1) “The Simpsons” season-opener, 8 p.m., Fox. Homeris forlorn (shown here) after being mocked at a town hall. Then he finds a cause – a group with conspiracy theories about the zoo’s missing tortoise. It gives him, Marge says, “a chance to be a big fish in a small, weird pond.” It’s a funny episode, launching a string of openers: “The Great North” at 8:30, “Bob’s Burgers” at 9 and “Family Guy” at 9:30, with its versions of “Silence of the Lambs,” “American Beauty” and “Forrest Gump.”
2) “Big Brother” finale, 8-10 p.m., CBS. This is the last of the big summer competition shows to name its winner – a week into the fall season. It began with 16 strangers; as the final week began, four remained, including a personal trainer (Monte Taylor) and a personal stylist (Taylor Hale, the 2021 Miss Michigan USA), both 27. Also around were Brittany Hoopes, 32, a hypnotherapist, and Mathew Turner, 23, a thrift-store owner. Tonight, we have a winner.
3) “Walking Dead” marathon, AMC. Next Sunday, “Dead” starts the final eight episodes of its final season. First, a rerun concludes with the most recent hour (from five months ago) at 8 p.m. At 9 is a preview of what’s coming. Then are reruns of two self-contained episodes of “Tales of the Walking Dead”: At 10:01, a mother and daughter take refuge on a vintage steamboat; at 11, we see a traumatized couple in a house that may or may not be haunted.
4) “The Rookie” season-opener, 10 p.m., ABC. Bradford and Chen are undercover, on a big case with the Las Vegas police. And Nolan – who will also appear briefly in Tuesday’s jaunty “The Rookie: Feds” opener – again faces Rosalind, a serial killer. That follows openers of celebrity versions of “Jeopardy” (8 p.m.) and “Wheel of Fortune” (9).
5) ALSO: At 7 p.m., ABC has highlights of the Global Citizen Festival, a Saturday event that scheduled Mariah Carey, the Jonas Brothers, Mickey Guyton, Billy Porter, Rosalia and more. At 9, PBS has the first of two movie-length “Van der Valk” mysteries. The extra length does us no favors, giving us a story that’s slow, thick and moderately involving.