People’s Choice Awards, ‘Late Show’ to Greenland, ‘Monarch’ Finale, ‘Winchester’ Daddy Issues
Saturday Night Live’s Kenan Thompson hosts the People’s Choice Awards on NBC and E! A special edition of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert heads to Greenland with the USO. Fox’s country-music soap Monarch airs its twisty season finale. The Winchesters brings demon hunters Mary and John in contact with their fathers, living and dead.
People’s Choice Awards
You the viewers voted for these nominees and winners in the worlds of TV, movies, music, social media and podcasts. Saturday Night Live’s Kenan Thompson returns to host for a second time, with special awards going to Ryan Reynolds (The People’s Icon), Lizzo (The People’s Champion), and Shania Twain (Music Icon). The nominees for “The Show of 2022” include Abbott Elementary (my personal pick for show of the year), Better Call Saul, Grey’s Anatomy, House of the Dragon, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Saturday Night Live, Stranger Things, and This Is Us.
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert
In segments filmed this summer, Stephen Colbert takes The Late Show to Greenland for a special episode, “The Late Show Presents … Red, White & Greenland! Stephen Cold-Bear Is Lost in Space Force,” featuring the host’s USO tour to Thule Air Base to visit Space Force Guardians at the northernmost installation of the U.S. Armed Forces. Among the highlights: a sit-down with Roger A. Towberman, Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force, a nuclear missile attack simulation and a karaoke night featuring Navy veteran and musician Sturgill Simpson.
Monarch
Dark secrets are revealed, and family ties strained to the breaking point, in the eventful season (series?) finale of the country-music soap, where Albie Roman (Trace Adkins) tries to keep his squabbling offspring united while staging a farewell concert in less than 24 hours. (This show has a more tenuous grasp on reality than most of its genre.) There are quite a few reversals along the way, including an ill-timed childbirth, a messy merger roadblock, a father-son showdown, and sibling rivalry among sisters that reaches a peak during a performance of Kelly Clarkson’s “Stronger”—revealing that what doesn’t kill you doesn’t necessarily make you smarter.
The Winchesters
In what promises to be an emotion-charged midseason finale for the Supernatural prequel, the demon hunters’ search for the arachnoid alien Akrida leads Mary Campbell (Meg Donnelly) to her long-missing monster-slaying dad Samuel (Tom Welling, who can also be seen in The CW’s Professionals import at 9/8c). There’s another fatherly surprise awaiting her novice hunter love interest John Winchester (Drake Rodger), when his late father Henry (Gil McKinney) makes an appearance. (The series returns for its remaining six episodes on Jan. 24.)
Inside Tuesday TV:
- Jimmy V Classic (7 pm/ET, 9:30 pm/ET, ESPN): Illinois plays Texas, and Iowa goes up against Duke in the annual charity event at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
- Celebrity Wheel of Fortune (8/7c, ABC): A special holiday-themed episode kicks off a night of game shows, starting with Sasheer Zamata, Jack Black, and Kal Penn spinning the wheel for charity, followed by a holiday episode of Press Your Luck (9/8c) and a comic-driven episode of The $100,000 Pyramid (10/9c) featuring Jason Alexander vs. Bobby Moynihan and Rosie O’Donnell vs. Pete Holmes.
- Chopped (8/7c, Food Network): A special holiday episode finds four grandmothers cooking up a storm, including a classic seasonal beverage in the entrée basket.
- The Resident (8/7c): Conrad (Matt Czuchry) encounters his late wife Nic’s dad, Kyle (Corbin Bernsen), for the first time in five years when the in-law shows up at Chastain with a perilously low heart rate. What better time to make the acquaintance of his granddaughter, Gigi (Remington Blaire Evans).
- Bering Sea Gold (8/7c, Discovery): Dredging up a classic rivalry, a new season of the Alaska-set reality series sets up a showdown between Shawn “Mr. Gold” Pomrenke and Reaper Nation captain Kris Kelly.
- Unveiled: Surviving La Luz del Mundo (9/8c, HBO): A three-episode docuseries (concluding Wednesday at 10/9c) gives voice to survivors of abuse within the Mexico-based church La Luz del Mundo, whose family of leaders (called “apostles”) are accused of systemic child abuse and grooming, leading to the 2019 arrest and subsequent trial of current “Apostle” Naasón Joaquín Garcia.
- Frontline (10/9c, PBS): Two timely documentary shorts include Crime Scene: Bucha, a visual investigation into the atrocities committed in the Ukrainian town during Russian occupation, and After Zero Tolerance, profiling a Honduran family trying to reunite after being separated at the U.S.-Mexico border by the previous administration’s immigration policy.
- American Greed (10/9c, CNBC): It was only a matter of time before the true-crime series got to the twisted saga of disgraced South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh, accused of embezzlement and the murders of his wife and son. The report continues next Tuesday.
- Paul Goes to Hollywood (10/9c, Cooking Channel): Celebrity chef and frequent judge Paul Hollywood lives up to his moniker by embarking on a 3,000-mile road trip through the USA, visiting sites made famous in the movies. First stop: New York, where he bakes a ricotta cheesecake with Succession’s Brian Cox.
On the Stream:
- The Checkup with Dr. David Agus (streaming on Paramount+): In a six-part series, celebrities sit with the cancer specialist and CBS News medical contributor to discuss health issues impacting their lives, including Ashton Kutcher and twin brother Michael, Oprah Winfrey and Maria Shriver confronting menopause, Howie Mandel opening up about his obsessive-compulsive disorder, Amy Schumer on her depression and reproductive health struggles, Nick Cannon on the loss of his son and his own lupus diagnosis, and Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin sharing secrets of longevity. Also new to the streamer: the concert documentary special Liam Gallagher: Knebworth 22, following the Oasis frontman on his return to the Knebworth Park Hertfordshire 26 years after the band’s epic 1996 shows. The full concert is also streaming.
- Who Killed Jenni Rivera? (streaming on Peacock): A three-part true-crime docuseries investigates the death of the Latin superstar in a 2012 plane crash in Mexico whose causes are still undetermined.
- Sebastian Maniscalco: Is It Me? (streaming on Netflix): In his fourth comedy special for the streamer, the Chicago native adopts a Rat Pack swagger as he plays Las Vegas. Also on Netflix: the animated family special The Boss Baby: Christmas Bonus, in which the babe’s (JP Karliak) first Christmas becomes complicated when he’s mistaken for an elf and sent to the North Pole.