What to Watch on Monday: HBO launches a new fantasy epic with His Dark Materials

We know TV has a lot to offer, be it network, cable, premium channels, or streaming platforms including Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Facebook Watch, and others. So EW is here to help, guiding you every single day to the things that should be on your radar. Check out our recommendations below, and click here to learn how you can stream our picks via your own voice-controlled smart-speaker (Alexa, Google Home) or podcast app (Spotify, iTunes, Google Play).

The Voice

HOW/WHEN & WHERE TO WATCH: 8 p.m. on NBC

The second half of Knockouts continue with Taylor Swift as their Mega Mentor, helping advise the singers in their last step before making it the Top 20 and the live episodes. Performances tonight include a member of Team Blake singing fellow coach Kelly Clarkson's "Breakaway," plus "Almost Is Never Enough" by Ariana Grande & Nathan Sykes versus Sam Smith's "I'm Not the Only One" (check out those in the video above), Demi Lovato's "Tell Me You Love Me," and Ed Sheeran & Justin Bieber's "I Don't Care." But hopefully you do enough to watch. —Gerrad Hall

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9-1-1

HOW/WHEN & WHERE TO WATCH: 8 p.m. on Fox

Fans of 9-1-1 will take a little trip into the past as Athena Grant's (Angela Bassett) oldest and biggest secret unravels. There are multiple reasons that a determined law student decides to join the police force, but the main one is a little surprising — at least it was to Bobby (Peter Krause), Michael (Rockmond Dunbar), and even little Harry (Marcanthonee Reis). With Queen Latifah's "Ladies First" bumping in the background, Athena will take viewers down a complicated and painful rabbit hole. Will the journey finally help bring her the peace she has so desperately needed, or will it reopen an old wound she should've left in the past? —Rosy Cordero

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His Dark Materials

HOW/WHEN & WHERE TO WATCH: 9 p.m. on HBO

Series Debut
There have been many adaptations of His Dark Materials, the fantasy novels by author Philip Pullman, but few were truly satisfying. Director Chris Weitz directed a feature film based on the first book, The Golden Compass, in 2007, but cramming such an expansive, multi-layered story into 1 hour and 54 minutes was doomed to fail before it began. As for the others, there's only so much a radio play or stage reading can do to grasp the scope and multiverse-plot of this fantasy tale. With HBO and BBC's series adaptation, His Dark Materials, fans finally get what they've been waiting for. Dafne Keen, known as X23 in the movie Logan, stars as Lyra Belacqua, an orphan girl living in Oxford in an alternate reality. In this world, human souls exist outside their bodies as talking animal companions and The Magisterium is the reigning religious institution with an authoritarian grip on society. Lyra soon embarks on a journey to the arctic north after her uncle, the explorer Lord Asriel (James McAvoy), is nearly assassinated before presenting blasphemous research about a particle called Dust. The string of mysteriously intertwined events continues when Lyra's best friend, Roger, becomes the latest victim in a string of child kidnappings plaguing the city and Mrs. Coulter (Ruth Wilson), a mesmerizing figure, arrives at Oxford with a special interest in Lyra. Even in a parallel universe, nothing is a coincidence. —Nick Romano

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What ELSE to Watch

Check local listings
Antiques Roadshow (500th episode special) — PBS

8 p.m.
Dancing With the Stars — ABC
All American — The CW
The Neighborhood — CBS

8:30 p.m.
Bob (Hearts) Abishola — CBS

9 p.m.
All Rise — CBS
Black Lightning — The CW
Prodigal Son — Fox
Holiday Baking Championship (season premiere) — Food Network
Below Deck — Bravo

10 p.m.
The Good Doctor — ABC
Bull — CBS
Bluff City Law — NBC
Botched (season premiere) — E!
Catherine the Great — HBO

Streaming
The Devil Next Door (limited series debut) — Netflix
Slings & Arrows (streaming debut) — Acorn TV
Mount Pleasant (U.S. debut) — Acorn TV

*times are ET and subject to change