What to Watch on Thursday: Ted Danson is Mr. Mayor in Tina Fey's new NBC sitcom

EW Staff
·4 min read
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We know TV has a lot to offer, be it network, cable, premium channels, or streaming platforms including Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, and others. So EW is here to help, guiding you every single day to the things that should be on your radar. Check out our recommendations below, and listen/subscribe to our What to Watch podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts, or via your own voice-controlled smart-speaker (Alexa, Google Home).

Pieces of a Woman

HOW/WHEN & WHERE TO WATCH: Streaming on Netflix

Executive-produced by Martin Scorsese and directed by Kornél Mundruczó, with a screenplay by Kata Wéber, Pieces of a Woman follows Martha (an excellent Vanessa Kirby) and Sean (Shia LaBeouf), a couple reeling — in very different ways — from the grief of losing their newborn daughter during a home birth. The film doesn't shy away from the often unglamorous realities of childbearing, or womanhood, or grief, and coupled with breathtaking performances from its cast, Pieces of a Woman is a profound and emotional meditation on what it means to love, to lose, and ultimately to heal. —Lauren Huff

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ABC's Winter Fun and Games

HOW/WHEN & WHERE TO WATCH: 8 p.m., 9 p.m., 10 p.m. on ABC

Series Debuts
Shall we play a game? ABC's new Thursday night lineup is a treat for game show fans, with the trifecta of Celebrity Wheel of Fortune, The Chase, and The Hustler airing back to back to back. Celebrity Wheel marks the TV institution's first move into primetime, with stars spinning that iconic wheel for a chance to win up to $1 million for charity. (First up on Thursday's episode: Leslie Jones, Chandra Wilson, and Tony Hawk.) The Chase features Jeopardy! GOATs James Holzhauer, Ken Jennings, and Brad Rutter going head-to-head with contestants in a fast-paced game of trivia, while The Hustler is an intriguing mixture of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and Agatha Christie, as players try to determine who among them is the planted "Hustler" while answering trivia questions for cash. The game is very much afoot. —Tyler Aquilina

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Hell's Kitchen

HOW/WHEN & WHERE TO WATCH: 8 p.m. on Fox

Season Premiere
Hell's Kitchen is dishing out the same heat fans are used to for its 19th season, but now from Sin City. The show's 16 new contestants are going knife-to-knife from the kitchen of Gordon Ramsay Hell's Kitchen restaurant in Las Vegas' Caesars Palace, all vying to be the head chef at Gordon Ramsay Hell's Kitchen Lake Tahoe. Expect crazy culinary challenges that carry with them big rewards for the winners ... and big penalties for the losers. Just like Vegas. —Gerrad Hall

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Mr. Mayor

HOW/WHEN & WHERE TO WATCH: 8 p.m. on NBC

Series Debut
Any place is a Good Place when Ted Danson shows up on your screen. The NBC legend returns to the Peacock to star in the Tina Fey-and-Robert Carlock-created comedy Mr. Mayor as Neil Bremer, a billionaire businessman who runs for L.A.'s mayoral seat on a lark and ends up winning the election. Now he has to figure out how to navigate this strange new world, which should probably start with forging an alliance with Councilwoman-turned-Deputy Mayor Arpi Meskimen (Holly Hunter), who is none too pleased to see him in the city's top political post. "Neil Bremer throws his hat in the ring for a special election. And he wins something like 68 percent of the vote, but as it's pointed out later on, only 12 percent of Los Angeles votes on off-presidential years for the Mayor's office," Danson tells EW. "So, very few people voted a way-too-old, way-too-white, way-too-rich man into political office — and he's surrounded by people who think he's a total idiot. He's a bit of an innocent, his heart's in the right place, but he is so out of touch that it's very funny." Cheers to his career in politics working out. —Dan Snierson

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What ELSE to Watch

8 p.m.

Beat Bobby Flay (new episodes resume) — Food Network

9 p.m.

Restaurant: Impossible (season premiere) — Food Network

Call Me Kat (timeslot premiere) — Fox

Revenge Prank with DJ Pauly D and Vinny (season premiere) — MTV

Go-Big Show (series debut) — TBS

Growing Up Hip Hop: Atlanta (season premiere) — WEtv

9:30 p.m.

Last Man Standing (timeslot premiere) — Fox

10 p.m.

Dateline ("Journey for Justice" with families of George Floyd, Jacob Blake Jr., and Eric Garner) — NBC

Streaming

Coyote (series debut) — CBS All Access

Star Trek: Discovery (season finale) — CBS All Access

The Stand — CBS All Access

Arthur's Law (U.S. series debut) — HBO Max

*times are ET and subject to change