‘SNL’s Wild and Crazy Guys, ‘White Lotus’ and ‘Let the Right One In’ Finales, TCM Remembers Ray Liotta

Saturday Night Live

SATURDAY: This ought to be memorable. Steve Martin and Martin Short, the Only Murders in the Building tag team, return to familiar turf as co-hosts of the late-night institution. And if they only reprised the greatest hits from their many past appearances—Short as a cast regular, Martin as a 15-time guest host—that alone could fill 90 minutes very happily. Worth watching just to see what tricks these veteran clowns have in store for us. Brandi Carlile takes her second turn as musical guest.

The White Lotus

SUNDAY: The buzz is intense in anticipation of the Season 2 finale of Mike White’s hell-in-paradise drama. We knew from the beginning that there will be multiple bodies floating in Sicily’s Mediterranean surf, but whose are they? Among the key storylines waiting to be resolved include Ethan’s (Will Sharpe) escalating jealousy, Tanya’s (Jennifer Coolidge) debauched Palermo retreat with the sinister Quentin (Tom Hollander)—now known to have a connection to her absent husband Greg (Jon Gries)—her assistant Portia’s (Haley Lu Richardson) realization that she and her neurotic employer may be in danger, and the Di Grasso’s men tangled connection to local sex worker Lucia (Simona Tabasco). There’s an awful lot of juicy storytelling on the plate for a supersized 80-minute finale.

Let the Right One In

SUNDAY: Life, and eternal life, will never be the same after the events of the supernatural thriller’s first-season finale, with Mark (Demían Bichir) and his eternally teenage vampire daughter Eleanor (Madison Taylor Baez) wondering how far they can trust Claire (Grace Gummer), the scientist who may hold the key to a cure. Speaking of trust, Mark’s detective neighbor Naomi (Anika Noni Rose) is having some serious suspicions about Mark, leading to a fateful showdown that will leave fans begging for a second season.

Dominick and Eugene

SATURDAY: TCM pays tribute to the late Ray Liotta with a double-feature screening of two films from his early career that put him on the map as a character actor to watch. Dominick and Eugene from 1988 reveals Liotta’s sensitive side as a med student in Pittsburgh who cares for his intellectually impaired twin brother (Tom Hulce). Followed by his breakout role in Jonathan Demme’s 1986 hit Something Wild (10/9c), as an ex-con bringing violent trouble into the lives of Melanie Griffith and Jeff Daniels.

The Yule Log: 

• Kirk Franklin’s The Night Before Christmas (Saturday, 8/7c, Lifetime): Raise the roof for this music-laden movie about a mother and daughter (Naturi Naughton and Lorea Turner) who take shelter in a church during a blizzard, reconciling with the help of a youth pastor (Luke James) and music teacher (Kirk Franklin). Also on Lifetime: Single and Ready to Jingle (Sunday, 8/7c), about a toy company exec (Natasha Wilson) who seeks escape from the holidays and ends up in a town that’s all about Christmas.
• A Christmas Fumble (Saturday, 9/8c, OWN): A crisis manager (Eva Marcille) is assigned to handle a scandal involving a former football star-turned-commentator (Devale Ellis), neglecting to tell her bosses that they were once a couple.
• Christmas Class Reunion (Saturday, 8/7c, Hallmark Channel): Friday Night Lights’ Aimee Teegarden and The Bold and the Beautiful’s Tanner Novlan are among the high-school classmates who assess their pasts and futures at a 15-year reunion. Also on Hallmark: The Holiday Sitter (Sunday, 8/7c), starring Jonathan Bennett as a workaholic “bachelor” who’s so overwhelmed by babysitting his niece and nephew over the holidays that he turns to a handsome neighbor (George Krissa) for support, and romance.
• The Gift of Peace (Saturday, 10/9, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries): A widow (Nikki Deloach) joins a support group to get through her second holiday season without her soulmate.
• A Royal Christmas Match (Saturday, 7/6c, UPtv): A princess (Jordana Largy) participates in a college exchange program, falling for a professor (Matthew MacCaull) before learning he was hired by the king to look after her. Also on UPtv: Santa’s Got Style (Sunday, 7/6c): about a department store exec (Kathryn Davis) looking to hire a fashionable young Santa, prompting her BFF (Franco Lo Presti) to don the disguise and win her favor.
• Crown Prince of Christmas (Sunday, 8/7c, Great American Family): Cindy Busby tells her family she’s dating a prince and asks her co-worker (Jilon VanOver) to impersonate the faux royal. Little does she know…
• White House Christmas 2022 (Sunday, 6/5c, HGTV): First Lady Dr. Jill Biden leads Jonathan Scott and Zooey Deschanel on a tour of the White House decorations with a “We the People” theme.
• National Christmas Tree Lighting: Celebrating 100 Years (Sunday, 8/7c, CBS): LL Cool J hosts the annual lighting of the National Christmas Tree on D.C.’s Ellipse for the centennial ceremony, with the Bidens in attendance and performances by Gloria, Sasha and Emily Estefan, Yolanda Adams, Ariana DeBose, Andy Grammer, Joss Stone and Shania Twain.
• Must Love Christmas (Sunday, 9/8c, CBS): The Equalizer’s Liza Lapira is a romance novelist caught in her own love triangle between her childhood crush (Nathan Witte) and a reporter (Neal Bledsoe) desperate for an interview that could help keep his struggling magazine afloat.
• A Prince and Pauper Christmas (Sunday, 8/7c, ION): A genre mash-up stars Brittany Underwood as a federal agent who hires a lookalike (Jonathan Stoddard) to stand-in for her missing confidential informant, unaware he’s an incognito European prince on a Christmas visit.

