Grammy Awards, Strange Bedfellows on ‘Creatures,’ 31 Days of Oscar, ‘Side Effects’ on Adult Swim

SUNDAY: Music’s biggest night takes on extra significance as the first major awards show to be staged in L.A. since the devastating wildfires. Trevor Noah hosts for the fifth time, with a mandate to honor first responders and raise funds for wildfire support efforts. Beyond the usual performances, segments will pay tribute to the resilience of Los Angeles. Another highlight: an all-star tribute to the late Quincy Jones. Beyoncé leads the pack of nominees with 11, with Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar, Post Malone, and Charli XCX following with seven each, and Taylor Swift tied with Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan with six. Carpenter and Roan compete in the Best New Artist category against Benson Boone, Doechii, Khruangbin, RAYE, Shaboozey, and Teddy Swims. Carpenter and Roan also are up for the coveted Album of the Year award, alongside Beyoncé, Charli XCX, Eilish, Swift, André 3000, and Jacob Collier. Confirmed performers include Roan, Carpenter, Eilish, Boone, Doechii, Swims, Wicked’s Cynthia Erivo, Janelle Monáe, Lainey Wilson, Shakira, John Legend, and Sheryl Crow.

SUNDAY: Skeldale House is getting awfully crowded, not just with the animals under the veterinarians’ care, but in the living quarters. Newly returned from the war, Tristan (Callum Woodhouse) is less than impressed in his first encounter with “replacement” hire Richard Carmody (James Anthony-Rose), who he sees as a “mini-killjoy,” and is even more disgruntled when they’re forced to share tight sleeping arrangements. The strange bedfellows get a chance to establish a more professional rapport when they’re sent to Pumphrey Manor to find a snake on the loose in Mrs. Pumphrey’s (Patricia Hodge) sprawling estate, now serving as a convalescent home for soldiers. Turns out Tristan is second only to Indiana Jones in his antipathy toward those slithering creatures.

SATURDAY: Dave Karger hosts the monthlong countdown to the Academy Awards, with every movie shown between Saturday and the March 2 ceremony on ABC either an Oscar winner or contender. Saturday’s opening lineup begins with 1937’s Best Picture winner The Life of Emile Zola and continues in prime time with a salute to “Oscar Worthy Actors,” led by Bette Davis and Anne Baxter from 1950’s scintillating Best Picture winner All About Eve (8/7c). (Both actresses lost that year to Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday.) Sunday’s prime-time schedule focuses on “Oscar Worthy Teachers,” with Richard Dreyfuss in 1995’s Mr. Holland’s Opus (8/7c) and Oscar winner Anne Bancroft in 1962’s The Miracle Worker (10:30/9:30c).

SUNDAY: Cult vibes are already greeting this offbeat animated comedy-thriller hybrid from the powerful producing partnership of Joe Bennett (Scavengers Reign), Steve Hely (Veep) and executive producers Mike Judge and Greg Daniels (King of the Hill). Launching with two episodes, this is the story of supernerd Marshall (voiced by Dave King), who discovers a magic mushroom in the Peruvian forest that can miraculously cure just about anything—which makes him a prime target of Big Pharma, bigger business and even the DEA. He turns to his former lab partner Frances (Emily Prendergast) for help in bringing the new drug to the people who need it most — if they live long enough.

SUNDAY: In case you missed it when it aired on HBO in December, this moving documentary makes its CNN premiere. Super/Man attests to the nearly superhuman resilience of Superman superstar Christopher Reeve, who almost died in a 1995 horse-riding accident that left him paralyzed—yet emboldened to spend the rest of his life, with wife Dana, dedicated to the cause of research and visibility for the disabled. His children recall the shadow cast by Reeve’s celebrity but also his endurance and Dana’s devotion. (After his death 20 years ago, she succumbed to lung cancer in March 2006.) The film also shows his Juilliard classmate and best friend Robin Williams standing by the Reeves through their ordeal. Along the way, the actor revised his theory of heroism: “I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.”

INSIDE WEEKEND TV:

• Can You Feel the Beat: The Lisa Lisa Story (Saturday, 8/7c, Lifetime): Latina singer Lisa Velez, who enjoyed fame in the 1980s with the band Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam, stars as her own mother in a biopic featuring Jearnest Corchado as Lisa, an ambitious teenager from Hell’s Kitchen who became an inspiration for future Latina female superstars. All American’s Bre-Z co-stars as her best friend and backup singer, Toni Ménage.
• An Unexpected Valentine (Saturday, 8/7c, Hallmark Channel): Network favorites Lacey Chabert and Robert Buckley star in a Valentine’s Day romance as strangers who navigate New York City to return a lost engagement ring to a couple.
• For the Love of Chocolate (Saturday, 8/7c, Great American Family): Competing in a Masters of Chocolate Festival, Aria (Rhiannon Fish) finds a new partner in a charming single dad (Jesse Hutch) who’s got all the right mocha moves.
• True Crime Watch: On 48 Hours (Saturday, 10/9c, CBS), Erin Moriarty reports on the 2021 disappearance of Michigan businesswoman Dee Warner, presumed dead for three years until her body was discovered last August in a fertilizer tank. Her husband Dale faces trial later this year. A third season of Oxygen’s New York Homicide (Saturday, 9/8c) opens with retired NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert K. Boyce presenting the case of a popular Staten Island teacher found stabbed in her home. Investigation Discovery follows the season finale of Very Scary People with the special Very Scary Lovers (Sunday, 10/9c), hosted by Donnie Wahlberg and Jenny McCarthy-Wahlberg, which follows the thrill-kill spree of Benjamin and Erika Sifrit.
• 60 Minutes (Sunday, 7/6c, CBS): Political segments include Lesley Stahl’s profile of former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Scott Pelley’s interview with Robert Lighthizer, an advisor to President Trump who served as his top trade negotiator during his first term. Anderson Cooper reports on military veterans exploring psychedelic treatments to treat PTSD.
• Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches (Sunday, 9/8c, AMC): Things get supernaturally wacky when Rowan (Alexandra Daddario) confronts Julian (Ted Levine) from within his magic Victrola to learn where Lasher (Jack Huston) has been taken.
• Funny Woman (Sunday, 10/9c, PBS): A second season of the British show-biz comedy follows rising TV star Sophie Straw (Gemma Arterton) through more professional and personal ups and downs. All four episodes will be available to stream on PBS Passport for binge-watching.