1) “Saturday Night Live” season-opener, 11:29 p.m., NBC. After a huge 50th season — winning nine Emmys for the “SNL50” special — the show regroups. It has five newcomers and lost two key people (Heidi Gardner and Ego Nwodim) and three newer people (Michael Longfellow, Emil Wakim and Devon Walker). Bad Bunny hosts the opener, with Doja Cat (shown here) as music guest. Read more…
1) “Blue Bloods,” 10 p.m., CBS. Next week, this will rerun its finale (shown here). First, here’s a busy hour: Jury-tampering charges against Erin affect key things for her brother Danny and sister-in-law Eddie … whose husband Jamie links with his nephew Joe, to find his stolen car. That follows “Fire Country” episodes involving a ski resort at 8 p.m. and house fire at 9. Read more…
1) “Elsbeth,” 8-11 p.m., CBS. With the season-opener coming up Oct. 12, we get a three-rerun blitz. The first two are excellent — Vanessa Williams as an upscale jewelry customer, Eric McCormack leading a “wellness” camp. The third (shown here) brings a shoddy ending to the story that had Michael Emerson (husband of series star Carrie Preston) as a corrupt judge. Read more…
1) “Chicago P.D.” season-opener, 10 p.m., NBC. Easily the best of the three Chicago shows, this has another tough, propulsive hour. The unit has been disbanded and Voight is on Rapid Response duty. He soon finds a reason to re-assemble his colleagues and to add a terrific new one (shown here). Read more…
1) “Murder in a Small Town,” 8 p.m. Tuesday, Fox. As a wedding nears, people on both sides — wealthy bride, blue-collar groom — fume. Something bad may be looming; then again, the series title tells us that. What follows is typical of this show — layered characters and smart plot twists, navigated by a deeply human police chief. The lone out-of-sync element is the new mayor (Marcia Gay Harden), shown in last week’s episode, confronting the librarian (Kristin Kreuk). Read more…
1) “Futurama,” 8-11 p.m., FXX. This is a great time for fans of Matt Groening’s clever cartoons. On Sunday, “The Simpsons” started its 37th season on Fox. And recently, “Futurama” — a pizza guy (right) unfrozen in the year 3000 — started its 13th. Today’s new episodes are at 8 — Bender (left) goes to a camp for screen addicts — and 8:30. Reruns start at 9, with Leela (center) involved with a presidential campaign. Read more…
1) “Unforgotten” finale, 10 p.m., PBS. This six-parter has had a deep tangle of suspects. The victim was a hateful and hated man — a cruel boss, landlord, husband, father and more. Now Sunny (shown here) and Jesse reach a jolting discovery. Also ending are “Professor T” and “The Marlow Murder Club,” at 8 and 9; they have stories that are smart, but much gentler than “Unforgotten.” Read more…
1) “I Was a Child Bride,” 8-10 p.m., Lifetime. Courtney Stodden was a teen model and singer when Doug Hutchison — a skilled actor who played the head of DHARMA on “Lost” — became her coach. They married when she was 16 and he was almost 51. (They’re shown here, later in the marriage.) Stodden narrates this, with Maggie Lawson (“Psych” and the upcoming “Boston Blue”) as her mom. Read more…
1) “Omara,” 10 p.m., PBS. We follow Omara Portuondo (shown here), now 94, on tour. (It’s the third one, she says, that promoters called a “farewell tour.”) Her gorgeous voice reflects a life of joy and pain. Her mother was ostracized for marrying a Black man; her sister later moved to the U.S. Omara stayed in Cuba and, with the Buena Vista Social Club, won Grammys and fame. Read more…
1) “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” season-opener, 9 p.m., NBC. The 27th season begins for “SVU,” which was already the longest-running primetime drama in U.S. TV history. Now Benson (Mariska Hargitay, shown here) and others try to protect a key witness in a rape case. Read more…