Inside Weekend TV:

• Cheers Weekend Binge (Saturday, starts at noon/ET, Decades): In memory of Kirstie Alley, the nostalgic channel presents 84 consecutive episodes of the hit comedy, representing seasons 6-11, through Monday at 6 am/ET.
• True Crime Watch: CBS’s 48 Hours (Saturday, 10/9c) tells of “The Tree That Helped Solve a Murder,” when Joseph Elledge reported the disappearance of his wife, Mengqi Ji, in 2019, only to have his muddy boots connect him to the crime scene when her body is later found buried under a juniper tree. Oxygen devotes three hours over two nights to Serial Killer Capital: Baton Rouge (Saturday and Sunday, 9/8c), following a spree of murders between 1992 and 2004 claiming 36 women as victims, which turn out to have been unrelated and overlapping cases, suggesting multiple serial killers.
• Remember the Blue & Yellow (Sunday, 5:30 pm/ET, ESPN): A special edition of E60 profiles Ukraine’s Men’s National Soccer Team and its attempts to stay in the game while a war rages at home.
• Avatar (Sunday, 7/6c, ABC): In advance of the sequel’s release later this week, James Cameron’s elaborate 2009 fantasy gets its broadcast TV debut. (FX airs it on Thursday and next Sunday, with Freeform planning a Dec. 26 showing.)
• 60 Minutes (Sunday, 7/6c, CBS): Norah O’Donnell interviews treasury secretary Janet Yellen, just in time to watch her name be added to U.S. dollars. In another segment, Jon Wertheim—who’s angling to be this generation’s Morley Safer—visits the College of Magic in Cape Town, South Africa.
• Dirty Jobs (Sunday, 8/7c, Discovery): Mike Rowe is back for a 10th season of messy work, first in West Palm Beach, Florida, to try his luck as a pool liner fixer, cleaning 17 years of filth from a dirty pool, then heading to Orlando as a hotel soap recycler.
• Bob’s Burgers (Sunday, 9/8c, Fox): The beloved animated comedy’s holiday episode finds Bob and Linda (H. Jon Benjamin and John Roberts) in a bind, trying to attend all three of their kids’ simultaneous seasonal events: Louise’s (Kristen Schaal) poetry reading, Gene’s (Eugene Mirman) all-xylophone sixth-grade spectacular and Tina’s (Dan Mintz) holiday play with the Thundergirls.
• Master of Glass: The Art of Dale Chihuly (Sunday, 9/8c, Smithsonian Channel): Get to know the man behind magical glass sculptures that have graced the canals of Venice, the ceiling of the Bellagio in Las Vegas and numerous museums and galleries around the world.