1) “Marshals” season-opener, 8:30 p.m. (but 8 p.m. PT) Sunday, CBS. This is when the new fall season is really here, CBS has held out, waiting to start its scripted shows Oct. 4-9. That begins with a high-stakes story: Kayce is starting to like Dolly Weaver (they’re shown here), but despises her dad, who wants to buy his ranch. That leads to a strong hour, high-octane and lethal. Read more…
1) “America’s Got Talent” finals, 10 p.m. Tuesday and 9-11 p.m. Wednesday, NBC. It’s been an odd year, with only two music acts — Nene Royal (shown here) and Lai Noelle, ages 16 and 14 — in the finals. There are four dance acts (including dogs, robots and light-up dancers), another dog act, two magic acts and an aerialist. They perform Tuesday and viewers vote; the next day, there’s a winner. Read more…
1) Emmy awards, 8 p.m. ET today, NBC. Mariska Hargitay hosts, after winning two Emmys in advance, for her documentary about her mother, Jayne Mansfield. She’s had eight acting nominations (and one win), but none in the past 15 years. Instead, the Emmys are now a streaming stronghold: NBC has 29 nominations; HBO Max has 122. At least, NBC can root for the Peacock version of “Traitors” (shown here with Tara Lipinski) to win, three days before the network version (see No. 3) debuts. Read more…
1) Football season-opener, 8:20 p.m. ET Wednesday, NBC. The pros are back, ready to gobble up our TV time. There’s a pre-game show at 7 p.m. and then a Super Bowl rematch, with the Seahawks (shown here last season) and Patriots. The next day, Netflix has the 49ers and Rams at 8:35. Then a stuffed Sunday will be capped by the Cowboys and Giants, at 8:20 p.m. on NBC. Read more…
1) “Marble Hall Murders” opener, 9 p.m. Sunday, PBS. For the third time, Anthony Horowitz has written a six-part mini-series on two levels: A book editor (Lesley Manville) probes a murder, while imagining chats (shown here) with a fictional detective … whom we see in a related novel. Like the others, this is a wondrously clever blend of character and mystery. Read more…
1) “Big Brother,” 8 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday, CBS. In its 28th summer, the show has its 1,000th episode. That’s on Thursday and includes references to the past. (Shown here is Barrett Pfeiffer in the Aug. 19 episode.) Now “BB” trails only Ed Sullivan’s 1,068 episodes among primetime entertainment shows (anthologies excluded). Others include “Funniest Videos,” 835; and “The Simpsons,” 808. Read more…
1) “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” season-openers, 9 and 9:32 p.m. today, FX and FXX. Starting its 18th season, this is the longest-running American sitcom ever. That’s due to short seasons (10 episodes this time) and wildly weird stories. Tonight’s first episode — wedding day for Frank (Danny DeVito, second from right in a previous episode) is bizarre and sometimes hilarious; the second is fairly funny. Read more…
1) “The Americas,” 8 and 9 p.m. Thursday, NBC. The first rerun (with “fun facts” added) visits the Caribbean (shown here), with 7,000 islands sprawling over a million square miles; the second tells how the series was filmed. Both are superb; both include two compelling glimpses: Whales sleep vertically, then plunge to hunt; red crabs march to the sea, across a lethal road. Read more…
1) “America’s Got Talent,” 8-10 p.m., Tuesday, NBC. The show has already sent 28 acts to the live episodes, which start Aug. 18. Twelve are musical; five are acrobatic; others range from dancers to dogs. But now comes a new twist: Another 23 acts have “callbacks”; they perform now for individual judges, hoping for the final spots in the live shows. (Shown here is the dancing-robot act from the season-opener.) Read more…
1) “Grantchester” series finale, 9 p.m. Sunday, PBS. For 11 seasons and three vicars, this has given us warm people and smart crime stories. The finale fumbles the latter; the search for the man who shot Geordie is so-so, at best. It also overdoses the drama at times, amid a crisis in faith for Alphy (right, with Geordie). But its final, moving minutes remind us that this has been a terrific series. Read more…
