13-5 Bucs are led by former New England Patriots QB Tom Brady, the 14-3 Packers by Aaron Rodgers (pictured). And over at the AFC, Josh Allen leads the 15-3 Bills against Patrick Mahomes and the 15-2 Chiefs.
Showtime, 8:00 p.m. ET
The year 2021 has been a roller-coaster already, but for The Circus, it’s been one triumph after another. Being behind the scenes to cover politics may be dull in some years, and maybe we’ll be fortunate enough to feel that again someday – but for right now, the tumult in Washington, D.C. has been captured up close and personal by the correspondents of this as-it-happens political documentary series. This week, the inauguration, the transfer of presidential power, and what happens next…
PBS, 8:00 p.m. ET
Last week’s premiere episode set up this new series with a lot of vintage TV touchstones. The episode began with Linda Shelby’s Eliza Scarlet introduced as a sort of Victorian Honey West, and ended with her being visited and advised by the ghost of her late father, as in the Canadian Mountie hero of Due South. And now we know not only her character, but a few others – so with her private eye agency opened, using her father’s name for acceptability, let’s see what kind of cases she deals with. Check local listings.
Showtime, 9:00 p.m. ET
This week, yet another highlights package of sorts – but this one divides its time among three of the smaller Gallagher offspring. The episode subtitle says it all: “Debbie, Carl and Liam.” And what the first two characters have gone through, since this Americanized version of Shameless began almost a dozen years ago, is amazing. Watch this “remember-when” hour, and see…