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Wednesday, Oct. 28: ‘NOVA’ on PBS Asks ‘Can We Cool the Planet?’

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ALSO SEE: Your Full 2020 NFL Regular Season TV Schedule

All Times Eastern.

Wednesday, Oct. 28

NOVA: “Can We Cool the Planet?”
PBS, 9pm

As global temperatures rise, scientists are exploring geoengineering solutions, from planting trees to sucking carbon out of the air to physically blocking out sunlight. But would it work? And what are the risks of engineering Earth’s climate?

Holidate
Netflix
Original Film!

Emma Roberts and Luke Bracey star as single strangers who meet and make a pact to be each other’s date for every festive occasion.

The Goldbergs: “It’s All About Comptrol”
ABC, 8pm

Geoff and Erika reevaluate their relationship, while Beverly runs for office.

The Wall: “Denise and Tisha”
NBC, 8pm

Two sisters from Milwaukee — bus driver Denise and electrician Tisha — put their technical skills to work on the Wall.

Nature: “Australian Bushfire Rescue”
PBS, 8pm

Meet the people rescuing and caring for the animal survivors of Australia’s devastating bushfires. Iconic species like koalas, kangaroos and wombats face a series of hurdles to recover from their trauma.

America’s Wild Seasons
Smithsonian Channel, 8pm
Series Finale!

In this episode, follow America’s creatures as they soak up the sun, look for mates and fight for survival during a wild summer.

Election Stories
TCM, beginning at 8pm

With less than a week to go until our own real-life election, TCM puts a number classic films about political campaigns and elections on its ballot tonight. The lineup starts with 1964’s The Best Man, which screenwriter Gore Vidal adapted from his own play. It stars Henry Fonda, Cliff Robertson and Lee Tracy (in his final big screen role, for which he received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination) and follows the political maneuverings behind the nomination of a presidential candidate. After that is The Last Hurrah (1958), directed by John Ford and starring Spencer Tracy as a longtime mayor preparing for another election campaign. Next up is Preston Sturges’ directorial debut, the political satire The Great McGinty (1940), which earned Sturges a Best Original Screenplay Oscar win. Then it’s Robert Redford in Michael Ritchie’s Oscar-winning comedy/drama The Candidate (1972), followed by Best Picture Oscar winner All the King’s Men (1949), which follows the rise and fall of a ruthless, Huey Long-like (but fictional) politician (portrayed by Best Actor Oscar winner Broderick Crawford).

Paranormal Caught on Camera: Top 100: “Top 40 Countdown”
Travel Channel, 8pm

In this special four-hour episode that counts down the top 40 paranormal encounters of all time, Bigfoot terrorizes three kids in Indiana; poltergeists vandalize an antiques store; a fleet of UFOs crashes a birthday party; a black-eyed girl lurks in a haunted forest; and more.

American Housewife
ABC, 8:30pm
Season Premiere!

The Otto family is back for a fifth season. Mom and wife Katie (Katy Mixon) is still facing her own flaws and insecurities while raising her three kids in Westport, Connecticut — a land of “perfect” mothers with the “perfect” children. In “Graduation,” Katie Goes to great lengths to ensure Taylor graduates high school.

Sistas: “Trying to Say Open”
BET, 9pm

Fatima (Crystal Hayslett) and Zac (Devale Ellis) meet each other after an unfortunate accident. Danni (Mignon Von) gets offended by something Preston (Trinity Whiteside) says. Andi (KJ Smith) contemplates a settlement in a legal case.

The Real Housewives of Orange County: “The Splash Heard Round the OC”
Bravo, 9pm

Shannon’s got a new house, boyfriend, body and revamped food line to celebrate and is ready to show it all off at her housewarming party. Emily is hopeful that she can finally make peace with Shannon. Kelly and Gina question Elizabeth’s romantic relationship. Meanwhile, Gina confronts Braunwyn and Shannon about the comments they made about her new home.

Big Brother: All-Stars
CBS, 9pm
Season Finale!

The last remaining Houseguest wins the grand prize of $500,000 as the season comes to an end. Julie Chen Moonves hosts.

Coroner: “Unburied”
The CW, 9pm

When a real estate agent is found dead at a bus stop, Jenny (Serinda Swan), Detective McAvoy (Roger Cross) and Malik (Andy McQueen) are led to the home of an old man and his wife. Meanwhile, Jenny delivers unfortunate news to Kelly (guest star Nicola Correia-Damude), which ultimately leads to a great arrangement for both when Kelly offers Jenny assistance at home.

