Farewell to ‘Magnum,’ Fox’s ‘Family’ Affair, TCM Marks Columbia’s 100th

Series Finale

9/8c

You probably know that “Aloha” serves as both a greeting and a farewell—and much to the dismay of the Magnum remake’s fans, it’s the latter that applies to the Hawaii-set action procedural with back-to-back episodes representing the series finale after five seasons (four on CBS, the fifth and final on NBC). In the first episode, T.C.’s (Stephen Hill) firefighter girlfriend Mahina (Emily Alabi) brings Magnum (Jay Hernandez) and Higgins (Perdita Weeks) an arson case that reveals a greater scheme afoot. But the meat of the drama involves Kumu (Amy Hill) volunteering with Rick (Zachary Knighton) at a veterans’ help line and taking a particularly emotional call. In the finale, Higgins makes a discovery that has her questioning her emotional commitment to Magnum, leaving fans with hope for the couple’s future, even if we’re not around to witness it.

Series Premiere

9/8c

Making you pine for the nail-biting suspense (kidding) of his mediocre To Tell the Truth reboot, Anthony Anderson brings his Mama Doris along for some necessary comic relief in a punishingly bland game show joining Fox’s lineup of music-adjacent time wasters. We Are Family introduces a complete stranger to the stage, bragging about their famous relative who’s hiding in a “Super Sphere,” and as the unknown contestant warbles a tune, the giddy studio audience gets incredibly obvious clues to the identity of the hidden celeb, who later joins their relative for a duet. Whoever guesses the mystery celeb the quickest becomes the “Star Player,” who in the final round gets to fly solo to guess yet another famous person’s identity with the possibility of a $100,000 payday. Preceded by the Season 3 premiere of I Can See Your Voice (8/7c).

9/8c

In more annoying game-show news—reminding us to count the days until February, when scripted series return to CBS—this frantic beat-the-clock-to-grab-big-prizes stunt moves from Fridays to air its final three episodes (through Jan. 17), starting with a faceoff between best friends. Damon Wayans Jr. and Jeannie Mai are the hosts.

With its Statue of Liberty-inspired logo of a woman holding a torch aloft, Columbia Pictures has been among Hollywood’s most iconic studios for a century. To mark its 100^th year, Turner Classic Movies devotes Wednesday nights all month to screenings of Columbia’s best-known films, with an occasional Three Stooges short. The inaugural lineup focuses on the 1920s and especially the 1930s, with the studio’s first Best Picture winner, 1934’s It Happened One Night (8/7c), kicking things off, pairing Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, who each won Oscars along with director Frank Capra and screenwriter Robert Riskin. More comedies follow, including 1937’s The Awful Truth (10:30/9:30c) and 1938’s Best Picture winner, You Can’t Take It With You (12:15 am/11:15c), another Capra triumph.

INSIDE WEDNESDAY TV:

• NBA Basketball (8:30 pm/ET, ABC): The Chicago Bulls take on the New York Knicks in a prime-time network showdown.
• Tyler Perry’s Sistas (9/8c, BET): The ensemble dramedy returns for a seventh season, promising “New Beginnings” in a three-month time jump as fresh romances trigger old tensions in the lives of Andi (KJ Smith), Karen (Ebony Obsidian), Danni (Mignon Von), Sabrina (Novi Brown) and Fatima (Crystal Renee Hayslett).
• FBI True (10/9c, CBS): The true-crime docuseries relives “Waco: The Deadliest Siege” as agents analyze the much-documented tragedy that ensued in 1993 during the 51-day standoff between ATF and FBI agents and the cult led by David Koresh, leaving four federal agents dead with 82 Branch Davidians (including 28 children) perishing in the fiery aftermath.