Barry Manilow Sings Christmas Hits, ‘Big Brother’ Alums Play ‘Reindeer Games,’ the Rise of U.S. Soccer, Double Dose of NFL
At 80, Barry Manilow can still bring down the house, performing Christmas classics and his own hits in a music special. Big Brother veterans reenter the infamous house for two weeks of holiday competition. A docuseries charts the evolution of soccer in the U.S., while Monday Night Football offers concurrent games on ABC and ESPN. A curated critical checklist of notable Monday TV.
Barry Manilow’s A Very Barry Christmas
Special
How Barry is Barry Manilow’s merry Christmas musical special? He’s the only performer on stage at Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino, home of his hit residency. At 80, with a new Broadway musical (Harmony) on his resumé, Manilow performs holiday classics—“Jingle Bells,” “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” “White Christmas” and a fun “Cornball Christmas Medley” as well as hits from his iconic catalog including “Mandy,” “I Write the Songs” and “Copacabana.” No greater gift for Manilow’s many fans.
Big Brother Reindeer Games
Some people go home for the holidays, others opt to spend the month in the Big Brother house. Nine former players, including five previous winners (Cody Calafiore, Nicole Franzel, Taylor Hale, Josh Martinez, Xavier Prather) and several Favorite Players (Britney Haynes, Cameron Hardin, Hale again), head back into the house for a holiday-themed competition featuring all-new rules, with the ultimate winner taking away a $100,000 grand prize. The six-episode run airs Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, with the finale on Dec. 21.
The Billion Dollar Goal
Documentary Premiere
A three-part docuseries charts the evolution of soccer in the U.S., which initially was slow to embrace the global sport known elsewhere as “football.” The series features the late sports journalist and supervising producer Grant Wahl, who passed away last December, leaving behind a 150-minute interview with CBS Sports’ Pete Radovich that provides the narrative spine for the series’ account of how the “beautiful game” grew into its current phenom status. Speaking of football, Monday Night Football features a twin bill, with Tennessee Titans at Miami Dolphins on ESPN and Green Bay Packers at New York Giants (both kicking off at 8:15 pm/ET).
INSIDE MONDAY TV:
- MasterChef Junior: Home for the Holidays (8/7c, Fox): In the two-hour finale, the top four remaining junior chefs receive mystery boxes from the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Future and Present, with an appearance by guest judge Joe Bastianich as “Joe-benezer Scrooge.” Former MasterChef winner Dara Yu guests as a mentor for the final round.
- The Voice (8/7c, NBC): The top 9 singers perform solos and in trios as America votes on who’ll advance to the Live Finale.
- The Price Is Right at Night (8/7c, CBS): Rescheduled from Friday to make way for a Norman Lear tribute, the game show welcomes an audience of college students home for the holidays, dressed in their school’s trademark gear.
- 30 Coins (10/9c, HBO): In the Spanish horror series’ Season 2 finale, heroes in Spain and Peru work to defeat Barbrow (Paul Giamatti) and his supercomputer before he can unleash the end of the world.
- How to Have an American Baby (10/9c, PBS): A POV documentary goes inside the Chinese birth-tourism industry, in which Chinese women travel to the U.S. to give birth so their babies will be born as American citizens.
