NBC heralds a late-night milestone in prime time with “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon 10th Anniversary Special” (9 p.m., TV-14).
Over the years, we’ve seen many such celebrations. It’s natural for network publicity departments to hang promotion around anniversaries or the 200th or 300th episode of a series, but such events always struck me as “inside-baseball” thinking that ignores the fact that audiences don’t really notice or care about any series’ advancing odometer.
Viewers want to be entertained.
And in an environment where Fallon’s ability to do that is measured in shared clips or viral videos on YouTube or social media, that’s more true than ever.
The relative longevity of Fallon and his friendly rivals Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel is not so much a sign of their success as the fact that the stakes just aren’t as high as they once were. Colbert and Fallon moved from late, late night to their current perches without much fanfare. Compare that to the controversy surrounding NBC’s decision to install Jay Leno, not David Letterman, in the “Tonight Show” seat in 1993, or even the brief tumult over NBC’s decision to anoint and then quickly jettison Conan O’Brien way back in 2009-10.
Having taken Jay Leno’s spot in February 2014, Fallon had only a little over a year before the former “Apprentice” host rode the escalator of his eponymous gilded skyscraper and angrily announced his candidacy for the 2016 election. The 45th president has dominated the media and comedy monologues ever since.
While Kimmel has made a point of skewering the former White House resident, the obsessive fear and anger the former president instills has not played to Fallon’s strengths. The “Tonight Show” host is best when collaborating on musical numbers and other packaged bits that have eclipsed actual conversation on the talk-show couch.
— Speaking of authoritarians, “Frontline” (10 p.m., PBS, check local listings) presents “A Dangerous Assignment.” Produced in cooperation with the independent Venezuelan news site Armando.info, it uncovers massive corruption in a food aid program touted by the regime of President Nicolas Maduro, who succeeded leftist strongman Hugo Chavez after his death in 2013.
Faced with widespread hunger and even starvation, Maduro announced the CLAP program, a nationwide food distribution scheme. But local reporters discovered that much of the milk distributed by CLAP was so deficient in calcium and high in sodium that it could not be classified as “milk” at all. They also uncovered that much of the supply chain was controlled by corrupt officials linked to Maduro. For their efforts, these reporters became targets of the regime, facing harassment and jail time.
— Paramount+ streams the three-part docuseries “Pillowcase Murders.” It profiles serial killer Billy Chemirmir, who insinuated his way into affluent retirement communities in the Dallas area. Often working as a maintenance man, he left a trail of dead bodies, mostly elderly women, who appeared, at first, to have been claimed by natural causes.
He preyed on the most vulnerable for nearly two years before suspicious daughters of some of the deceased began to exchange notes with Plano, Texas, police officers and facility security guards to discover a monster operating in their midst.
TONIGHT’S OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
— “FBI” (8 p.m., CBS, TV-14), “FBI: International” (9 p.m., CBS, TV-14) and “FBI: Most Wanted” (10 p.m., CBS, TV-14) present new episodes.
— Family ties loom large on “Will Trent” (8 p.m., ABC, TV-14).
— Wayne joins the ranks of the milk-carton brigade on the season finale of “Alert: Missing Persons Unit” (9 p.m., Fox, TV-14).
— Dumped by her husband, a woman heals with the help of a stray dog and a handsome vet in the 2023 romance “The More Love Grows” (9 p.m., Hallmark, TV-G).
— “The Express Way With Dule Hill” (9 p.m., PBS, TV-14, check local listings) visits Chicago arts institutions in its final episode.
— Browne returns from her Central American adventure on “The Good Doctor” (10 p.m., ABC, TV-14).
CULT CHOICE
Marlene Dietrich stars as a retired saloon singer and Arthur Kennedy and Mel Ferrer play rival gunslingers at a joint known as the Chuck-a-Luck in the 1952 Western “Rancho Notorious” (8 p.m., TCM, TV-G). Directed by German Expressionist Fritz Lang (“Metropolis”), it features Russell Johnson (the professor on “Gilligan’s Island”) in an uncredited role!
SERIES NOTES
“The Voice” (8 p.m., NBC, TV-PG) … Starting over on “The Rookie” (9 p.m., ABC, TV-14) … Thony uncovers hidden cameras in her home on “The Cleaning Lady” (8 p.m., Fox, TV-14).
LATE NIGHT
Amor Towles and Jon Theodore visit “Late Night With Seth Meyers” (12:35 a.m., NBC) … Taylor Tomlinson hosts “After Midnight” (12:35 a.m., CBS).