Property Brothers: Forever Home: “When Tragedy Strikes”
HGTV, 9pm

Chris, Charlotte and their 2-year old just moved into their dream neighborhood with plans to update their new home’s choppy layout and outdated finishes. Drew and Jonathan Scott step in to help transform the entire property.

American Ninja Warrior: “Finals 1”
NBC, 9pm

The competition moves into the Finals round with a two-night event to determine this season’s champion. Twenty-eight top ninjas face up to 10 diabolical obstacles including Falling Shelves and Dragonback, which are new to the course this year. The top eight advance to the Power Tower Playoffs to compete head-to-head to determine a winner.

The Age of Nature: “Changing”
PBS, 10pm
Series Finale!

Discover why restoring nature might be our best tool to slow global warming. From Borneo to Antarctica, the resilience of the planet is helping us find solutions to cope and even mitigate climate change, providing hope for a more positive future.

Archer
FXX, 10pm
Season Finale!

Season 11 of the animated spy comedy wraps up with the episode “Cold Fusion.”

Thursday, Oct. 29

That Animal Rescue Show
CBS All Access
New Series!

Filmmaker Richard Linklater is an executive producer of this docuseries that follows the animal rescue community around Austin, Texas.

Celebrity Family Feud
ABC, 8pm
Season Finale!

Championship boxers from WBC get into the ring with the UFC team to battle it out for their chosen charities. Then, comedian Sebastian Maniscalco takes on black-ish star Jenifer Lewis.

Supernatural: “Unity”
The CW, 8pm

Dean (Jensen Ackles) hits the road with Jack (Alexander Calvert), who needs to complete a final ritual in the quest to beat Chuck (guest star Rob Benedict). A difference of opinion leaves Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Castiel (Misha Collins) behind looking for answers to questions of their own.

Superstore: “Essential”
NBC, 8pm
Season Premiere!

As Season 6 begins, after the coronavirus hits, Amy (America Ferrera) and Jonah (Ben Feldman) try to bring some order to the chaos in Cloud 9 while being pulled in multiple directions. The employees learn what it means to be considered “heroes,” while Amy and Jonah’s impending move to California looms large. This episode will likely wrap things up for longtime star Ferrera, who announced she was leaving the show after its fifth season last year. Production on what would have been her farewell episode — originally scheduled to be filmed last spring and air at the end of Season 5 — was delayed due to the pandemic.

Winchester ’73
TCM, 8pm
Catch a Classic!

This 1950 classic was the first Western film collaboration between star James Stewart and director Anthony Mann, and it’s a winner — a movie unique and important enough to have been added to the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry. Stewart plays Lin McAdam, a cowboy searching for his father’s killer and the family rifle that was used against him. As the gun falls into the possession of new owners, their stories are depicted, all leading to a dramatic conclusion. The cast also includes Dan Duryea, Stephen McNally, Shelley Winters, Will Geer, and Rock Hudson and Tony Curtis in small early roles.

Southern Charm: “The Good Shephard”
Bravo, 9pm
Season Premiere!

Austen and Madison are back together, and their bond is stronger than ever — but it’s Craig who’s moved in with Austen after his house was damaged by a flood. Living with someone from her past, Kathryn reveals a bit of gossip to Craig and finds herself unprepared for the repercussions. With a new girlfriend and a therapist in tow, Shep’s new and improved attitude leaves him determined to keep his nose out of everyone’s business. But an unexpected twist has his friends wondering if he’s really changed at all.

Flip or Flop: “Better Be Quick”
HGTV, 9pm

With so many flips in play, Tarek El Moussa and Christina Anstead take out an expensive hard money loan to flip a house in Fountain Valley, California. With the added pressure to flip the house fast, they juggle design decisions amid a tight timeline to pull together an impressive renovation.

Metallica: S&M 2
PBS, 9pm

Join the ultimate heavy-metal band as they combine forces with the nearly 80-member San Francisco Symphony orchestra. Filmed over two sold-out shows that opened San Francisco’s Chase Center, the concert features the symphonic renditions of Metallica fan favorites.

Ghost Adventures: “Horror at Joe Exotic Zoo”
Travel Channel, 9pm

Zak Bagans and the Ghost Adventures crew filmed at the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park — made infamous in the recent Netflix documentary series Tiger King — for this two-hour special.

Star Trek: Discovery: “Choose Your Pain”
CBS, 10pm

Star Trek: Discovery Season 1 episodes continue on CBS with “Choose Your Pain.” Lorca (Jason Isaacs) is captured by the Klingons and unexpectedly finds himself in the company of prisoner of war Starfleet Lieutenant Ash Tyler (Shazad Latif) and notorious criminal Harry Mudd (Rainn Wilson).

