The Emmys, Remembering Martin Luther King Jr., NFL Wild Card Playoff, Fran Drescher’s ‘IOU’
Fox airs the 75th Emmy Awards, delayed four months by the industry strikes. On the holiday named in his honor, The CW airs a two-hour profile of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. ABC and ESPN simulcast the final NFL Wild Card game. Fran Drescher, who led the Screen Actors Guild during its recent strike, pays it forward to her longtime housekeepers on Celebrity IOU.
Emmys
Special
Normally the event that heralds a new fall season, the Emmy Awards were pushed back four months because of the then-ongoing writers’ and actors’ strikes. Better late than never to honor the best of the 2022-23 season—anything that aired since June of last year wasn’t eligible—with Anthony Anderson (seven-time acting nominee for black-ish) hosting from L.A.’s Peacock Theater. Top nominees include HBO’s Succession with 27 (followed closely by The Last of Us with 24 and The White Lotus with 23), and in comedy, Ted Lasso with 21, followed by presumptive favorite The Bear with 13. In limited series, Netflix’s Beef (with 13) is the front-runner, with Dahmer—Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story also nominated for 13.
I Am MLK Jr.
In recognition of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, the latest two-hour documentary from I Am Films presents the life story of the civil-rights leader, who continues to inspire generations long after his assassination in 1968. The special includes scenes filmed in historic churches where Dr. King preached, and testimony from fellow activists and contemporary writers and celebrities.
NFL Playoffs
The professional football season’s wild card round ends with a simulcast of the showdown between No. 5 Philadelphia Eagles and No. 4 Tampa Bay Buccaneers (8 pm/ET, ABC and ESPN). Earlier in the day, CBS broadcasts the delayed-by-weather matchup of the Buffalo Bills and the Pittsburgh Steelers (4:30 pm/ET). The surviving teams from the weekend move on to the Divisional Round on Saturday and Sunday.
Celebrity IOU
Fran Drescher became famous as The Nanny, and her public profile rose again last year as president of the Screen Actors Guild, rallying her troops through the months-long strike against the Hollywood studios. With the help of Jonathan and Drew Scott, she shows gratitude to her housekeepers of 30 years with an upgrade of their own home, including essential structural repairs.
INSIDE MONDAY TV:
- America’s Got Talent: Fantasy League (8/7c, NBC): There’s not much original programming airing on the networks on Emmy night, but the talent show must go on, with the judges presiding over a third night of qualifiers.
- King: A Filmed Record … Montgomery to Memphis (8/7c, Turner Classic Movies): An acclaimed and Oscar-nominated 1970 documentary uses unretouched newsreel footage to depict King’s civil-rights crusade from 1955’s Montgomery bus boycott through his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech at 1963’s March on Washington to his murder in 1968.
- Brief Tender Night (9:30/8:30c, PBS): A POV documentary follows the decade-long journey of four African students at MIT as they prepare to bring their progressive ideals back to their home countries of Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.
