TV shows, new DVDs, movies and books you’ll want to check out this week!
(All times Eastern.)
MONDAY, Jan. 4
Superhuman
Twelve ordinary people use their extraordinary skills—including memory, hearing, taste, touch, smell and sight—in a crazy two-hour competition to see who’ll take home a $100,000 prize (season premiere, 8 p.m., Fox).
The Bachelor
Ben Higgins, the small-town Indiana charmer from last season, is back to see if he can shed his self-described label of “unlovable” as he begins the search for his perfect soul mate with the first wave of 28 new beautiful women (season premiere, 8 p.m., ABC).
The Bachelor‘s Ben Higgins on Looking for Love, PDAs and More
TUESDAY, Jan. 5
Pitch Slapped
What’s it really like in the highly competitive world of high school a cappella singing? This new series goes behind the scenes to follow two rival teams from New Jersey, Stay Tuned of Cherry Hill and The Voices from Allendale, working with world-class professional coaches and competing in weekly sing-offs (10 p.m., Lifetime).
Hollywood Game Night
Season four of the fun-packed prime-time game show, in which two “ordinary” contestants are joined by celebrity couch-mates for tests of wits and skill, returns tonight with two-time Emmy-winner Jane Lynch as host and ringmaster (8 p.m. NBC).
Jane Lynch: One of Gilmore Girls‘ Best Guest Stars
WEDNESDAY, Jan. 6
The People’s Choice Awards 2016
Jane Lynch (also) hosts this live fan-voted tribute from Los Angeles to the top performers in movies, music, TV and online, with nominees in 65 categories determined from box-office grosses, sales, social activity, market research and other data (9 p.m., CBS).
American Idol
It’s coming to a close! The hit singing-competition series begins its 15th and farewell season with a two-night premiere special featuring host Ryan Seacrest and judges Jennifer Lopez, Keith Urban and Harry Connick Jr. as they begin the search for one last Idol (8 p.m., Fox, continued Thursday night, Jan. 7)
6 Life Lessons from American Idol
THURSDAY, Jan. 7
Child Genius: Battle of the Brightest
Season two of the competition series begins with a new group of America’s most gifted preteens prepping for the ultimate battle of the brains: a competition created in cooperation with Mensa with a prize of a $100,000 college fund in the balance (8 p.m., Lifetime).
My Diet is Better Than Yours
Fitness expert Shaun T., the creator of the “Insanity” workout, brings together trainers with contestants to implement diet plans and creative exercise regimens as they compete to shed pounds and get healthy in the new year (9 p.m., ABC).
FRIDAY, Jan. 8
Ex Isle
Carmen Electra hosts five former couples (exes, get it?) at an island resort in the lush Dominican Republic as they try to sort out their dysfunctional relationships—and weather the personal storms that the producers send their way (10 p.m., WE TV).
Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives
Host Guy Fieri tries out the square pizza at Joe Squared in Baltimore; sips Tex-Mex soups in Dallas; and tastes the turkey fritters in Santa Barbara, Calif. (9 p.m., Food)
SATURDAY, Jan. 9
“Funday” Movies
Settle in for an evening of animated classics beginning with Disney’s Tarzan (featuring the voice of Rosie O’Donnell as wisecracking ape sidekick), followed by Despicable Me (with Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Russell Brand and Julie Andrews), Finding Nemo (with Albert Brooks and Ellen DeGeneres) and Disney’s Cinderella (begins 5:30 p.m., ABC Family).
My Sweet Audrina
In this gothic psychological thriller based on a novel by V.C. Andrews, Audrina (India Eisley from The Secret Life of the American Teenager) is a young girl with an inability to recall past events in her life and haunted by nightmares about her older sister. What secrets lurk in her troubled dreams? (8 p.m., Lifetime).
SUNDAY, Jan. 10
73rd Annual Golden Globe Awards
British funnyman Ricky Gervais returns as host for this official three-hour, star-studded kickoff to Hollywood’s annual awards season at the Beverly Hilton Hotel (8 p.m., NBC).
Ricky Gervais: ‘I Can’t Laugh At Someone I Don’t Like’
Live to Tell
This new eight-episode series gives viewers intimate looks into recent U.S. Special Operations Forces missions, as told by those who experienced them—Army Rangers, Navy Seals, Green Berets—on the front lines in of the war on terror (10 p.m., History).
NEW ON DVD & BLU-RAY
The “world’s most dangerous group,” N.W.A., channeled their anger and urban environment into the Earth-moving music chronicled in Straight Outta Compton (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment), the true story of how five young rebels from South Central L.A. made hip-hop history.
Emily Blunt, Benicio Del Toro and Josh Brolin sear the screen in Sicario (Lionsgate Home Entertainment), a pulse-pounding action-thriller about the war on drugs along our southern border—and the high prices paid by those who engage in it.
David Oyelowo and Kate Mara star in Captive (Paramount Home Media Distribution), based on the true story about the collision of two broken lives: a single mother taken hostage in her own apartment by a jail escapee who’s murdered the judge assigned to his case.
If you love music, you’ll love Craft in America: Music (PBS Distribution), which follows the arc of music from the creation of instruments into the hands of artists who play them, from Appalachia to Hawaii.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt toes the line in director Robert Zemekis’ The Walk (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment), based on the true story of Phillippe Petit, the young French dreamer who strung a cable between towers of New York’s World Trade Center and walked across it in the 1970s.
Scouts are told to be prepared—but for zombies?! In the teen horror-comedy romp Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse (Paramount Home Media Distribution), scouts call on skills beyond basic campsite training save their town from an outbreak of the undead.
Over the river and through the woods, to grandmother’s house we go. But things get pretty weird pretty fast in The Visit (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment), director M. Night Shyamalan’s grim fairy tale about what happens when a couple of young teens get sent for a week with Grandma and Grandpa on their secluded Pennsylvania farm.
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Ask most people what Frank Sinatra was famous for, and they’ll probably say singing. But, as David Wills point out in the richly illustrated The Cinematic Legacy of Frank Sinatra (St. Martins), Ol’ Blue Eyes was an Oscar-winner with one of the most impressive acting careers—spanning five decades and almost every type of film—in all of Hollywood.
The true story of the U.S. Coast Guard’s 1952 daring rescue of two imperiled oil tankers, The Finest Hours (Scribner, by Michael J. Tougias and Sherman) is now available in paperback and will come to the big screen Jan. 26 as a major motion picture starring Chris Pine, Casey Affleck, Eric Bana and Ben Foster.
For anyone who’s seen the latest movie, The Art of Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Abrams) is a perfect companion: a collection of hundreds of official production paintings, storyboard sketches, blueprint designs and matte compositions that went into the visual planning of the film. It’s a visual feast of fantasy worlds, iconic characters, spectacular spacecraft and colossal creatures.
THIS WEEK AT THE MOVIES
Something strange and spooky is going on in The Forest, and Taylor Kinney and Natalie Dormer head deep in the woodland to find out more about it. Think anything scary will happen?
What Were Taylor Kinney’s Favorite Horror Movies Growing Up?
Based on actor James Franco’s book Palo Alto, Yosemite is the 1980s tale of three young boys growing in a seemingly perfect suburban California community, with only one problem: A mountain lion is on the loose.
A young Civil War veteran (Scott Eastwood, Clint’s son) embarks on a desperate journey to rescue his kidnapped wife in the action-adventure thriller Diablo.
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