NFL Championships, Big Cat Week, Talking About Cosby, ‘Undeniable’ Holocaust Remembrance
Can Sunday’s AFC and NFC championship games match the drama of last week’s playoffs? Nat Geo WILD launches its 11th Big Cat Week with an eye toward conservation. A Showtime docuseries grapples with a comedian’s troubled legacy in We Need to Talk About Cosby. Holocaust survivors tell their stories in a prime-time CBS special.
NFL Playoffs
SUNDAY: The road to the Super Bowl continues on Sunday with highly anticipated AFC and NFC championship games. Could either matchup even come close to the heart-stopping drama of last weekend’s blockbuster playoff games? We’ll find out when the Cincinnati Bengals (my hometown favorite) face the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship (Sunday, 3 pm/ET, CBS), followed by the San Francisco 49ers taking on the L.A. Rams in the NFC Championship (6:30 pm/ET, Fox).
Russia’s Wild Tiger
Documentary Premiere
SUNDAY: Filmed over two years in remote tiger sanctuaries, this documentary about the endangered Amur tiger is the opening-night centerpiece for the 11th annual Big Cat Week, a programming initiative to raise awareness of conservation efforts for these diverse species. Also on Sunday: a repeat of Betty White Goes Wild! (8/7c), which follows the beloved late comedian as she visits big cats in the L.A. and San Diego zoos; The Way of the Cheetah (10/9c) and Tree Climbing Lions (11/10c).
We Need to Talk About Cosby
Series Premiere
SUNDAY: Like so many, comedian W. Kamau Bell grew up idolizing Bill Cosby, who was idealized as “America’s dad” after The Cosby Show topped the ratings for years. Bell’s provocative four-part docuseries confronts Cosby’s troubling legacy following his disgrace and downfall after multiple charges (and a conviction, since overturned) of sexual assault and rape. With archival footage and clips from his influential comedy routines, Cosby’s rise is contrasted with his fall, as Bell talks with fellow comedians and cultural commentators about their conflicted feelings towards this tarnished icon. The series also includes interviews with journalists and several of his accusers.
Undeniable: The Truth to Remember
Special
SATURDAY: Following Thursday’s International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Julianna Margulies hosts a timely special in which five Holocaust survivors tell their harrowing stories to students in a Houston high school, opening their minds to one of history’s harshest truths. The special also profiles Lily Ebert, a 97-year-old Holocaust survivor who went viral on TikTok with her great-grandson.
Inside Weekend TV:
- The Great Chocolate Showdown (Saturday, 8/7c, The CW): A tasty new food competition pits 10 home bakers in challenges that test their technique and creativity, which in the opener involves a reimagining of the classic s’mores.
- Saturday Night Live (Saturday, 11:30/10:30c, 8:30/PT, NBC): He jokingly tried to crash Will Forte’s monologue last week, but now Willem Dafoe (Spider-Man: No Way Home) takes the stage for real as a first-time guest host. Katy Perry returns for her fourth gig as musical guest.
- 1883 (Sunday, streaming on Paramount+): After a one-week hiatus, the Western drama returns with more obstacles for the wagon train, including another treacherous river crossing that takes the pioneers into Indian territory.
- Love Off the Grid (Sunday, streaming on discovery+): From 90 Day Fiancé’s producers comes a new relationship series in which four romantics try to make it work with soulmates who exist outside of what we think of as modern civilization: no electricity or running water, and you have to forage for what you eat.
- 60 Minutes (Sunday, 7/6c, CBS): Replaying some of its best recent reports about music and wildlife in back-to-back hours of repeats, the newsmagazine revisits its remarkable story on Tony Bennett, who at 95 emerges from an Alzheimer’s fog to be able to perform a final farewell concert with Lady Gaga.
- Claws (9/8c, TNT): In the penultimate chapter of the bawdy crime melodrama, Desna (Niecy Nash) and rival Uncle Daddy (Dean Norris) find themselves in a climactic deadly standoff after she tries to frame him for Tony’s murder.
- The Walking Dead: Origins (9/8c, AMC): Jeffrey Dean Morgan walks fans through the history of Negan, the series’ greatest villain.
- Traffic Stop: Dangerous Encounters (Sunday, 9/8c, CNN): In a special report, correspondent Sara Sidner sheds light on the trauma many Black drivers experience during routine traffic stops that too often have escalated into needless fatalities. The special also provides updates on cities instituting police reforms amid pushback from police unions.
