‘Ultimate Tag’ debuts; Sedaris returns
Olly, olly oxen free! The absence of professional sports has reduced fans and sportscasters to desperation. Fox introduces “Ultimate Tag” (9 p.m., TV-PG), a variation on the backyard game played in an elaborate studio setting. The players, or “taggers,” are professional athletes, and the announcers are loud, thick-necked guys who try to invest the action with as much bravado and “intensity” as they can. But we’re still watching a game of tag.
There’s no telling where television can go (or descend) from “Ultimate Tag.” Can “Celebrity Duck-Duck-Goose” be far behind?
› Few TV “stars” have as much fun with their series as the host of “At Home With Amy Sedaris” (10 p.m., TruTV, TV-14). On a very basic level, it offers a parody of a cooking/lifetime show. But in Sedaris’ manic hands, “At Home” can turn on a dime and go anywhere. A dinner party becomes a crime scene in the blink of an eye. Sedaris has clearly watched a lot of television, and loves turning the medium into her own deranged sandbox.
Sedaris’ ability and willingness to say and do just about anything was obvious to any fan of “Strangers With Candy,” her brilliant sendup of after-school-special “lesson” movies, which aired on Comedy Central at the turn of the century.
Other performers as strange as Sedaris might be pigeonholed as a “downtown” talent. But over the years, her range has been amazing. Sure, she conducted a tour of Greenwich Village’s Christopher Street at 4 in the morning for “Late Night With David Letterman,” but she was also a recurring character on “The Middle,” the ABC vehicle for Patricia Heaton.
Her latest surprise cameo was in “The Mandalorian” as a frizzy-haired outcast who shares some maternal moments with Baby Yoda. It wasn’t her first work with director Jon Favreau. She was also in his 2003 Christmas classic “Elf.” Her best recent role was as the voice of the beleaguered agent/ producer Princess Caroline in “BoJack Horseman.” As a bonus treat, her brother, the humorist and essayist David Sedaris, got to provide the voice of her mother!
Season three of “At Home With Amy Sedaris” will include guest appearances from Michael Cera, Ann Dowd, Rachel Dratch, David Alan Grier, Debi Mazar, Paul Rudd, Justin Theroux, and many more.
› Blake Shelton appears on a new episode of “Jay Leno’s Garage” (10 p.m., CNBC, TV-PG), a series that allows spectacularly wealthy celebrities to seem like “ordinary” guys just talking about their cars.
› Opposing sides meet at a women’s conference on “Mrs. America” streaming on Hulu.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
› April may leave on “Chicago Med” (8 p.m., NBC, repeat, TV-14).
› A winner emerges on “The Masked Singer” (8 p.m., Fox, TV-PG).
› The voice of Dwayne Johnson animates the 2016 musical cartoon “Moana” (8 p.m., ABC, TV-PG).
› Animatronic critter decoys hide cameras on “Spy in the Wild: A Nature Miniseries” (8 p.m., PBS, TV-PG, check local listings).