1) Tony Awards, 7-9 p.m. ET, Paramount+. Back in March of 2020, Broadway suddenly closed. No one knew when it would be back or what would happen to the Tony Awards, with half the season’s shows still waiting to open. Now we know: Audra McDonald hosts a ceremony (a year late) for the half-season that happened. That skips three categories; see next item. And one category — best actor in a musical — has only one nominee, Aaron Tveit (shown here) in “Moulin Rouge.”
2) “Broadway’s Back,” 9-11 p.m., CBS. Now the fun begins. The top Broadway shows re-opened this month and here’s a celebration. That includes the final three Tonys (best musical, play and play revival), plus numbers from the nominated musicals – “Tina,” “Moulin Rouge” and “Jagged Little Pill.” But mostly, this is a concert; it includes Leslie Odom Jr. (who hosts), Lin-Manuel Miranda, Idina Menzel, Ben Platt, Annaleigh Ashford, Christopher Jackson, Kelli O’Hara, Ben Platt and Chita Rivera.
3) “The Simpsons” season-opener, 8 p.m., Fox. This fits into Broadway’s night – a musical-theater episode, with seven clever songs. Marge recalls her high school show about an ominous threat – computers bursting when the year reached 2000. As the stage manager, she reveled in efficiency and power. Now the show is revived, with the original star (Kristen Bell) back in town. It’s a fun episode, with witty songs from the “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” duo of Elisabeth Kiernan Averick and Jack Dolgin.
4) “Masterpiece: Elizabeth is Missing,” 9 p.m., PBS. Next week, “Masterpiece” launches an excellent “Grantchester” season. First, it reruns a rarity for the series – a stand-alone movie. Glenda Jackson, 85, is terrific as a lonely woman who is convinced that her only friend has been harmed.
5) “Nuclear Family” debut, 10:02 p.m., HBO. At 39, Ry Russo-Young is already a fairly successful director of scripted movies; she’s made four features and some award-winning shorts. But now she switches to a documentary and a personal subject – her own childhood with lesbian mothers, at a time when that was rare. This engaging, three-week series has moments of warmth, joy and conflict.