USA, 1:00 p.m. ET
NBC’s This Is Us was one of fall TV’s few successes for broadcast television, and today USA Network presents a marathon of all the episodes presented to date – a lengthy marathon that begins at 1 p.m. ET and runs through prime time.
Various Networks, 4:30 p.m. ET
For postseason NFL contests, this is the weekend for wild-card games, when the teams that have squeaked their way into the playoffs try to earn the chance to extend their seasons even more, by beating the teams with slightly better records or division positioning. Today at 4:30 p.m. ET on ESPN, in the first postseason game of 2017, the 12-4 Oakland Raiders visit the 9-7 Houston Texans (pictured). Then, at 8 p.m. ET on NBC, the 9-7 Detroit Lions visit the 10-5-1 Seattle Seahawks. The two other wild-card games are played tomorrow – one on CBS, the other on Fox.
HBO, 8:00 p.m. ET
Alexis Bloom and actor Fisher Stevens directed this dual biography of Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher, an exploration of their complicated, yet very loving, mother-daughter dynamic. This movie toured the festival circuit in 2016, and was picked up by HBO for an intended telecast this March – but after the sudden, almost simultaneous deaths of Fisher and then her mother, HBO has moved up this dual biography to tonight. Both actresses attained stardom as teenagers – Reynolds in
Singin’ in the Rain, Fisher in
Star Wars – and never looked back. For full reviews, see
David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower and
Ed Bark's Uncle Barky's Bytes.
TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET
Tonight TCM salutes the Bob Hope-Bing Crosby Road pictures – a delightful trip that begins at 8 p.m. ET with 1940’s The Road to Singapore, followed by 1941’s The Road to Zanzibar at 9:45 p.m. ET and 1942’s The Road to Morocco at 11:30 p.m. ET. All three films co-star Dorothy Lamour, and they’re followed, at 1 a.m. ET, by two quick editions of TCM’s Carson on TCM, showcasing vintage interview segments from NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson – one with Crosby, the other with Hope. Too bad their female co-star wasn’t also included. You know what they say: Lamour, la merrier…
BBC America, 10:00 p.m. ET
Tonight’s guests, in this delayed Christmas show, include Will Smith, Helen Mirren and Martin Freeman – who swap stories about being celebrities in public rest rooms. Only on The Graham Norton Show…