Evil Lives Here: Shadows of Death
Investigation Discovery, 10pm
New Series!

This series explores the ripple effects of a single murder on multiple lives, unraveling each homicide case through three distinct but connected points of view. In the premiere, a man is release from jail in 1988 after a judge deems his murder confession false. For over two decades, a family’s hope for justice fades as the killer walks the streets. But one tenacious detective refuses to let this cold case go.

Impractical Jokers: Dinner Party
truTV, 10pm
New Episodes!

Joe, Murr, Q and Sal are back with new meals and new guests. Cable’s No. 1 new unscripted comedy series returns to truTV with 10 new celebrity-packed episodes. Each week, the lifelong buddies invite viewers back to their dinner tables where they safely, and hilariously, sit down to break bread from their respective homes. New dinner guests include Wayne Brady, Edie Falco, Kane Hodder, Colin Jost and DJ Marshmello, as well as a reunion with their Impractical Jokers: The Movie costar Paula Abdul, among others.

Top Secret Videos
truTV, 10:30pm
New Series!

Little did you know, there is a group of fresh NSA interns whose job it is to catalogue all of the pointless security cam footage that passes through the servers of the NSA. This comedic clip show will capture the most embarrassing, ridiculous and bizarre behavior, and it will do so using the latest in video surveillance technology, with hilarious commentary from the cast of comedian interns — Matt Walsh, Brian Posehn, Ron Funches and Ali Kolbert — in the “basement of the NSA.” This is the modern evolution of America’s Funniest Home Videos in the age of CCTV.

The Holzer Files: “Phantom Hand”
Travel Channel, 11pm
Season Premiere!

In 1963, a terrified Cleveland family called in legendary ghost hunter Hans Holzer after witnessing a phantom hand pry up nails and open a trapdoor. Now, nearly 60 years later, the team heads to Ohio, where disturbing clues lead them to the surprising source of the ghastly haunting — one of Holzer’s most unusual cases — and they discover a disturbing pattern among the neighborhood’s other hauntings.

Friday, Oct. 30

Truth Seekers
Amazon Prime Video
New Series!

Nick Frost and Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) co-created, cowrote and star in this supernatural comedy series.

The Mandalorian
Disney+
Season Premiere!

Pedro Pascal is back as the title character of Disney+’s Emmy-winning hit, the service’s first Star Wars live-action series. He is again accompanied by breakout fan-favorite character The Child (a.k.a. “Baby Yoda”). Newcomers in Season 2 include Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka Tano, Anakin Skywalker’s onetime Jedi Padawan and a fan-favorite character previously seen only in animated Star Wars projects; Temuera Morrison as another character beloved by fans, bounty hunter Boba Fett; Battlestar Galactica alumna Katee Sackhoff reprising her animated voice-over role in live action as Bo-Katan Kryze, leader of a Mandalorian group called the Nite Owls; Timothy Olyphant as Cobb Vanth, a former slave who acquired Boba Fett’s Mandalorian armor; and Michael Biehn as a bounty hunter.

His House
Netflix
Original Film!

After escaping war-torn South Sudan, a young refugee couple start a new life in a small English town that has evil lurking beneath its surface.

TCM Morning & Afternoon Movies: ’30s Horror
TCM, beginning at 6:30am
Catch a Classic!

It may be tempting to think that the horror films airing during this 12-plus hour block aren’t really scary, since they were made more than 80 years ago. Nothing could be further from the truth, as you’ll see when you enjoy the chills of Lionel Atwill and Fay Wray in Doctor X (1932) and Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933); Boris Karloff in The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932) and The Walking Dead (1936); Bela Lugosi in White Zombie (1932) and Island of Lost Souls (1932); and more.

The Lost Boys
IFC, 2:45pm
Catch a Classic!

Director Joel Schumacher’s cult classic 1987 flick is a fun take on the vampire movie, combining thrills, chills and laughs, and led by a fun cast including Jason Patric, Corey Haim, Kiefer Sutherland, Corey Feldman, Dianne Wiest and Jami Gertz. The production is also very ’80s, from its look and its soundtrack to its clothes and some of those names you just read, but that also remains part of its charm. Befitting its title, many of this film’s vampires are outwardly youngsters, and the movie’s youthful cast helped change cultural depictions of these creatures of the night; without the influence of this film, the beautiful, sparkly vamps of the Twilight series might not have been created, for instance (whether that’s a good or bad thing, we’ll leave up to you to decide).

Shark Tank
ABC, 8pm

A husband and wife pitch their adult swaddle design, while entrepreneurs pitch an inventive approach to fish luring, followed by a product designed to relieve back pain.

