NBC, 4:30 p.m. ET
In the first postseason pro football game of 2013, the 10-6 Bengals visit the 12-4 Texans. They’re teams experiencing two very different types of momentum: the Bengals have won all but one of their last eight games, while the Texans have lost all but one of their last four.
NBC, 8:00 p.m. ET
In the second half of today’s NBC postseason doubleheader, the 10-6 Vikings visit the 1105 Packers. The Packers have hot QB Aaron Rodgers, and the Vikings have hot running back Adrian Peterson, who averaged more than 200 yards a game in two games this season against the Packers.
ABC, 8:00 p.m. ET
Starting with the Season 2 premiere, ABC fills its prime time hours tonight with three repeat episodes of Once Upon a Time – including the one which guest stars Jorge Garcia (Hurley from Lost) as the Giant encountered by Emma (Jennifer Morrison) when she and Captain Hook (Colin O’Donoghue) climb that beanstalk.
TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET
This 1944 Howard Hawks movie is the one where Humphrey Bogart met Lauren Bacall for the first time. It was her first movie, she was 19, and Bogart was 25 years older and married – but they sparked an incendiary and long-lasting romance, which managed to avoid both scandal and any negative associations. Maybe it’s because, even on screen, they seemed so clearly meant for one another.
NBC, 11:29 p.m. ET
This rerun from last fall features guest host Louis C.K., whose most inspired bit is well worth a second look. It’s his filmed parody of his own Louie FX comedy series, but with him playing Abraham Lincoln, standup comic and apprehensive President. The theme song only had to be tweaked slightly to be hilariously appropriate (“Lincoln, Lincoln, you’re gonna die”), and Lincoln’s standup musings about his own possible assassination are brilliant. Sympathizing with the detective who would have to list the possible suspects, Louie as Lincoln muses, “Let’s see, who might have done it? Oh, I don’t know – everybody from the middle of the country down?”