1) “Big Brother” season-opener, 8 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday, CBS. Ever since 2000, this has propelled CBS’ summers, mostly becoming a playground for young people who are telegenic and assertive. Tonight, it’s paifed with “Love Island” (shown here), each with a 90-minute opener. On “Big Brother,” we’ll meet eight women; one is a 40-year-old phlebotomist, but the others range from a 21-year-old grad student to two women who are 30. We’ll meet eight men; a farmer is 34, the others are in their 20s. The house also has a lawyer, a scientist, a teacher and lots of salesfolks.
2) “Love Island” season-opener, 9:30-11 p.m. Wednesday; 9-10 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 9-11 p.m. Sunday. Here’s another telegenic bunch (shown here) – all in their 20s and all looking fine in swimwear. In Hawaii, we meet two business owners and a nurse, plus a waitress, a “budtender” and such. They need to form into pairs, via romance (preferably) or friendship. They can be ousted simply for being alone – or can be voted out by viewers or by other contestants. Next week, this will expand to five nights a week.
3) “Shark Beach With Chris Hemsworth,” 9 p.m. today, National Geographic. For the next month, sharks will swarm through our TV’s. “SharkFest” is July 5-31 on National Geographic and Aug. 2-13 on Nat Geo Wild; “Shark Week” is July 11-18 on Discovery. We’ll see lots of nastiness, starting with “When Sharks Attack,” at 8 p.m. today. But “Beach” has a feel-good tone. Hemsworth says he “grew up in paradise” and surfed at 6. He meets diving veteran Valerie Taylor … and sees his first great white.
4) “History of the Sitcom” debut, 9 and 10 p.m. ET Sunday, CNN, rerunning at midnight and 1 a.m. In the 70 years since “I Love Lucy” debuted, TV has made some great situation comedies … and some awful ones. This series offers an overview: The first hour views changing families; the second looks at sexuality. Both are slick and surface, with fun tidbits. When “Brady Bunch” debuted in 1969, ABC refused to let the mom be a divorcee; when “Maude” arrived three years later, Maude was on her fourth marriage.
5) “Wellington Paranormal” debut, 9 and 9:30 p.m. Sunday, CW. Jemaine Clement’s humor is filled with dark delights. He introduces bizarre moments that his characters greet with relentless calm. That works for his Emmy-nominated “What We Do In the Shadows” and for this show, which he made on a micro-budget in his native New Zealand. Confronting supernatural scares, three clueless cops do research that consists mostly of Google and YouTube. Some viewers will find this drolly hilarious.
6) “The Latino Experience,” 9 p.m. Tuesday, PBS. There are lots of great shorts out there, but they rarely reach TV. Here’s an exception – 13 films by Latinos, in one-hour chunks on three Tuesdays. This week’s fictional ones are gems, dealing with death – imagined (in a charming, 13-minute opener) and real (6 minutes). The documentaries vary in quality and in subject: We see young poster-makers using old-time crafts … gay and trans dancers … and tangled lives that straddle the U.S.-Mexico border.
7) “Grown-ish” season-opener, 8 p.m. Thursday, Freeform. Zoey has a grand plan: Before their senior year of college, she and Aaron will host a vacation at a Mexican resort. Their friends will savor sun, sex and alcohol. Alas, the alcohol soon derails the friendships. There are fights … a secret is revealed … and then there’s a major plot twist. “Grown-ish” is a comedy that’s only occasionally funny, but gets everything else right. It has sleek visuals, smart writing and characters we can’t help rooting for.
8) “Secret Celebrity Renovation” debut, 8 p.m. Friday, CBS. Here’s one more piece of CBS’ reality-soaked summer: Each week, a celebrity will link with designer Sabrina Soto and contractor Jason Cameron, to renovate homes of people special to them. It sounds like a great idea … because it’s pretty much the same idea that Drew and Jonathan Scott already have on “Celebrity IOU,” at 9 p.m. Mondays on HGTV. Tonight’s “IOU” has Kevin Hart; then Friday’s “Renovation” opener has Wayne Brady.
9) “Espy Awards,” 8 p.m. Saturday, ABC. Maya Moore was a perpetual basketball champion – two national titles in college, four in the pros, five overseas, two Olympic golds. She was an MVP, then stopped at 29, to fight for a man who had spent 20 years in prison. Now he’s been exonerated, they’re married and she gets the Arthur Ashe Courage Award. That’s in a huge sports week, with hockey finals at 6 p.m. PT today and (if needed) Wednesday and Friday on NBC, plus basketball finals and more.
10) Drama openers, 9 p.m. Sunday. In a three-way burst, scripted dramas soar On HBO, it’s the start of “White Lotus,” a six-parter set in a Hawaiian resort; on TNT, it’s the season-opener of “Animal Kingdom,” the family crime drama. (Both rerun at 10 p.m.) And on PBS, “Unforgotten” finds Cassie (Nicola Walker) shattered by previous cases, but forced to work three more months to qualify for pension. It’s a complex and involving start … much better than “Professor T,” which follows at 10.