Portals to Hell: “Frightmare in Connecticut”
Travel Channel, 8pm

Jack and Katrina investigate Connecticut’s most haunted bed and breakfast. The owner has been possessed twice and has even led an exorcism. She joins the investigation for an unprecedented experiment that leaves the team speechless.

My Big Italian Adventure
HGTV, 9pm
New Series!

Actress Lorraine Bracco brings her renovation vision to life, with the help of a local contractor and her close friends, including actress Angie Harmon.

Jazz at Lincoln Center Presents: A Swingin’ Sesame Street Celebration
PBS, 9pm

Enjoy a celebration of the music of Sesame Street with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. Big Bird, Elmo and other Sesame Street favorites sing the show’s songs alongside the world-renowned orchestra and artistic director Wynton Marsalis.

The Osbournes: Night of Terror
Travel Channel, 9pm

The Osbourne family — Jack, Kelly, Ozzy and Sharon — are going on their first ever paranormal investigation together. The First Family of Darkness are in for real chills with a ghost hunt inside Los Angeles’ historical Heritage Square, a collection of horrifying, active haunted houses believed to be the most haunted hot spot in the area and never before investigated for TV. As Jack and Kelly go deep into the night to investigate prolific spirit activity, Ozzy and Sharon monitor the action from base camp.

EXHUMED: A History of Zombies
PBS, 10pm

Just in time for Halloween, this program examines humans’ unique drive to create and shape monster mythology through oral storytelling, literature and film, and digs deep into the history of those mythologies.

Saturday, Oct. 31

Happy Halloween Movie Marathon
TCM, beginning at 6am
Catch a Classic!

As a Halloween treat, TCM airs a morning and afternoon lineup of terrific classic horror movies. Starting bright and early with 1932’s Freaks, the day also spotlights Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932), House of Wax (1953), Children of the Damned (1964), The Bad Seed (1956), The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), The Wolf Man (1941) and The Haunting (1963).

College Football: LSU at Auburn
CBS, 3:30pm Live

A clash of big cats is in store today on CBS as the LSU Tigers take on the Auburn Tigers at Auburn’s Jordan-Hare Stadium.

One Royal Holiday
Hallmark Channel, 8pm
Original Film!

When Anna (Laura Osnes) offers a stranded mother (Victoria Clark) and son (Aaron Tveit) shelter in a blizzard, she learns that they are the Royal Family of Galwick. Anna shows the Prince how they do Christmas in her hometown, encouraging him to open his heart and be true to himself.

Candy Cane Christmas
Lifetime, 8pm
Original Film!

Since childhood, Candy Cane Lane has been Phoebe’s (Beverley Mitchell) favorite Christmas tradition of an entire neighborhood decorated for the holidays. This Christmas, however, the neighborhood decides to skip the decorations, crushing her spirits. As Phoebe is searching for a new tradition to cheer her up, she realizes that it’s not the traditions we cherish, but the people we spend them with. While preparing for her new tradition, Phoebe stumbles upon the final thing her Christmas was missing: love!

Ghost Nation: “Reunion in Hell”
Travel Channel, 8pm

This crossover with Amy Bruni and Adam Berry from Kindred Spirits is a spine-tingling two-hour Halloween special. Jason Hawes, Steve Gonsalves and Dave Tango are calling in their old paranormal pals, Bruni and Berry, to reopen a case that has taken a sinister turn. Seaview Terrace is the 40,000-square-foot Rhode Island mansion famous for being featured on the TV show Dark Shadows, but the owners were shocked to find out that a recent visitor — a self-proclaimed warlock — had performed some sort of blasphemous ceremony in the house. Now, they feel like the energy in the mansion has shifted and unleashed something more menacing.

Eli Roth’s History of Horror: “Witches”
AMC, 10pm

The witch is a towering figure in the history of horror. Here, Eli Roth examines how the archetypical evil witch is everything mainstream religion tells us a woman should not be — and that unapologetic, very female power frightens men and fascinates women.

Cranberry Christmas
Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, 10pm
Original Film!

A separated couple (Nikki DeLoach, Benjamin Ayres) feign marital bliss on national television to help their town’s Christmas festival — and their business. But what will the future hold for them when rekindled love is complicated by new opportunities?

Destination Fear: “Old Bourbon Distillery”
Travel Channel, 10pm

The team heads to Kentucky to explore one of America’s oldest bourbon distilleries. Dakota Laden has a theory that quick and violent deaths cause some of the most intense hauntings, and he believes this sprawling house of horrors is just the place to test it.