ABC’s Thursday Lineup Returns, Cancel Culture Comedy, ‘Deli Boys,’ ‘Traitors’ Finale

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ABC’s Thursday lineup returns with new episodes for the first time since November in one of the season’s more puzzling programing hiatuses. They hope to make up for the long absence with heightened storylines, including on the hit first-responder melodrama, where dispatcher Maddie (Jennifer Love Hewitt) runs afoul of a serial killer. Followed by the ridiculous Doctor Odyssey (9/8c), with the cruise ship responding to a Jaws-inspired shark attack; and the long-running Grey’s Anatomy (10/9c), which finds the staff of Grey Sloan responding to the cliffhanger shooting at the convenience store, when Jo (Camilla Luddington) and Lucas (Niko Terho) were threatened by an armed robber.

Douglas is Cancelled

Doctor Who alum Steven Moffat trains his satirical pen on cancel culture in a tart, biting four-part comedy starring Downton Abbey‘s Hugh Bonneville as Douglas Bellowes, a veteran TV news anchor whose career goes into freefall after a tweet reveals that he told a sexist joke at a wedding. (He insists he can’t remember it.) His outraged wife (the hilarious Alex Kingston), a newspaper editor, sputters, “We live in a world where a newsreader’s ass can push a war off the front page.” Doug’s younger co-anchor, Madeline (Who veteran Karen Gillan), insists she has his back, or is she manipulating and backstabbing him, having fanned the flames with a passive-aggressive retweet. The top-notch cast includes Ben Miles as the news show’s agitated producer, Simon Russell Beale as Doug’s fickle agent and Ted Lasso‘s Nick Mohammed as an inept comedy writer brought in to lighten the mood. Launches with two episodes, the remainder dropping next Thursday.

Deli Boys

In the spirit of Arrested Development and Schitt’s Creek, though seen through the lens of a raucous caper comedy, Abdullah Saeed’s fast-paced farce stars Asif Ali and Saagar Shaikh as mismatched Pakistani American brothers who believe they’ve achieved the American dream, living large on the fortune built by their entrepreneur dad (Iqbal Theba). But when the patriarch suddenly dies in a freak accident, the brothers quickly learn their enterprise has always been a criminal one. Using their one remaining convenience store as a front, they become entangled with the Italian Mafia and a Peruvian cartel. All 10 episodes are available for binge-watching, and it’s the sort of show that’s hard to stop watching once you start.

The Traitors

The devious Emmy-winning reality competition arrives at the finale of its third season, with four of the “faithful” and two “traitors” still in the game, and who will emerge triumphant? Once the dust settles, Emmy-winning host Alan Cumming convenes the cast for a reunion. And if this leaves you wanting more, Peacock drops the entire third season of The Traitors: UK.

The Pitt

The conflict between senior resident Dr. Langdon (Patrick Ball) and pushy intern Santos (Isa Briones) comes to a head in the 10th hour of the very eventful shift, with potentially devastating consequences. And the staff rallies around charge nurse Dana (the wonderful Katherine LaNasa) in the bloody aftermath of being punched by an impatient patient. “We’ve all been assaulted,” one of her colleagues reveals, as if they didn’t already have enough on their plate.

Ghosts

The reviews have been great for the hit supernatural comedy, but restaurateur Jay (Utkarsh Ambudkar) is sweating over a critic’s (Brooklyn Nine-Nine‘s Joe Lo Truglio) upcoming newspaper review for his new establishment, and he’s not at all pleased to learn that Trevor (Asher Grodman) was stirring the pot. In ghost news, Alberta (Danielle Pinnock) is thrilled that her great grandniece (Ashley D. Kelley) is using the B&B for her bachelorette party, though considerably less overjoyed when she learns she’s marrying a musician. Let the spirited meddling begin.

INSIDE THURSDAY TV:

• Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage (8/7c, CBS): Jim (Will Sasso) objects when son-in-law Georgie (Montana Jordan) and wife Audrey (Rachel Bay Jones) give the tire store a makeover. Can Mandy (Emily Osment) mediate the fallout?
• 32nd MovieGuide Awards (8/7c, Great American Family): Mario Lopez hosts an awards show honoring the industry’s most wholesome programs and stars, many on GAF.
• Animal Control (9/8c, Fox): The Masked Singer‘s Ken Jeong returns to the sitcom as Roman Park when Frank (Joel McHale) and Victoria (Grace Palmer) seek a last-minute benefactor for Emily’s (Vella Lovell) outdoor kennel project. Followed by Going Dutch (9:30/8:30c), with House‘s Lisa Edelstein guest-starring as one of the Colonel’s (Denis Leary) three ex-wives, who all show up on base together as a united front of besties.
• Matlock (9/8c, CBS): While Matty (Kathy Bates) is there for her boss Olympia (Skye P. Marshall) when the firm’s class-action case gets complicated, her sister Bitsy (Julie Hagerty), who’s not as ditsy as she appears, gives the deceptive lawyer a reality check about the consequences of her secret mission. Followed by Elsbeth (10/9c), where the sleuth snoops into a legendary mob murder at a Little Italy restaurant whose owner (Alyssa Milano) is a former Mafia princess.

ON THE STREAM:

• Reacher (streaming on Prime Video): It’s rare when Reacher (Alan Ritchson) isn’t the biggest muscle in the room, but hulking bodyguard Paulie (Olivier Richters) may be more than his match. The two clash when the undercover hero is forced to cover his tracks after the DEA team suffers a tragic setback.
• For the Win (streaming on Prime Video): An immersive four-part sports docuseries follows the 2024 National Women’s Soccer League through the playoffs and championship.
• Tyler Perry’s Beauty in Black (streaming on Netflix): The melodrama returns for the second half of its first season, with Kimmie (Taylor Polidore Williams) seizing power for herself after saving her sister from being kidnapped.