Finales (‘All Creatures’ Yuletide, ‘True Detective’), People’s Choice Awards, ‘American Idol,’ ‘United States of Scandal’

All Creatures Great and Small

SUNDAY: A bonanza for the sentimentalist, the Season 4 finale of the charming period drama doubles as the annual Christmas episode, with higher emotional stakes than usual during wartime. James (Nicholas Ralph) is still stationed at an RAF training camp, yearning to reunite with a very pregnant Helen (Rachel Shenton). Denied leave for the holiday, James even considers going AWOL until the camp’s wounded mascot, a kestrel, offers an opportunity for the veterinarian to prove himself and possibly get home in time to greet their baby. Speaking of babes, Skeldale House’s new hire, the bookish Carmody (James Anthony-Rose), was deprived the Christmas experience growing up, something Mrs. Hall (Anna Madeley) and even the Grinch-like Siegfried (Samuel West) set out to remedy. Need warm fuzzies? This is your show.

True Detective

SUNDAY: Creepy, surreal and riveting to the end, the anthology’s Season 4 finale plunges Danvers (Jodie Foster) and Navarro (Kali Reis) deep into an ice cave to get to the truth, while ultimately acknowledging, “Some questions just don’t have answers.” And yet there is a plausible explanation for what led to the scientists’ frozen demise. “It’s crazy the s—t we survive,” Danvers says on the opposite of a Happy New Year, while her deputy Pete (Finn Bennett) cleans up an Oedipal mess from which it’s hard to see how he’ll recover.

Monsieur Spade

SUNDAY: Another mystery comes to a satisfying end in the finale of the series that transplants noir icon Sam Spade (a droll Clive Owen) to 1960s France. A United Nations of competing international interests converges on the once-peaceful village as they all seek custody of the Algerian boy with prodigious gifts. “If I cared, I’d applaud,” Spade retorts, with a wisecrack for every occasion. A terrific and familiar actress makes an 11th-hour appearance to try to sort through the convoluted but entertaining mess.

People’s Choice Awards

SUNDAY: Hi, Ken! Simu Liu is the affable host of the annual popularity contest, staged from the Barker Hanger in Santa Monica, CA. Among the highlights: appearances by Adam Sandler, recipient of the People’s Icon Award, and Music Icon Award winner Lenny Kravitz, who’ll perform. Also providing musical entertainment: Grammy winners Kylie Minogue and Lainey Wilson. This could be the only awards show in recent memory where Succession and The Bear may not sweep the field. Categories cover movies, TV, music, pop culture and sports.

American Idol

SUNDAY: And so it begins again. The singing competition’s 22nd season (the seventh on ABC) kicks off with the audition phase, hosted by Ryan Seacrest, as judges Luke Bryan, Lionel Richie and (in what she says is her final season) Katy Perry scour the country looking for voices worthy of that Golden Ticket to Hollywood. The search begins in Los Angeles, Nashville and the judges’ own hometowns: Leesburg, GA (Bryan), Tuskegee, Ala. (Richie) and Santa Barbara (Perry).

United States of Scandal

SUNDAY: The anchor and chief Washington correspondent, who’s well acquainted with political scandals of the moment, takes a look back in the tabloid-drenched rearview mirror for a six-part docuseries profiling some of the more notorious headliners of our times. The series opens with back-to-back episodes, the first dealing with disgraced former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, caught on an FBI wiretap discussing a plan to sell President Barack Obama’s vacated Senate seat. Next up: former South Carolina Governor and Congressman (and for a minute a presidential contender) Mark Sanford, whose 2009 disappearance “on the Appalachian trail” was a cover for an extramarital liaison with his Argentinian mistress.

The Equalizer

SUNDAY: The CBS Sunday lineup is again intact, when the Season 4 premiere of the action series puts McCall (Queen Latifah) in harm’s way as she rescues her team from a former CIA colleague (Ilfenesh Hadera). The mission also brings Colton Fisk (Donal Logue) back out of the shadows. Followed by the second episode of The Tracker (9/8c), with Colter (Justin Hartley) seeking a man involved with a cult and who may not wish to be saved, and the Season 3 premiere on a new night of CSI: Vegas (10/9c), where the storyline echoes NCIS’ premiere last week. This time it’s CSI Level III Josh Folsom (Matt Lauria) who’s behind bars, charged with the murder of the man who killed his mother. 

INSIDE WEEKEND TV: 

• Planet Earth III: Bonus Edition (Saturday, 6/5c, BBC America): Special episodes of the acclaimed David Attenborough-narrated nature series go behind the scenes with additional content from the first two installments, “Coasts” and “Ocean.” 
• An American in Austen (Saturday, 8/7c, Hallmark Channel): In the latest “Loveuary” movie inspired by Jane Austen, Dynasty’s Eliza Bennett (no relation to the Austen characters) plays a librarian who’s convinced no man can live up to the ideals of Mr. Darcy—until she’s magically swept back to the Regency world of Pride and Prejudice and meets the genuine article (Nicholas Bishop). 
• True Crime Watch: Oxygen True Crime’s two-night docuseries Selena & Yolanda: The Secrets Between Them (Saturday, 8/7; Sunday, 7/6c) features a prison interview with Yolanda Saldivar, convicted of the 1995 murder of Tejano singer Selena and eligible for parole next year. On 48 Hours (Saturday, 10/9c, CBS), Peter Van Sant reports on the 2022 murder of Las Vegas reporter Jeff German, following an article on Clark County public administrator Robert Telles’ alleged workplace abuses. 
• Daytona 500 (Sunday, 2:30 pm/ET, Fox): The Great American Race at Florida’s Daytona International Speedway officially starts the Cup Series campaign. 
• 60 Minutes (Sunday, 7/6c, CBS): Reports include Norah O’Donnell’s interview with Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, the deputy commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, Anderson Cooper’s interview with one of Wisconsin’s fake electors following the 2002 election, and Scott Pelley’s interview in Ireland with Oppenheimer star and Oscar nominee Cillian Murphy. 
• The Simpsons (Sunday, 8/7c, Fox): Emmy winner Amanda Seyfried (The Dropout) is the guest voice when Homer lands a high-level job at a neighboring nuclear plant, thanks to Professor Frink—who then has to dictate every movement remotely to his inept protégé. Followed by new episodes of Krapopolis, The Great North and Grimsburg. 
• Tournament of Champions V (Sunday, 8/7c, Food Network):  Winners of the first four seasons return for Guy Fieri’s East Coast vs. West Coast bracket-style culinary competition pitting 32 top chefs against each other. 
• Naked and Afraid (Sunday, 8/7c, Discovery): The 17th season of the bare-it-all survivalist series opens with a hunter and a farmer trying to survive for 21 days in South Africa, going to life-threatening extremes to catch food. 
• NBA All-Star Game (Sunday, 8:30 pm/ET, TNT): Taking place in Indianapolis for the first time since 1985, the 73rd All-Star Game goes old school and returns to the classic East-West format with four 12-minute quarters and standard scoring. 
• What Would You Do? (Sunday, 10/9c, ABC): John Quiñones returns with guest correspondents Sara Haines and W. Kamau Bell for the 16th season of the provocative hidden-camera series, with segments including reactions to breastfeeding in public and immigrants applying for work at a coffee shop. 
• Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (Sunday, 11/10c, HBO): The perennial Emmy winner is back for an 11th season of barbed commentary, with no shortage of subjects for John Oliver to address in apoplectic depth.