1) “Saturday Night Live” season-opener, 11:29 p.m. Saturday, NBC. The 50th season was big, including nine Emmys for the “SNL50” special. Now the show is back, adding five people and losing one veteran (Heidi Gardner) 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) “America’s Got Talent” finale, 9-11 p.m. Tuesday and 8-11 p.m. Wednesday, NBC. The final 10 acts get one more shot. There are seven music acts (including an improv rapper and, shown here, a high school choir), plus dancers, acrobats and a spectacular projection act. Their performances Tuesday will be recapped at 8 Wednesday, setting up a two-hour finale. Read more…
1) “A Grammy Salute to Earth, Wind & Fire: The 21at Night of September,” 8-10 p.m. ET Sunday, CBS. In 1978, an EWF song began “Do you remember the 21st night of September?” It hit No. 8 on the charts, one of the band’s seven singles (and seven albums) in the top-10. Now Sept. 21 is the night for a concert tribute to a rousing sound, with horns (shown here) guitars and more, bursting loose. Read more…
1) Emmy Awards, 8-11 p.m. ET Sunday, CBS, rerunning at 8. Nate Burgatze hosts on CBS … which has few nominations, except for reality shows and Stephen Colbert. Apple TV+ has two best-comedy nominees (“Shrinking,” shown here, and “The Studio”) and two for drama (“Severance,” “Slow Horses”). HBO has “White Lotus” and “The Last of Us,” plus two more on Max. Read more…
1) Football, 8:15 p.m. ET Thursday, NBC; pre-game at 7. The pro season . starts … and is likely to dominate viewership. The Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles (shown here), 14-3 in the regular season, host the Dallas Cowboys, 7-10. There’s a game Friday (Chiefs-Chargers, 8 p.m., YouTube) and a deluge Sunday, concluding with Ravens-Bills, 8:15 p.m. on NBC. Read more…
1) “America’s Got Talent,” 8-10 p.m. Tuesday, NBC. The quarter-finals will sprawl over four Tuesdays, with 11 acts each time. This opener has five music acts (including Tom Sandoval, of “Vanderpump Rules” and Jessica Sanchez, shown here) and three dance acts — B Unique, LightWire and Loco Pop Familia — plus magic, a trapeze duo and comedian Shuler King. Read more…
1) “Alien Earth” debut, 8 p.m Tuesday, FX. Here’s an ideal sci-fi mix: epic monsters-and-machines space scenes (shown here), plus a deeply human story. On one note, a ship with captured creatures has crashed on Earth. On the other, a dying tween girl’s mind and memories are injected into a synthetic body. With other synths, she tries to rescue the brother of her human self. Read more…
1) “Lego Masters” finale, 8 p.m. today, Fox. There have been some amazing builds, peaking last week (shown here) with ones that sent ping-pong balls on wild rides. Now three duos remain — brothers, siblings and school colleagues (a coach and a band director). It’s the final night for host Will Arnett. Kelly Osbourne hosts four junior episodes; Nick Cannon takes over next year. Read more…
1) “Daredevil: Born Again,” 8-11 p.m. Tuesday, FX. Sixty years after Stan Lee created him, this blind crimefighter thrives. Ben Affleck played him in a 2003 movie; then Charlie Cox (shown here) took over. Cox starred in a Netflix series for three seasons and was briefly in a movie, a mini-series and three TV series. Then came a nine-hour series on Disney+; it now reaches FX. Read more…
1) “Transplant” series-finale, 8 p.m. Thursday, NBC. It’s a deeply emotional ending for an excellent series. A surgeon for Syrian rebels, Bash (shown here) moved to Toronto, finding work, friends and a lover (who recently died). Now there’s a new crisis (a gas leak at the hospital), alongside turning points for virtually everyone. It’s all done with subtlety and skill. Read more…
