Here is a list of the programming options to expect on TV this week:
There is a LOT happening on Sunday, December 1 with the the mid-season finale of The Walking Dead set to air on AMC at 9 PM as well as the start of the final season of the HBO series Treme, airing its season premiere at 9 PM. And, the PBS special Return to Downton Abbey will air at 9 PM with Susan Sarandon as host.
That same night there are four (count ’em 4) holiday movies airing. They are as follows:
Silver Bells will debut on the cable channel UP at 7 PM (with encores at 9 and 11 PM). Silver Bells is about Bruce Dalt (Bruce Boxleitner from Cedar Cove), an ambitious, gung-ho father and local TV sports anchor who approaches the holidays much like he approaches life: competitively. This Christmas he wants his interior designing wife Piper (Bridgett Newton from Franklin & Bash) to win the neighborhood’s annual holiday house decorating contest. He wants his son Jason (Kenton Duty from Shake It Up!) to be the winning basketball player on his high school team. And, of course, he wants everyone in the family, including daughter Kasey (Laura Spencer from The Lizzie Bennet Diaries), who is in her first year of law school, to win by securing the biggest Black Friday shopping deals before dawn. But when Bruce gets into a physical scuffle with a ref at Jason’s basketball game, the holidays take a turn for the worse.
The Christmas Spirit is the latest Hallmark Channel movie set to debut at 8 PM. Charlotte Hart (Nicolette Sheridan from Desperate Housewives), a distinguished journalist, is spending time with her family over the holidays when a real estate developer approaches their small town with quite an offer. Skeptical and looking for the real scoop, Charlotte drives to see the real estate head honcho to question him. While she’s en route, she gets into a terrible car accident and wakes up in the hospital only to realize that her body is in a coma, but her spirit is very much awake. She meets another spirit, who just happens to be the greedy developer. It turns out that he was on the other end of the accident, and he too is in a coma. With only a few days left before the town votes on the development, Charlotte must try to change the minds of the developer and the town, but that is no easy task when no one can see or hear her.
The ION movie Holiday Road Trip will debut at 9 PM. Maya (Ashley Scott from Jericho), a recently heartbroken pet supply employee, couldn’t have any less in common with her co-worker, Pat (Patrick Muldoon from Days of our Lives), who happens to be the company founder’s son. But, tasked with traveling across the country on a Christmastime social media tour for the company’s leading canine and most-prized possession, Scoots, fate finds a funny way to intervene. In their race against the clock, the two begin to fall for one another. Unbeknownst to Maya, though, her remorseful ex-boyfriend is in close pursuit, hoping he can win her back.
The Hallmark Hall of Fame movie Christmas in Conway will air on ABC at 9 PM. Andy Garcia plays Duncan Mayor, who decides the perfect Christmas present for his beloved wife, Suzy (Mary-Louise Parker from Weeds), is a ride on a real-deal Ferris wheel, set up in their own back yard. Why? Because it was while riding one years earlier that Duncan asked Suzy to marry him. Mandy Moore is Suzy’s nurse, Natalie. Natalie and Suzy develop a deep bond almost immediately. Not so for Natalie and Duncan, he’s a bit of a curmudgeon and at least initially resents the time and attention his wife pays to her soul-mate nurse. But love is in the air, and not just between Suzy and Duncan. Natalie and a young landscape designer who’s helping Duncan assemble the giant Ferris wheel also fall under the intoxicating spell of romance.
The conclusion of the two-part fall finale of The Blacklist will air on NBC on December 2 at 10 PM.
On December 3, the mid-season finale of Supernatural will air at 9 PM on The CW.
Then on December 4 the new TNT series Mob City will air its two-hour debut at 9 PM. The series follows the epic battle between determined police chief William Parker (Neal McDonough from Justified) and dangerous mobster Mickey Cohen (Jeremy Luke from the box office film Don Jon) inflames 1940s Los Angeles. Mob City will also air in two-hour blocks on December 11 and December 18.
That same night the first of the two-part mid-season finale of Arrow will air on The CW at 8 PM. The second part of Arrow will, of course, air on December 10.
The winter finale of Scandal will air on ABC on December 5 at 10 PM. And, that same night a special LIVE presentation of the Broadway version of The Sound of Music will air on NBC at 8 PM. Stephen Moyer (True Blood) and singer-actress Carrie Underwood will appear in the lead roles of the classic story of Georg and Maria von Trapp in the story set in pre-World War II Austria about an aspiring nun who leaves the Abby to become a governess for the widower Captain von Trapp’s seven children and finds herself falling in love with her employer and questioning her religious calling.
