1) “The Challenge: USA” opener, 10 p.m., CBS. This is the final piece in CBS’ August surge. Spun off of a long-running MTV show, it takes 24 reality-show alumni to Croatia (shown here). Nine started on “Big Brother” and seven on “Survivor, including winners Michele Fitzgerald and Chris Underwood.” The show follows “Big Brother” on Thursdays and (for the next three weeks) on Sundays.
2) “Fight to Survive,” 8 p.m., CW. A “Survivor”-type show starts an eight-week run. Like “Challenge,” this has alumni of other shows – “Survivor,” “Alone,” Naked and Afraid” and “American Ninja Warrior.” For 25 days, they have survivalist competition on an island, After the Sept. 28 finale, the show jumps to the Roku channel, which is co-producing it.
3) “Young Sheldon,” 8 p.m., CBS. Amid the reality-show consternation, it’s good to see that the CBS comedies remain in place. Over the next couple weeks, “Sheldon” jumps back to the season’s first two episodes, both of them excellent. Tonight, Georgie and his grandmother have been arrested for trying to sneak untaxed cigarettes across the border; also, his siblings finally meet his pregnant girlfriend.
4) “What We Do in the Shadows,” 10 p.m., FX, rerunning at 10:35 and 11:10. Here’s a turning point for Guillermo, wonderfully played by Harvey Guillen. As a “familiar” (a vampire’s assistant), he broke all the rules by letting someone else turn him into a vampire. But the change has been slow – until now, when an emergency alters everything. The result is filled with big-laugh moments.
5) ALSO: Women’s soccer – with the U.S. team now eliminated – continues on Fox, with a round-up at 8 p.m. ET and Spain vs. Netherlands at 9. Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-nominated “Fabelmans” reruns is at 6;45 p.m. on Showtime. At 8:30, Trevor’s body is finally discovered on “Ghosts”; at 9, “FBoy Island” continues its lustful reality on CW.