Week’s top-10 for Aug. 16: zombies, videos and Dr. Phil

1) “The Walking Dead,” 9 p.m. Sunday, AMC, rernning at 11:07p.m., 12:14 a.m., more. After a long delay, this ratings-leader starts its final season. It’s a long one – eight episodes now, then a break, with 16 more coming. The last new episode (16 months ago) will rerun at 7:52 p.m., with the final battle with the Whisperers. Now a food-gathering mission fails; Maggie proposes a dangerous plan that Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan, shown here must lead. Then a fierce storm forces them into a subway tnnnel filled, of course, with zombies. Read more…

1) “The Walking Dead,” 9 p.m. Sunday, AMC, rernning at 11:07p.m., 12:14 a.m., more. After a long delay, this ratings-leader starts its final season. It’s a long one – eight episodes now, then a break, with 16 more coming. The last new episode (16 months ago) will rerun at 7:52 p.m., with the final battle with the Whisperers. Now a food-gathering mission fails; Maggie proposes a dangerous plan that Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan, shown here must lead. Then a fierce storm forces them into a subway tnnnel filled, of course, with zombies.

2) “House Calls With Dr. Phil” debut and “FBI Declassified” season-opener, 9 and 10 p.m. Wednesday, CBS. Now that “Love Island” has ended, CBS has six open hours to play with. It will bring some reruns off the shelf, but also has three new hours, starting here: On his daily show, Phil McGraw has short, in-studio chats; now he visits homes, starting in Utah where a teen hasn’t spoken to her father (living in the same house) in years. Then “FBI Declassified” returns, with true cases from FBI files.

3) “The Greatest #AtHome Videos” season-opener, 9 p.m. Friday, CBS. Scrambling for shows last summer, CBS came up with this likable trifle. Originally called “Stayathome Videos,” it was a genial tribute to people who have used their stuck-at-home time cleverly, creating delightful videos. The confinement ended, but the creativity continues; Cedric the Entertainer introduces new videos. That follows “Secret Celebrity Renovation,” with Paula Abdul giving her old dance teacher a new studio.

4) “Coroner” season-opener, 8 p.m. Thursday, CW. During last year’s summer scramble, networks found solid dramas in Canada. This one focuses on a medical examiner with troubles. She’s widowed, her lover is gone, her son left college and her dad is drifting into Alzheimer’s. Now things get worse, as the pandemic takes hold. The opener involves a caregiver’s death that may be murder. It’s a smart, well-written mystery, but it also wraps up early, leaving some enigmatic scenes in the final minutes.

5) “Bachelor in Paradise” season-opener, 8-10 p.m. today, ABC. “The Bachelorette” has barely finished and here’s a spin-off, with sexy singles at a Mexican resort. This season has celebrity co-hosts, starting with David Spade. They’ll host with Wells Adams, who was eighth in the 2016 “Bachelorette” and is engaged to Sarah Hyland of “Modern Family.” There are 13 women and 10 men – five (Aaron Clancy, Connor Brennan, James Bonsall, Karl Smith, Tre Cooper) from the just-ended “Bachelorette” season.

6) “Motherland: Fort Salem,” 10 p.m. Tuesday, Freeform. Huge events have rippled through recent episodes for three idealistic young witches in the military. Two weeks ago, Raelle was kidnapped; her long-missing mother died while saving her. Last week, Nicte – founder of the Spree terrorist group – traded faces with Tally. (Things like that happen here.) She was barely detected. Now Tally and Abigail find their distrust of General Alder growing; in the year’s second-to-last episode, they push for change.

7) “Awkwafina is Nora From Queens” season-opener, 10 amd 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, Comedy Central. At 33, Awkwafina is a movie star, drawing praise and awards for “Crazy Rich Asians,” “Ocean’s Eight” and “The Farewell.” Before that, she was Nora Lum, growing up with her widowed father and his parents. This fictional version has BD Wong as her dad and Bowen Yang of “Saturday Night Live” as her cousin. Now she’s a saleslady with odd twists; in the second episode, she time-travels to 2003.

8) “Stand Up to Cancer,” 8 p.m. Saturday, ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, E, Showtime, Hulu, Amazon, YouTube, more. These specials have stirred awareness of cancer; the first six also raised $603 million, which went to “dream teams,” combining researchers. They’ve aired in even-numbered years, but the 2020 one was postponed because of COVID. Here it is, with comedy-oriented hosts – Ken Jeong, Anthony Anderson, Sofia Vergara and Tran Ho. Music guests include Common and Brittany Howard.

9) “The Equalizer” return, 9 p.m. Sunday, CBS. We might grumble about reruns, but not this time: The end of “Love Island” lets CBS take some popular shows off the shelf. That includes “FBI” (9 p.m. Tuesday) … the delightfl “B Positive” (9:30 p.m. Thursday, after a transplanted “Neighborhood”) … “NCIS: Los Angeles” (10 p.m. Sunday) … and “Equalizer,” a ratings hit. In this episode, a good one, a woman’s son has been kidnapped; to save him, she must steal information from her FBI employer.

10) “Work in Progress” season-opener, 11 p.m. Sunday, Showtime. Cable keeps delivering comedy-dramas that are low-key and subtly crafted. There’s “Reservation Dogs” (Mondays on Hulu), FX’s “Atlanta” and “Better Things” and this quiet gem. In the first season, Abby McEnany vowed to eat one almond per day, then commit suicide when the 180 were gone. But, she says, “life got in the way of me killing myself.” She plods ahead with humor, unable to replace her late therapist or her departed lover.

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