Daily Best Bets

1) Football pre-season opener, 8 p.m. ET, Fox, pre-game at 7:30. Yes, football is back. The Olympics continue and baseball still has a third of its regular season (including Braves-Cards at 8:15 p.m. today on ESPN), but pro football has its annual Hall of Fame game. Well, almost annual. Last year’s game was cancelled because of COVID. It would have had the Steelers (shown here) and Cowboys, both coming off 8-8 seasons. The Steelers then soared to 12-5, the Cowboys fell to 6-10; now they finally collide. Read more…

1) “Good Trouble,” 10 p.m., Freeform. Old romances have a way of lingering, in this solid episode. Davia likes her good-guy co-worker – but Dennis is back, making a wild career shift. Callie is gaga over Gael (they’re shown here) — but her ex-lover is part of the legal team that she’s helping fight. Meanwhile, Gael is distracted by his dad-to-be duties (from a one-night stand) … Alice struggles at a comedy workshop … and Mariana, vastly underemployed, uses her tech skills to help Callie with jury selection. Read more…

1) “Miracle Workers: Oregon Trail,” 10:30 p.m., TBS. There’s a wondrous range to Daniel Radcliffe (shown here). Yes, he delivers the sweetness that made him perfect for Harry Potter; but he’s also a song-and-dance man, a Tony-nominee on Broadway. Now both skills surface: The Rev. Ezekiel (Radcliffe) wanders into a rough (albeit gentrified) saloon, takes a drink and transforms. It’s a great performance. Read more…

1) Olympics. Track-and-field used to dominate the Olympics, creating heroes (Jesse Owens, Bob Richards, Bruce Jenner, Carl Lewis) and legends. And now? The first week was awash in swimmers and gymnasts; track finally began this weekend. Live events today are 4-11 a.m. ET on Peacock (including six finals) and after 8 p.m. on NBC (four finals) and CNBC (two finals). Also at night, NBC has key women’s events, live (beach volleyball, shown here) and rerun (soccer semi-finals and gymnastics floor finals). Read more…

1) “Kevin Can (bleep) Himself” season-finale, 9 p.m., AMC, rerunning at 11:02. This clever series walks a narrow line: Each hour starts as a sitcom, filled with cliches – oafish husband, noisy friends, long-suffering wife – and bad jokes. Then it switches to a drama, as the wife (Annie Murphy, shown here) sinks into dismay. Last week, she tried to have him killed; instead, he shot the would-be hitman and is considered a hero. Now we see the aftershocks on her and her friend. The final minutes are powerful and well-crafted. Read more…

1) “58 Hours: The Baby Jessica Story” and “Super Reviewers: Rate, Review, Repeat,” 9 and 9:30 p.m., CNN. On two Saturdays, CNN is debuting four half-hour documentaries. The first re-tells a compelling story – heroes (shown here) struggling to save an 18-month-old toddler who fell into a narrow well in her aunt’s backyard. The second is fresh and current – meeting people who write lInternet reviews. There’s a contagious joy to Denise Barclay, who roams the country in her RV, doing quick reviews for Google Maps. Read more…

1) “Burden of Truth” season-opener, 8 p.m., CW. As a big-city lawyer, sleek and smart, Joanna (Kristin Kreuk, shown here) pushed herself too hard. Now life is even harder: She and Billy are back in their hometown, losing sleep with their new baby. She’s also representing a landowner who resists a mining project that this hard-scrabble town wants. There are some moments that seem contrived, to nudge the plot along. Still, this Canadian drama works well, with solid characters and neatly understated performances. Read more…

1) Olympics. NBC expects big ratings tonight (8 p.m. ET and beyond), with finals in four swimming events and in the individual, all-around portion of women’s gymnastics – a field hampered Tuesday by an injury to Simone Biles (shown here). The swimming is live, the gymnastics isn’t; you can see it live from 6-11 a.m. ET on Peacock. This afternoon (noon to 5 p.m.), NBC has U.S. teams in men’s water polo (Italy) and women’s volleyball (Turkey). At night, CNBC has men’s volleyball and women’s beach volleyball, both live; USA and NBC have early heats in track. Read more…

1) “MasterChef,” 8 and 9 p.m., Fox; also, 9 p.m. Thursday. If you haven’t been watching this likable show, here’s the perfect time to catch up. Fox reruns the three episodes that chose the 15 contestants. None are professional cooks – there’s a bartender, a construction worker (shown here) and more – so Gordon Ramsay is on his best behavior, always with another famous chef to help. It’s Emeril Lagasse (shown here, right) at 8 p.m. and Curtis Stone at 9, with Paula Deen on Thursday. Read more…

1) “American Masters,” 9 p.m., PBS. Growing up on a sharecropping farm in Louisiana, Buddy Guy (shown here) had one goal: Go to Chicago to hear Muddy Waters and other blues greats. He got there and was signed by record companies … which tried to change his wailing-guitar style. He was still driving a tow truck in his early 30s. Then Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Mick Jagger and others started emulating him. In this terrific documentary, Guy, 84, visits home and reflects on a style that shaped modern rock guitarists. Read more…