“Malfunction: The Dressing Down of Janet Jackson” premieres simultaneously on FX and Hulu on Nov. 18, 2021.
FX/HULU
20/20: Escape From a House of Horror (9 p.m., ABC) – ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer has exclusive interviews with children from the Turpin family, who authorities found captive inside their California home under harrowing conditions – starvation, in chains, brutal violence – after one escaped and called 911. In the two-hour episode, we’ll hear from the daughter who made the emergency call that led to their rescue, and her sister who previously attempted an escape – the first interviews from any of the 13 Turpin children. The program includes never-before-seen police body camera tape, as well as footage and photos from the children’s lives inside their parents’ house, characterized by authorities as a house of horror, and from the day one child made a run for it. ABC News correspondent David Scott also reports on what’s happened to the children since the rescue.
Dateline: Infamous (9 p.m., NBC) – Convicted murderer Drew Peterson speaks out in his first network TV interview in over a decade, addressing the murder of his third wife Kathleen Savio, and the disappearance of his fourth wife Stacy Peterson. Peterson, who continues to maintain his innocence, tells Dateline he was a “loving husband.” In the episode, correspondent Natalie Morales also speaks with Stacy Peterson’s sister Cassandra, who continues to search for Stacy since she disappeared in 2007.
Malfunction: The Dressing Down of Janet Jackson (10 p.m., FX / Hulu) – In 2004, a culture war was brewing when the Super Bowl halftime show audience saw a white man expose a Black woman’s breast for 9/16ths of a second. A national furor ensued. The woman was Janet Jackson, and her career was never the same. This New York Times Presents documentary explores that episode and the aftermath. It features rare footage and interviews with several people who were at the controls that night in Houston — including N.F.L. and MTV executives — to reconstruct an incident that shook the country and explain how it shaped culture in the decades to follow. With new reporting by The New York Times, as well as insights from music industry insiders, cultural critics and members of the Jackson family, the film illuminates the extraordinary fallout, CBS executive Les Moonves’s role and Justin Timberlake’s parallel career rise. This will air simultaneously on FX and Hulu, and will continue to be available to stream on Hulu.
Harriet the Spy (Apple TV+) – The new series, based on the book by Louise Fitzhugh, is set in 1960s New York when the original book was published, and follows the outspoken and perpetually curious 11-year-old Harriet M. Welsch, played by Beanie Feldstein. More than anything, Harriet wants to be a writer, and in order to be a good writer, she’ll need to know everything. And to know everything means she’ll need to spy… on everyone. Jane Lynch plays Ole Golly, Harriet’s larger-than-life, no-nonsense nanny. Joining Feldstein and Lynch, the series features Lacey Chabert as Marion Hawthorne, the ringleader of a group of popular girls at Harriet’s school, and additional voice cast Kimberly Brooks, Crispin Freeman, Grey Griffin, Bumper Robinson and Charlie Schlatter.
Some programming descriptions are provided by networks.
Brooke Cain is a North Carolina native who has worked at The News & Observer for more than 25 years. She is the service journalism editor and writes about TV and local media for The N&O’s Happiness is a Warm TV blog.
www.newsobserver.com