It’s a Wonderful ‘Ghosts,’ Emily in Europe, Elsbeth Dons a Tutu, Reality Finales

Ghosts

A two-part holiday episode of the spirited sitcom takes a page from the Frank Capra (It’s a Wonderful Life) playbook when Sam (Rose McIver) refuses to forgive the ghosts of Woodstone after they interfere with a TV interview promoting her book. (How that happens is a delightful surprise.) “I wish I had never been able to see ghosts,” she sputters. Enter an unexpected angel to play the Clarence card and show her how things would have played out without those intrusive ghosts and the effect she has had on their afterlife — and vice versa. An inspired subplot finds Jewish horndog Trevor (Asher Grodman) bonding with the Puritan ghost Patience (Mary Holland) over their disdain for Christmas. This is Ghosts at the top of its game.

Emily in Paris

Arrivederci, Paris — at least for a while — as the fifth season of the Sex and the City-lite rom-com sends Emily Cooper (Lily Collins) to Rome to head up the Agence Grateau office. She also takes a detour to scenic Venice before career and personal complications bring her back to the City of Lights, juggling work and romance all along the way. Enjoy the scenery.

Elsbeth

A “modern pop-Goth” version of The Nutcracker — without children? The horror! Also, a pretty good motive for murder, when a former dancer and ballet-company patron (Broadway and TV star Andrew Rannells), whose daughter was primed to play Clara, finds a particularly gruesome way to take out the arrogantly edgy “visionary” choreographer (Tony-winner Gabriel Ebert). Enter Elsbeth (Carrie Preston), whose investigation sparks a new obsession with dance—and the donning of a tutu during ballet class. Putting a potential damper on Elsbeth’s holiday spirit: her journalist son Teddy (Ben Levi Ross), who shares her concerns about her mom’s crush, mayoral candidate Alec Bloom (Ivan Hernandez), with Capt. Wagner (Wendell Pierce). Broadway buffs will enjoy spotting stage veterans, including Tony winner Lindsay Mendez, reprising her role as Officer Hackett, and Tony nominee Brooks Ashmanskas as the ballet company’s tech director.

Next Level Baker

It’s not just the set that has multiple levels. In the two-part season finale of the baking competition, the final five take on a three-tier cake challenge, with the winner taking home $25,000 and a HexClad prize package. ABC’s The Great Christmas Light Fight (9/8c and 10/9c) wraps its 13th season with back-to-back episodes.

Vera’s Holiday Flop

The Yule Log: ABC shares a familiar Kris Kringle origin story in 1970’s perennial Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town (8/7c). NBC repeats its entertaining holiday episode of Password (8/7c) featuring Jonathan Groff going head-to-head with Jimmy Fallon, followed by the fan favorite A Saturday Night Live Christmas (9/8c) compilation of classic holiday skits (including, no doubt, the “Schweddy Balls” showstopper with Alec Baldwin, Ana Gasteyer, and Molly Shannon). The CW presents 2021’s Angel Falls Christmas (8/7), while BET+ offers a new romcom, Vera’s Holiday Flop, starring Charity Jordan as a woman reconnecting with old friends for a 20-year high-school reunion.

INSIDE THURSDAY TV:

• Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage (8/7c and 8:30/7:30c, CBS): In the first of two episodes, Georgie (Montana Jordan) is embroiled in a feud with a rival store. Then he and Mandy (Emily Osment) try not to panic when Audrey (Rachel Bay Jones) plans an unexpected Christmas vacation. Have they learned nothing from the Griswolds?
• Counting Crows: Have You Seen Me Lately? (9/8c, HBO): A Music Box documentary profiles Counting Crows frontman Adam Duritz, revealing the toll early success can take on a musician’s creative life.
• Blue Lights (streaming on BritBox): In the Season 3 finale of the gritty Irish police drama, officers Grace (Sian Brooke) and Sean (Brendan Quinn) face new dangers, while drug-dealing Fogerty (Charlie Maher) confronts McIntyre crime boss Tina (Abigail McGibbon).
• The Graham Norton Show (11/10c, BBC America): Guests include Timothée Chalamet, whose new film Marty Supreme is generating Oscar buzz, comedian Rowan Atkinson, and Down Cemetery Road‘s Emma Thompson.
• Late Show with Stephen Colbert (11:35/10:35c, CBS): Among the scheduled highlights: Nick Offerman narrating “Colbert’s Canceled Christmas: The Last Noel.”