1) “This Is Us,” 9 p.m., NBC. After an Olympic break, broadcast-TV’s best drama is back with another emotional and well-crafted episode. This one steps outside the usual Pearson universe. There are nods to nice-guy types – Miguel (in a flashback, before he married Rebecca) and Elijah (who’s with Madison). But the real focus is on Randall’s wife Beth (shown here). If you saw (in real life) a 15-year-old Olympian being berated for falling, you’ll be moved by Beth’s reaction here.
2) “New Amsterdam,” 10 p.m., NBC. This bizarre season saw Max move to London with Helen … then realize the trouble the hospital has under his money-crunching replacement, Dr. Fuentes. Now he’s trying to undo the damage; also, flashbacks add some humanity to Fuentes. It’s an OK story, alongside separate cases, one – a dying man’s determination to be at his daughter’s wedding – deeply moving.
3) “Abraham Lincoln” finale, 8-10:33 p.m., History, rerunning at 12:04 a.m. If you missed the first two pieces of this terrific film, catch them at 3 and 5:30 p.m.; mixing historians and re-enactments, they show a solemn frontier kid evolve into a master storyteller and president. Now we see him in desperation: Three previous commanding generals have been replaced; desperate for a strong force, Lincoln turns to Ulysses Grant.
4) “Fannie Lou Hamer’s America,” 9 p.m., PBS. Now for a reminder that the Civil War may have brought freedom to Blacks, but it didn’t bring equality. Like Lincoln, Hamer had little education (winters only, then nothing when she was 12), but was a strong reader and a passionate speaker. She spoke powerfully about Mississippi, where few Blacks could vote. Despite its limits (no narration, just old footage) this film paints a vivid portrait.
5) All night, ABC. The “Jeopardy” college championship is at 8 p.m., with new “Abbott Elementary” and “Black-ish” episodes at 9 and 9:30. Then “To Tell the Truth” – with “Black-ish” star Anthony Anderson as host – opens its season at 10. Panelists guess who is a duck master and a “dino poo collector.”