Between streaming and cable, viewers have a seemingly endless variety of things to watch. Here is a selection of TV shows and specials that are airing or streaming this week, Dec. 15-21. Details and times are subject to change.
Talking it through.
David Letterman’s talk show “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction” is back for its sixth season. Though the number of episodes have varied by season, this one will have three, with Michael B. Jordan, Jimmy Donaldson (known online as MrBeast) and Jason Bateman. The long-form interview show has already been renewed for a seventh season. Streaming Tuesday on Netflix.
Women in big cities doing big things.
Au revoir Paris, benvenuta a Italia! “Emily in Paris” is back for a fifth season, but Emily (Lily Collins) is no longer in Paris. Season 4 ended with our protagonist moving to Rome to manage a satellite bureau of the Parisian marketing agency she works for to woo a new cashmere company, Muratori. And it doesn’t hurt that the Muratori heir is a hot Italian man (Eugenio Franceschini) who can show her around town. As Emily’s boss Sylvie (Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu) warns her, “Focus on Muratori — the business, not the man.” But when beautiful men are seemingly popping around every corner, that’s easier said than done. But, given that the name of the show revolves around Emily being in the French capital, she’s not giving up her life in Paris entirely. Streaming Thursday on Netflix.
Post-apocalypse, cute animals and live music.
The TV series “Fallout,” which was first a video game, follows people in Southern California in 2161 who live in fallout shelters after years of nuclear war. Ella Purnell, Aaron Moten and Kyle MacLachlan portray the vault dwellers, and now it’s back for a second season after filming delays because of the California wildfires in January. Though the first season episodes were released all at once, this year’s episodes will be coming out weekly, with the finale set to air on Feb. 4. Streaming Wednesday on Prime Video.
’Tis the season to hear your favorite musicians live at the iHeartRadio Jingle Ball. Though most of the tour stops have already taken place across the country, now it is coming to small screens. Alex Warren, Reneé Rapp and Ed Sheeran are set to perform — and it wouldn’t be a 2025 musical celebration without a “KPop Demon Hunters” singalong. Wednesday at 8 p.m. on ABC and streaming the next day on Hulu.
Hugh Bonneville of “Downton Abbey” fame is narrating a new six-part documentary series “Born to Be Wild,” which follows orphaned and endangered young animals (including elephants, cheetahs and lynxes) and the people who raise and reintegrate them into the wild. All six episodes will be released at the same time. Streaming Friday on Apple TV.
Get into the holiday spirit.
With the holidays right around the corner, movies abound to get you into the merrymaking spirit. Here are some available to stream.
The campy
A young widow accidentally turns a snowman — one with chiseled abs and a jawline that could cut glass — into a real man, and chaos ensues. The head-spinning logistics of him being a human man with the ability to melt makes for great conversation around the dinner table. “Hot Frosty” is streaming on Netflix.
In “Pottersville,” Michael Shannon stars as a small town store owner who stumbles out of a bar on a drunken night wearing a gorilla suit and is mistaken as a real-life Bigfoot, which ends up bringing droves of tourists and a reality TV monster hunter to the town. Available to purchase on Apple TV and Prime Video.
The romantic
Lots of people have their varying opinions on “Love, Actually,” but it’s a holiday staple for a reason. With intertwining love stories taking place in the weeks leading up to Christmas, it will likely have one trope to make you a bit swoon-y — whether it be Hugh Grant as a flirtatious but self-deprecating prime minister, Emma Thompson as wronged wife or Thomas Brodie-Sangster as a love sick young boy. Streaming on Peacock.
In “The Holiday,” come for a cozy house-swap story and stay for Jude Law slipping on his eyeglasses the morning after a rendezvous with Cameron Diaz. Taking place between the Cotswolds in Britain and sunny Los Angeles, everyone gets a happy ending. Streaming on Philo and available to rent on Prime Video and Apple TV.
The funny
Before Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg were writing “The Studio,” they wrote a holiday movie: “The Night Before.” Isaac (Rogen), Ethan (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Chris (Anthony Mackie) have a yearly tradition of spending Christmas Eve together. With one of them about to become a father, they decide to have a last hurrah, which includes vomiting during midnight Mass, getting beaten up by two Santa Clauses and lots of drugs. Streaming on Peacock.
Feuding brothers, a scheming Santa, a Broadway sing-off and a shirtless pilot. All that and more is in “A Very Jonas Christmas Movie” as the three eldest Jonas Brothers try to make it home for Christmas. Streaming on Hulu and Disney Plus.
Shivani Gonzalez is a news assistant at The Times who writes a weekly TV column and contributes to a variety of sections.
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