After September and October’s slew of premieres, November is a bit of a weird month for TV. Late fall is a grab bag of cable shows, reality TV, Lifetime specials, and stand-up comedy, with a few scattered network dramas in between. Still, with Grumpy Cat, Gordon Ramsay, and Aaron Sorkin on the agenda, November’s hardly lacking in water cooler conversation material. Here are the top ten events to line up on your DVR this month.
November 4: Masterchef Junior Returns
The cooking competition subgenre of reality TV is pretty thoroughly played out by now, but if kids, food, and Gordon Ramsay desperately trying to be nice and not swear don’t revive the tired premise of watching people cook things you’ll never actually be able to eat, nothing will.
November 5: Yup, Snooki and JWoww Is Still a Thing
Three seasons strong and heading into its fourth, Jersey Shore Lite is the story of two women and their fiancés milking their reality TV fame for all it’s worth. Mostly noteworthy because it’s still on air, this either is your thing or it isn’t, so if it is, happy treadmill viewing!
November 6: The Eric André Show‘s Third Season Premieres
Between The Eric André Show, Comedy Bang Bang, and stalwarts like The Colbert Report, the competition for fake talk show dominance has never been fiercer. But with a loopy postmodern sensibility, the Don’t Trust the B— refugee as host, and none other than Hannibal “Crushin’ It” Buress as sidekick, The Eric André Show is a serious contender. Watch it!
November 9: HBO Takes Over Sundays Again
Between the criminally underrated Getting On, the newly revived Comeback, and the Aaron Sorkin show that shall not be named, HBO once again has a full Sunday night lineup. While that last one will no doubt be the ratings powerhouse (it’s the “final season”! Of three!), we’re more excited for Lisa Kudrow’s resurrected antiheroine and the pitch-black medical comedy of Getting On.
November 14: Chelsea Peretti Becomes One of the Greats
The Parks and Rec writer, Brooklyn Nine-Nine scene-stealer, childhood friend of Andy Samberg, and sister of BuzzFeed’s CEO (not really relevant to her comedy career, but worth including for the “what?!” factor), Peretti gets the hour-long standup special she so richly deserves on Netflix this month. Along with Doug Benson’s Doug Dynasty and Bill Cosby’s hour-long show, it’s one of three high-profile specials going live on the streaming service in November.
November 15: Lifetime Airs the Aaliyah Biopic No One Asked For
The less said about this, the better, but… at least it’s not Zendaya Coleman? Anyway, this isn’t even the most insane thing Lifetime has on the calendar for the month, which is really saying something.
November 15: The Missing, Starz’s First Post-Outlander Series, Premieres
A BBC import, The Missing is the story of a child’s disappearance and its devastating effect on his parents, Tony (James Nesbitt) and Emily (Frances O’Connor), picking up years after the event. It’s also the first series to premiere on the network since Outlander raised its profile as a cable force to be reckoned with, though The Missing has a disappointing shortage of shirtless Scotsmen and time-traveling nurses.
November 17: Katherine Heigl Makes Her Not-So-Triumphant Return with State of Affairs
Exiled from ShondaLand, Heigl returns to network TV this month with a series that shamelessly borrows from Scandal‘s lady-politicos-in-moral-gray-areas schtick, fulfilling the same function for NBC that Madam Secretary does for CBS. Alfre Woodard plays the country’s first black female president, and Heigl the CIA agent in charge of Woodard’s daily briefing. The Woodard part is exciting; Heigl’s involvement, not so much.
November 28: Bill Cosby Netflix Special Premieres… Probably
A new special from the 77-year-old sitcom legend would be newsworthy no matter what. But now that comedian Hannibal Buress has reintroduced Cosby’s rape allegations into the national conversation and accuser Barbara Bowman has kept them there, it’ll be interesting to see how Cosby, Netflix, and the media handle the special’s release. Queen Latifah just canceled an interview with him, giving some weight to the theory that this might be the time the allegations finally stick.
November 29: Lifetime’s Grumpy Cat Special Brings 2014 TV to Its Peak/Rock Bottom
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