AMC
Dark Winds
SUNDAY: Navajo Lt. Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon) has gone to some dark places over four seasons of the acclaimed crime drama based on Tony Hillerman’s novels, but in the harrowing Season 4 finale, he finds himself in his most precarious situation to date. Captured by the deranged German assassin Irene Vaggan (Franke Potente), he and runaway captive Billie Tsosie (Isabel Deroy-Olson) are hostages to a delusional and deadly adversary who sits her restrained “guests” around a table to “enjoy our first meal together as a family.” Creepy. The season’s final scenes take a more contemplative tone, as deputy Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon) returns to the reservation for a ceremonial healing while Leaphorn considers his vow to hang up his badge and go fishing. Happily, the series has been renewed for a fifth season.
Merrily We Roll Along
SATURDAY: The flop that became a hit, Stephen Sondheim’s bittersweet show-biz musical told in reverse time enjoyed its most successful revival in a 2023-24 Broadway production that earned Tony Awards for its stars, Jonathan Groff and Daniel Radcliffe, and a nomination for costar Lindsay Mendez. Director Maria Friedman’s triumphant staging was preserved on film and makes its streaming debut, arguably the biggest theater-to-film-to-streaming transfer since Hamilton arrived on Disney+ in 2020. Quite the comeback for a show that closed after 16 performances in its initial 1981 run. Getting a front-row seat on Netflix is a bargain.
Dylan Buell / Getty Images
March Madness
SATURDAY: Now that the dust has settled on your broken brackets, settle in for the Final Four, the semifinal games from Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis that will decide who plays Monday in the men’s championship. First up is a match between No. 3 Illinois and No. 2 UConn (still celebrating last weekend’s historic buzzer-beater), followed by a faceoff between two No. 1 seeds, Arizona and Michigan. The games are simulcast on TNT and truTV. The women’s championship game from Phoenix between South Carolina and UCLA airs Sunday at 3:30 pm/ET on ABC.
Related programming includes a four-part docuseries, Made for March (Saturday and Sunday, streaming on Paramount+), that follows the fortunes of the Michigan Wolverines and Kansas Jayhawks over the past season. (Episodes air on CBS Saturday at noon/11c and Sunday at 4:30/3:30.) The fourth episode is scheduled to air Saturday, April 18. A CNN Flashdoc, Money Madness: College Basketball at a Crossroads (Sunday, 8/7c) explores how the game has been changed by NIL (name, image and likeness) compensation models for players and the impact of increased sports betting.
FOX
The Faithful: Women of the Bible
SATURDAY and SUNDAY: The dramatic anthology that focuses on the women of the Old Testament concludes with a two-hour exploration of the tangled triangle between Jacob (Tom Payne), his beloved Rachel (Blu Hunt) and her older sister Leah (Millie Brandy), who participates in a notorious scheme of deception. Also of Biblical note: ABC’s annual prime-time broadcast of Cecil B. DeMille’s epic 1956 The Ten Commandments (Saturday, 7/6c), starring Charlton Heston as Moses. Turner Classic Movies‘ Easter lineup includes another Heston epic, 1959’s Best Picture Oscar winner Ben-Hur, at noon/11c, and in prime time, the 1948 musical Easter Parade (8/7c) starring Judy Garland and Fred Astaire, and 1961’s King of Kings (10/9c), starring Jeffrey Hunter as Jesus.
Rooster
SUNDAY: It’s all in the family when the always-welcome Connie Britton makes a guest appearance on the whimsical campus comedy as wealthy philanthropist Elizabeth Stoddard, the wildly successful ex-wife of visiting professor and author Greg Russo (Steve Carell). She’s back at their alma mater for a dedication to Ludlow College’s new student center, which now bears the Wall Street exec’s name in giant letters. Can Greg keep his cool upon reuniting with his unfaithful former spouse? Not likely. And their professor daughter Katie (Charly Clive) is too busy navigating her own on-and-off relationship with estranged husband Archie (Phil Dunster) to successfully stage manage their reconciliation.
INSIDE WEEKEND TV:
· Home for Good (Saturdays, ABC, check local listings): Art Edmonds hosts an inspirational home-renovation series honoring everyday heroes, including first responders and military veterans, with makeovers, offering home-safety tips along the way.
· Rescued by Faith: The Connie and Larry Van Oosten Story (Saturday, 8/7c, Lifetime): Nancy Travis (Last Man Standing) and Mike Pneiwski are a couple who lean on their faith to survive the ordeal when they’re abducted from their bed at gunpoint and trapped inside a bunker.
