Jamming with ‘SNL’ Veterans, Bar Games on ‘Barmageddon,’ Final Season of ‘His Dark Materials’
A special holiday edition of Jimmy Fallon’s That’s My Jam features two teams of Saturday Night Live alumni. The Voice’s Blake Shelton moonlights at his own Nashville bar in Barmageddon, playing games with fellow celebs. The HBO fantasy His Dark Materials returns for its final season.
That’s My Jam
The musical game show’s second season won’t premiere until March, but host Jimmy Fallon is back with fellow Saturday Night Live alumni for a special holiday edition. Fred Armisen and Ana Gasteyer team up against Rachel Dratch and Melissa Villaseñor to play Christmas-themed variations on Jam fan favorites like the charades-inspired Turn the Beat Around, Undercover Covers and Wheel of Impossible Karaoke.
Barmageddon
The Voice coach Blake Shelton opens up his Nashville watering hole Old Red for a series of wild celebrity bar games, with WWE’s Nikki Bella as host and Voice host Carson Daly (also an executive producer with Shelton) tending bar. In the opener, Shelton takes on fellow musician Kane Brown with games including Air Cannon Cornhole and Keg Curling. Shelton also performs regularly with his house band for rowdy sing-alongs.
His Dark Materials
The third and final season of the Philip Pullman-inspired fantasy adapts The Amber Spyglass, the concluding novel of his trilogy, with four weeks of back-to-back episodes. It opens with young Will (Amir Wilson) searching across worlds for the kidnapped Lyra (Dafne Keen), while Lord Asriel (James McAvoy) recruits soldiers for his looming war against Heaven’s almighty ruler the Authority.
NCIS
The NCIS team is on the case of a college student, killed while running across the street, who has a connection to McGee’s (Sean Murray) wife Delilah (Margo Harshman). On NCIS: Hawaii (10/9c), the tropical crew jumps into action after Commander Chase (Seana Kofoed) is taken from her home by an Army Ranger accused of murder.
TV Yule Log:
- Tiny Toony’s Christmas Carol (8/7c, MeTV): The nostalgia channel gives its weekday morning show Toon in With Me a prime-time spotlight, as host Bill Leff and fish puppet sidekick Toony the Tuna (Kevin Fleming) play out a variation on the Dickens classic with vintage cartoon shorts featuring Bugs Bunny, Popeye, Sylvester & Tweety and many more.
- TMZ’s Merry Elfin’ Christmas (8/7c, Fox): Celebs get in the gossipy holiday spirit in a TMZ takeover, with an eclectic guest list including Henry Winkler, Smokey Robinson, Giada De Laurentiis, Post Malone and Kenny G among those looking back at the year’s most sensational stories.
- Rebroadcasts include The CW’s 2021 The Waltons’ Homecoming revival, another showing of the great 1966 Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas on TNT (7:30/6:30c), followed by The Wizard of Oz at 8/7c and 10:15/9:15c.
Inside Monday TV:
- The Voice (8/7c, NBC): In the live semi-final, the Top 8 perform solos and Whitney Houston duets in hopes of reaching the finale.
- The Tetris Murders (9/8c, 10/9c, 11/10c, Investigation Discovery, streaming on discovery+): Airing over three consecutive episodes, a true-crime special revisits the 1998 murder of a Russian family in Sicilon Valley, with a co-developer of the video game Tetris among the victims. What at first appeared to be a murder-suicide leaves Palo Alto CSI Tech Sandra Brown dissatisfied, reopening the case nearly a quarter-century later.
- Celebrity IOU (9/8c, HGTV, streaming on discovery+): Kate Hudson (Glass Onion) knows how to get on the good side of her future mother-in-law. She works with Drew and Jonathan Scott to makeover the in-law’s backyard into a luxury oasis.
- The Good Doctor (10/9c, ABC): The docs have some explaining to do when approached by a patient who has an infected surgical sponge left in their abdomen. In another examining room, Morgan (Fiona Gubelmann) reflects on her own past trauma when treating a sexual assault victim.
- Deliciousness (10/9c, MTV): Host Tiffani Thiessen gathers fellow foodies Angela Kinsey, Kel Mitchell and Tim Chantarangsu for a new batch of epic-fail food videos, airing Mondays through December.