This Week in TV: Super Bowl LVI, ‘Inventing Anna,’ ‘Bel-Air’

The biggest TV day of the year arrives this week: Super Bowl Sunday, with its big-budget ads, star-packed halftime show and the football game that surrounds all of it. Between that and the ongoing Winter Olympics, Feb. 9-15 is somewhat light on network and cable debuts, but there are a healthy number of streaming series set to debut, including a dramatic take on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and the first series Shonda Rhimes has written herself since Scandal.

Below is The Hollywood Reporter‘s rundown of premieres, returns and specials over the next seven days. It would be next to impossible to watch everything, but let THR point the way to worthy options for the coming week. All times are ET/PT unless noted.

Related Stories

News

'Bel-Air' Actress and Singer Coco Jones Signs With WME in All Areas (Exclusive)

TV

Super Bowl LVII TV Ratings Revised Up: Fox's Broadcast Crosses 115M Viewers

The Big Show

Last year’s Super Bowl was the least watched in more than a decade, with “only” 91.6 million people watching on average. That’s still way more than any other single program on American television last year, and Sunday’s game on NBC will be no different. The Los Angeles Rams — playing in their home stadium — and the Cincinnati Bengals will play for the title, with kickoff scheduled for about 6:20 p.m. ET/3:20 p.m. PT Sunday on NBC (it will also stream in Peacock and have a Spanish-language broadcast on Telemundo).

The halftime show will feature L.A. hip-hop icons Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Kendrick Lamar along with Mary J. Blige and Eminem. Mickey Guyton is set to perform the national anthem before the game. Ads are going for as much as $7 million per 30-second spot — all of which will help drive the audience up to its usual stratospheric level.

Also on broadcast …

A pair of first-year dramas end their seasons: The finale of 4400 airs at 9 p.m. Monday on The CW, and Queens wraps at 10 p.m. Tuesday on ABC.

On streaming …

New: Inventing Anna (Friday, Netflix) follows the story of Anna Delvey — or is it Sorokin? — who charmed and spent her way into New York art and social scene before being revealed as a serial con artist. The limited series — Rhimes’ first as creator and showrunner since Scandal finished in 2018 — stars Julia Garner (and her curious but spot-on pan-Euro accent) as Delvey and Veep’s Anna Chlumsky as a journalist trying to figure out just who Anna really is.

The nine-episode series can feel a little “unwieldy” at times, writes THR critic Angie Han, but shifting viewpoints and a fully immersed performance from Garner help make the show “savvy, sly and compulsively watchable.”

Also: On Super Bowl Sunday, Peacock will debut Bel-Air, a dramatic take on The Fresh Prince inspired by a viral short; Jabari Banks plays the lead role, and original Fresh Prince Will Smith is an executive producer. The fourth installment of Disenchantment debuts Wednesday on Netflix. On Thursday, HBO Max premieres thriller The Girl Before, starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and Stephen and Ayesha Curry’s unscripted show About Last Night. Real Husbands of Hollywood (Thursday, BET+) returns five-plus years after its most recent season. Season two of Dollface arrives Friday on Hulu.

On cable …

Puppy Bowl: The 18th edition of Animal Planet’s annual showcase of cuteness and advocacy for pet adoption kicks off at 2 p.m. Sunday. We’re not sure who will win the game — or really, how that’s even determined — but we do know all the players will be good girls and boys.

Also: Stephen Colbert is among the executive producers of Comedy Central’s animated series Fairview (8:30 p.m. Wednesday), set in a small town with lots of issues. Season two of Sundance’s short-form comedy State of the Union premieres at 10 p.m. Monday (as well as on AMC+ and SundanceNow).