Various Networks, 1:00 p.m. ET
Yesterday, one of the three wild card playoff games was a nail-biter to the end: the Indianapolis Colts-Buffalo Bills game, which the Bills emerged victoriously 27-24 after a long series of challenges and twists and turns. Today, once again, three games are played in a rare post-season tripleheader – but today, you may have to go farther afield to find the right field, or, at least, the right network. The day’s opening game at 1 p.m. ET, for example, between the 11-5 Baltimore Ravens and 11-5 Tennessee Titans, isn’t televised by one of the broadcast networks. Instead, you can watch it on ESPN, ESPN+, and, for some corporate synergy reason that escapes me, Freeform. At 4:30 p.m. ET, the game pitting the 12-4 New Orleans Saints against the 8-8 Chicago Bears is available on CBS – but, in another bit of sister-network sharing, also is available on Nickelodeon. The final game, though, is in a standard and familiar place and time: the contest between the 12-4 Pittsburgh Steelers and the 11-5 Cleveland Browns will be the prime time showcase game on NBC’s Sunday Night Football, which last season was the No. 1 series on all of television.
CBS, 8:00 p.m. ET
On Wednesday, Nancy Pelosi was one of the politicians targeted, and ushered to safety, when a mob egged on by President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol. Four days later, she’s a featured interview on 60 Minutes, discussing the deadly assault, and what she thinks should happen next to the still-current occupant of the White House, with Lesley Stahl. When Stahl last interviewed Trump for 60 Minutes, he abruptly and prematurely ended the interview and walked out. Pelosi, presumably, will stay seated longer than he. Just as she will politically.
Showtime, 8:00 p.m. ET
Tonight’s new episode is an expanded one-hour special, providing a behind-the-scenes and on-the-scene look at this week’s astounding political events in and around Washington, D.C. – the Georgia runoff election, the shift of power in the Senate, the storming of the Capitol by a destructive and deadly mob sent there at the urging of Donald Trump, and the subsequent calls for another Impeachment, or the invocation of the 25th Amendment, by Democrats and even some Republicans. The subtitle for The Circus this season is Inside the Craziest Political Show on Earth – but this week, the term “Craziest” doesn’t seem to apply. "Scariest," maybe…
Starz!, 8:00 p.m. ET
SEASON PREMIERE: Each season of this adaptation of the Neil Gaiman novel has had a different showrunner – and, basically, a different approach in tone. Season 3 begins tonight, and it, too, has different people in charge, led by new showrunner Charles H. Eglee. If that name’s not familiar, he has a long, impressive resume, starting as a writer on St. Elsewhere and Moonlighting, a long stint working with Steven Bochco on such shows as L.A. Law, NYPD Blue and Murder One, and subsequent turns on The Shield, Dexter and The Walking Dead. Oh, and the director for tonight’s Season 3 opener is another person that comes to American Gods with a peerless pedigree: Jon Amiel, who 35 years ago directed TV’s greatest dramatic masterpiece, The Singing Detective. Still returning to American Gods, from the show’s original cast, are Ricky Whittle as Shadow Moon, Emily Browning as Moon’s raised-from-the-dead wife, and, most crucially, Ian McShane (pictured) as the manipulative god Mr. Wednesday.
PBS, 9:00 p.m. ET
SERIES PREMIERE: James Herriot’s beloved books about the people and pets he met as a veterinarian in Yorkshire in the 1930s were adapted into a very successful miniseries once before, starring Christopher Timothy as Herriot, and co-starring Robert Hardy and Peter Davison. But that was back in 1978, several TV lifetimes ago (shortly after I started as a TV critic –
that long ago). Here comes a new version, which already has been renewed for a second season, and which stars newcomer Nicholas Ralph as Herriot, and co-stars Samuel West – with a supporting role (her last) from Diana Rigg, as Mrs. Pumphrey, owner of a pampered Pekingese.
Check local listings. For a full review, see
David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower, and get more info at
Mike Hughes' Open Mike.
HBO, 9:00 p.m. ET
DOCUMENTARY PREMIERE: Part 1 of 2. Scheduled to premiere last year but postponed, here comes another sports documentary, like ESPN’s
The Last Dance about the Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan, that shows up during the pandemic to remind us of the times when sports were played as thousands of fans gathered, closely huddled, to watch and cheer. This is a biography of Tiger Woods, so expect some stunning highs – and, away from the links, some noteworthy and unavoidable lows. For a full review, see
David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower.
Showtime, 9:00 p.m. ET
After a pair of very entertaining supporting-cast highlights packages, Shameless is back to business as usual. And tonight’s business is all about the feud that erupts after the Milkovichs move in next door – threatening the Gallagher family’s role as the standout scourge of the neighborhood.
Showtime, 10:00 p.m. ET
This series was intense from the very start, but now it’s getting insane. Last week, New Orleans judge Michael Desiato, played by Bryan Cranston, was being blackmailed by someone who claimed to have proof that the judge’s son was the true culprit in the fatal hit-and-run of the teen son of Jimmy Baxter, a powerful New Orleans mob boss. And as the judge was dealing with that, the mobster in question (played. By Michael Stuhlbarg, pictured) made the link between his son’s fatality and the judge’s after-the-fact complicity. And did I mention that the mobster’s daughter has met and befriended the judge’s teen son, without knowing that the young man had accidentally hit and killed her brother? The plot thickens…and thickens…