1) “All Creatures Great and Small” season-opener, 9 p.m., PBS. This gentle, seven-episode season gets off to a great start. James is back home in Scotland, helping a local veterinarian; returning to England, he faces instant drama. There’s his unspoken love for Helen (they’re shown here), who called of her wedding with Hugh, a rich land-owner; plus a fresh crisis involving her little sister. At the vet office, there’s humor (involving a dead bird) and trouble: Siegfried is hiding the fact that Tristan hasn’t yet graduated from vet school.
2) More dramas, PBS. The second episode of “Around the World in 80 Days” (8 p.m.) is confined mostly to an Italian train, but still finds life-and-death adventure. It’s a pretty good hour – far better than the two-week mystery that starts at 10. “Vienna Blood” is the drab and dreary tale of a psychiatrist and a cop, linking (often quite ineptly) to solve a murder.
3) “Call Me Kat” season-opener, after football (about 8 p.m. ET), Fox. Mayim Bialik’s comedy was sort of fun last season, in a light and loose way. Now it starts the second season with a particularly good episode: First, we meet three of Bialik’s co-stars when “Blossom” started, 30 years ago; Joey Lawrence and Michael Stoyanov played her brothers; Jenna von Oy played her friend. Then Kat finds herself in an unfamiliar position – having a choice of boyfriends.
4) “Pivoting” debut, about 8:30 p.m. ET, Fox. This is also a comedy, but in a different universe than the goofy “Kat.” When their friend suddenly dies, three women pivot their lives. One dumps an important career … one tries to re-discover her young children … and one would rather discover her hunky personal trainer. There are laughs here, but they tend to be inconsistent.
5) Football, 8:20 p.m. ET, NBC. The final regular-season game has the Los Angeles Chargers at the Las Vegas Raiders, with a playoff spot at stake. Both have 9-7 records. The winner gets one of the two remaining AFC playoff spots; the other one will go to the Indianapolis Colts (also 9-7), as long as they beat last-place Jacksonville (2-14) in a 1 p..m. ET game.