What's on TV Thursday 'Fantasy Island' Fox, 'Underrated' TBS

Kiara Barnes, left, and Roselyn Sanchez in "Fantasy Island" on Fox.

Dec. 23, 2021 8 AM PT

The prime-time TV grid is on hiatus in print. You can find more TV coverage at: latimes.com/whats-on-tv.

SERIES

Fantasy Island Recently renewed for a second season to air in 2022, this re-imagining of the vintage TV series airs a two-hour holiday episode in which Elena Roarke (Roselyn Sanchez) is challenged by a businesswoman’s (guest star Lindsey Kraft) fantasy of a perfect Christmas, which includes meeting “Mr. Right” (guest star Eddie Cahill). Another arrival (guest star Mackenzie Astin) is forced to confront his past, while Ruby (Kiara Barnes) and Javier (John Gabriel Rodriguez) look to the future. 8 p.m. Fox

Christmas Cookie Challenge The season finale of this baking and decorating competition imagines Santa recruiting new members for his team, and the five bakers must come up with suitable sleigh-pulling candidates. After hosts Ree Drummond and Eddie Jackson select which reindeer cookies make the squad, the bakers bake snowmen to complete the Christmassy scene. 9 p.m. Food Network

Shaq Life (N) 9 and 9:30 p.m. TNT

SPECIALS

Underrated Two teams of gamers compete across classic and current Nintendo Switch titles for charity in a four-night special event. 11 p.m. TBS

SPORTS

College Football Frisco Football Classic: North Texas versus Miami (Ohio), 12:30 p.m. ESPN; Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl: UCF versus Florida, 4 p.m. ESPN

College Basketball Butler visits St. John’s, 3:30 p.m. FS1; Seton Hall visits DePaul, 5:30 p.m. FS1; Diamond Head Classic Semifinal, 7 p.m. ESPN2

NFL Football The San Francisco 49ers visit the Tennessee Titans, 5:20 p.m. NFL

NBA Basketball The San Antonio Spurs visit the Lakers, 7:30 p.m. SportsNet

TALK SHOWS

CBS Mornings Imagine Dragons. (N) 7 a.m. KCBS

Today Northwell Hospital Nurse Choir. (N) 7 a.m. KNBC

KTLA Morning News (N) 7 a.m. KTLA

Good Morning America Brandon Gray, Daniel Pandolph and Daniel Thompson; Tye Sheridan and Lily Rabe; David Archuleta. (N) 7 a.m. KABC

Good Day L.A. (N) 7 a.m. KTTV

Live With Kelly and Ryan Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell (“The Christmas Chronicles 2”); the annual sweater pageant. 9 a.m. KABC

The View Kathy Griffin. 10 a.m. KABC

Rachael Ray José Feliciano. (N) 10 a.m. KTTV

The Dr. Oz Show Examining key evidence and new insights from those closest to the O.J. Simpson murder trial. (N) 1 p.m. KTTV

The Ellen DeGeneres Show Neil Patrick Harris; Leon Howard. (N) 3 p.m. KNBC

Amanpour & Company (N) 11 p.m. KCET; midnight KVCR; 1 a.m. KLCS

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Matthew McConaughey; Alana Haim; Niko Moon performs. 11:34 p.m. KNBC

The Late Show With Stephen Colbert Peter Dinklage; Lee Jung-Jae; Peter Dinklage and Aaron and Bryce Dessner perform. 11:35 p.m. KCBS

Jimmy Kimmel Live! Ben Affleck; Jay Ellis; the Record Company performs. 11:35 p.m. KABC

The Late Late Show With James Corden Nicholas Hoult; comic Aisling Bea; BTS performs. 12:37 a.m. KCBS

Late Night With Seth Meyers Michael Che; Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank); Jon Epcar with the 8G Band. 12:37 a.m. KNBC

Nightline (N) 12:37 a.m. KABC

MOVIES

The Man Who Came to Dinner Monty Woolley had one of his best and most prominent roles in this 1942 version of the classic George S. Kaufman-Moss Hart stage comedy. He plays a caustic lecturer who’s laid up at the home of an Ohio family over the Christmas holidays after falling on ice. Upon learning his injured leg is fine, he decides to stick around just for the fun of tinkering with his hosts’ lives. Bette Davis, Ann Sheridan and Jimmy Durante also star. 7:15 p.m. TCM

It Comes at Night Writer-director Trey Edward Shults’ 2017 psychological horror film is set during a deadly and highly contagious disease that is ravaging the planet, focusing on a couple (Joel Edgerton and Carmen Ejogo) who shelter in a remote cabin with their teenage son (Kelvin Harrison Jr.). Christopher Abbott and Riley Keough also star. 7:30 p.m. Showtime

Disney’s A Christmas Carol Jim Carrey plays Ebenezer Scrooge — and several other characters — in this 2009 adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic. Gary Oldman and Colin Firth also lend their likenesses and voices. 8 p.m. Disney

Rebuilding a Dream Christmas After a woman (Meggan Kaiser) inherits a Victorian house from her late grandmother, she returns to her hometown and looks for someone who will help fix it up to sell it. She hires a skilled builder (Zane Stephens), a single dad who was also her childhood crush. Bryson JonSteele also stars in this new holiday romance. 8 p.m. Lifetime

Last Man Standing: Suge Knight and the Murders of Biggie & Tupac In this 2021 follow-up to his controversial 2002 film “Biggie and Tupac,” British filmmaker Nick Broomfield reexamines the unsolved murders of hip-hop performers Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur. 8 p.m. Starz

The Survivalist Director Jon Keeyes’ 2021 action thriller is set in the near future, a year and a half after civilization as we know it fell to the ravages of a deadly pandemic. A former FBI agent (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) protects a vulnerable young woman (Ruby Modine) who appears to be immune to the disease. John Malkovich and Jon Orsini also star. 10 p.m. Showtime

Moonlight (2016) 8:15 a.m. Showtime

Instant Family (2018) 8:30 a.m. FX

White Christmas (1954) 9 a.m. AMC

Steel Magnolias (1989) 9:45 and 10:50 p.m. Encore

Barbershop 2: Back in Business (2004) 10:05 a.m. Showtime

Beatriz at Dinner (2017) 10:10 a.m. Epix

Desk Set (1957) 10:45 a.m. TCM

Titanic (1997) 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. Paramount

Dark Waters (2019) 11 a.m. TMC

Clueless (1995) 11:15 a.m. HBO

Crazy Heart (2009) 11:35 a.m. Epix

Arthur Christmas (2011) Noon Freeform