Stephen King’s ‘Institute’ Returns, Gilded Age Homecoming, a Sunday ‘Cupertino,’ ‘Tournament of Champions’

Matt RoushSat, November 7, 2026 at 12:00 PM UTC

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Ben Barnes as Tim Jamieson, Joe Freeman as Luke Ellis - MGM+

The thriller based on Stephen King‘s The Institute returns for a second season on MGM+. Bertha, the new queen of New York high society, returns home in The Gilded Age. CBS gives its acclaimed new series Cupertino a special Sunday airing. All-star teams compete in a holiday edition of Food Network‘s Tournament of Champions.

The Institute

SUNDAY: The kids are not all right in the second season of the thriller based on Stephen King’s page-turner about psychically gifted youngsters trapped as lab-rat pawns in one of those nebulous secret underground agencies. After bringing down the Institute’s Maine facility in the first season, valuable precog Luke (Joe Freeman) is on the run with several friends and helpful ex-cop Tim (Ben Barnes). After several months in hiding, it’s time to make their move to try to expose and bring down the global Institute, but not if they get caught. Mary-Louise Parker, as their disgraced former jailer Ms. Sigsby, has her own agenda, and Game of Thrones‘ Alfie Allen joins the Institute team as a tech billionaire with a sinister AI vision of how to adapt our heroes’ special talents.

The Gilded Age

SUNDAY: It’s not the happiest of homecomings for New York’s nouveau riche society queen Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon). Her gilded mansion seems empty without estranged husband George (Morgan Spector), who’s obsessed with enacting rough justice on his would-be assassin when he’s not sparring with oil mogul John D. Rockefeller (Neal Huff). This episode, however, belongs to Christine Baranski‘s marvelously haughty Agnes van Rhijn, whose disdain for such modern notions as publicity and telephones is endlessly quotable. (My favorite this week: “You were on the Lower East Side after 7 o’clock?”) New faces from the New York theater scene include Tony winner Bonnie Milligan (Kimberly Akimbo) as a nosy Ladies Home Journal editor, Tony nominee Taylor Trensch (Floyd Collins) as an overeager new footman, and Obie winner Elizabeth Marvel (Homeland) as a nurse at the Settlement House where Marian (Louisa Jacobson) selflessly volunteers.

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Cupertino

SUNDAY: We’ve been beating the drum all fall for this terrific series about scrappy lawyers taking on Silicon Valley tech titans and the legal quagmires of AI. The show is at its most clever in this special Sunday episode (followed by two repeats), in which lawyers Michael (Mike Colter) and Olivia (Rachel Keller) race the clock in their efforts to reverse the decision of an AI algorithm that has denied a liver transplant to a young woman in favor of a wealthier patient who jumped the line. The twist: All parties in this legal dispute are caught in a classic California traffic jam, deliberating and arguing on their phones and screens, including the judge (Peter Riegert) in a ride-share. The issue of bioethics is serious, but the treatment here is a delight.

Tournament of Champions: All-Star Christmas

SUNDAY: One of the channel’s most popular competition franchises returns with a holiday flavor for the second time, pitting multiple teams of two top chefs in a festive showdown, with $100,000 for charity on the line. Guy Fieri is the host, welcoming dynamic duos including Food Network personalities Jet Tila with Alex Guarnaschelli, cake artist Grace Pak with The Restaurant‘s Rocco DiSpirito, celebrity chef Curtis Stone with executive pastry chef Mitzi Reyes, and Ultimate Baking Championship winner Molly Coen with executive chef Chayil Johnson.

College Football

SATURDAY: A highlight of another busy weekend of college football action pits the undefeated Hurricanes of Miami, No. 1 in the CFP selection committee’s first rankings, against No. 11-ranked Notre Dame. To whet fans’ appetite, ESPN‘s College GameDay (Saturday, 9 am/ET) parks on Library Lawn at Notre Dame, the 13th time the Fighting Irish have hosted the popular panel. Ted Lasso star Jason Sudeikis, who witnessed an historic 1988 match-up between these teams, is the guest picker.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”