CBS, 2:00 p.m. ET
Last night, in the first of two exciting Elite Eight games, South No. 11 seed Loyola-Chicago continued its thrilling run through this year’s tournament, and, like West No. 3 seed Michigan, is headed to the Final Four. Tonight, CBS presents afternoon coverage of the two games whose victors also will be advancing — and these four remaining teams are all among this year’s top-ranked. At 2 p.m. ET, East No. 1 seed Villanova faces No. 3 seed Texas Tech. Then at 5 p.m. ET, also on CBS, the Midwest bracket plays out just as predicted, with No. 1 seed Kansas battling No. 2 seed Duke.
CBS, 7:00 p.m. ET
In its golden anniversary year, this veteran newsmagazine continues to strike gold, in terms of both ratings and news value. Tonight, the scheduled features include Anderson Cooper’s interview with Stormy Daniels, a.k.a. Stormy Waters, a.k.a. Stormy, a.k.a. Stephanie Clifford. Her revelations about her relationship with now-President Donald Trump, and the circumstances and particulars of their nondisclosure agreement, is a solid bet to become the most-viewed episode of 60 Minutes in years.
PBS, 8:00 p.m. ET
SEASON PREMIERE: After a substantial hiatus from PBS, the first two episodes of Season 7 are shown tonight back to back. Check local listings.
AMC, 9:00 p.m. ET
Last week’s episode, which found a way to have Rick and Negan chasing one another in an abandoned building, was the absurd low point of what once was a well-plotted series, and even, given its post-apocalyptic premise, fairly credible. Last week felt more like watching a Road Runner cartoon. And the battle continues this week, with even more heroes and adversaries joining the fray — and with Negan himself captured at gunpoint by the only survivor of one of his group’s grislier slaughters. As the Road Runner might say: Meep meep!
Showtime, 9:00 p.m. ET
This long-running series, on the other hand, just gets stronger each episode this season. And last week, Carrie and Saul finally shared the screen, as she had to go with him for help with a particularly thorny dilemma —which she was in because of setting up a completely unauthorized surveillance operation. At this point, motives of almost all the players remain murky. But the central plot, about the mysterious murder of an American general using a rare chemical agent, has so many echoes to recent headlines (about the former Russian spy killed on British soil) that it’s creepy. And compelling.
FX, 10:00 p.m. ET
SERIES PREMIERE: Based on the early episodes of this new series — which, like the movie
All the Money in the World, is a dramatization of the 1973 kidnapping of the grandson of John Paul Getty — there are two standout characters and performances. One is Donald Sutherland as eccentric oil billionaire Getty, and the other is Brendan Fraser as James Fletcher Chase, Getty’s all-around problem-fixer. (Imagine Fraser as a sort of cowboy
Ray Donovan, if Donovan actually enjoyed his job and life.) Director Danny Boyle helms the first three episodes, and they crackle with good fun, opulent visuals, and occasional surprises. As American crime stories go,
Trust is a lot more satisfying, at least initially, than the real
American Crime Story entry from FX,
The Assassination of Gianni Versace. For full reviews, see David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower and
Ed Bark's Uncle Barky's Bytes.
HBO, 10:00 p.m. ET
SEASON PREMIERE: This is Season 5 of this clever satire of America’s computer industry and social media culture — and with what’s happening in the real world with Facebook and elsewhere right now, this show’s target seems especially ripe.
Showtime, 10:00 p.m. ET
SEASON PREMIERE: The new season begins with this show’s formidable, unforgiving adversaries continuing to maneuver to find ways to hurt one another. The first episodes of this new season are solid ones — and put one character, played by Maggie Siff, not only squarely in the middle, but impressively in control.
HBO, 10:30 p.m. ET
SERIES PREMIERE: Assassins and hit men (or, to be politically correct, hit people) have proven fascinating when put in vehicles making room for dark comedy as well as drama. Cases in point:
Grosse Pointe Blank or any of the movie or TV incarnations of
Fargo. Starting tonight,
Saturday Night Live alumnus Bill Hader joins that trigger-happy club — where trigger-happy, I just realized, in this context has a tasty double meaning. He plays a killer for hire who pursues his next target to a Hollywood acting class, and finds a new direction there. Henry Winkler plays the veteran acting coach, and dives into the role with the same sort of genial gusto William Shatner brought to Denny Crane on
Boston Legal. For full reviews, see Ed Bark's Uncle Barky's Bytes and
David Hinckley's All Along the Watchower.
HBO, 11:00 p.m. ET
What will John Oliver have to say about yesterday’s global protest movement, especially the awesome and inspiring rally in Washington, D.C., at which the only speakers who weren’t teenagers were younger than teenagers? I don’t have any idea — but I presume it’ll be supportive and contextual, and I can’t wait to hear it.