On December 6, the first of the two-part season finale of Haven will air on Syfy at 10 PM. The second part of the season finale of Haven will air on December 13.
The Lifetime movie Christmas in the City will debut at 8 PM on December 7. After closing down her small-town family business, Wendy (Ashley Williams from the film Something Borrowed) and her six-year-old daughter Grace move to the big city where an old friend offers her a job in the toy department of Wolmans. But her excitement is short lived when the store’s new consultant, Teanna (singer-actress Ashanti), ruins the holiday spirit throughout the store by replacing Santa with a hunky male underwear model. It’s only when Grace begins to lose faith in the holiday that Wendy realizes she must bring the true meaning of Christmas back to Wolmans before it is too late.
The Hallmark Channel movie Santa Switch will air on December 7 at 8 PM. As the Christmas season approaches, Dan Ryebeck (Ethan Erickson from the Hallmark Channel movie Accidentally in Love) is facing unemployment, and struggling to pay for the gifts he thinks will impress his two kids, Sally and Joe. Always chasing a new business idea, Dan hasn’t had time for family, including his wife Linda (Anne Dudek from House and Covert Affairs), who is finally fed up and filing divorce papers. Threatened by Linda’s handsome and successful young boss, Trevor, Dan knows he must make this Christmas the best one yet to win his family back. But after auditioning for a mall Santa job and quickly losing his cool, Dan is frustrated and broke, blaming the holidays for his troubles. Little does he know his luck is about to turn around when the real Kris Kringle pays him a visit from the North Pole. Deciding to take a vacation and leave Dan in charge, Kris sends his hard-working elf assistant Eddie (Sean Astin from the Lord of the Rings franchise) to guide Dan as the new Santa Claus, hoping he’ll learn a lesson in Christmas spirit.
December 8 will be another big night for holiday themed movies; and they are as follows:
Guess Who’s Coming To Christmas will debut on the cable channel UP at 7 PM. When his high-maintenance girlfriend Chelsea (Olivia Cheng from Supernatural) refuses to cook, jaded rock star Dax (Drew Lachey from the boy band 98 Degrees) is found by New York paparazzi passed out in his car with a frozen holiday turkey in the passenger seat. In order to repair his tarnished image, Dax publicly agrees to grant a fan’s “Dear Santa” Christmas wish. To his dismay, his manager Jason drops Dax off in Cedar Grove, a small Midwest town, where he’s committed to spend a week and perform in a local holiday Christmas concert. At first, Dax is horrified to be stuck in the Reverend Harding family’s home under strict rules and a curfew. But he soon becomes charmed by the Reverend’s wife Lynne, teenage son Tim and very surprised contest winner and daughter Kelly (MacKenzie Porter from Tom, Dick & Harriet), a sassy, unemployed book jacket writer. Dax begins to appreciate what the Hardings have as a family – love, caring and an uplifting holiday spirit. There will be encore presentations of this movie at 9 and 11 PM.
The ABC Family movie Holidaze will debut at 8 PM. High powered executive Melody Gerard (Jennie Garth) returns to her sleepy hometown to try and convince everyone to let her company build a giant new discount store. But she’s unexpectedly met with resistance by the townspeople, led by her childhood sweetheart, Carter (Cameron Matheson). Desperate to get out of town and back to her “real” life, Melody takes a spill and wakes up in an alternate universe where she never took the job and is married to Carter.
Christmas Belle is the new ION movie that will debut at 9 PM. With her California hometown in the rearview mirror, Belle (Haylie Duff) heads north on business to catalog the sale of a large mansion. While the job is a dream, the client, Hunter Lowell (Nicholas Gonzalez from Sleepy Hollow, is not. But, as the two spend more time together, his icy demeanor begins to melt. Although their relationship is budding, Belle’s long-time suitor, Tony, arrives, sending mixed signals to Hunter while adding chaos to the holiday season.
And, on December 8 and December 9, the two-night movie Bonnie & Clyde will debut at 9 PM (both nights) – simultaneously – on Lifetime, A&E and the History Channel. Emile Hirsch and Holliday Grainger will star in the title roles of Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, the Depression-era outlaw couple whose crime spree enraptured the American public. Rumored to have a sixth-sense to see events before they happened, Barrow was always able to stay one step ahead of the law as they escaped capture time and again. His one blind spot was Parker, who was intent on becoming famous and fed on the alluring media attention, pushing Barrow to commit riskier and more dangerous crimes to generate bigger headlines and make them the most famous criminals of the modern era.
Mark your calendars!
Rueben's Ramblings 