MONDAY
Superman & Lois: The Kents fight with everything they have in the series finale. Goodbye, CW’s superhero days. You lasted longer than anyone might have expected. 7 p.m., The CW
9-1-1: Lone Star: Carlos is determined to solve his father’s murder in the fall finale. 7 p.m., Fox
Celebrity Wheel of Fortune: Pat’s back! 7 p.m., ABC
Days of Our Lives: It’s the 15,000th episode of the long-running favorite. Peacock
Star Wars: Skeleton Crew: Jude Law stars in this adventurous new series set in the New Republic. Series premiere. Disney+
TUESDAY
Accused: Two-hour season finale. 7 p.m., Fox
St. Denis Medical: Alex fires an incompetent employee in the fall finale. 7 p.m., NBC
Night Court: A sanitation strike makes its way to the courthouse. Fall finale. 7:30 p.m., NBC
The Irrational: A K-Pop star is murdered, and the only suspect is his biggest fan in the fall finale. 9 p.m., NBC
CMA Country Christmas: Country’s biggest stars perform Christmas classics. 7 p.m., ABC
Girls Gone Wild: The Untold Story: The story of the sleazeball who created an empire on the fronts backs of Girls with Low Self-Esteem. Premiere. Peacock
WEDNESDAY
The 92nd Christmas in Rockefeller Center: Kelly Clarkson hosts the annual celebration in New York City. Backstreet Boys, Dan + Shay, Megan Hilty, Jennifer Hudson, Coco Jones, Little Big Town, RAYE, the Radio City Rockettes, and Thalia will perform. 7 p.m., NBC
The Ultimatum: Marry or Move On: Look out, here are a bunch more dysfunctional couples. Season premiere. Netflix
Pop Culture Jeopardy!: Colin Jost hosts this new take on Jeopardy!. Series premiere. Prime Video
Abbott Elementary: Janine and Gregory get an unexpected Christmas gift in the one-hour fall finale. 7 p.m., ABC
The Summit: The final four scale of the mountain. Season finale. 8:30 p.m., CBS
Jimmy Fallon’s Holiday Seasoning Spectacular: Jimmy explores a magical building with a surprise musical guest behind each door in this new special. Premiere. 9 p.m., NBC
Sold on SLC: Hey, it’s another real estate reality series this time set in Salt Lake City. Series premiere. 8 p.m., Bravo
Churchill at War: Alert your dad, we have a new World War II docuseries. Premiere. Netflix
THURSDAY
Black Doves: Keira Knightley stars in this new spy thriller, and is it just me or have there been A LOT of spy thrillers lately? Anyway. Series premiere. Netflix
Glitter and Greed: The Lisa Frank Story: The dark story of the sparkly sticker empire. Series premiere. Prime Video
Wild Crime: Eleven Skulls: This true crime documentary tells the story of the most terrifying serial killer you’ve never heard of (unless you are a true crime junkie), Israel Keyes. Trust me, this guy is the stuff of nightmares. Series premiere. Hulu
The Great Christmas Light Fight: Two-hour season premiere. 7 p.m., ABC
Hell’s Kitchen: Fall finale. 7 p.m., Fox
Crime Scene Kitchen: Fall finale. 8 p.m., Fox
Southern Charm: Tenth season premiere. 8 p.m., Bravo
FRIDAY
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice: The streaming premiere of the long-awaited sequel. Max
The Sticky: Margo Martindale stars in this limited series based on the very true story of the 2012 “Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist.” Premiere. Prime Video
Fly Me to the Moon: Streaming premiere of the Scarlett Johansson, Chatum Tanning comedy about faking the moon landing — for legitimate purposes, obviously. Apple TV+
Biggest Heist Ever: This documentary follows the story of Ilya Lichtenstein and his “rapper” wife Razzlekhan who tried to launder nearly 120,000 Bitcoin. Netflix
Speak No Evil: James McVoy stars in this thriller in which a family who has been invited to the woods for a weekend getaway begins having some … reservations. Premiere. Peacock
A Nonsense Christmas with Sabrina Carpenter: Sabrina Carpenter hosts her first holiday special and I’m going to go out on a limb here and say this one probably isn’t for the young kids. Netflix
SATURDAY
Saturday Night Live: Paul Mescal & Shaboozey 10:30 p.m., NBC
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story: The emotional story of our iconic Superman, Christopher Reeve, the accident that paralyzed him, and his fight for spinal cord treatments. Be ready to cry. Premiere. 7 p.m., HBO and Max
SUNDAY
Somebody Somewhere: Sam takes a chance with Iceland in the series premiere. 9:30 p.m., HBO
America’s Funniest Home Videos: Fall finale. 6 p.m., ABC
The Equalizer: McCall and her ex are held captive in the fall finale. 7:30 p.m., CBS
So.
Biden lied.
I have a question maybe you can answer. Both St. Denis Medical (5th episode) and Night Court (3rd episode) are having their Fall finales this week. What is the point of putting a show in the Fall if you are only planning a few episodes?
This is a really good question and I’m going to be honest: I don’t know. I’ve wondered it myself.
The networks are floundering around, trying to figure out how to make anything work these day, but comedies in particular. Comedies have been trending downwards in the ratings on live TV, only to then go on to be streaming successes after they’ve been canceled. (Infuriatingly, ‘A.P. Bio’ has found its audience on Netflix, years after it was canceled.) One thing the networks have done is reduce the episode orders for some shows — ‘Night Court’ only has 10 episodes this (and every) season. Interestingly, ‘St. Denis’ was given 18 episodes before it even aired, suggesting that NBC has some confidence in it (or confidence that they can find a streaming audience later on).
So I think what’s happening here is a couple of things — namely they are playing with the schedules to see if they can get something to stick without burning through all of the episodes of an already successful series in the event that the new series is a flop. Meaning, they pair ‘St Denis’ with ‘Night Court’ to get ‘Night Court’s’ audiences’ eyeballs with the hopes that it is successful and builds an audience that will return in January. All the while hopefully building word of mouth and recognition. If ‘St. Denis’ was a huge flop in the fall, they just cancel the remaining order, while keeping ‘Night Court’ and its seven remaining episodes alive for the spring.
But additionally, I think the bigger thing that is happening is the networks are trying to figure out how things work now that traditional “Fall TV” schedules are pretty much a thing of the past thanks to cable and streaming. Debuting all your big shows in the fall at the same time is just not a thing that happens anymore — not in the same way, at least. And so I think networks are viewing scheduling as a year-round sort of endeavor, and trying to make smaller episode orders stretch over longer periods of time since audiences are no longer trained to view TV as being on a rigid Fall/Spring/Summer schedule any more.
That was probably more words than you were looking for, but that’s what happens when you ask someone who doesn’t really have the answer!
-T