Before you get on your “Dancing with the Who?” high horse, consider rooting for Olympics cult hero Stephen “Pommel Horse Guy” Nedoroscik, the sort of insta-celebrity for whom this show was made. Fellow Olympian rugby player Ilona Maher and stars from the NFL (Danny Amendola) and the NBA (Dwight Howard) round out the athlete portion of the Season 33 cast, which also includes both a Bachelor (Joey Graziadei) and a Bachelorette (Jenn Tran), a Real Housewife (Phaedra Parks), show-biz veterans (sitcom star Reginald VelJohnson, 90210 alum Tori Spelling and Oscar nominee Eric Roberts) and a relative newbie (Chandler Kinney), a glamorous model (Brooks Nader) and a notorious con woman (Anna Delvey aka Anna Sorokin). Let the voting begin as they compete for the Len Goodman Mirrorball, with couples dancing either the tango, cha cha, salsa, foxtrot or jive. Alfonso Ribeiro and Julianne Hough are the hosts, with Julianne’s brother Derek on the judging panel alongside Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli.
Carrie Preston’s Elsbeth is no longer TV’s quirkiest big-city police consultant. She has company in the always-welcome Kaitlin Olson (Hacks, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia), exercising her comic chops and brash attitude as single mom Morgan Gillory, a hot mess with a “high potential intellectual” IQ of 160. Morgan doesn’t trust or much like authority, but after this late-night cleaning lady shows the LAPD her Sherlock-level analytical skills, the Major Crimes lieutenant (Judy Reyes) brings her on board to “spot the things my detectives miss.” Needless to say, her new partner, Det. Adam Karadec (Daniel Sunjata), isn’t thrilled with the arrangement, but fans of offbeat procedurals might be. (See the full review.)
Following the model of Ryan Murphy’s American Crime Story and Feud anthologies, the first American Sports Story limited-series docudrama tells the grim rise-and-fall biography of college football and NFL star Aaron Hernandez (a solid Josh Rivera). The 10-part series, launching with two episodes, depicts his struggles with drugs, fame, the pressures and hard knocks of the game as well as his closeted homosexual desires in an arena of toxic masculinity. Broadway’s Tony Yazbeck co-stars as University of Florida coach Urban Meyer, whose tough love is tempered with an arrogant desire to win at all costs, even if that means indulging his star players’ frequent transgressions. Watching Aaron accept a major college award, Meyer muses, “He’s going to end up in the Hall of Fame. Or prison.”
The Emmy-winning (this year for music and production design) comedy takes a detour into yet another bizarre world, that of Charles’ (Steve Martin) murdered stunt double Sazz Pataki (Jane Lynch), when our heroes visit a stunt-person bar, aptly named Concussions. What they find there is both surprising and weirdly familiar. Elsewhere, Oliver (Martin Short) is in a “deep dark pit of despair” at the thought that he might be losing Loretta (Meryl Streep) for good.
The season’s Top 10 acts get one last chance to impress America in the final performance round, and you could hardly ask for more variety. The contenders include a comedian from Zimbabwe (Learnmore Jonasi), a dancing dog act (Roni Sagi & Rhythm), a quick-change artist (Solange Kardinaly), an acrobatic balancing act (Hakuna Matata Acrobats), aerialists (Sebastian and Sonia), two singers (registered nurse Dee Dee Simon and middle-school janitor Richard Goodall), a drone act (Sky Elements) and dance groups from Australia (Brent Street) and Japan (Airfootworks). The Season 19 winner will be announced next Tuesday in a star-filled finale spectacular.
INSIDE TUESDAY TV:
ON THE STREAM:
By DAN BARILE Eagle Times Correspondent Ager earns All-American honors Wesleyan junior Stephanie Ager added a new accolade to h
Formula 1 announced Monday that it has approved the entry of GM and Cadillac as a new team on the grid, bringing a storied American car maker into the pinnacle
We resort to sports to take a break from the monotonousness of our everyday life. We watch the stars play, we smile at their success and cry at their fail