Don Cheadle’s portrayal of the mercurial jazz star Miles Davis gets its premium cable premiere with “Miles Ahead” (Starz, 9 p.m.). Also new tonight is Jeff Nichols’ sci-fi “Midnight Special” (HBO, 8 p.m.) with Michael Shannon and Kristen Dunst.
Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood share recipes for the season on the special “The Great British Baking Show: Christmas Masterclass” (PBS, 8 p.m., check local listings).
Samuel L. Jackson stars in “Big Game” (CBS, 8 p.m.), the 2014 movie about Air Force One getting shot down.
You might not have thought of him as a comedy figure but here’s “Shaquille O’Neal Presents: All Star Comedy Jam: Live from Sin City” (Showtime, 9 p.m.), a show that doesn’t even feature him has host. Instead, it’s Lavell Crawford introducing Earthquake, Cocoa Brown, K-Dubb and Donnell Rawlings.
It’s always a bad night for TV when “UFC Fight Night” is prime time broadcast fare. This one is a women’s match: Paige VanZant vs. Michelle Waterson (Fox, 8 p.m.).
“A Pentatonix Christmas” (NBC, 8 p.m.) and the “SNL Christmas” (NBC, 9 p.m.) both get replays as does Joshua Bell’s Seasons of Cuba on “Live from Lincoln Center” (PBS, 10 p.m., check local listings) and “Rock the Troops” (Spike, 9 p.m.).
And there’s the second best “Peanuts” Christmas special, “I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown!” (ABC, 8 p.m.).
A day care worker tries to overturn her 31-year murder sentence on “48 Hours” (CBS, 10 p.m.).
Here’s an interesting way to chop up old shows: The “Soul Train” episodes where New Edition performed, went solo and reunited are collected on “The Soul Train Life of New Edition” (BET, 8 and 9:30 p.m.).
New Edition’s Johnny Gill is also looked up tonight on “Oprah: Where Are They Now?” (OWN, 10 p.m.) as is Malcolm-Jamal Warner and skater Tai Babilonia.
Jeff tries to teach the bears to be fearful of humans on “Project Grizzly” (Animal Planet, 10 p.m.).
There’s a three hour Christmas episode of “Alaska: The Last Frontier” (Discovery, 8 p.m.).
Another cable stab at the litigious religion comes on “The Scientology Cure” (Investigation Discovery, 9 p.m.).
These are presented in order all day, so they will finally make sense: “Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace” (TNT, 10:48 a.m.), “Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones” (TNT, 1:45 p.m.), “Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith” (TNT, 4:54 p.m.), “Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope” (TNT, 8 p.m.) (the actual first “Star Wars” movie), “Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back” (TNT, 8 p.m.) and “Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi” (TNT, 1:32 a.m.).
On the new “My Christmas Love” (Hallmark, 8 p.m.) Meredith Hagner stars a woman inundated by the gifts from “The 12 Days of Christmas” but can’t decide who they are from — one of four hunky guys who also are kind of identical.
Christmas movies include “The Santa Clause” (Freeform, 6:50 p.m.), “Love Actually” (Bravo, 7:20 and 10:25 p.m.), “Christmas with the Kranks” (Lifetime, 8 p.m.), “The Best Man Holiday” (FXX, 8 and 10:30 p.m.), the George E. Scott “A Christmas Carol” (AMC, 8 p.m.), “My Christmas Dream” (Hallmark, 10 p.m.), “Becoming Santa” (Lifetime, 10 p.m.), Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas” (AMC, 10:30 p.m.),
“Frozen” (Freeform, 9 p.m.) may not count as a Christmas movie, but it certainly does as a winter one.
Here’s a slew of “Homicide for the Holidays” (Oxygen, 7 p.m.) — seven hours worth, including a new episode at 8 p.m.
Also there’s an inordinate amount of “CNN Special Report: The Murder of JonBenet” (CNN, 8 and 11 p.m.) and the aptly named “Overkill: The Unsolved Murder of JonBenet” (Reelz, 9 and 11 p.m.). Because she was killed on Christmas!
Religious favorites are on Turner Classic Movies with “The Song of Bernadette” (8 p.m.), “Going My Way” (10:45 p.m.) and “I’d Climb the Highest Mountain” (1 a.m.) before “Kiss of the Tarantula” (2:45 a.m) and “Alice, Sweet Alice” (4:15 a.m.) change the tone considerably.
Carrie Fisher, Grayson Perry, Sandi Toksvig and Nadia Hussain are on “The Graham Norton Show” (BBC America, 10 p.m.).
College bowls begin in earnest with North Carolina Central vs. Grambling State (ABC, noon) in the Celebration Bowl, Texas-San Antonio vs. San Diego State (ABC, 2 p.m.) in the New Mexico Bowl, Houston vs. San Diego State (ESPN, 3:30 p.m.) in the Las Vegas Bowl, Appalachian State vs. Toledo (ESPN, 5:30 p.m.) in the Camellia Bowl; Central Florida vs. Arkansas State (CBS Sports, 5:30 p.m.) in the Cure Bowl, and Southern Mississippi vs. Louisiana Lafayette (ESPN, 9 p.m.) in the New Orleans Bowl.
Other games include North Alabama vs. Northwest Missouri State (ESPN2, 4 p.m.) in the Division II championship and Youngstown State vs. Eastern Washington (ESPNU, 6:30 p.m.) in the FCS playoffs.
An unusual Saturday pro football game has Miami at Jets (NFL, 8:25 p.m.).
Mostly, there is men’s college basketball with Georgetown at Syracuse (ESPN, noon), Texas A&M vs. Arizona (ESPN2, noon), Wagner at Oklahoma (Fox Sports 1, 12:30 p.m.), Memphis at Oklahoma (ABC, 12:30 p.m.), Texas Tech at Richmond (ESPNU, 12:30 p.m.), South Carolina at South Florida (CBS Sports, 1 p.m.), Manhattan vs. Florida State (Fox Sports 2, 1:30 p.m.), Notre Dame vs. Purdue (ESPN2, 2 p.m.), Chicago State at DePaul (Fox Sports 1, 2 p.m.), Arkansas vs. Texas (ESPNU, 2:30 p.m.), Ohio State vs. UCLA (CBS, 3 p.m.), Kansas State vs. Colorado State (CBS Sports, 3 p.m.), Charlotte vs. Florida (Fox Sports 2, 4 p.m.), Robert Morris at Virginia (ESPNU, 4:30 p.m.), Kentucky vs. North Carolina (CBS, 5:30 p.m.), Delaware at Seton Hall (Fox Sports 2, 6 p.m.), Davidson vs. Kansas (ESPN2, 7 p.m.), Wake Forest at Xavier (Fox Sports 1, 8 p.m.), Oral Roberts at Creighton (Fox Sports 2, 8 p.m.) and UNLV vs. Oregon (ESPN2, 11 p.m.).
In the NCAA Women’s Volleyball championship, it’s Stanford vs. Texas (ESPN2, 9 p.m.).
And there are some winter sports: Women’s world cup luge and snowboarding (NBC, 2:30 p.m.) and in women’s hockey, U.S. vs. Canada (NBC Sports, 4:30 p.m.).
Sweater-Kinney and Heartless Bastards play a new “Austin City Limits” (PBS, 11 p.m., check local listings).
Casey Affleck hosts a new “Saturday Night Live” (NBC, 11:30 p.m.) with Chance the Rapper.