Jimmy Kimmel’s 20th, Peacock’s ‘Poker Face,’ Howling Horror in ‘Teen Wolf’ Movie and ‘Wolf Pack’ Premiere, Hulu’s ‘1619 Project’

Jimmy Kimmel Live!

(Note: Special earlier time for the show, which is then repeated at 11:35/10:35c). When Jimmy Kimmel entered the late-night arena 20 years ago, seemingly intent on mimicking his The Man Show frat-boy shtick and serving drinks to a rowdy audience, I didn’t see it as a keeper. Those days are long past, and now Kimmel is my go-to in early late night, in part because he doesn’t entirely dwell on politics and silly games for his humor, with freewheeling bits (often incorporating Hollywood Boulevard) that reflect his admiration for his idol, David Letterman. To mark the show’s 20th anniversary—he’s signed through the 2025-26 season—Kimmel moves into prime time, welcoming the same guests who helped launch the show on Jan. 26, 2003: George Clooney, Snoop Dogg and Coldplay’s Chris Martin.

Poker Face

Knives Out creator Rian Johnson is the mastermind behind this clever homage to Columbo-style crime-solving, starring the delightfully gravel-voiced Natasha Lyonne (Russian Doll) as Charlie Cale, a human lie detector. She’s not a typical detective by any measure, a beer-swilling drifter laying low and taking menial jobs to avoid the criminals (led by Benjamin Bratt) whose lives she disrupts in the series opener, set at a corrupt casino. Each episode opens by depicting the murder, often involving an elaborate scenario. Only then do we pull back and flash back to reveal Charlie has been there all along, not even always aware the death is a crime until the villains (a colorful array of guest stars) start blabbing and lying around Charlie. Poker Face plays a winning hand of smart humor amid the mayhem. Would I lie?

Teen Wolf: The Movie

Most of the cast of MTV’s cult supernatural thriller (2011-17) reunite for a feature-length (two hours-plus) battle against a new force of evil targeting the various shape-shifters of Beacon Hills, California. Werewolf Scott McCall (Tyler Posey), whose teen years are well behind him, is lured away from his animal-shelter duties when it appears that Allison Argent (Crystal Reed), the love of his life who died in his arms back in the day, may not have entirely crossed over. “Supposed-to-be-dead is starting to be a recurring theme around here,” quips one-time antagonist Jackson (Colton Haynes) late in the action, which rarely lets up once Scott, Derek Hale (Tyler Hoechlin), Lydia (Holland Roden), were-coyote Malia (Shelley Hennig), kitsune Kira (Arden Cho), Scott’s beta werewolf Liam (Dylan Sprayberry) and others join forces against a relentless foe.

Wolf Pack

Also from Teen Wolf creator Jeff Davis, but apparently unrelated except by California locale, this horror series based on the books by Edo van Belkom introduces a new group of telegenic but disoriented young werewolves. Sarah Michelle Gellar of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame appears (and initially is underused) as arson investigator Kristen Ramsey, arriving in the wake of a deadly wildfire which unleashes a furry beast that puts the bite on classmates Everett (Armani Jackson), who already suffers from anxiety, and rebellious Blake (Bella Shepard). Before long, their paths cross with twins Luna (Chloe Rose Robertson) and Harlan (Tyler Lawrence Gray), who’ve lived under a shadow of lycanthropy since being adopted 16 years earlier by park ranger Garrett Briggs (Westworld’s Rodrigo Santoro).

The 1619 Project

Nikole Hannah-Jones adapts her influential and controversial Pulitzer Prize-winning series of New York Times essays into a six-part docuseries (two episodes a week), revisiting American history through the lens of the Black experience from slavery through the civil rights movement and beyond. The series opens with personal reflections on “Democracy,” as Nikole remembers her father, an Army veteran with sharecropper roots who flew the flag outside his home as a proud patriot. “No people had a greater claim to the American flag than we do,” Nikole declares, as The 1619 Project (referencing the first arrival of enslaved Africans on the North American shores) reclaims embattled and often disenfranchised Black Americans as “perfectors of our democracy.”

INSIDE THURSDAY TV:

• Celebrity Jeopardy! (8/7c, ABC): In the last of the series’ semifinal matches, quarterfinal winners Patton Oswalt, Brendan Hunt and Michael Cera battle it out for the last remaining spot in next week’s $1 million final.
• Nikki Bella Says I Do (9/8c, E!): A four-part “special event” details the planning and parties building up to the wedding of the WWE star and her former Dancing with the Stars partner Artem Chingvintsev.
• Call Me Kat (9:30/8:30c, Fox): 30 Rock’s Jack McBrayer guests as Gideon, the Kat Café’s new baker.
• Law & Order: Organized Crime (10/9c, NBC): Capping an all-new night of Law & Order drama, Bell (Danielle Moné Truitt) sics the task force on a seemingly untouchable crime boss when she learns he may be responsible for her former partner’s death.
• The Killing (streaming on Topic): The Danish murder mystery, which inspired the AMC/Netflix series, is available to stream in a dubbed English version for the first time.
• Clean Sweep (streaming on Sundance Now): An Irish thriller, launching with two episodes, stars Charlene McKenna as a housewife and mom who kills her former partner in crime, sweating it out as her detective husband looks for the murderer.