1) BET Awards, 8-11:30 p.m., BET (with pre-show at 6) plus VH1, MTV, Comedy Central. Taraji Henson hosts and Sean “Diddy” Combs gets a lifetime award, in a show that’s big on music awards and performers. They include Lizzo, Latto, Chloe (shown here), Giveon and Babyface, plus Jack Harlow, Chance the Rapper, Kirk Franklin, Roddy Ricch and more. There are also awards for sports and films; nominated as best movie are “King Richard,” “Respect,” “Candyman,” “The Harder They Fall,” “Space Jam: A New Legacy” and “The Summer of Soul.”
2) “The Chi” season-opener, 9 p.m., Showtime. As a teen, Emmett had an unfettered life and three children with three women. But he fell for Tiffany and their son E.J., married her, started a restaurant … and had an affair with an employee. Tiff suggested an open marriage … which went badly. That’s where we start now – Tiff and E.J. living with her foul-spirited mom, Emmett miserable, other relationships seeing highs and lows. It’s a good start; one scene (at a pep rally) rings false, but another (at a video-game parlor) packs silent power.
3) “Westworld” season-opener, 9 p.m., HBO. Yes, the past season ended messily. Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) died while freeing people … who promptly created mass destruction. But in a show about artificial intelligence, death has less sting, We jump ahead seven years, with Wood now as a new character – a young woman with everyday problems and a friend played by Ariana DeBose, the Oscar-winner (“West Side Story”) who triumphed recently as Tony Awards host.
4) “Citizen Ashe,” 9 p.m., CNN, rerunning at midnight. Arthur Ashe grew up in a sprawling park, where his dad was the caretaker. He savored the tennis courts there … then found that Blacks were banned from the indoor courts and from tournaments. After moving from Virginia to St. Louis, he thrived; he became the only Black man to win the Wimbleton and the U.S and Australian opens. Later, he had a heart attack and then AIDS, apparently from a transfusion during surgery. Here’s a profile of Ashe, who died at 46.
5) “Animal Kingdom,” 9 and 10 p.m., TNT. The flashback portions continue to focus on a pivotal time, when a failed heist left Andrew (now called Pope) doing community service and his sister Julia (now dead) out of school and working in a mall. In current time, Julia’s son envisions a mega-heist with his uncles. For more new drama, PBS has a good :Hotel Portofino” episode (the local cop wedges his way into Bella’s life) at 8 and a so-so “Masterpiece” (Endeavour Morse withdraws even further into his funk) at 9.