· A Season to Blossom (Saturday, 8/7c, Hallmark Channel): Emily Tennant is Elise, a would-be writer who lives out her own love story after taking over her late grandmother’s bookstore.
· 48 Hours (Saturday, 10/9c, CBS): Peter Van Sant reports on the 2022 Indiana murder of Harold Allen, who succumbed to a tainted root beer float.
· Saturday Night Live (Saturday, 11:30/10:30c, 8:30 pm/PT, NBC): Jack Black joins the Five-Timers Club as guest host, with Jack White also making his fifth solo appearance as musical guest (he also appeared once with the White Stripes).
· CBS News Sunday Morning (Sunday, CBS, check local listings): Segments include a set visit to HBO Max‘s Hacks in advance of its final season and a profile of Schitt’s Creek‘s Dan Levy, star and creator of a new Netflix comedy, Big Mistakes. (Both series premiere Thursday.)
· Baseball: Beyond Belief (Sunday, 4 pm/ET, Fox Sports 1): A special explores similarities between baseball and religion, taking inspiration from John Sexton’s book Baseball as a Road to God.
· Inside Out Classic (Sunday, 7 pm/ET, ESPN+, Disney+, Disney Channel, and Disney XD): While the Washington Capitals play the New York Rangers, animated versions of the NHL players appear on screen, modeled after characters for the hit Inside Out movies. (The regular version of the game can be seen on ESPN.)
· 60 Minutes (Sunday, 7/6c, CBS): Scott Pelley visits the Remote Area Medical charity that provides health care to disenfranchised Americans, Jon Wertheim explores why America has fallen behind in the high-speed rail business, and Bill Whitaker profiles the Mardi Gras Indians, aka the Black Masking Indians, a New Orleans secret society preserving a culture dating back to the 1800s.
· When Hope Calls: Brookfield (Sunday, 8/7c, Great American Family): The third season of the When Calls the Heart spinoff opens with the Mounties closing in on the culprit behind a series of cattle raids, while Tess (Wendy Crewson) is captured by wounded outlaw Jerry Huntsman (Jesse Hutch), who confesses his part in the crimes.
· Marshals (Sunday, 8/7c, CBS): Kayce (Luke Grimes) and the team go after a motorcycle gang to rescue teenage victims of human trafficking. Followed by Tracker (9/8c), where Colter (Justin Hartley) helps Randy (Chris Lee) locate a friend who disappeared while on house arrest, and Watson (10/9c), whose latest client’s delusions mirror the doctor’s (Morris Chestnut) own hallucinations.
· The Real Housewives of Atlanta (Sunday, 8/7c, Bravo): The women return for a 17th season, with Porsha Williams hosting a couples’ night to celebrate her recent divorce. Followed by the time-period premiere of the new kid on the franchise block, The Real Housewives of Rhode Island (9/8c).
· Call the Midwife (Sunday, 8/7c, PBS): Against her superiors’ advice, Joyce (Renee Bailey) forms an emotional bond with a single mother. Followed by The Forsytes (9/8c) and The Count of Monte Cristo (10/9c), where the newly escaped Edmond Dantes (Sam Claflin) discovers what he missed in Marseilles while he was away, then heads to Monte Cristo to seek his hidden-treasure fortune.
· DTF St. Louis (Sunday, 9/8c, HBO): In the offbeat drama’s poignant penultimate episode, murder suspect Clark (Jason Bateman) reveals how he concocted a scheme on a dating app to boost the deflated ego of his best friend, Floyd (David Harbour). Abbott Elementary‘s Chris Perfetti makes a memorable guest appearance.
· American Classic (Sunday, 9/8c, MGM+): With only one more episode remaining in the delightful theatrical comedy, Richard’s (Kevin Kline) production of Our Town is back to its bare-bones basics after funding is pulled. After convincing Kristen (Laura Linney) to play Mrs. Webb, Richard and the troupe are floored by what’s revealed during their latest Circle of Truth.
· HBCU Awarefest Benefit Concert Special (Sunday, 9/8c, BET): Jill Scott, Common, Yolanda Adams, Coco Jones and Kirk Franklin are among the headliners at Atlanta’s State Farm Arena for a fund-raising concert to raise the profile of Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
· The Comeback (Sunday, 10:30/9:30c, HBO): Valerie’s new/old hairdresser, the 85-year-old Tommy (famed theater director Jack O’Brien), helps the sitcom star come to terms with the death of her beloved Mickey (the late Robert Michael Morris). She could use the support, after clashing with a snippy costumer and watching AI spit out new scenes for How’s That? in mere seconds.