Month: August 2022

1) MTV Video Music Awards, 8-10:30 p.m., MTV, other cable channels and CW; also, MTV has a preview at 6:30 p.m. and reruns the awards at 10:30 p.m. and 1 a.m. In a music-stuffed night, Nicki Minaj (shown here) and the Red Hot Chili Peppers get special awards and perform. Also performing — Jack Harlow, Lizzo, Maneskin, J Balvin, Anitta, Panic at the Disco, Blackpink and Kane Brown – the first country singer to work solo at the VMA’s. Read more…

1) Football, 12:30 p.m. ET, Fox. The college football season, an American tradition, is starting in Dublin, Ireland. That’s where Nebraska(shown here)  and Northwestern – each back from a 1-8 Big Ten season – collide. There’s also a game on Fox Sports 1 (Connecticut/Utah State, 4 p.m. ET) and four on the CBS Sports Network – Austin Peay/Western Kentucky (noon) … Idaho State/Nevada-Las Vegas (3:30 p.m.) … Charlotte/Florida Atlantic (7) … Vanderbilt/Hawaii (10:30). Read more…

1) “Vienna Philharmonic Summer Night Concert” (shown here), 9-10:30 p.m., PBS. With Europe staggering from Covid, warfare, inflation and more, this night – beautifully filmed – has a unity feel. Latvian conductor Andris Nelsons opens with German music (Beethoven) and closes – as always – with a Viennese waltz. He features a French composer (Saint-Sains) and cellist (Capucon), but also has a Romanian piece, two Czech ones and two from Ukraine. Read more…

1) “The End is Nye” debut; any time, Peacock, 10 p.m., Syfy. A dead-serious subject gets a whimsical launch. In each of the six episodes, special effects help Bill Nye (the science guy) step into a disaster, then tell us how to survive it and how to prevent it. All six are available on Peacock; they also show up (one per night) on Syfy, with disaster lead-ins. That begins today, with five goofy (and fun) “Sharknado” films (one is shown here), starting at 11:40 a.m. Read more…

1) “Welcome to Wrexham” debut episodes, 10 and 10:38 p.m., FX; repeat at 11:17 and 11:55. In a crumbling Welsh economy, Wrexham has two points of pride – a professional soccer team and a classic stadium. But the stadium is 215 years old and the team has fallen to the fifth level, just above semi-pro. Then actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney (shown here) bought the team; this documentary’s opener, catching the end of the 2020 season, is both warm and bittersweet. Read more…

1) “Cinderella” (1997), 9-11 p.m., ABC; plus a special at 8. It was 25 years ago that the Disney people took a lesser Rodgers-and-Hammerstein musical and spiffed it up beautifully. They inserted Rodgers songs from other shows, then added vibrant sets and splendid Rob Marshall choreography. They also had color-blind casting; Brandy Norwood (shown here) was fine as Cinderella, Whitney Houston soared as her fairy godmother. The casting is a focus of the 8 p.m. special. Read more…