Week’s top-10 for July 26: Lotsa Olympics, lotsa alternatives

1) Olympics. For two more weeks, the Olympics dominate on NBC, cable, Peacock and online (www.nbcolympics.com). American audiences are especially big on swimming (shown here), which continues through Sunday, and gymnastics, which keeps going: The team finals are today (men) and Tuesday (women); the individual all-around titles are Wednesday (men) and Thursday (women). Then, on Sunday, individuals start competing per-specialty. Also, the track-and-field events finally start Friday. Read more…

1) Olympics. For two more weeks, the Olympics dominate on NBC, cable, Peacock and online (www.nbcolympics.com). American audiences are especially big on swimming (shown here), which continues through Sunday, and gymnastics, which keeps going: The team finals are today (men) and Tuesday (women); the individual all-around titles are Wednesday (men) and Thursday (women). Then, on Sunday, individuals start competing per-specialty. Also, the track-and-field events finally start Friday.

2) Gordon Ramsay shows. If you’re skipping some of the Olympics, you might sample these shows. Ramsay has “Hell’s Kitchen” (8 p.m. Mondays, Fox) and “Uncharted” (9 p.m. Sundays, National Geographic). And now he reruns the three audition hours of “MasterChef.” We meet lots of likable home chefs, from a food blogger to a bartender and a construction worker. The guest judges are Emeril Lagasse and Curtis Stone, at 8 and 9 p.m. Wednesday, and Paula Deen, at 9 p.m. Thursday.

3) “Kevin Can (bleep) Himself” season-finale, 9 p.m. Sunday, AMC, rerunning at 11:02. For seven weeks, this has had a perilous balancing act – an awful (deliberately) sitcom, switching to a richly crafted (sometimes) drama. Last week, the drama ruled as Allison pushed a scheme to have her blowhard husband Kevin killed, with help from her friend Patty. In some potent finale scenes, we see the aftershocks on their friendship. In the final minutes, sitcom and drama merge for a powerful finish.

4) “Roswell, New Mexico” season-opener, 8 p.m. today, CW, rerunning at 8 p.m. Thursday. While others revert to reruns during the Olympics, CW booms ahead. It has six new, scripted hours this week, two of them season-openers. At first glance, “Roswell” is just sci-fi soap opera. But it’s from Amblin, the Steven Spielberg company that made “Resident Alien” a gem. Tonight, three sorta-siblings are staring at an eerie lookalike. And in Los Angeles, brainy Liz nears a breakthrough and a crisis.

5) “Burden of Truth” season-opener, 8 p.m. Friday, CW. Even when she was a big-city lawyer – sleek, single, focused – Joanna (Kristin Kreuk) pushed herself too hard. Now she and Billy are back in their hometown, losing sleep with their baby and her tough case: A landowner resists selling to a mining project that the town desperately wants. There are moments that seem contrived, to nudge the plot. Still, this Canadian drama works well, with solid characters and neatly understated performances.

6) “American Masters,” 9 p.m. Tuesday, PBS. A sharecropper’s son, Buddy Guy had one goal: Go to Chicago and hear Muddy Waters and other blues greats. He got there, was signed by record companies … and was told that his wailing-guitar style was all wrong. In his early 30s, he was still driving a tow truck. Then others – Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Mick Jagger – began emulating him. In this terrific documentary, Guy, 84, visits home and reflects on a style that helped shape modern rock guitarists.

7) “Professor T,” 10 p.m. Sunday, PBS. Like CW, PBS booms ahead with new hours, despite the Olympics. Three involve music – Buddy Guy on Tuesday, rock photographers and Fleetwood Mac at 9 and 10 p.m. Friday – and two on Sunday offer mysteries. At 9 p.m. the excellent “Unforgotten” continues; at 10, “Professor T,” which started poorly, has found its say. Amid the tangledsearch for a 6-year-old girl, the stone-faced prof faces his relationship with his mother, who is sort of an artist.

8) “The Bachelorette,” 8-10 p.m. today, ABC. Two weeks from the finale, it’s the “men tell all” time. One of the guys has a heart-to-heart talk with Katie Thurston, 30; then everyone talks to a studio audience. Also, we peek at the final two weeks, which includes Thurston’s visits to the home towns of the final four. Blake Moynes, 30, is a Canadian wildlife manager; Michael Alio, 36, is a business owner in Akron. Greg Grippo, 27, and Justin Glaze, 26, are in sales; they’re from New Jersey and Baltimore.

9) NBA draft, 8 p.m. ET Thursday, ABC and ESPN. Even in the summer heat, there’s basketball. The Olympics have 3-on-3 games on USA, with the finals starting at 8:55 a.m. ET Wednesday – first women, then men; full-size games continue through Aug. 6 (men) and 7 (women). Meanwhile, pro basketball prepares for next seaso. After lots of bad lottery luck, the Detroit Pistons got the first pick; they’re expected to take Cade Cunningham, 19, who is 6-foot-8, but shoots and passes like a point guard.

10) “Black Monday” season-finale, 10 p.m. Sunday, Showtime. In wild – and funny – procession, this keeps killing the people around Blair … including his heiress wife Tiff. Now things peak, as Mo plans to go ahead with his wedding, designed to lure the killer. That follows a crowded 9 p.m. hour on cable; it includes two seasao-finales (Showtime’s “The Chi” and AMC’s “Kevin Can (bleep) Himself” alongside new hours of HBO’s “White Lotus,” TNT’s “Animal Kingdom” and CNN’s “History of the Sitcom.”

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