Today, Wednesday, September 23
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TV Insider
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Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey spoof their friendship as fictionalized versions of themselves in the Apple TV comedy Brothers. Survivor shakes things up as it embarks on a 51st season. America’s Got Talent names its $1 million winner. A new reality competition invites adults to relive their childhoods in Willy Wonka’s iconic Chocolate Factory.
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Series Premiere |
“Based on a true rumor,” this boisterous comedy stars best buds Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey as heightened (if that’s possible) versions of themselves in a fictional scenario that forces them to confront the possibility that they’re more than bros and may actually be brothers from the same mother. The fun begins when Woody impulsively hauls his (not real) family from Malibu to Austin to disrupt Matthew’s train of thought as he prepares a tribute to his late father, Big Mac. The ever-reliable Holland Taylor steals every scene as Matthew’s irrepressible Ma Mac, who lets slip a personal secret that sets Woody on a personal journey to discover the truth about his parentage. Matthew has a different ambition, mulling a run for Governor of Texas. “I need you, brother,” he tells Woody. If he only knew.
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Season Premiere | 8/7c |
In its 51st season, the pioneering reality competition enters what it’s calling its “Open Era,” as in anything goes for a new cast of 21 castaways, which includes a pro wrestler, a med student, a defense attorney and a federal prosecutor, a sociology professor, a wedding photographer, a baseball exec, an OBGYN, and three farmers. The season’s theme is “Permanent Uncertainty,” and Jeff Probst gets the ball rolling in the two-hour opener by sending one of the newly arrived players away on a mysterious journey. At the first tribal council, two allies face off. And so the game begins again.
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Season Finale | 8/7c |
The votes are in, and over the course of a two-hour grand finale, the winner of Season 21 will be revealed. Could it be a Golden Buzzer winner? (My money’s on the robots, but it’s anyone’s game.) Among the special performers helping celebrate the end of the season and the new champion: Season 20 winner Jessica Sanchez, Season 9 winner, magician Mat Franco, Josh Groban, REI AMI (KPop Demon Hunters), Linken Park, Lele Pons and Steve Aoki. Global entertainment star, YouTuber, musician, and professional boxer KSI joins the judges’ panel as a special guest judge in Simon Cowell’s absence.
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Series Premiere |
A “lifetime supply of money” (roughly $3 million paid out over 30 years) is the grand prize being dangled before the grown children at heart who step through the gates of Willy Wonka’s iconic Chocolate Factory in a lavish competition series marking the 55th anniversary of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. The nostalgic homage includes a recreation of the late Gene Wilder‘s voice (approved by his estate) as an unseen Wonka invites 12 teams of two to enter a scrumptious land of pure imagination that’s good enough to eat. The impressive production design evokes a less lethal version of Squid Game as players are led by Oompa Loompas (including Rusty Goffe from the 1971 movie) into warped challenges involving life-size gumballs and sadistic Wonkavision 2.0 versions of classic TV games including a Wheel of Misfortune hosted by a remote version of Nick Cannon. (Veteran TV hosts Wayne Brady and Howie Mandel show up later). The eliminations can be emotionally brutal when players are suddenly ejected from this fantasyland. Following a seven-episode season, a winner will emerge in the two-part finale on September 30.
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Streaming Premiere |
Look up from your tablets and other second screens to fully enjoy the latest chapter in the Oscar-winning Pixar franchise, making its streaming debut after a successful theatrical launch in June. The classic childhood toys may have met their match when their adorable kid Bonnie becomes enchanted by a tablet device named Lilypad. Will fancy new tech forever change the relationship of kids and their old-fashioned toy companions? Let’s hope not.
INSIDE WEDNESDAY TV:
- The Voice (8/7c, NBC): A third night of Blind Auditions airs on a special night.
- The Floor (8/7c, Fox): The Season 6 opener (which previewed earlier this month) introduces 100 new contestants onto the floor, each a title holder of some sort, playing visual trivia games in hopes of adding to their territory. Followed by the Season 2 premiere of 99 to Beat (9/8c), hosted by Ken Jeong and Erin Andrews.
- Nova: Knowledge Keepers (9/8c, PBS): The science program presents a documentary exploring how First Nations and Indigenous Native Americans used engineering knowhow to develop innovative tools for ancient sea farming, celestial navigation and surviving unforgiving climates.
ON THE STREAM:
- Ted Lasso (streaming on Apple TV): Turns out there is crying in soccer when an injury on the pitch brings members of Richmond’s women’s team to tears. But operations director Higgins (Jeremy Swift) is clear-eyed in his mission to find out who’s making a covert play for the club.
- Slow Horses (streaming on Apple TV): Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) puts his motley crew on high alert as the body count of dead “Horses” rises and he learns the extent of the Slough House unit being expunged from MI5’s database.
- Last Seen (streaming on Apple TV): In the Australian thriller, Ian (Patrick Brammall) follows his hunch that Henry (Brendan Cowell) is harboring his long-missing daughter, sparking a confrontation with devastating consequences.
- The Love Hypothesis (streaming on Prime Video): A fake relationship between a Ph.D. candidate (Riverdale‘s Lili Reinhart) and a frosty professor (Tom Bateman) becomes something more in a romcom based on Ali Hazelwood’s novel.