Public television premieres a new profile on the Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winner in Asaf Galays “American Masters: The Adventures of Saul Bellow” (PBS, 8 p.m., check local listings), which features rare archival footage of the inveterate Chicagoan and interviews with fellow writers Philip Roth and Salman Rushdie, among others.
Another Chicago story is found on “POV” (PBS, 10 p.m., check local listings) in a film about a top performing school on the South Side and the effects of gentrification, titled “Let the Little Light Shine.”
For all the Christmas programming, there’s still very few pure specials as there were in the earlier days of TV. One exception may be “Baking It: Maya Rudolph and Amy Poehler’s Celebrity Holiday Special” (NBC, 10 p.m.) in which the two funny ladies invite famous friends in to cook, as well as promote the season premiere of the pair’s home cooking competition “Baking It” (Peacock, streaming)
On the other hand, King & Country invites friends to perform holiday songs on “CMT Crossroads” (CMT, 10 p.m.). Something called “A Nashville Country Christmas” (Paramount, 8 p.m.), meanwhile, is a holiday movie about a country music star escaping the spotlight by going back home to celebrate the holidays. It stars Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Keith Carradine, Ana Ortiz and Tanya Tucker.
“The Voice” (NBC, 8 p.m.) begins the first half of its live finale, with the final five performing an uptempo song and a ballad. Winners are named Tuesday.
A winner is named tonight on the season finale of “The Great Christmas Light Fight” (ABC, 8 p.m.). We hope the $50,000 winner uses the dough to go solar.