Screentime July 23 – 29, 2023

Seeing action: ‘Special Ops: Lioness’ debuts on Paramount+

By Jay Bobbin

One of the most popular actresses in cable movies is also the co-creator of one of streaming’s newest series.

A veteran of Hallmark Channel who now does work for Great American Family, Jill Wagner (“Mystery 101”) teamed with writer-producer Taylor Sheridan (“Yellowstone,” “Tulsa King”) to create the international espionage thriller “Special Ops: Lioness,” which Paramount+ debuts Sunday, July 23. Zoe Saldana (“Avatar: The Way of Water,” 2022) has the central role of a military operative who has a special assignment at the front of the ongoing war against global terrorism. Nicole Kidman (“Big Little Lies”) and Michael Kelly (“House of Cards”) portray

the supervisors of the largely female-driven Lioness program, which actually exists, and which Saldana’s character works within alongside a Marine Raider (Laysia De Oliveira).

Wagner effectively created a part for herself since she also has a co-starring role in “Lioness,” whose cast includes Morgan Freeman (“A Good Person,” 2023), LaMonica Garrett (“Designated Survivor”), James Jordan (“Wind River,” 2017) and Dave Annable (“Brothers & Sisters”) as well. Wagner knew Sheridan from before his current run as a powerhouse producer, also supplying the Paramount+ series “Mayor of Kingston” and “Tulsa King” as well as the “Yellowstone” prequels “1883” and “1923,” and they reunited to

develop “Lioness” together. (Garrett, Jordan and Annable have worked for Sheridan before in some of his other shows.)

The new series features Wagner in a role that night not surprise those who know the former “Wipeout” co-host’s work from the shows “Blade” and “Teen Wolf,” though fans of her genteel work in virtually all of her cable movies might not expect the toughness of her “Lioness” character Bobby from her. That’s in keeping with the theme of the show, of course, but it’s an area Wagner hasn’t delved into much lately. Similarly, Kidman has played it tough on occasion, though that’s also a relatively rare situation. The 2018 movie “Destroyer” is an excellent example, effective

to the extent that at the time of the undercover-detective drama’s release, the Oscar-winning actress’ husband — country-music superstar Keith Urban — admitted (albeit jokingly) to being a little afraid of her, given the rugged nature of her portrayal in that film.

Kidman has been no stranger to home-screen work in recent years, and before her movie stardom, she began her career by doing television in Australia (where she grew up, though she was born in Honolulu). “Five Mile Creek,” “Vietnam” and “Bangkok Hilton” were among her 1980s credits before her main focus shifted to feature films, and it would be almost 30 years until TV became a part of her resume again.

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The STREAM Scene

July 27

July 23

“Movie: Unseen”

In this Blumhouse horror thriller, Sam (Jolene Purdy), a gas station clerk, receives a misdialed call from Emily (Midori Francis), who is running from her murderous ex-boyfriend in the woods. Having lost her glasses in her escape, Emily must rely on Sam’s eyes using the video call in order to survive. From director Yoko Okumura, the film also stars Michael Patrick Lane, Missi Pyle, Brett Baker and Nicholas X. Parsons.

WebLinks

July 24

“Futurama: Season 11”

Landing on a new network with its first new season in a decade, this animated sci-fi comedy from Matt Groening and David X. Cohen (both of “The Simpsons”) has reunited its voice cast for 10 new episodes. The new season sees developments in the epic love story of Fry and Leela, the mysterious contents of Nibbler’s litter box, the secret history of evil Robot Santa, and the whereabouts of Kif and Amy’s tadpoles.

Where all the top choices can be found in one place!

“Movie: Happiness for Beginners” Ellie Kemper (“Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”) stars in this new romcom as risk-averse, newly divorced Helen, who finds herself more than a little lost in her life. Deciding she needs a reset, she signs up for an “Adventure of a Lifetime!” with a group of quirky strangers, hoping to learn how to live — and love — again while taking on a backcountry survival course hiking the Appalachian Trail.

In Focus

July 26 “Life Below

Zero: Port Protection

Alaska: Season 6” Season 6 of this National Geographic reality series makes its streaming premiere. Port Protection is home to the few who have left behind normal society and chosen a different life in a remote Alaskan community, where survival of the individuals and community cannot sustain without the other. The stakes are high.

“Dark Winds: Season 2” (AMC+ — July 30, Season Premiere)

Based on the iconic Leaphorn & Chee book series by Tony Hillerman, this mystery drama series returns for a second season. Lt. Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon) reunites with Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon), his former deputy turned private eye, when their separate cases bring them together in pursuit of the same suspect. They find themselves in the high desert of Navajo Country chasing a killer who’s turned his sights on them to protect a secret that rips open old wounds and challenges Leaphorn’s moral and professional code. Jessica Matten co-stars.

