TLC premieres the Dr. Sandra Lee holiday special Dr. Pimple Popper: A Pimple Carol Dec. 8. The special goes for an hour. 

“The holidays are quickly approaching, and Dr. Lee is busy helping patients address their skin issues to look their very best before the hustle and bustle of holiday photos, parties, and family gatherings,” goes the TLC description. “However, the patients aren’t Dr. Lee’s only visitors this year—the Spirits of Pimples Past, Present and Future stop by to remind her of the true meaning of the holidays—and help with a few new cases! She’ll also carry on her annual tradition of treating viewers to a pimple-inspired Christmas carol, putting viewers in a merry mood to kick off the holiday season.”

Last year’s Dr. Pimple Popper holiday special was Season’s Squeezings.

Dr. Pimple Popper is produced by Ping Pong Productions for TLC.

TLC is part of Discovery. ■

New episodes of Dr. Pimple Popper turn up on TLC Dec. 21, starting with holiday-themed special Dr. Pimple Popper: Season’s Squeezings. Dermatologist Dr. Sandra Lee stars in the unscripted show that sees her treat patients with unusual skin issues. 

The new season “will take viewers through the powerful and emotional journeys of each patient with skin conditions that are preventing them from feeling their best,” said TLC. In extreme cases, Dr. Lee teams up with specialists, including one involving an eight-year-old girl with psoriasis and a man with keloids on the back of his head. 

Ping Pong Productions produces the series. 

Season two of Dr. Pimple Popper, featuring Dr. Sandra Lee taking care of people’s skin matters, arrives on TLC Jan. 3. The premiere episode sees Dr. Lee tend to a man from the Philippines with a bumpy nose. Diagnosis: Rhinophyma.

“There are some incredible stories,” Dr. Lee promises. “It has some of the biggest pops I’ve ever seen.”

Dr. Pimple Popper got her start on Instagram, offering peeks at her work, and it took off on YouTube. Reaching 4.6 million subscribers “happened by accident,” Dr. Lee said. A blackhead extraction she posted went viral, and got her thinking. “I thought, what is this, this is crazy,” she said. Noting a “subculture” of pimple-popping fans online, she thought, “I could be their queen.”

What draws people to pimple popping? Dr. Lee likens it to watching a scary movie or riding a roller coaster. The tension builds, the pop happens, the endorphins flow. “For some reason, it makes people feel good,” she said.

Viewers also enjoy watching people “get their lives back,” said Dr. Lee, after being treated.

Season two offers “a little more of me,” said the doctor, and more “behind the scenes” stuff at her office. Viewers also will get to know her husband better; he’s a dermatologist, too.

Before season two hits, there was The 12 Pops of Christmas special on TLC Dec. 13, and a book, Put Your Best Face Forward, out Dec. 31. “It feels like I have three jobs at least,” Dr. Lee said.

And it’s a new season of Worst Cooks in America on Food Network Jan. 6. Anne Burrell and Tyler Florence host, as 15 dreadful chefs learn cooking skills at boot camp and compete for a $25,000 jackpot. The most common mistake Burrell sees among awful cooks? They don’t use recipes.

“Maybe their mom or grandma was a great cook and they think it’s genetic,” she told The Watchman. “It’s not.”

The new season sees the contestants compete in games that build skills and stoke camaraderie. Burrell said Worst Cooks stands out because it’s “genuinely funny” as the contestants struggle with their assignments. “The recruits do get better,” she added, “and it turns out to be a very sweet show.”

Burrell cops to a degree of maternal impulse over the cast. “They make me feel like a proud mama,” she said.

A large number of kids have gotten into watching Worst Cooks the last few years, said Burrell, who is pleased to be part of a show that families can enjoy together. “People tell me, we all die laughing as a family when we watch,” she said. “That’s what food and cooking is all about.”