‘Pop Culture Jeopardy!’, Christmas in Rockefeller Center and a Jimmy Fallon Special, Christmas With the ‘Abbott’ Family, ‘Bad Sisters’ at Sea

With Saturday Night Live “Weekend Update” anchor Colin Jost at the podium, and teams with names like “Oops! We Guessed It Again,” it’s not always easy to distinguish Jeopardy!’s latest spinoff from one of SNL’s many game-show parodies. While it might sound like Pop Culture Jeopardy! would be a breeze to play — no arcane ancient-history topics — you’re likely to soon discover just where your blind spots are as the game progresses (“Famous Because the Internet” might as well have been Sanskrit). Jost’s ironic manner takes some getting used to, but the real twist in this tournament-style version is that it’s being played by teams of three, It’s Academic-style, with the winner of each game moving on to the next round, with three games dropping each week until the finals, when the top three teams compete for a $300,000 grand prize — and the possibility of someday being an answer in a future season of Pop Culture Jeopardy! (Among the show’s writers: past super champ Buzzy Cohen and Jimmy Kimmel Live writer (and former contestant) Louis Virtel.

Few New York sights are more spectacular than the lighting of the mammoth tree at Rockefeller Center, the climactic event of a two-hour entertainment special hosted for the second year by daytime star Kelly Clarkson. She performs as part of a roster including Backstreet Boys, Jennifer Hudson, Dan + Shay, Megan Hilty, Coco Jones, Little Big Town, RAYE, Thalia — and the crowd favorite Radio City Rockettes kicking up their heels. Today’s Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb, Al Roker, and Craig Melvin will also be on hand for the unveiling of this year’s tree, an 11-ton, 74-foot tall by 43-foot-wide Norway Spruce from Massachusetts.

Jimmy Fallon’s Holiday Seasoning Spectacular (10/9c, NBC): Once the tree is lit, the stars continue to shine in a variety special featuring stars and music from The Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon’s new Holiday Seasoning album. The premise of the special finds Jimmy canvassing New York City in search of the holiday spirit, opening doors to apartments where guest celebrities lurk to join in the musical fun. Among the participants: Dolly Parton, Justin Timberlake, LL Cool J, The Roots, Jonas Brothers, Meghan Trainor, Cara Delevingne, J.B. Smoove, and Weird Al Yankovic.

In an earlier time slot (8/7c), the Emmy-winning comedy signs off until January with two holiday-themed episodes. The first involves the frantic preparations for the school’s first-ever holiday show, which kindergarten teacher Barbara (Sheryl Lee Ralph) changes late in the game to a more generic “winter” theme to be more inclusive. Chaos reigns. Jacob (Chris Perfetti) is also unsettled when his gregarious younger brother Caleb (Tyler Tomás Perez) arrives ahead of schedule, threatening to upstage him with his peers. Caleb sticks around for Melissa’s (Lisa Ann Walter) bustling Christmas Eve dinner, which she’s preparing for the hyper-critical Schemmenti family (including The Godfather’s Talia Shire as the matriarch). The event is almost literally to die for. Elsewhere, Janine (Quinta Brunson) and Gregory (Tyler James Williams) settle in for their first cozy Christmas Eve together, which inevitably is disrupted by an unwelcome Grinch of an interloper.

Turning 50 brings out the neurotic in Eva (series co-creator Sharon Horgan) in a pivotal episode of the acclaimed dark comedy. She goes overboard with panic, alerting the police when she can’t locate her orphaned niece Blánaid (Saise Quinn), who’s grown uncomfortably close to family nemesis and unrepentant busybody Angelica (Fiona Shaw). Maybe not the best time for the Garvey sisters to be back in the authorities’ sights, on the same day that they’re taking Angelica out to sea to scatter their late sister’s (fake) ashes.

INSIDE WEDNESDAY TV:

• Survivor (8/7c, CBS): It’s always an emotional time when the castaways get letters from home. Followed by the season finale of The Summit (9:30/8:30c), where the field of four shrinks to three as the remaining climbers are reunited with all of the eliminated players.
• The Masked Singer (8/7c, Fox): The four group champs (Wasp, Strawberry Shortcake, Goo, and Buffalos) battle it out in the quarterfinals.
• Celebrity Family Feud (9/8c, ABC): Steve Harvey presides over a special holiday edition of the game show, with teams led by Shaquille O’Neal and Sherri Shepherd.
• Racers Roundtable (10/9c, MAVTV): The interview series wraps its first season with the first of a two-part conversation with racing legend Mario Andretti (Part 2 airs December 11),

ON THE STREAM:

• That Christmas (streaming on Netflix): An animated comedy based on the children’s books by writer-director Richard Curtis (Love Actually) features Succession’s Brian Cox as the voice of Santa, whose journey through a blizzard intersects with farcical complications among a town’s friends and families.
• Churchill at War (streaming on Netflix): An historical documentary explores Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s pivotal role in leading Great Britain through World War II.
• The Only Girl in the Orchestra (streaming on Netflix): A documentary short profiles Orin O’Brien, a double bassist who became the New York Philharmonic’s first female musician in 1966 when Leonard Bernstein hired her amid a flurry of media attention.
• Shrinking (streaming on Apple TV+): Jimmy (Jason Segel) may be an unorthodox therapist, but is he a magician? His buddy Brian (Michael Urie) hopes so, turning to him for help before he interviews with an expectant mother in hopes of adopting. “I need you to help me not be me,” chirps the neurotic lawyer.
• The Ultimatum: Marry or Move On (streaming on Netflix): The relationship series (playing out over three weeks) introduces six new couples for Season 3, swapping partners to test whether they’re ready to commit to marriage. Because that makes so much sense.