1) CMA Fest, 8-11 p.m. Thursday, ABC. Riley Green and Lara Spencer host a night with country’s top stars. There are long-timers — Blake Shelton, Luke Bryan, Lainey Wilson, Keith Urban, Gretchen Wilson, Jason Aldean, Tim McGraw –plus relatively fresh forces. They include Ella Langley (shown here with Green), Jelly Roll, Cody Johnson, Shaboozey and Molly Tuttle. Read more…
1) “House of the Dragon” season-opener, 9 p.m. Sunday, HBO and HBO Max. This is epic filming — TV on a mega-movie scale. At one point, the show had expected to close its second season with the Battle of the Gullet. Now, instead, it uses that to give the third season a huge start. Dragons, ships and (shown here) warriors collide in the water between two kingdoms. Read more…
1) “America’s Got Talent” season-opener, 8-10 p.m. Tuesday, NBC. The ratings leader is back, ready to spend most of the summer on auditions. The panel — Simon Cowell (shown here), Sofia Vergara, Howie Mandel and Mel B — will see lots of acts, some of them weird and most of them talented. On Aug. 18, they’ll finally shift to live shows, with viewers voting, Read more…
1) Stephen Colbert farewell, 11:35 p.m. Thursday, CBS. After floundering in late-night for decades, CBS scored big — 22 years of David Letterman and 11 of Colbert. The show often drew big ratings, always had smart comedy. Now it’s been canceled; CBS says that’s to save money, others say it was to appease Donald Trump. Either way, Letterman will be on the finale. Read more…
1) “The Neighborhood” and “DMV” series finales, 8 and 8:30 p.m. today, CBS. This fall, CBS will trim from four comedies to two. “Neighborhood” has always known that this season (its eighth) would be its last, so it planned to go out with the weddings of the brothers, Malcolm and Marty. Then the clever “DMV” (shown here in its first episode) wraps its only season with some power shifts. Read more…
1) “Suffs,” 9 p.m. Friday, PBS. For the next four Fridays, PBS delivers Broadway-style specials. That starts with this musical (shown here) about women’s struggle to get the vote; Shaina Taub won Tonys for her words and music; she also stars as Alice Paul. Coming up: “Top Hat” silliness … a powerhouse Nicole Scherzinger concert … and a fascinating documentary. Read more…
1) “Grey’s Anatomy” return, 10 p.m. Thursday, ABC. After a three-week rest, “Grey’s” (shown here in a previous episode) is back for the final two episodes of its 22nd season. Next week will see the departure of Teddy and Owen, plus cliffhangers. This week, however, it’s the sort of big-deal event the show savors: The Royal Bridge collapses, putting all the doctors in crisis mode. Read more…
1) “Matlock” season-finale, 9-11 p.m. Thursday, CBS. It may be a long time before we see some more new episodes: “Matlock” is this year’s first CBS drama to wrap its season … and it won’t be on the fall schedule, waiting until mid-season. For now, Matty and colleagues (shown here) are close to nailing Senior, until a hurdle appears. Also, they have two new cases in court. Read more…
1) “The Voice” finale, NBC. Trimmed to half its usual length, this wraps abruptly. Today (9-11 p.m.), we hear Liv Ciara, 16; Mikenley Brown, 19; Lucas West (shown here), 20; Syd Millevoi, 23; J.W. Griffin, 25; Alexia Jayy, 31; Jared Shoemaker, 32; K.J. Willis, 35; and Jeremy Keith, 40. On Tuesday, there’s a recap at 8 p.m. and the final four, from 9-11 p.m. Read more…
1) “Best Medicine” season-finale, 8 p.m. Tuesday, Fox. Last week’s hour set this up neatly: Visiting Norwegians tricked the town into a damaging deal … Greg and George (shown here, left) mentioned they’d secretly married … and Dr. Best pointed Louisa to his ex-girlfriend, a fertility expert. Now that blends beautifully, in an episode that mixes fun with strong emotion. Read more…
