1) “Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test” debut, 8-10 p.m., Fox. In a torrid Jordan desert, 16 celebrities face military-style training (shown here). Some are athletes – Dwight Howard, Danny Amendola, Carli Lloyd, Nastia Liukin, Gus Kenworthy – but many aren’t. We’ll see reality stars (Kate Gosselin, Hannah Brown, Kenya Moore, Dr. Drew Pinsky), performers (Mel B., Jamie Lynn Sears, etc.), chef Tyler Florence and former Trump official Anthony Scaramucci.
2) “Tough as Nails” season-opener, 9-11 p.m., CBS. Toughness can vary with the task. Fox’s show has the military approach; CBS goes with hands-on, blue-collar challenges. That includes three people in their 20s (a laborer, a diesel technician and a concrete form setter) and three in their 50s (a foreman, a firefighter and a dry mason). In between are a welder, a carpenter, a contractor, a construction worker, a pipeline worker and a shipboard electrician.
3) “Abbott Elementary,” 9 p.m., ABC. Awash in new honors (including Golden Globe nominations and an American Film Institute top-10 pick), the show starts the second half of its season. The classrooms of Janine and Melissa get competitive, when a pizza place holds a “read-a-thon” contest. That’s followed by new episodes of “Home Economics” (Tom over-compensates when his wife works with a macho contractor) and “Big Sky.”
4) “Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street,” any time, Netflix. Bernie Madoff has been played by Robert De Niro (in an HBO movie) and Richard Dreyfuss (in an ABC mini-series). Now here’s a four-part documentary from Joe Berlinger, who did previous films on Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Epstein and more.
5) ALSO: The three “Chicago” shows have their first new episodes in a month. “Chicago Med” is at 8 p.m. on NBC, with “Chicago Fire” at 9 and “Chicago P.D.” at 10. On ABC, “The Conners” and “The Goildmans” will wait a week; tonight, the 8 p.m. hour goes to a “Wheel of Fortune” with three “Abbott Elementary” co-stars – Jannelle James, Chris Perfetti and Emmy-winner Sheryl Lee Ralph.