Today, Wednesday, October 21
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TV Insider
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Music stars from Nashville and beyond pay tribute to Dolly Parton in a live concert special. The Emmy-winning Slow Horses ends its sixth season with a harrowing shootout. Ali Wong and Miranda Cosgrove guest-star on Abbott Elementary, with the school’s step club aiming for the Regionals. Chris Pratt returns for a second season of the action thriller The Terminal List.
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Special | 9/8c |
The tributes to the late, beloved Dolly Parton aren’t likely to stop anytime soon. It might be hard to top this all-star musical salute from Nashville, airing live from Belmont University’s Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, the same stage where the Broadway-bound Dolly: A True Original Musical had its world premiere. Sharing Dolly’s story through archival footage, personal reflections, and plenty of her memorable music, the special boasts an impressive roster of talent including Carrie Underwood, Reba McEntire, Brad Paisley, Kelsea Ballerini, Ricky Skaggs, Vince Gill, Zac Brown, Lady A, Lainey Wilson, and Little Big Town, with Broadway veterans Kristin Chenoweth and Kristen Bell on tap, plus special guests Amy Grant and Kimberly Williams-Paisley. We’re already feeling the love.
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Season Finale |
The thrilling sixth season of the Emmy-winning spy drama comes to a suspenseful close, with the disgraced agents of Slough House taking shelter in a safe house that proves anything but. River Cartwright’s (Jack Lowden) terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day becomes even more harrowing as he and his fellow “Horses” come under fire from his contract-killer dad, Frank (Hugo Weaving), and his minions. In a rather less violent setting, Slough House’s slovenly boss Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) plots a way out for his team and for MI5’s chilly and compromised First Desk, Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas). Happily, the show has already been renewed for two more seasons, adapting the next two books in Mick Herron‘s spectacular book series.
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8:30/7:30c |
Emmy winner Ali Wong (Beef) and iCarly alum Miranda Cosgrove are guest stars on an above-par episode of the long-running sitcom, as (respectively) a special-ed teacher who regrets inviting a disruptive Melissa (Lisa Ann Walter) and Barbara (Sheryl Lee Ralph) to join her certification class, and a friendly new substitute teacher with an unexpected habit. In the best subplot, principal Ava (Janelle James) tries to keep the kids in her step class from getting their hopes up when they audition for national Regionals. “I know what it’s like to have your dreams crushed,” she says. “I’m just trying to protect them.” A reminder that these are underdogs worth rooting for.
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Season Premiere |
Chris Pratt returns for a second season of the military thriller as Navy SEAL-turned-fugitive James Reece, currently one of the FBI’s Most Wanted, having left a trail of bodies behind while executing Season 1’s revenge plot. Now the CIA also wants Reece — not to jail him, but to use him and his killer instincts in a redemption mission to root out his former Special Ops buddy Mohammed Farooq (Dar Salim), who’s become aligned with a terrorist cell that blew up a London Christmas market. All eight episodes are available for a binge watch.
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8/7c |
Surely, you didn’t expect Sharon Goodwin (S. Epatha Merkerson) to go down without a fight. In an episode titled “They Call Me Ms. Goodwin” (an homage to Sidney Poitier‘s Virgil Tibbs from In the Heat of the Night), the suspended administrator uses her new role as charge nurse to take on the new Powers That Be from the inside. Followed by new episodes of Chicago Fire (9/8c) and Chicago P.D. (10/9c).
INSIDE WEDNESDAY TV:
- Inside the NBA (6:30 pm/ET, ESPN): The panel featuring Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kenny Smith returns in advance of ESPN‘s double-header season tipoff at 7:30 pm/ET, featuring the Minnesota Timberwolves (now with LaMelo Ball) vs. the Miami Heat (now with Giannis Antetokounmpo), followed by the Golden State Warriors vs. the L.A. Lakers.
- Scrubs (8/7c, ABC): Turk’s (Donald Faison) happy birthday plans include his co-workers J.D. (Zach Braff) and Elliot (Sarah Chalke).
- Survivor (8/7c, CBS): Two tribes are sent to Tribal Council after the immunity challenge, and in an “Open Era” twist, a player gets a first-time advantage.
- Nature (8/7c, PBS): Travel to “Tiger Island” in Nepal in a two-part special, with drones in the sky and thermal cameras in the dark following two tiger moms as they raise their cubs in a treacherous terrain.
- The Lowdown (9/8c, FX, streaming on Hulu): Reservation Dogs‘ Gary Farmer guests as one of Oklahoma’s “last living outlaws” — or so he says — who provides a lead for Lee (Ethan Hawke) in his search for the missing inmate, Mekko.
- The Amazing Race (9:30/8:30c, CBS): The globe-trotting series travels to Albania for the first time in a leg disrupted by two “Driver’s Seat” twists.
- Secrets of the Dead (10/9c, PBS): The history series explores the creation of the Statue of Liberty on the 140th anniversary of its dedication this month.
- Ghost Adventures (10/9c, Discovery Channel): The paranormal crew heads to an abandoned Nevada mining town that’s unfriendly to strangers.
ON THE STREAM:
- Brothers (streaming on Apple TV): The wacky comedy shifts into romcom mode when Matthew (McConaughey) and Woody (Harrelson) chaperone a school dance, giving dangerously bad dad advice to Wyatt (Nolan Almeida) and Kai (Oona Yaffe). Back at home, Kai’s big sis Olive (Highdee Kuan) tries to ignore the entreaties of her ex, Jimmy (Skyler Gisondo), who’s camping out in hopes of winning her back.
- Small Prophets (streaming on Apple TV): Kacey (Lauren Patel) helps Michael (Pearce Quigley) bury the prophetic homunculi in his backyard in the latest chapter of the truly offbeat and fanciful British comedy.
- Where’s Wanda? (streaming on Apple TV): The German-language dark comedy returns for a second season, with the suburban Klatts (Heike Makatsch and Axel Stein) scrambling to clear their daughter Wanda’s (Lea Drinda) name after she’s found standing over a dead body.
- The New Stanford Prison Experiment (streaming on Netflix): A six-part docuseries recreates the infamous 1970s social experiment in which strangers enter a prison — a real one this time — and are randomly assigned roles as guards or inmates, testing the corrupting influence of power.
- Total Replay with the Makeshift Project (8/7c, streaming on Scripps Sports Network): YouTube and podcast hosts Zach Misischia and Brian Conforth welcome guests from the world of sports and entertainment for a deep dive into memorable moments in sports history.
- Just One Before I Die (streaming on Tubi): A five-part sports docuseries embeds itself within the “Bills Mafia” of fervent Buffalo Bills fandom.
- All the Queen’s Men (streaming on Paramount+): The melodrama’s final season concludes with Madam (Eva Marcille) fighting for her life, her shooter on the loose and the fate of her Atlanta nightclub empire in the balance.
- The Wingfeather Saga (streaming on Angel): Downton Abbey‘s Dan Stevens joins the voice cast for the fourth season of the animated fantasy.