Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction, Backstage with Springsteen, Brotherly Banter on ‘Tracker,’ A New Era in ‘Penguin’s’ Gotham
Cher, Mary J. Blige, Ozzy Osbourne, and Peter Frampton are among the honorees at this year’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, livestreamed on Disney+. ABC News goes backstage with Bruce Springsteen in advance of a Hulu/Disney+ documentary. Jensen Ackles returns to Tracker as Colter’s brother Russell, called in when Colter goes missing. The Penguin reels from Sofia Falcone’s bold actions to take control of the Gotham crime underworld.
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony
SATURDAY: Cleveland will be rocking when a stellar group of music legends are canonized into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, an impressive list featuring Cher, Mary J. Blige, Peter Frampton, Ozzy Osbourne, Kool & The Gang, Dave Matthews Band, Foreigner and A Tribe Called Quest, with Dionne Warwick, Jimmy Buffett, MC5 and Motown songwriter Norman Whitfield saluted for Musical Excellence. The guest list of performers and presenters at the livestreamed ceremony includes James Taylor, Jelly Roll, Keith Urban, Roger Daltrey, Slash, The Roots, Demi Lovato, Busta Rhymes, Chuck D, Dr. Dre, Sammy Hagar, Kenny Chesney, and many more. A highlights special will air on ABC later this year.
Bruce Springsteen: Backstage and Backstreets
SUNDAY: More rock greatness when Good Morning America’s George Stephanopoulos hits the road with Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band for a special filmed over several months of the musicians’ recent tour. Interviews conducted during the Washington, D.C. leg of Springsteen’s tour and at the Toronto Film Festival focus on the Boss’s long career and health challenges he and wife Patti Scialfa have faced. The special serves as a curtain-raiser for the documentary Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band, premiering Friday on Disney+ and Hulu.
Tracker
SUNDAY: Having mastered the skill of brotherly banter on Supernatural, Jensen Ackles returns to the hit procedural as cocky Russell Shaw, brother of lone wolf Colter (Justin Hartley), in an episode that feels like a lost episode from The X-Files. It begins when Colter is enlisted by a concerned daughter to find her dad, who’s become obsessed by UAPs (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena) and wanders too close to a Department of Defense black-ops site. When Colter suffers the same mysterious fate and goes off the grid, Reenie (Fiona Rene) alerts Russell, and the search is on.
The Penguin
SUNDAY: “It’s a new era in Gotham,” notes an observer to the apocalyptic Falcone massacre contrived by the ruthless and vengeful Sofia (the riveting Cristin Milioti) in this brutal crime drama. “One family down, one to go,” gloats Oz “The Penguin” Cobb (Colin Farrell), as he attempts to subvert both the Falcone and Maroni operations and take control of the Bliss drug trade. Won’t be easy, with Sofia making overtures to her enemies in a crusade against turncoat Oz. When approached by her psychiatrist to check on her unstable mental state, she quips, “I think we’re past the point of analysis, don’t you?” It would probably be fatal to argue.
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon
SUNDAY: In a pivotal episode of the horror-show spinoff, an imprisoned Daryl (Norman Reedus) and an imperiled Carol (Melissa McBride) shift gears into comic-book superhero mode when they’re caught in the chaos of Genet’s (Anne Charrier) siege on The Nest. Both sides of the conflict have an ultimate goal: find young prophet Laurent (Louis Puech Scigliuzzi).
Holiday Crashers
The Yule Log: Christmas is in the air with a surge of holiday movies. In Hallmark Channel’s Holiday Crashers romcom (Saturday, 8/7c), Lyndsy Fonseca and Daniella Monet are Toni and Bri, card-shop employees who create fake identities to crash exclusive parties, with Toni mistaken as a lawyer when they attend a corporate Christmas retreat. On Sunday, Hallmark presents Scouting for Christmas (8/7c), with Tamera Mowry-Housley as a divorced single-mom realtor torn between a helpful baker (Carlo Marks) and her ex (James Paladino).
Great American Family’s A Vintage Christmas (Saturday, 8/7c) stars Merritt Patterson as a preservationist who clashes with a developer (Christopher Russell) with plans to tear down a historic post office. Also on GAF: A Christmas Castle Proposal (Sunday, 8/7c), with Rhiannon Fish as a commoner who brings her family to Torovia to spend the holidays with her intended, Prince Alexander (Mitchell Bourke).
INSIDE WEEKEND TV:
- It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (streaming on Apple TV+): All weekend (through Sunday), Peanuts fans can stream for free the 1966 Halloween classic and join Linus in his eternal vigil.
- 48 Hours (Saturday, 10/9c, CBS): Peter Van Sant reports on the 2018 murder in Florida of Aileen Seiden, when the investigation reveals a three-way relationship gone wrong.
- Saturday Night Live (Saturday, 11:30/10:30c, 8:30 pm/PT, NBC): Beetlejuice Beetlejuice star Michael Keaton returns as guest host for the fourth time, joined by Billie Eilish, also on her fourth round as musical guest.
- 60 Minutes (Sunday, 7/6c, CBS): A 90-minute edition features Sharyn Alfonsi’s visit to the Appalachians after the devastation of Hurricane Helene, Lesley Stahl’s interview with late Russian dissient Alexei Navalny’s widow Yulia Navalnaya, Jon Wertheim’s survey of Door County in the swing state of Wisconsin, and Bill Whitaker’s two-part report on the World War II bombing of the German ocean liner Cap Arcona, which was used as a floating concentration camp.
- Serial Killer Capital: Los Angeles (Sunday, 7/6c, Oxygen): A two-hour special explores the investigation into murders of women in South L.A. from the 1980s to the early 2000s that were determined to have been perpetrated by multiple serial killers.
- Interview With a Killer (Sunday, 8 pm/ET, Court TV): Investigative reporter David Scott goes face-to-face with convicted murderers in a five-part series. His first subject: Brian Steven Smith, grilled about his hunting for vulnerable women in Alaska.
- The Chosen (Sunday, 8/7c, The CW): Season 4 ends with Jesus (Jonathan Roumie) arriving in Jerusalem, defying expectations by riding in on a donkey instead of a majestic war horse.
- Moonflower Murders (Sunday, 9/8c, PBS): Susan (Lesley Manville) puts the pieces together in the season finale, bringing resolution to the real-life murders reflected in the fictional Atticus Pünd novel. Followed by the Season 4 finale of Van der Valk (10/9c).
- Wildlife Rescue Australia (Sunday, 9/8c, National Geographic WILD): Go Down Under with the vets and nurses of the Byron Bay Wildlife Hospital as they treat native animals in distress.
- Billboard Latin Music Awards (Sunday, 9 pm/ET, Telemundo): The live ceremony from Miami honors Pepe Aguilar with the Billboard Hall of Fame Award and Alejandro Sanz with the Billboard Life Achievement Award.
- The Equalizer (Sunday, 9:30/8:30c, CBS): Season 5 of the action series opens with Robyn (Queen Latifah) coming to the rescue of two siblings who steal a grocery truck loaded with firearms, while Mel (Liza Lapira) recovers from her traumatic kidnapping with the help of Harry (Adam Goldberg) and Delilah (Laya DeLeon Hayes).
- The Franchise (Sunday, 10/9c, HBO): A strong episode of the show-biz satire addresses Maximum Studios’ sexist “woman problem,” with the creative team brainstorming on how to empower the Lilac Ghost (Katherine Waterston) on her last day of shooting.