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Who doesn’t appreciate a little solitude? These hardcore survivalists certainly don’t mind. As winter descends, the competitors struggle to keep up with the demands of being alone in the extreme wilderness.To make matters worse, one participant struggles with an infestation and another finds their breaking point, all in a bone-chilling new episode of “Alone,” premiering Thursday, July 27, on History. To watch more episodes from the series, check out: history.com/ shows/alone

Sports Zone

S unday

6 a.m. USA 2023 Open Championship Final Round. (Live)

WNYW-5 WUTV-29 FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 France vs. Jamaica. (Live)

7 a.m. GOLF Ladies Euro Tour Golf La Sella Open, Final Round. (Live)

WGRZ-2 WICU-12 2023 Open Championship Final Round. (Live)

8:55 a.m. ESPN Formula 1 Racing Hungary Grand Prix. (Live)

12 p.m. ESPN2 Athletes Unlimited Lacrosse Team Purple vs. Team Blue. (Live)

1 p.m. WIVB-4 WSEE-35 WNBA Basketball Phoenix Mercury at Washington Mystics. (Live) WKBW-7 X Games California 2023 (Live)

2:30 p.m. ESPN2 Athletes Unlimited Lacrosse Team Orange vs. Team Gold. (Live) USA NASCAR Cup Series Pocono 400. (Live)

WGRZ-2 WICU-12 IndyCar Racing Hy-Vee One Step 250. (Live)

3 p.m. FS1 Horse Racing Saratoga Live. (Live)

WIVB-4 WSEE-35 BIG3 Basketball Week 5. (Live)

4 p.m. ATTPT MLB Baseball Pittsburgh Pirates at Los Angeles Angels. (Live)

WNYW-5 WUTV-29 NHRA Drag Racing Flav-R-Pac Northwest Nationals. (Live)

5 p.m. GOLF PGA Tour Golf Barracuda Championship, Final Round. (Live)

7 p.m. ESPN MLB Baseball New York Mets at Boston Red Sox. (Live)

ESPN2 MLB Baseball Sunday Night Baseball with Kay-Rod: New York Mets at Boston Red Sox. (Live)

bestof ...

BY JAY BOBBIN

FS1 Leagues Cup Atlas FC vs. New York City FC. (Live)

p.m. FS1 Leagues Cup Puebla FC at Minnesota United FC. (Live) 2 a.m. FS1 FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 Italy vs. Argentina. (Live)

3 a.m. GOLF PGA Tour Golf Barracuda Championship, Final Round. (Live)

4:30 a.m. FS1 FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 Germany vs. Morocco. (Live) M onday

7 a.m. FS1 FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 Brazil vs. Panama. (Live)

9:30 p.m. ATTPT MLB Baseball Pittsburgh Pirates at San Diego Padres. (Live)

10 p.m. FS1 FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 Colombia vs. Korea Republic. (Live)

1:30 a.m. FS1 FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 New Zealand vs. Philippines. (Live)

4 a.m. FS1 FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 Switzerland vs. Norway. (Live) t ue S day

7 p.m. ESPN WNBA Basketball Phoenix Mercury at Atlanta Dream. (Live) SNY TBS MLB Baseball New York Mets at New York Yankees. (Live)

8:30 p.m. FS1 Leagues Cup Santos Laguna vs. Houston Dynamo. (Live)

9:30 p.m. ATTPT

3:30 a.m. FS1 FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 Spain vs. Zambia. (Live) W edne S day

7:30 a.m. GOLF Ladies Euro Tour Golf Aramco Team Series - London, Day

2. (Live)

8 a.m. FS1 FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 Canada vs. Republic of Ireland. (Live)

9:30 a.m. GOLF Ladies Euro Tour Golf Aramco Team Series - London, Final Day. (Live)

4 p.m. ATTPT MLB Baseball Pittsburgh Pirates at San Diego Padres. (Live)

7 p.m. ESPN MLB Baseball Teams TBA. (Live) SNY MLB Baseball New York Mets at New York Yankees. (Live)

9 p.m. WNYW-5 WUTV-29 FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 United States vs. Netherlands. (Live)

11 p.m. FS1 Leagues Cup Tigres UANL vs. Portland Timbers. (Live)

3:30 a.m. FS1 FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 Portugal vs. Vietnam. (Live)

5 a.m. GOLF 2023 Evian Championship First Round. (Live) t hur S day

6 a.m. FS1 FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 Australia vs. Nigeria. (Live)

7 a.m.

playerprofile

BY ROBERTO JOZEF

Pete Alonso hopes to keep Mets season alive

The Battle of New York resumes this week, as the New York Mets head to Yankee Stadium to take on the Yankees in a midsummer matchup airing July 25 on TBS and YES.

