Worth Watching: Who’s the ‘Greatest’ on ‘Jeopardy!,’ Leslie Jones on Netflix, CW ‘Crisis’ Crossover Ends
A selective critical checklist of notable Tuesday TV:
Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time (8/7c, ABC): Isn’t it great when something actually lives up to the hype? This prime-time tournament, now up to its fourth match, has surpassed even some sports events in the ratings, which are higher than for any regularly scheduled scripted network series all season. The expectations are especially high, now that Ken Jennings (with two matches to James Holzhauer’s one) is poised to win a third night, which would wrap the contest and reward him with the $1 million prize and GOAT title. Can James pull off another win with Jennings playing so aggressively? Could Brad Rutter regain his buzzer mojo, and not choke on the occasional “Daily Double,” and possibly win a match himself? All good questions as the Jeopardy! tournament enters its second and final week. But this is just the beginning of what promises to be another wave of prime-time game-show events (with Who Wants to Be a Millionaire returning to ABC, and CBS planning more The Price Is Right prime-time specials).
Leslie Jones: Time Machine (streaming on Netflix): How we’ve missed this outrageous comedian on Saturday Night Live this season. One thing we know: She’s an enthusiast for Game of Thrones, which may explain why that show’s producers (David Benioff and D.B. Weiss) are the directors of her new stand-up special, which looks back at many of Jones’ craziest misadventures from young adulthood to the unfiltered woman we know today.
Arrow (8/7c, The CW): More epic superhero action as the “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover resumes, with Oliver (Stephen Amell) providing some much-needed hope in the wake of the Flash’s (Grant Gustin) disappearance and the Paragons being stuck in the Vanishing Point. With the clock ticking for Arrow‘s series finale later this month, Oliver reveals he has become something else — for many fans, he’s always been something else! — as we learn the original stories for The Monitor (LaMonica Garrett) and the Anti-Monitor. The story concludes on the fifth-season premiere of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow (9/8c).
Inside Tuesday TV: Dallas star Patrick Duffy guests on CBS’s NCIS (8/7c) as retired Navy Lieutenant Commander Jack Briggs in an episode about the investigation of an F-18 crash… Queen Latifah and Westworld‘s Jeffrey Wright are the latest to find surprises in their family trees in PBS’s Finding Your Roots (8/7c, PBS, check local listings at pbs.org)… NBC’s This Is Us (9/8c) returns from holiday hiatus with Kate (Chrissy Metz) finally meeting husband Toby’s (Chris Sullivan) friends from Crossfit, while a concerned Randall (Sterling K. Brown) heads to L.A. to check on Rebecca (Mandy Moore)… With the Iowa caucuses looming to kick off the political primary season, CNN hosts a Democratic Debate (9/8c) with Des Moines Register in Iowa, with qualifiying candidates Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar and Tom Steyer taking the stage… The mystery deepens on ABC’s Emergence (10/9c) as Jo (Allison Tolman) tries to figure out what little Piper (Alexa Swinton) meant when she said, “I have to stay. They need my help,” as she drove off with fellow AI’s Benny (Owain Yeoman) and Helen (Rowena King). She and Agent Brooks (Enver Gjokaj) haven’t given up trying to communicate with the Little Robot Girl, while back on the home front, her ex Alex (Donald Faison) gets a life-changing offer.
