The TV Column

Lip Sync Battle does Jackson on renamed channel

LL Cool J hosts Lip Sync Battle Live: A Michael Jackson Celebration at 8 p.m. today on the new Paramount Network, which replaces Spike. The hour special will be a treat for those who love the late “King of Pop.”
LL Cool J hosts Lip Sync Battle Live: A Michael Jackson Celebration at 8 p.m. today on the new Paramount Network, which replaces Spike. The hour special will be a treat for those who love the late “King of Pop.”

Lip Sync Battle Live: A Michael Jackson Celebration airs at 8 p.m. today to help kick off the new Paramount Network, formerly Spike (see below).

The hour special from the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles also serves as a preview of Season 4 of the series that's hosted by LL Cool J with what's billed as "color commentary" by model Chrissy Tiegen. The fourth season of Lip Sync Battle officially launches at 9 p.m. Jan. 25.

The show's premise is high energy and fairly simple. It's a concept co-created by John Krasinski (The Office) and introduced on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon in 2013. NBC passed on turning the bit into a full-blown series, but Spike snatched it up and the series debuted April 2, 2015.

The producers boast each episode "features two A-list celebrities like you've never seen them before -- lip synching their hearts out in hysterically epic performances." The tagline: "The mics are off, but the battle is on."

As with most such claims, "A-list" is in the eye of the beholder, but I'd certainly include past contestants Queen Latifah, Channing Tatum, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, Kaley Cuoco and Justin Bieber in that category.

How popular is the series? Nominated for two Emmys, Lip Sync Battle has had more than 1 billion multi-platform views since its premiere. It also has more than 2 million Facebook followers and more than 2 million YouTube subscribers.

Lip Sync Battle is a hoot and I expect something special in the tribute to Jackson, which will feature Neil Patrick Harris, Taraji P. Henson and Hailee Steinfeld, as well as a performance from Michael Jackson ONE by Cirque du Soleil.

Tonight's special is followed at 9 by an encore of the first episode from Season 2, Channing Tatum vs. Jenna Dewan Tatum. I'll not reveal which spouse won.

Name change. As of today, Spike has morphed into the Paramount Network. Spike began life in 1983 as the Nashville Network and later became TNN. It changed to Spike TV in 2003, focusing on guy-oriented programming. It became simply Spike in 2006.

The Paramount Network, part of the sprawling Viacom empire, will be a general entertainment network carrying scripted and unscripted programming.

The Black Widow. That's the sobriquet given the infamous Colombian queen of narco-trafficking featured in the Lifetime film Cocaine Godmother: The Griselda Blanco Story that airs from 7 to 9:30 p.m. Saturday. The movie stars Oscar- and Tony-winning Catherine Zeta Jones (Chicago, A Little Night Music) in the title role.

Using a fake passport, Blanco made her way to New York at the age of 17 and quickly became involved with local drug runners. She moved to Miami and expanded her empire.

At the height of her career in the 1970s and '80s, Blanco's network covered the entire United States. She is suspected of ordering as many as 200 murders.

Arrested in 1985 and deported to Colombia, Blanco continued to run her trade until 2012, when the 69-year-old was gunned down on the streets by a motorcyclist.

Why a TV movie for an A-list Oscar winner? Citing the current trend for mega blockbusters and noting Nicole Kidman's Emmy-winning performance in HBO's Big Little Lies, the 48-year-old Zeta-Jones told The Hollywood Reporter, "The true human stories are becoming rare in movie theaters, and television has taken up that space. The world has got smaller and the quality has got better, so we're along on this fantastic creative roller-coaster."

Cocaine Godmother is a tour de force for Zeta-Jones and although grim to watch at times, well worth your evening.

Beyond begins its 11-episode Season 2 at 7 p.m. today on Freeform. A second episode follows at 8.

The sci-fi series follows the adventures of Holden Matthews (Burkely Duffield), who wakes up from a 12-year coma to find a vastly changed world. He discovers he has strange new abilities and sets out to try to understand what happened.

American Masters: Lorraine Hansberry airs at 8 p.m. Friday on AETN. It's hard to believe that this is the beginning of Season 32 for the venerable series.

Friday's subject covers the life and work of the playwright and civil rights activist. Best known for A Raisin in the Sun, Hansberry was the first black woman to write a play performed on Broadway.

Hansberry died of pancreatic cancer in 1965 at the age of 34.

New on TGIT. It'll finally be all-fresh episodes again on ABC tonight. Grey's Anatomy leads off at 7 p.m., followed by Scandal at 8 and How to Get Away With Murder at 9.

The big news: Scandal and Murder are planning their first crossover episodes later this season. No air date yet.

The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email:

mstorey@arkansasonline.com

Weekend on 01/18/2018

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