With both teams boasting payrolls among the largest in Major League Baseball, the Yankees seemingly have more to show for it than the Mets this season, despite this season’s Subway Series being tied 1-1. The Yankees started the month sitting at well over .500, and even an injury to star slugger Aaron Judge hasn’t derailed their season’s trajectory.

For the Mets, it’s been a season plagued by injuries and inconsistencies, making it difficult to stay out of the bottom half — a stark difference from the 2022 season. But if there is a glimmer of hope for the Mets, it’s former National League Rookie of the Year Pete Alonso.

Alonso has been one of the most consistent players not only for the Mets, but in the entire major leagues. This season, the Mets first baseman is one of the league’s top players in terms of home runs and leads his team in RBIs, proving that 2022 was no fluke. Despite missing 10 games with a sprained wrist and struggling in his early return from the IL, Alonso was selected to his third all-star team, having already won back-to-back Home Run Derby competitions in 2019 and 2021 (the 2020 edition was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic).

“I thought that the derby wasn’t necessarily the biggest priority when I was coming back from the wrist,” Alonso said earlier this month upon learning of his third career all-star selection. “It was trying to come back and be as productive as I can for my team. If I’m able to play a game, I’m definitely going to be able to take batting practice. So for me the biggest concern was getting back to the team. The derby for me is a happy bonus.”

Look for Alonso and the Mets to bring big energy against fellow all-star slugger Judge and the rival Yankees this week. Catch all the action live Tuesday, July 25 on TBS and YES.

Full Name: Peter Morgan Alonso

Birthdate: Dec. 7, 1994

Birthplace: Tampa, Florida

Height/weight: 6-3/245

pounds

Honors and achievements:

Three-time all-star (2019, 2022, 2023), All-MLB First Team (2019),

ESPN2 Athletes Unlimited Softball Team Orange vs. Team Blue. (Live)

WPIX-11 MLB Baseball Washington Nationals at New York Mets. (Live)

9 p.m. ESPN Little League Softball Teams TBA. (Live)

3:30 a.m. FS1 FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 Sweden vs. Italy. (Live)

5:30 a.m. GOLF 2023 Evian Championship Third Round. (Live) S aturday

6 a.m. ESPN2 Formula 1 Racing Belgium Grand Prix, Sprint. (Live)

WNYW-5 WUTV-29 FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 France vs. Brazil. (Live)

a.m. WNYW-5 WUTV29 FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 Panama vs. Jamaica. (Live)

a.m. CNBC 2023 Senior Open Championship Third Round. (Live)

Racing Belgium Grand Prix, Sprint. (Live)

p.m. ESPN Pickleball PPA Tour: Seattle Open.

FS1 NHRA Drag Racing DENSO Sonoma Nationals, Qualifying.

NL Rookie of the Year (2019), MLB home run leader (2019), NL RBI leader (2022)

is on page 6.

(Live)

2 p.m. GOLF Golf 2023 U.S. Junior Amateur, Semifinals. (Live)

3 p.m. ESPN Little League Softball Teams TBA. (Live)

4 p.m. GOLF PGA Tour Golf 3M Open, Second Round. (Live)

5 p.m. ESPN Little League Softball Teams TBA. (Live) USA NASCAR Xfinity Racing Series Henry 180, Qualifying. (Live)

7 p.m. ATTPT MLB Baseball Philadelphia Phillies at Pittsburgh Pirates. (Live) ESPN Little League Softball Teams TBA. (Live)

BEST SIDNEY POITIER MOVIES

“Blackboard Jungle” (1955): Since he later would play one of the screen’s most famous educators, it’s ironic that Poitier had one of his first hits playing a student in this tense classroom tale.

“The Defiant Ones” (1958): Poitier and Tony Curtis convey appropriate fury as literally linked chain-gang fugitives in director Stanley Kramer’s racially blistering drama.

“A Raisin in the Sun” (1961): Poitier rises to the occasion, as do his co-stars, in the adaptation of Lorraine Hansberry’s classic play about a family’s sudden windfall.

“Lilies of the Field” (1963): Poitier became the first African-American to win the best actor Oscar for his portrayal of a handyman who reluctantly helps a group of nuns build a chapel.

“A Patch of Blue” (1965): Poitier and

Elizabeth Hartman are heartbreakingly wonderful in this drama of a blind woman and the man who befriends her.

“The Slender Thread” (1965): Sydney Pollack (“Out of Africa”) made his feature-film directing debut with this tense tale of a crisis center worker’s (Poitier) attempt to save a suicidal woman (Anne Bancroft) via telephone.

