1) America’s Got Talent” season-opener, 8-10:01 p.m. Tuesday, NBC. The summer season is taking hold now. We already have fun-and-games nights Monday (Fox), Tuesday (ABC) and Wednesday (Fox); also, NBC has an “American Ninja Warrior” special, with past contestants, from 8-10 p.m. today, a week before the new season. But this is the big show, the summer ratings leader. Now the auditions begin, with Simon Cowell, Howie Mandel, Heidi Klum and Sofia Vergara as judges; they’re shown here with host Terry Crews.
2) “Dancing With Myself,” debut, 10:01 p.m. Tuesday, NBC. The pandemic left lots of people doing solo dances on TikTok and such. Now they show off – copying the moves of Shakira (one of the judges) or just free-styling. A dozen people start, including a teacher, two high school students, a flight attendant, a TV weatherman and a plus-size model; one wins $25,000. It’s a sorta good idea, but pushed to the max Everyone – judges, host, the audience – fills every moment with excessive noise and praise.
3) “Julia,” 5 p.m. PT today, CNN; rerunning at 7; also, 6 p.m. PT Saturday. Julia Child was a master of re-invention. Growing up in comfort, she was a towering (6-foot-2) tennis and basketball player in prep school and at Smith. She did administrative work during wartime, then moved to Paris with her husband … and discovered French cuisine. She took a dozen years to co-write “The French Chef”; then was a TV star at 50. Here’s a delightful documentary, from the people who profiled Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
4) “Theodore Roosevelt,” 8-10 p.m., today and Tuesday History, Here’s another epic figure who grew up with wealth. Twice, Roosevelt’s life crashed – after his wife’s death and after he took his New York police-commissioner duties too far, closing bars on Sundays. The first time, he retreated and became a cowboy; the second, he started his own militia and charged up San Juan Hill. Roosevelt became a politician and a strident reformer, occasionally blinded by his own intensity. It’s a fascinating portrait.
5) “Tom Swift” debut, 9 p.m. Tuesday, CW. For the broadcast networks, scripted shows are scarce in the summer – especially this year. Two – “Fantasy Island” and “Coroner” – were set for this week then moved to fall. But CW still has “In the Dark” and “Roswell, New Mexico” season-openers June 6, with “Tom Swift” first. Like the character in youth novels, Tom is an optimistic inventor; unlike them, he’s Black and gay and rich and designing a Saturn voyage. Attractive actors are tangled in overwrought dialog.
6) “Abbott Elementary,” 9 p.m. Wednesday, ABC. This was the year’s quickest success: Arriving at mid-season, with just 13 episodes and a little-know star, it drew pr4aise and strong ratings. Now it’s been promoted to the key spot in ABC’s comedy line-up. It will be 9 p.m. Wednesdays this fall (nudging “Conners” to 8) and gets the same spot for summer reruns. Here’s the pilot film, a good one written by Quinta Brunson; she plays a new elementary teacher, with earnest colleagues and a clueless principal.
7) “Her Majesty the Queen,” 10 p.m. Thursday, CBS. Elizabeth II’s “diamond jubilee” starts Thursday in London, with a 200-horse, 400-musician parade. That exactly 69 years after her coronation and 70 years (and four months) after she became queen. Gayle King plans to show highlights and to look at the reign. She’ll talk to royalty experts Tina Brown and Wesley Kerr, and to Sir Paul McCartney – who has seen the queen so often that he once told her, “We have to stop meeting like this.”
8) “American Masters: Joe Papp in Sir Five Acts,” 9 p;.m. Friday, PBS. It’s a great week for documentaries about steel-willed figures. Like Child and Roosevelt, Papp kept pushing ahead. He brought free Shakespeare to Central Park, then triumphed indoors with “Hair,” “A Chorus Line,” “A Normal Heart,” “For Colored Girls” and more. A benevolent dictator, he was vibrant in public and closed personally. Friends didn’t know about his four marriages, his surname (Papirofsky) or his tough childhood.
9) “Buried in Barstow,”” 8-10 p.m. Saturday, Lifetime. At 15, Hazel was snatched off the Las Vegas streets and trained as hit woman. Later, a surprise pregnancy caused her to change her life again. In Barstow, Cal., she has a diner and a teen daughter; then her old boss finds her and wants her to do one more hit. Angie Harmon stars, in her first on-camera role since ”Rizzoli & Isles” ended six years ago; there could be more, with this expanding into a series of TV movies. Kristoffer Polaha co-stars.
10) MTV Movie & TV Awards, 8 p.m. Sunday, MTV, CW, VH1, BET, Comedy Central, Pop, TV Land, VH1, and more. “Spiderman: No Way Home” leads with seven nominations, includes best movie, facing “”Dune,” “Scream,” “The Batman,” “The Adam Project” and “Shang-Chi.” “Euphoria” follows with six nominations, including best TV show, facing “Loki,” “Squid Game,” “Ted Lasso,” “Yellowstone” and “Inventing Anna.” Vanessa Hudgens hosts; MTV has a follow-up at 10 p.m. and repeats it all at 11,