1) “Saturday Night Live,” 11:29 p.m., NBC. A week before launching its new season, “SNL” reruns one of its best episodes. Eddie Murphy (shown here) had stayed away from the show (not counting an anniversary special) for 35 years. Once he returned, however, he did all of his best characters – including a brilliant “Mr. Robinson’s Neighborhood” bit in which he swiped Amazon packages in his gentrified neighborhood. He won an Emmy (his first) for best comedy guest; Lizzo is the music guest.
2) “Just Mercy” (2019), 8 p.m., HBO. When an Alabama teen was killed in 1987, the sheriff moved quickly. Walter McMillan, a Black father-of-nine, was arrested and convicted — despite dozens of people saying he was at a church fish fry, 11 miles away. The next year, Bryan Stevenson, 28, a Northerner with a Harvard law degree, took his defense. It’s a dramatic story, subtly and skillfully played by Jamie Foxx and Michael B. Jordan. An HBO documentary at 6:15 p.m. profiles Stevenson.
3) Sports overload. With COVID squeezing the seasons together, we have a rarity – four major sports colliding in prime time. It’s hockey on NBC (Stars-Lightning, 8 p.m.ET, Stanley Cup finals), baskerball on TNT (Lakers-Nuggets, 9 p.mET, playoffs), baseball on Fox (varying by region) and football on ABC (Florida State-Miami, 7:30 p.m. ET) … and more football all day on ABC, CBS, Fox and cable.
4) “Bull,” 8 p.m., CBS. With the other networks obsessing on sports, CBS’ reruns offer a lone exception. This one is similar to an “All Rise” story: An idealistic judge faces prosecution, after she helps a witness elude federal arrest in her courtroom.
5) “SWAT,” 9 p.m., CBS. Deacon’s moonlightig job pulls the team into a tough situation: He’s working security at a boxing match, when the wife of one of the boxers is kidnapped.