“To Sir, With Love” (1967): Poitier had a hit-after-hit movie year that started with his memorable portrayal of a novice teacher dealing with a classroom of London toughs.

“In the Heat of the Night” (1967): The screen truly sizzled from the teaming of Poitier and Rod Steiger as lawmen with very different methodologies in this Oscar-winning crime drama. Turner Classic Movies shows the film Wednesday, July 26, as part of the concluding night of its “The South on Film” series.

“Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”

(1967): Capping a year that any performer would cherish having, Poitier worked with screen legends Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn in this comedy-drama about an interracial marriage-to-be. Katharine Houghton, Hepburn’s niece, played the intended bride.

“For Love of Ivy” (1968): Though it often isn’t included on lists of his prime projects, this comedy-drama features a wonderfully romantic Poitier as a suitor enlisted to help a family keep their highly valued maid (Abbey Lincoln).

“Uptown Saturday Night” (1974): Poitier began a series of successful “buddy comedies” as both director and — with Bill Cosby and Harry Belafonte — star of this high-spirited story of the race to recover a stolen winning lottery ticket.

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Solution is on page 11.

celebrity q&a

Phil Keoghan

BY JAY BOBBIN

Q: With “Tough as Nails” now in its fifth season, where did the idea for the reality competition come from?

A: The inspiration for “Tough As Nails” comes from my grandfather. When I was in high school, I used to go over to my grandparents’ place. My parents were overseas at the time. Both my grandmother and my grandfather never got a chance at a high school education, but they were two very bright people … actually the brightest in their class when they were in middle school. And I always admired how both of them were able to be such contributors to the community.

I got to spend so much time with my grandfather, learning how to use tools. I always looked up to him, and it always irked me that some people somehow look down on people who maybe didn’t get a chance at an education, but who still have these incredible life skills.

Q: What are your main rules for “Tough as Nails” contestants?

A: That’s where you can get men and women competing against each other, people who are young, people who are old, tall, short. How many times have all of us judged somebody by the way they look, and we misjudge them? The idea that you never judge a book by its cover is really a big part of what “Tough As Nails” is all about.

Q: What is the ultimate message that you want “Tough as Nails” to put across?

A: There’s lots of shows out there that have honored people who are really good at singing, dancing, designing. Maybe they are good-looking and they are going to be models, but I felt that maybe there was a place for acknowledging those people who keep a country running, real people in real life who are real tough. (They are) people who haven’t necessarily had a chance to be in the limelight because maybe they aren’t that great at singing, or maybe they sing in the shower and maybe nobody hears them, and maybe they really are good singers. The people who keep our country running, the people that maybe sometimes we’ve taken for granted in the past, because they are the ones that keep the lights on.

THE LORD WILL BE A REFUGE FOR THE OPPRESSED, A REFUGE IN TIMES OF TROUBLE, AND THOSE WHO KNOW YOUR NAME WILL PUT THEIR TRUST IN YOU, FOR YOU HAVE NOT FORSAKEN THOSE WHO SEEK YOU. (PSALM 9:9-10)

“The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart: Season 1” (Prime Video - Aug. 4, Series Premiere)

Crossword Puzzle

Keoghan

TOUGH

BY JAY BOBBIN

In Focus

Q: With “Tough as Nails” now in its fifth season, where did the idea for the reality competition come from?

A: The inspiration for “Tough As Nails” comes from my grandfather. When I was in high school, I used to go over to my grandparents’ place. My parents were overseas at the time. Both my grandmother and my grandfather never got a chance at a high school education, but they were two very bright people … actually the brightest in their class when they were in middle school.

I got to spend so much time with my grandfather, learning how to use tools. I always looked up to him, and it always irked me that some people somehow look down on people who maybe didn’t get a chance at an education, but who still have these incredible life skills.

Look Now Look Here...

Q: What are your main rules for “Tough as Nails” contestants?

“The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart: Season 1” (Prime Video - Aug. 4, Series Premiere)

This series tells the emotionally compelling story of Alice Hart (played in childhood by Alyla Browne and in adulthood by Alycia Debnam-Carey), who tragically loses her parents in a mysterious fire at nine years old. She is taken to live with her grandmother June, where she learns that there are secrets within secrets about her and her family.

21 Literally, “injured”

22 Terminal info

23 “The

A: That’s where you can get men and women competing against are old, tall, short. How many times have all of us judged somebody by idea that you never judge a book by its cover is really a big part of what “Tough as Nails” to put across?

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honored people who are really good at singing, dancing, designing. Maybe models, but I felt that maybe there was a place for acknowledging those in real life who are real tough.

chance to be in the limelight because maybe they aren’t that great at maybe nobody hears them, and maybe they really are good singers. The that maybe sometimes we’ve taken for granted in the past, because they

AS NAILS ON CBS