1) Republican convention, 8-11 p.m. ET, PBS; 10 p.m., ABC, CBS and NBC; all night, news channels. Now the presidential race hits full-speed. Last Thursday, Joe Biden gave his nomination-acceptance speech; tonight, Donald Trump has his turn. There will be warm-up speakers, of course. Scheduled (subject to change) are senators (Mitch McConnell, Tom Cotton), congressmen (Kevin McCarthy, Jeff Van Drew), a cabinet member (Ben Carson) and others, from Trump’s daughter Ivanka to the Rev. Franklin Graham (shown here), son of the late evangelist Billy Graham.
2) “Big Brother” and “Love Island,” 8 and 9 p.m., CBS. Yes, we live in a strange world. For two straight hours, we’ll watch reality shows, mostly filled with sexy singles, sometimes in swimwear. Then we’ll hear talk about the future of the world.
3) “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” 9 p.m., NBC. This is a night overrun with games and reality. The CBS shows and the ABC ones (“Holey Moley” and “To Tell the Truth”) are 8-10 p.m., with two more 8 p.m. shows – NBC’s “The Wall” and USA’s “Cannonball.” So credit this rerun for being the token scripted show. Tonight, a ballerina learns she was secretly taped for a pornographic website.
4) Baseball, 6:30 p.m. ET, Fox. The games – A’s-Rangers and Phillies-Nationals, varying by region – start a tad early and should be finished before Trump’s speech. There also are play-offs – hockey on the NBC Sports Network (Flyers-Islanders at 7 p.m. ET, Golden Knights-Canucks at 9:45) and basketball on TNT. The latter has four possibilities, but only if they need a sixth game in the best-of-seven series.
5) “Shakespeare in Love” (1980), 8:53 p.m., Starz. This gem started with a witty, Oscar-winning script, then added John Madden’s gorgeous direction and Oscar-winning perfection from Gwyneth Paltrow. It won seven Oscars, including best picture. Other strong movies: Martin Scorsese’s “Goodfellas” (1990) at 5 p.m. on AMC and a mismatched double feature on FX – the vibrant (albeit misleading) musical “The Greatest Showman” (2017) at 6 p.m. and the true-life drama “Hidden Figures” (2016) at 8.