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

Matt Roush
7 Comments

Sam goes all George Bailey on a two-part Ghosts when an unexpected angel shows her what life would have been like if she had never met the Woodstone spirits. Emily in Paris expands its European repertoire in Season 5 with visits to Rome and Venice. A holiday episode of Elsbeth sends the police consultant into the world of ballet after a murder behind the scenes of a modernized Nutcracker. Fox’s Next Level Baker and ABC’s The Great Christmas Light Fight air their season finales.

“It's a Wonderful Christmas Carol: Part One” – Sam’s big Christmas Eve TV interview with Walter Storm (Larry Wilmore) takes an unexpected turn. Meanwhile, Trevor and Patience bond over their mutual disinterest in celebrating Christmas, on the CBS Original series GHOSTS, Thursday, Dec. 18 (9:01-9:30 PM, ET/PT). Pictured L to R: Román Zaragoza as Sasappis, Danielle Pinnock as Alberta, Richie Moriarty as Pete, and Asher Grodman as Trevor. Photo: Bertrand Calmeau/CBS ©2025 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Bertrand Calmeau / CBS

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 - Season 5 - Lily Collins
Netflix

Emily in Paris

Season Premiere

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.

“A Hard Nut to Crack” – When an avant-garde choreographer’s “Nutcracker” rehearsal turns deadly, Elsbeth leaps into the cutthroat world of New York ballet, on ELSBETH, Thursday, Dec. 18 (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) . Pictured (L-R): Andrew Rannells as Harris Parson, Willow McConnaughy as Noelle Bennett, Carrie Preston as Elsbeth Tascioni Photo: Michael Parmelee/CBS ©2025 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Michael Parmelee/CBS

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: L-R: Mentors Carla Hall, Gordon Ramsay, and Candace Nelson in the NEXT LEVEL BAKER
Lorraine O’Sullivan / FOX

Next Level Baker

Season Finale

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.

BET+ Original film VERA’S HOLIDAY FLOP
BET+

Vera’s Holiday Flop

Movie Premiere

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:

ElsbethEmily in ParisGhostsNext Level Baker



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  1. A

    Arben70

    The Ghosts two-parter sounds particularly fun. I'll be watching that, Elsbeth, and the penultimate Pluribus of the season.

  2. J

    Jena

    I'll be watching Ghosts.

    POINT OF ORDER: Saying that Ghosts will have a "two-part" episode strongly suggests that we'll be watching Part 1 tonight, and Part 2 is to follow at another time. Instead, please call it what it is: a ONE-HOUR episode of the sitcom. The entire episode will air tonight, from 9-10pm eastern. My online television guides don't show this as a two-part anything, but as a one-hour episode, so I don't think that calling it a "two-parter" is either helpful or accurate.

    1. A

      Arben70

      I hear you (and I'm certainly not the visitor who downvoted you) but, even though syndicated repeats aren't the force they once were, each half-hour is likely considered its own episode for that and other reasons since broadcast series remain tethered to 30- and 60-minute slots. Maybe referring to tonight's hour as back-to-back episodes rather than "a two-parter" is most apt. I recall many such events (not that I'm about to go hunt down specific examples because I'll obsess over it) where a 120-minute block of a drama premiere or finale that was technically a pair of episodes would run back-to-back and carry the credits for both up front ("Part 1 Directed by..." "Part 2 Directed by...") only to break them up when repeated later in the season or in syndication because for production accounting they really were separate things even, as my parenthetical suggested, with different crew at the helm.

    2. M

      Mike b

      Get a life

      1. J

        Jena

        Got one, thanks. Bless your heart....

  3. F

    Fred

    CBS all evening.

    1. A

      Antonio Montealegre

      Same, well, except for "Matlock". Edit to add: Actually, my local Louisiana CBS station is preempting all network prime-time for a basketball game between the New Orleans Pelicans and Houston Rockets.