1) “American Masters,” 9 p.m., PBS. Growing up on a sharecropping farm in Louisiana, Buddy Guy (shown here) had one goal: Go to Chicago to hear Muddy Waters and other blues greats. He got there and was signed by record companies … which tried to change his wailing-guitar style. He was still driving a tow truck in his early 30s. Then Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Mick Jagger and others started emulating him. In this terrific documentary, Guy, 84, visits home and reflects on a style that shaped modern rock guitarists.
2) Olympics. NBC fills primetime (8 p.m. to midnight ET) with the team finals for women’s gymnastics, plus lots of swimming. Also in primetime, the NBC Sports Network has U.S. women’s teams in soccer (facing Australia) and volleyball (China). There’s lots of beach volleyball all day: Women are daytime (noon to 5 p.m. ET) on NBC and primetime on CNBC; men are primetime on USA. Also in daytime, NBC has swimming, diving and 3-on-3 basketball.
3) “Miracle Workers: Oregon Trail,” 10:30 p.m., TBS. With food running out, it’s time to kill a buffalo. Benny is no help (“I’m more of a people-killer”) and the Rev. Ezekiel is iffy, but Todd has been to a rich-boys’ hunting school. His wife fidgets in the quilting circle and longs for something more; maybe she could be an outlaw. It adds up to an episode that’s quite funny, in spurts.
4) “Motherland: Fort Salem,” 10 p.m., Freeform. It’s time for the women to visit home, see their dads and face dilemmas. For Abigail, it’s the pressure to marry someone who would perpetuate her special bloodline. For Raelle, people are stalking her. The result is a solid hour that ends fiercely.
5) “Butterfieled 8,” 8 p.m. ET, Turner Classic Movies. Elizabeth Taylor took some richly complex roles, tackling the words of Tennessee Williams (often), William Shakespeare, Edward Albee, Gore Vidal, Louisa May Alcott and more. But one of her two Oscars was for this film – a sort of elevated soap opera. (Her other was for Albee’s blistering “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”) Taylor does good – but Oscar-worthy? – work as a prostitute who dreams of marrying rich. The film has its moments.