PBS, 8:00 p.m. ET
Part 1 of 3. Please, please, please watch this. Sir David Attenborough is an endangered species himself – the best natural-history TV host on the planet – and in this three-part series, he looks over his 60-year-plus career (!!!), flipping pages in his video scrapbook, showing nothing but charming or jaw-dropping or thought-provoking highlights along the way. Tonight’s opener, Life on Camera, shows how technical innovations along the years helped Attenborough and his crews get amazing, unprecedented shots of animals in the wild, all over the planet. This series is as beautiful, and inspiring, as nature itself. Collect all three. Trade with friends. Check local listings.
Fox, 8:00 p.m. ET
Ratings are down, substantially, for this series for the second year in a row, as its game of musical judges’ chairs does nothing to stop the bleeding. But the 2013 version does offer two small pleasures. One is that new judges Nicky Minaj and Mariah Carey clearly get on each other’s nerves – it’s no ratings-hungry act, more of an oil-and-vinegar attention-hungry mini-competition. What I enjoy most this year, though, is watching all the Carey-obsessed fans who audition by singing a dozen notes where one would have done just nicely, a modern malady foisted upon the modern generation by the diva herself. She has to sit there and listen, a truly fitting punishment. It’s an ill wind that has blown across the pop culture landscape for decades – and they call the wind Mariah.
PBS, 9:00 p.m. ET
This week’s new
Nova looks at the growth, use and occasional misuse of drone aircraft. There are some stunning and sobering images included here – and some statistics to match. For a full review, see Ed Bark’s
Uncle Barky’s Bytes. Check local listings.
Showtime, 9:00 p.m. ET
Last Sunday, there were only two postseason football games. Up ahead, only the Super Bowl. On this particular installment, the features are longer, the highlights deeper, the insights even better. As a prelude to the Super Bowl, and an explanation of how the San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Ravens fought their way there, this is a must-see for sports fans.
FX, 10:00 p.m. ET
SEASON FINALE: We know now, this year, what we didn’t know last year when American Horror Story presented its season finale: the story ends here, so no character is safe. Who’s going to survive to the end of this year’s Asylum story line? There’s no telling – and the way characters have been dropping the past few episodes, there aren’t that many left anyway. Tune in, strap in, and expect a bumpy ride – into the future, reportedly.