TV can hardly ever go wrong with puppies, kittens and kids.
America's Funniest Home Videos (6 p.m. today) is the longest-running prime-time entertainment show in the history of ABC. That's thanks in large part to videos featuring one of the three golden topics, especially cute, adorable kids doing cute and adorable things.
I well recall the "Kids Say the Darndest Things" segment on Art Linkletter's House Party (CBS, 1952-1969). I went from age 4 to 20 during that run, so I'm assuming I said some cute things as well.
(Bill Cosby had a show called Kids Say the Darndest Things for a couple of years, but we don't talk about Cosby anymore.)
Cute and talented kids between the ages of 3 and 14 are the premise behind a new comedy-variety series that debuts at 7 p.m. today on NBC. Little Big Shots is executive produced by Steve Harvey and Ellen DeGeneres, with Harvey serving as host.
The series will showcase young musicians, singers, dancers and every other form of talent and skill imaginable from adorable kids. As did Linkletter, Harvey will engage the kiddos in conversations and interviews, frequently with hilarious results.
The premiere includes a 4-year-old boy who can make some amazing long-distance shots on his toy basketball hoop, a 6-year-old spelling star, a dancer, singers and a boy who can meticulously replicate Bruce Lee's nunchucks artistry.
Eight episodes have been ordered.
"It's not a competition," DeGeneres says. "It's just an entertaining show with adorable little precocious children."
"It's a great night of family TV," Harvey adds.
Best of all, the series lets the kids be kids and lacks the exploitative parental "ick" factor that oozed after such shows as Toddlers and Tiaras and Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.
• The Carmichael Show. Speaking of Cosby, The Carmichael Show's sophomore season returns at 8 p.m. today on NBC with an episode ripped from the headlines.
In the episode "Fallen Heroes," Maxine (Amber Stevens West) rejects her boyfriend Jerrod's (Jerrod Carmichael) invitation to a Cosby performance, so he offers the tickets to his parents (David Alan Grier, Loretta Devine) as an anniversary gift.
What follows is a family debate on whether to go because of the scandal surrounding the comedian.
Discuss among yourselves.
• CSI: Cyber screens its Season 2 finale at 9 p.m. today on CBS. While there were only 18 episodes this season, the ratings are holding steady in the neighborhood of 6.5 million viewers each week.
In the episode "Legacy," Avery (Patricia Arquette) and the team track a hacker who is responsible for a huge breach of highly classified data that affects millions of federal employees. Meanwhile, Avery and her ex-husband (Brent Sexton) have a talk, and D.B. (Ted Danson) ponders a future with Greer (Kelly Preston).
• The Bachelor. Are you still watching this faux romance series? If you are, you know that Season 20 wraps up at 7 p.m. Monday on ABC.
Which lucky, lucky girl -- JoJo Fletcher or Lauren Bushnell -- will bachelor Ben Higgins pick to spend the rest of his life with? One by one, all the other ladies (including Little Rock's Rachel Tchen) have been kicked to the curb until only these two remain.
And -- get this -- Ben has told both that he loves them. Both of them!
The drama will be stretched out until 9 p.m. After that, The Bachelor: After the Final Rose wraps it all up. We'll hear how very deeply, truly and passionately Ben and JoJo/Lauren are in love, how they just can't wait to get married and how they'll be together forever and ever.
Then in a month or so People will report how Ben and JoJo/Lauren have broken up. America will be shocked -- shocked!
• Major Crimes. It's a wrap for Season 4 at 8 p.m. Monday on TNT. In the episode, "Hindsight Part 5," the threads of seven murders are tied together, and the suspects are narrowed down to three.
• Program note. Dig out today's TV Week insert to find my preview of Lifetime's marvelous And Then There Were None. The two-night event, a co-production with the BBC, is an adaptation of Agatha Christie's most popular mystery novel of the same name.
Part 1 airs from 7 to 9 p.m. today and follows the shocking demise of 10 strangers who are lured to an isolated island off the English coast only to discover that a murderer stalks among them and is dispatching folks one by one. Part 2 airs at 8 p.m. Monday.
The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email:
mstorey@arkansasonline.com
Style on 03/13/2016