Here’s what’s up in the world of TV for Sunday, January 8. All times are Eastern.
Top picks
The 74th Annual Golden Globe Awards (NBC, 8 p.m.): The role of award show host is a largely thankless one, but it seems like this year perfect synergy is achieved with the Golden Globes and Jimmy Fallon. On one hand you have an award show often mocked for the disjointed and arbitrary selection process exercised by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, and on the other you have a talk show host who tousled Donald Trump’s hair instead of calling him on his bigoted campaign messages and came across as a spineless twit. (His defense didn’t do much to change that impression either.) As such, don’t expect hard-hitting and controversial picks out of tonight’s award show, just the usual flippant banter and random-skewing list of nominees that will either give awards to the truly deserving who often have no chance of winning Emmys or Oscars, or the truly infuriating who have no business winning an award beyond the HFPA thinking what they do is interesting. The A.V. Club live chat will be there to pass judgment on where those awards fall and to give Mr. Fallon a far sterner judging than he gave Trump.
Son Of Zorn (Fox, 8:30 p.m.): Jason Sudeikis and Olivia Wilde join the ranks of real-life couples acting alongside each other, as Zorn’s old flame Radiana reenters his life. Sparks fly when these two reunite—or at least Geiger counters go off the charts, given that Radiana is literally radioactive. Don’t worry, Kevin Johnson, this is why our review budget has a line item for lead aprons.
Bob’s Burgers (Fox, 9:30 p.m.): Bob’s Burgers is well into its seventh season right now, which is usually when shows start to skew weird in the absence of new ideas—except weird is where Bob’s Burgers has lived since the beginning. So an episode like tonight, where Tina telecommutes to school using a robot double, feels par for the course. Alasdair Wilkins asked if he could review this episode using a robot double, and we told him no. Robot doubles, unfortunately, were not included in this year’s review budget.
Premieres and finales
NCIS: Los Angeles (CBS, 8 p.m.): Tonight’s midseason premiere is titled “Kulinda,” which raised some hopes that it was a typo and NCIS is trying to build some buzz for The Good Fight by adding another Good Wife alum to their franchise. And it’s not like it’d be hard to work Archie Panjabi into your show. Just roll out the green screen!
Dinner At Tiffani’s (Cooking Channel, 8 p.m.): Saved By The Bell and White Collar actress Tiffani Thiessen returns for another season of culinary hosting, beginning with “A Rustic Luncheon.” It’s scientifically proven that rustic luncheons are the best kind of rustic luncheons. There’s theorems and everything.
Madam Secretary (CBS, 9 p.m.): After a midseason finale saw Israel and Iran on the brink of war, Elizabeth is back to dealing with more mundane issues when she weighs the diplomatic pros and cons of accepting the gift of a horse from the Mongolian government. How difficult a choice can it be? A horse is a horse, of course, of course.
Elementary (CBS, 10 p.m.): “Holmes and Watson race to find a woman who’s been held captive for years before the kidnapper takes drastic steps to avoid being caught. Also, Watson becomes frustrated when Shinwell refuses to focus on his informant training with her and Holmes.” You’d think that after years of dealing with Sherlock, Joan would have all the necessary tricks to deal with someone who refuses to focus. Genevieve Valentine is a big fan of the water-pistol method.
Regular coverage
The Simpsons (Fox, 8 p.m.)
Sherlock (PBS, 9 p.m.)
The Affair (Showtime, 10 p.m.)
Streaming pick
30 Rock, “Live From Studio 6H” (Netflix): Given how much we disliked Fallon’s glad-handing of Trump last year, we took a look into his past credits to see if we could find a moment where we actually liked him. His appearance on the live 30 Rock as a young Jack Donaghy comes close and is doubly amusing in context given how Alec Baldwin’s performance has become the lightning rod for Trump’s whiniest tweets.