What to Watch this Weekend: Drag Race and Cobra Kai ring in the New Year with new seasons

EW Staff
·6 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, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Facebook Watch, 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 click here to learn how you can stream our picks via your own voice-controlled smart-speaker (Alexa, Google Home) or podcast app (Spotify, iTunes, Google Play).

FRIDAY

Doctor Who: Revolution of the Daleks

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

The science fiction show’s annual holiday episode finds Jodie Whittaker’s Doc languishing in space jail while her three Earth-dwelling buddies — played by Bradley Walsh, Mandip Gill, and Tosin Cole — investigate the appearance of a Dalek. “The Doctor is in prison serving an all-of-lives sentence,” says showrunner Chris Chibnall. “Meanwhile, back on Earth, her friends — Graham, Yaz, and Ryan — are missing her. They’ve been there ten months, there’s no sign, they feel like they’ve been ditched by the Doctor, they don’t know what’s happened to her, and they spot a sighting of a Dalek on Earth and investigate. And complications ensue!” The episode’s deep bench of guest stars include Chris Noth — reprising his role of a devious, Trump-esque businessman — and fan favorite John Barrowman, who returns as the larger-than-life immortal Captain Jack Harkness. “It’s going back and paying homage to the Jack and the Doctor stuff of the past, but bringing it into the present,” says Barrowman. “In a nutshell, it’s f---ing epic.” —Clark Collis

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RuPaul's Drag Race

HOW/WHEN & WHERE TO WATCH: 8 p.m. on VH1, the CW, MTV, MTV2, PopTV, and Logo

Season Premiere
New year, new Ru! For season 13, 13 queens — Denali, Elliott with 2 Ts, Gottmik, Joey Jay, Kahmora Hall, Kandy Muse, LaLa Ri, Olivia Lux, Rosé, Symone, Tamisha Iman, Tina Burner, and Utica Queen — are competing to be America’s Next Drag Superstar and snatch that $100,000 grand prize. And it all kicks off with a big twist: As the queens enter the Werk Room, they’ll immediately go wig-to-wig on the mainstage to defend their spot on the show with SIX lip-syncs for their lives. Get ready to be gagged and gooped! —Gerrad Hall

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Cobra Kai

HOW/WHEN & WHERE TO WATCH: Streaming on Netflix

Season Premiere
It’s been a long wait for Cobra Kai fans — 20 months and one platform change, to be precise — but now that season 3 is here, get ready for a full blast of Karate Kid nostalgia. A down-in-the-dumps Daniel (Ralph Macchio) heads to Japan on a mission to save his business, and winds up reconnecting with a friend (Tamlyn Tomita’s Kumiko) and a foe (Yuji Okumoto’s Chozen). Johnny (William Zabka) pledges to help a paralyzed Miguel (Xolo Maridueña) recover, and Sam (Mary Mouser) copes with PTSD — post-Tory (Peyton List) stress disorder. And we’ll finally learn what turned Kreese (Martin Cove) into such a merciless meanie. —Kristen Baldwin

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What Else to Watch

Streaming

The Infamous Future (doc) — HBO Max

Headspace Guide to Meditation (series debut) — Netflix

The Minimalists (doc) — Netflix

Dream Home Makeover (season premiere) — Netflix

Shadow in the Cloud (movie) — Digital/VOD

Sing Me a Song (movie) — VOD

7 p.m.

Below Deck Galley Talk (series debut) — Bravo

Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical (charity performance) — TodayTix

8 p.m.

HGTV Dream Home Special 2021 — HGTV

9 p.m.

20/20 — ABC

The UnXplained (new episodes) — History

Life Below Zero (150th episode) — Nat Geo

Dateline — NBC

SATURDAY

What Else to Watch

8 p.m.

Kidnapped in Paradise — Lifetime

9 p.m.

Taking a Shot at Love — Hallmark

Titanic: Into the Heart of the Wreck — History

10 p.m.

Kindred Spirits (season premiere) — Travel Channel

SUNDAY

Call Me Kat

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

Series Debut
Mayim Bialik and Jim Parsons reunite on Fox’s new comedy Call Me Kat, based on the hit British comedy Miranda. Although Parsons' contributions are off-camera, audiences will catch Bialik front and center in the titular role of Kat, a single cat café owner whose mother (Swoosie Kurtz) can’t wait to marry her off to just about anyone. Leslie Jordan dazzles, literally, in the role of Phil, Kat’s café employee who doesn’t care much for felines but brings the funny at every moment. The pair work with Randi (Kyla Pratt), also a single lady who learns she has an admirer in a cheap customer played by Lamorne Morris. Speaking of crushes, a handsome man (Cheyenne Jackson) from Kat’s past reappears after many years in the premiere and she’s still crushing hard. Will anyone find love on this series? It doesn’t matter. Kat isn’t chasing a happily ever after, but if Jackson’s Max were to be interested, she could be convinced to give things a go. —Rosy Cordero

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Power Book II: Ghost

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

Season Finale
When Power creator Courtney Kemp decided to make the first of four planned spin-offs focused on perhaps her most controversial character in Tariq (Michael Rainey Jr.), she knew she wasn’t taking the easiest road. But as Ghost approaches the season 1 finale, Kemp is thankful to see the fans coming around. “People [are] going, ‘Man, are they really making me root for this kid?!’” she tells EW. “And that's been really gratifying, that people are seeing him in a little bit of the light that I told you before, which is how I see him. He has had a pretty rough go and he's made a lot of terrible mistakes, but I think there's also parts of him that really do try and take care of the people he loves.” And the finale will find Tariq continuing to try and correct his mistakes, whether by freeing his wrongfully imprisoned mother or protecting his new family in the Tejadas. “Tariq has to make some decisions,” Kemp previously revealed of the final episodes. “It gets so much more intense.” —Derek Lawrence

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What Else to Watch

Check local listings

Masterpiece: Elizabeth Is Missing — PBS

7 p.m.

The Jane Doe Murders (two-hour special) — Oxygen

8 p.m.

Supermarket Sweep (season finale) — ABC

The Watch (cable debut) — BBC America

The Real Housewives of Atlanta — Bravo

Home Town (season premiere) — HGTV

Expedition Bigfoot: New Evidence (special) — Travel Channel

8:30 p.m.

NCIS: Los Angeles (winter premiere) — CBS

The Great North (special preview) — Fox

9 p.m.

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire — ABC

Jimmy Carter, Rock & Roll President (doc) — CNN

The Outpost — The CW

Worst Cooks in America (season premiere) — Food Network

The Simpsons — Fox

Shameless: Hall of Shame — Showtime

Expedition Bigfoot (season premiere) — Travel Channel

9:30 p.m.

NCIS: New Orleans (winter premiere) — CBS

Last Man Standing (season premiere) — Fox

10 p.m.

The Rookie (season premiere) — ABC

Your Honor — Showtime

*times are ET and subject to change