Month: August 2021

1) Football, 1 p.m. ET, Fox. The college season kicks off with a fairly good match-up. Skipping the usual non-conference openers, the Big Ten season begins with Nebraska (shown here) at Illinois. Elsewhere, ESPN has Hawaii at UCLA, at 3:30 p.m. ET and the CBS Sports Network has two games. It’s Fresno State at Connecticut at 2 p.m. and Southern Utah at San Jose State at 10. Read more…

1) “Great Performances: Vienna Philharmonic,” 9-10:30 p.m, PBS. The opening Verdi overture is slow and mournful … then turns vibrant. That fits the night: Duringthe pandemic, the orchestra skipped last summer’s PBS concert and trimmed its audiences this season. But it invited 3,000 teachers and medical people for this beautifully filmed event (shown here in a previous year). Pianist Igor Levit does a dazzling Rachmaninoff piece, plus Beethoven’s sweet “Fur Elise”; there’s more, from a “West Side Story” medley to a Strauss waltz. Read more…

1) “Making It” finale, 9 p.m., NBC. This low-key gem has been a delight. Its first two seasons were nominated for Emmys (best hosts, Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman, shown here) and Television Critics Association awards (best reality show). After missing last year, the show is back and has its final four – Chelsea Andersson, a miniaturist; Kara Walker, a fabricator; Melanio Gomez, a propmaker; and Adam Kingman, an industrial designer whose dad (Dave) twice was the National League home run champion. Read more…

1) “CMT Giants: Charley Pride,” 9-10:30 p.m., CMT. Pride (shown here) was country music’s first (and, often, only) Black superstar. He had 30 No. 1 country hits and was Entertainer of the Year in 1971. Pride died of COVID at 86, last December; now his music will be performed by Garth Brooks, George Strait, Gladys Knight, Alan Jackson, Wynonna, Darius Rucker, Lee Ann Womack, Mickey Guyton, Jimmy Allen and Luke Combs (with Robert Randolph and Reyna Roberts), plus Dion Pride, Charlie’s son. Read more…

1) “Supergirl” return, 9 p.m., CW. Rescued by her friends (shown here) from the Phantom Zone, Kara (or Supergirl) emerged with PTSD … and with her father, who’d been trapped for decades. After a thee-month pause, the show returns, with the last 13 episodes of its final season. Kara’s dad finds that our oceans are dying, pushing Earth toward the same fate as Krypton. Despite one problem – the dad seems a tad wooden – it’s a smart, emotional episode. Read more…

1) “The Ultimate Surfer” (shown here) debut, 10 p.m., ABC. From “Gidget” and “Beach Blanket Bingo” to “Blue Crush” and HBO’s just-ended “100 Foot Wave,” surfing has become a key part of our summer mythos. Now it adds a techno-twist: At his inland Surf Ranch, 30 miles south of Fresno, Kelly Slater (the 11-time world champion) has man-made waves. In this eight-parter (continuing Tuesday), surfers compete there. Jesse Palmer anchors, with Erin Coscarelli, Slater and surfing commentator Joe Turpel. Read more…