Rupaul’s Drag Race Returns, ‘MonsterQuest’ Mysteries, Flashback Fridays on TCM, True Crime on Sundance Now

RuPaul’s Drag Race

Who will be America’s next “drag superstar” when the last of the glitter settles? Season 18 of the jubilant Emmy-winning reality competition introduces 14 new queens to “werk” the runway, with RuPaul as their glamorous mother hen. Cardi B drops by as guest judge for the season opener, which challenges the contestants to use “leftover treasures from the Drag Race vaults” to create a signature look. This year’s cast features, from Florida, Athena Dion, Discord Addams (Wednesday’s sister?), Juicy Love Dion, Mia Starr and Myki Meeks, with others representing Boston (Briar Blush), Indianapolis (Ciara Myst), L.A. (Darlene Mitchell), NYC (DD Fuego), Seattle (Jane Don’t), Sumter, S.C. (Kenya Pleaser), Philadelphia (Mandy Mango), Denver (Nini Coco) and Montgomery, Alabama (Vita VonTesse Starr).

MonsterQuest

The series that purports to shed light on actual monster sightings returns for a fifth season, with cases involving law enforcement officers and first responders. No amount of training could prepare these everyday heroes for extraordinary encounters with Bigfoot-like creatures in Oklahoma and Washington State, or a half-man, half-goat from Colorado, or (shudder) a spooky shadow man from New Jersey. Are their stories real or fantasy? You be the judge.

Citizen Kane

The network that revels in cinema’s past devotes each Friday night in January to showing classic movies that make bold use of the flashback device. One of the best and most enduring leads off the series with Orson Welles’ 1941 Citizen Kane (8/7c), with various characters reflecting on the life of the fictional mogul Charles Foster Kane (Welles). Followed by Akira Kurosowa’s influential 1950 film Rashomon (10:15/9:15c), which recounts a violent incident from multiple perspectives, and Alan J. Pakula‘s Sophie’s Choice (12 am/11c), with Meryl Streep‘s Oscar-winning performance, followed by Vincente Minnelli‘s 1952 Hollywood fable The Bad and the Beautiful (2:45 am/1:45c) and 1941’s tearjerker Penny Serenade (5 am/4c), starring Cary Grant and Irene Dunne.

The Murder of Joanna Yeates

A documentary explores the murder of 25-year-old Joanna Yeates, whose body was discovered on Christmas Day of 2010, after her disappearance a week earlier in Bristol, England prompted extensive media coverage. The murder investigation became a media and national obsession, and when her landlord, Christopher Jefferies, was arrested and later released, the media relentlessly hounded Jefferies, who would later sue multiple publications for libel after the actual murderer was found. It’s a cautionary tale for true-crime obsessives.

 

College Football

The post-season continues with a flurry of bowl games, including the infamous Duke’s Mayo Bowl (8 pm/ET, ESPN), where the winning coach (from either Mississippi State or Wake Forest) will have a giant bowl of mayo dumped over their head in messy victory. Other games, also broadcast on ESPN, include the Armed Forces Bowl (1 pm/ET) between the Texas State Bobcats and the Rice Owls, and the Liberty Bowl (4:30 pm/ET) featuring the Navy Midshipmen vs. Cincinnati Bearcats.

INSIDE FRIDAY TV:

• Spartacus: House of Ashur (9/8c, Starz): After female gladiator Achillia’s (Tenika Davis) triumph in the arena, Ashur’s (Nick E. Tarabay) stock rises in Capua. But as often happens in this cruel world, newfound popularity comes with a terrible price.
• 20/20 (9/8c, ABC): Ryan Smith reports the latest news in the sensational murder case involving Florida State University professor Dan Markel’s 2014 murder, implicating his 75-year-old former mother-in-law.
• It’s Florida, Man (10/9c, HBO): The second season of the comedic anthology ends with the misadventures of a sheltered girl from Jacksonville whose trip to Orlando to meet her online goth prince takes a sinister turn. The guest cast features Holmes, Joel Kim Booster, Ping Wu, Taika Waititi, and Rita Ora.