Mike Hughes on TV

1) Shark overlap, cable. This is the day “Sharkfest” slides from the National Geographic Channel to Nat Geo Wild, where it will linger for two more weeks. But it’s also when Discovery starts “Shark Week” – an idea it created 32 years ago. At 8 p.m., Discovery returns to the site off the high-leaping “Air Jaws” (shown here). At 9, it claims to have an underwater confrontation between sharks and Mike Tyson. And at 10, it’s in New Zealand, where giant great whites, some 20 feet long, thrive. Read more…

1) “American Sniper” (2014) or “Richard Jewell” (2019), 8 p.m., Syfy or HBO. After spending decades in fiction, Clint Eastwood has directed five straight films based on true stories. That started with the terrific “Sniper,” which drew six Oscar nominations, included best actor (Bradley Cooper, shown here) and best picture. It made $547 million worldwide – which put it more than $500 million ahead of “Jewell,” the story of the security guard who found bombs near the 1996 Olympics. Read more…

1) “Great Performances: In the Heights: Chasing Broadway Dreams.” 9 p.m., PBS. This is feel-good TV – a show that feels especially good when we know what’s happened in the 11 years since it first aired. We see Lin-Manuel Miranda (shown here, left, in his later “Hamilton” triumph), then 28, ready to open “In the Heights” on Broadway. He’d been writing it since his sophomore year in college, where he met Thomas Kail, now directing it. We meet the gifted cast, see its Tony triumph … and know these people will soar again, with “Hamilton.” Read more…

2) “Mom,” 9:01 and 9:30 p.m., CBS. After starting with two terrific characters, this show kept adding great ones in support. Both of these reruns focus on Marjorie (Mimi Kennedy) and Jill (Jaime Pressly). In the first, Marjorie tries to reconnect with the son she lost touch with in her drunken years; in the second, she prepares for her first date since her husband’s death. Also, in the first one, Tammy sees a different side of Jill while working for her; in the second, Bonnie confesses to a long-ago theft Read more…