WEDNESDAY’S BEST PICKS
5 PM ( TCM) MOVIE The Best Years of Our Lives Seven decades later, director William Wyler’s lengthy but magnificent 1946 drama remains an extremely telling portrait of the effects of war on ordinary citizens. Honored with seven Academy Awards including best picture, the film features flawless performances by Dana Andrews, Fredric March and Harold Russell as veterans struggling to cope with being back home. Myrna Loy and Teresa Wright co-star. The film airs today in observance of Veterans Day.
8 PM & Chicago Med Art imitates life as this ht medical drama returns for Season 6 with “When Did We Begin to Change,” which sees the entire staff of Chicago Med struggling to adjust to the weird new normal imposed by the coronavirus pandemic. As Dr. Choi, Dr. Lanik and April (Brian Tee, Nate Santana, Yaya DaCosta) fight COVID-19 on the front lines, Dr. Halstead and Hannah (Nick Gehlfuss, Jessy Schram) confront a troubled personal reality. Meanwhile, Dr. Charles (Oliver Platt) deals with a family matter.
8 PM * The 54th Annual CMA Awards Reba McEntire and Darius Rucker host this year’s ceremonies from Music City Center in downtown Nashville, Tenn. With seven nods among this year’s field of nominees, Miranda Lambert makes CMA Awards history as the first female artist to accumulate 55 total career nominations. That breaks a record previously held by McEntire, who also notches her 51st career nomination this year. Other top nominees include Luke Combs with six nods, including his first for Entertainer of the Year. Charley
Pride will receive the 2020 Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award.
9 PM $ S.W.A.T. The hot button topic of racial conflict between Black citizens and police officers is a major theme in the Season 4 premiere “3 Seventeen Year Olds,” the first of two episodes airing back-to-back. As Hondo (Shemar Moore) confronts that tense history, the SWAT team also pursues El Diablo’s scattered drug cartel hiding in the city, while a Jihadist group detonates bombs in a series of coordinated attacks. Then, in “Stakeout,” the team helps the CIA confirm whether an international crime lord has resurfaced in Los Angeles.
9 PM & Chicago Fire “Rattle Second City” opens Season 9 of this action drama, as the Firehouse 51 team welcomes a new member whose presence could lead to some complications. Brett
(Kara Killmer) gets a chance to shine as a leader when a call takes a scary turn. Sensing a great potential in Kidd (Miranda Mayo), Boden (Eamonn Walker) makes a proposal that could have lasting repercussions for the team. Jesse Spencer and Taylor Kinney also star.
9 PM G Coroner Jenny (Serinda Swan) assists McAvoy (Roger Cross) with a case featured on a true-crime podcast, but it presents a major challenge because there’s no body for her to examine in the new episode “The Flipside.” At the same time, Jenny also makes an alarming discovery about the severity of her condition. Meanwhile, Liam’s (Éric Bruneau) parents come to visit, and Kelly (Nicola Correia-Damude) gets a little too comfortable in her role as the new caretaker for Jenny’s family.
10 PM & Chicago P.D. This hit police drama confronts the current polarizing issue of police reform head on in the Season 8 premiere, “Fighting Ghosts,” which finds the team’s investigation into the shooting of a 5-year-old girl complicated by new procedural obstacles. Meanwhile, Atwater (LaRoyce Hawkins) becomes a target for some officers pushing back against his opposition to the “blue wall.” Meanwhile, Voight (Jason Beghe) starts to question whether he’s cut out for this by-thebook new world. Patrick Flueger, Jesse Soffer and Amy Morton co-star.
10 PM ( BRV) The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City The latest entry in this hit reality show franchise is set in Utah’s capital city, where the Mormon Church is deeply ingrained, although the featured women represent a spectrum of religious beliefs ranging from Mormon and Islamic to Jewish and Pentecostal. The cast includes Whitney Rose, a descendant of “Mormon royalty,” who left the church after falling for her married boss; Mary Cosby, a Pentecostal woman with an unconventional past; Heather Gay, a divorced Mormon now distanced from the church; and Jen Shah, who converted from Mormonism to Islam.